The House Appropriations Committee advanced 30 supplemental appropriations bills covering every major state department, with the most contentious debate centered on HB 26-1155 (HCPF/Medicaid supplemental), where rural providers, autism advocates, and anesthesiologists testified against deep rate cuts that two members voted against, while the chair defended the cuts as the most humane response to federal budget pressures from HR1.
+ 14 more actions
Rep. Soper argued that cutting provider rates to 85% of Medicare disproportionately harms rural Colorado because Delta and Mesa counties have a Medicare/Medicaid patient mix of approximately 75% versus the statewide average of approximately 45%, leaving rural providers only 25% commercial rate to offset cuts versus 55% on the Front Range; he called for going 'back to the drawing board' to find something 'geographic neutral.' Chair Brown and Madam Vice Chair defended the bill as the most humane response available given that HR1 'drained about a billion dollars from our budget.'
+ 3 more controversies
“I think it comes down to mismanagement and the fact that we have people being sent to prison for technical parole violations. That is a policy choice. That we have fewer people accepted into community Corrections, which is a policy choice. That there are about 5,000 inmates that have reached their parole eligibility date and cannot complete their courses because we have teachers working security. That we have about 500 of those inmates who've completed everything and are just waiting. And yet we are allocating money away from education, early childhood, health care in order to fund more beds.”
+ 4 more quotes
Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.
Sign in to subscribeThe House Appropriations Committee will come to order. Ms. Pope, please call the roll representatives. Basine. Ecker. Here. Bottoms. Here. Joseph. Right here. McCormick. Here. Soper. Here. Taggart. Here. Tatone. Here. Velasco. Excused. Zocai. Here. Madam vice chair. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. All right, folks, we have a number of bills to get through today. We are the committee of reference for all of these bills. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe 1150? Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1150 is the supplemental for the Department of Agriculture. It contains just a few changes, impacts driven by other agencies related to health, life and dental, oit, real time billing and the DPA fleet vehicles, as well as one statewide request to deal with the pine beetle problem. There are increased mountain pine beetles and our bio control the insectary. The biocontrol lab is going to run a pilot program to. To try and address this. This significant statewide issue. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Committee, are there questions for our sponsor? Seeing none. Let's move on to the witness phase. Are there any anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1150? Seeing none. The…
Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Colorado committee hearings.
Sign in to subscribe