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House approves budget-protection bill to blunt potential effects of Initiative 1-75 on education and health spending
Summary
After extended floor debate, the House passed HB14-30, designed to preserve general-fund capacity and protect certain state programs if ballot Initiative 1-75 redirects sales and use tax revenue to roads. Sponsors said the legislation is a preemptive budget tool; opponents said it undercuts the voters' voice.
The Colorado House approved House Bill 14-30 on May 6, a measure framed by sponsors as a stopgap to protect education, Medicaid and other core services if voters approve Initiative 1-75 (a proposed constitutional measure to send additional revenue to roads). Representative Basenecker, a sponsor, said HB14-30 "reduces $100,000,000 of general fund expenditure" on certain transfers and makes other temporary adjustments to offset the initiative's estimated reallocations of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Supporters including Representative Sirota and Representative Taggart said the bill is intended to avoid abrupt cuts to services and to hold local governments harmless. "This Colorado Budget Protection Act is the responsible choice to avoid major reductions to Medicaid, k-12 education, and higher education," Rep. Sirota said. The bill includes mechanisms to move certain funds and temporarily reduce some excise taxes and fees; committee amendments adjusted disbursement dates and clarifications tied to ballot scenarios.
Opponents argued the bill is preemptive and undercuts the initiative process. Representative Brooks called the measure "preemptive" and said it short-circuits voters' voice; Representative Gelti called it a scheme to "circumvent the voice of the voters." Debate repeatedly returned to fiscal analyses presented to members: floor speakers cited different estimates of potential redirected revenues (one estimate repeatedly cited in debate was "more than $700,000,000" in fiscal-year impacts).
Floor votes adopted and defeated several amendments; the committee report was adopted and the chamber passed HB14-30 as amended. The transcript shows the chair declared the ayes had it and the bill passed; a final roll-call tally for passage was not printed in the transcript excerpt.
What happens next: Sponsors said HB14-30 is meant to give the legislature time to respond to whatever voters approve this fall and to avoid destabilizing cuts if a ballot measure reallocates large sums of state revenue.
