Senate panel advances judges bill after trimming public‑defender and Bridges funding

Senate Appropriations Committee members voted to advance Senate Bill 24, a measure to add judicial officers and related court resources, after adopting several amendments that changed how some downstream agency funding is handled.

The committee adopted L001 and J002 to the bill and later approved J004, an amendment that removes the bill’s appropriations for the Office of the State Public Defender and the Bridges of Colorado program. The committee recorded a 5‑to‑2 vote on the amendment and a final 5‑to‑2 vote to advance the bill out of committee.

The dispute centered on whether the fiscal impacts for public defenders and Bridges of Colorado should be packaged with the judge additions or handled separately through the regular budget (the long bill) and joint budget committee (JBC) processes. Senator Kirkmeyer, who moved J004, said he wanted those agencies to present their staffing and funding requests through the budget process rather than have them “baked in” to this bill. He told the committee: “I just wanna make sure that it is very clear that the out years are subject to available appropriation.”

Alfredo Kim,…