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Budget committee approves multiple CDPHE cuts, requests lab reporting
Summary
JBC staff recommended and the committee approved several CDPHE public-health supplemental actions including an $837,267 reduction to health disparity grants, a $3 million midyear cut to local public health distributions (aligned with the governor’s executive order), and a recommended $215,000 transfer from the air-ambulance cash fund; the committee also approved lab roll-forward and reporting requirements.
Kelly Shen, Joint Budget Committee staff, presented CDPHE’s public-health supplemental package and recommended several actions to help balance FY25–26. Shen recommended a reduction of $837,267 to the health disparity grant program (a partial trimming of previously proposed reductions, intended to avoid cutting awarded grantees), a $3 million reduction to local public health agency distributions aligned with the governor’s executive order, and a cash‑fund transfer from the fixed/rotary‑wing ambulances fund (she recommended $215,000 to the general fund).
Shen said the health disparity grants historically relied on tobacco tax revenue and more recently on general fund infusions; staff recommended a modest reduction this year while preserving awarded grantee payments where possible. On local public health distributions, Shen described the per‑capita planning and support dollars that local health agencies use for core services and said those funds account for a substantial share of CDPHE’s general fund distributions.
For the air-ambulance cash fund, Shen said fee collections have produced a sizable fund balance and staff recommended a transfer (larger than the department requested) while noting proposed fee reductions and projected ongoing reserves.
On the state lab emergency supplemental, staff proposed moving around $1 million in contractor expenses into a dedicated lab contractor line, adding roll‑forward footnotes through June 30, 2027, and requiring quarterly RFIs showing progress on corrective actions and actual spending to support recertification work. The committee approved the staff recommendations on S2, S3 and S6 (various votes recorded, with S3 noted as passing 4–2 on one vote and others passing unanimously as recorded).
Several members expressed concern about cutting local public health funds during a period of heightened public-health need; others pointed to pandemic-era increases and said restoring those levels may be unsustainable given a structural deficit. The committee approved the staff recommendations as reflected in the supplemental votes and asked staff and the department to provide more data for figure setting.
