Senate Appropriations panel approves $2 million appropriation and technical fixes for runoff-election bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to pass House Bill 249 as amended after adopting a technical amendment and hearing testimony on the bill’s $2 million appropriation to cover costs of potential runoff elections.

The amendment addressed minor wording corrections and the committee adopted it before voting to pass the bill. The appropriation is intended to reimburse county clerks for actual costs incurred if runoff elections are required; the money would remain with the Secretary of State for allocation to counties.

The bill’s sponsor described the appropriation as a mechanism to repay county clerks “for any expenses that they might incur during the runoff election,” and said the funds would be distributed by the Secretary of State to those counties that incur costs. Julie Friess, testifying for the Secretary of State’s office, told the committee the $2,000,000 figure reflects updated estimates and inflation and covers both county clerk costs and some additional statewide election expenses. She said, “that is a cost to us that is not local.”

Senator Smith moved the technical amendment, which the committee adopted after brief discussion. The committee then held a roll call on House Bill 249 as amended. Senators Larson, Smith and Chairman Salazar recorded votes in favor and the clerk announced the motion carried with three ayes; other members on the roll were recorded as excused or did not register a vote on the record.

The committee recorded no additional changes to the bill’s appropriation language beyond the technical wording corrections adopted in the committee amendment. Public testimony included Julie Friess and a second staff member present in the hearing room who stood by to answer questions.

House Bill 249 will move forward from the committee as “do pass, amended.”