At the start of the week the joint budget committee (JBC) demonstrated in a profound way that they truly are the guardians of the status quo. Good, intelligent people all, they have miserably failed this legislature and the people of Colorado.
They delivered a budget to the legislature that was devoid of the tough cuts that have to be made in a recession. Instead, they gave us a budget that shorted higher education by $300 million dollars and told us their way to fix this wasn’t to make across the board spending cuts, but rather to seize the private assets of Pinnacol Assurance (the state’s only workers compensation provider of last resort). Pinnacol’s reserves, by law, are owned by Pinnacol clients, not the state.
But this legislature has truly lost its ability to blush. Read more about how bad this really is in today’s Denver Post here.
To try and arrest this illegal maneuver, Sens Brophy and Penry and I worked with the senate president before the budget bill came up for debate Thursday. Jointly, we told the JBC to go back to the drawing board. We told them not to give us the false choice between stealing Pinnacol’s money and cutting higher education to the point that colleges will actually be forced to close.
They refused to entertain even a single cut.
So the budget bill came up for debate, Republicans offered a package of some $250 million in cuts, some tough ones to be sure. For starters, I offered an amendment to cut the pay of legislators and staff. The Denver Post reported on the idea here. Everyone in the real world has to make cuts, why shouldn’t we? Democrats killed the amendment.
I offered an amendment to cut the state’s higher education bureaucracy by some $700,000. Incredibly, they are set to hire seven new people this year while some of the colleges they serve are literally contemplating closing. Again, the majority party killed the measure.
In the end, Republicans and few a Democrats banded together to pass a modest amendment that moved a bit over $800,000 to higher education.
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and our colleagues in the house will be able to make the hard choices that have to be made on the budget once it goes to their side. And hopefully our guys over there will be able to save higher education and be able to stop the seizure of Pinnacol’s client’s money.
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We are also in this predicament due to unfunded federal mandates. I think it is time the states boycott these and tell the federal government that if they pass a mandate ... fund that mandate. NCLB is a prime example of this. Push that back at them - don't allow the state to continue to swallow another "must" without the funds.
ReplyDeleteThe fiasco with Pinnacle is totally absurd! Thank you and Brophy and Penry for many of your suggestions. Hang onto those - the Dems' will be back to those ideas. Of course by then - it will be THEIR idea!
Totally irresponsible what the JBC did. It is time to take the hard cuts in many places. Not just one. Businesses are already making cuts and sacrifices. It is not a good idea to let all these state entities to be creating budgets based on funds they may not be getting.... this is pushing more work and more problems all down the line. Should all of the state entities budgeting processes put in the extra hours twice - or even three times to create their own budgets? It is time to make the cuts, pass it out so that people can get on with their jobs. This entire process is so counterproductive! Keep up the fight! We have faith in you!