The House Majority Caucus received a comprehensive briefing on the state long bill and its accompanying orbital bills from JBC presenters Representatives Sirota and Brown, covering every major department budget with significant debate centered on corrections bed expansion despite declining crime, deep Medicaid cuts including severe reductions to the Cover All Coloradans program, and a capital construction funding gap covering only about 1–1.5% of annual needs.
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Representative Mabrey argued that Colorado Division of Criminal Justice 2025 mid-year crime trend data showing a 13.3% overall decline, 30% decline in homicides, 25% decline in robberies, 12% decline in assaults, and 17% decline in property crime undercuts the justification for funding 941 new prison beds. Representative Garcia argued the state was choosing to keep people incarcerated rather than releasing the hundreds who are parole-eligible. Representative Clifford stated he had not experienced the administration working to reduce prison populations despite claims to the contrary. Representatives Sirota and Brown defended the appropriation as obligation-driven by caseload projections and the risk of county jail backlog and lawsuits, while acknowledging the JBC analyst's position that lengthening sentences does not deter crime but does balloon the prison population.
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“Nobody wants to fund prison beds. People keep being sentenced into the prisons, and it is our responsibility as a state to take care of those folks. The caseload projections are what they are, and they are based on the policies that this body, that the legislature, that the voters have implemented.”
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Sign in to subscribeSo let's begin. I gaveled us in. We have some members still filing in, so please do so quietly. Get yourself settled. We want to make sure we get through this in a timely way as possible. So we'll begin as soon as we can. Rep. Serota, did you want to get us started? Yes, thank you Madam Caucus Chair. Representative Brown and I are going to walk you through. Hopefully you've all brought your long bill narrative here, an incredible piece of art produced by our incredible JVC staff here to try as clearly as possible to explain what it is In House Bill 1410, the long bill and the accompanying orbitals. So this budget package includes the long bill and 64 other bills through House House Bill 1348 through House Bill 1412. And so the reason that we are running those orbitals is to make the statutory changes necessary in order to bring the budget into balance. So they are very important and crucial to completing a balanced budget. Here just for clarity's sake, the long bill includes appropriations that budget for state agencies to current law. Then some of these bills, I think there are 14 that…
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