Joint Budget Committee

Tuesday, February 3, 2026·1h 53m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Colorado Joint Budget Committee advanced five bills unanimously, including measures to end nursing home provider wage enhancement payments, curtail the Fourth Year Innovation Program, restructure State Education Fund appropriations with a mandated $34 million minimum for the Read Act, and clarify the controller's authority over interim supplemental expenditures — with the minimum appropriation and the scope of the supplemental bill generating the most pointed disagreements among members.

Key Actions

·NO BILL NUMBER – IT Capital Sub Account Transfer ReductionPassed

+ 4 more actions

Controversies

Controller's bill — whether the full spending restriction for the next fiscal year should be released when a supplemental is enacted for only a portion of an over-expenditure

Senator Mabrey [UNCLEAR SPELLING] initially wrote down 'yes and no' and questioned why the entire restriction should be released if the department only used a portion of the over-expenditure. Pierce Lively explained that in a scenario where a $10 million over-expenditure is granted but only $2 million is expended and a supplemental for $2 million is run, retaining an $8 million restriction would create a 'penalty for no wrong action on the part of the executive branch.' Whether Mabrey [UNCLEAR SPELLING] explicitly changed her position is [UNCLEAR] from the transcript.

+ 1 more controversy

Notable Quotes

“My concern was that we were eliminating the statutory requirement to fund the redact. If we put a minimum required transfer in, then we're not eliminating the statutory requirement to fund the Read Act. Minimum required appropriation.”
Vice Chair Jeff Bridges — Vice Chair Bridges was explaining why he required a $34 million minimum appropriation to be included in the State Education Fund bill, which proposed stopping automatic transfers to the Early Literacy Cash Fund and making funding subject to appropriations instead.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

Move that we do as we are asked and approve $100 reduction in the transfer billPassed

Move that the committee approve for introduction the bill regarding nursing provider wage enhancement paymentsPassed

Move that the committee approve for introduction the modify 4th year innovation pilot program and grants [full motion text UNCLEAR in transcript]Passed

Move that the committee adopt the State Ed Fund Read act and Colorado Teacher of the Year program with a change in the language to appropriate a minimum of $34 millionPassed

Move the committee introduce a bill concerning the controller's allowance of expenditures in excess of appropriations as presented, with the answers to the questions on page three being yes and yesPassed

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TranscriptPreview

Committee will come to order. We are on built potential legislation. Packet two. Yes, Director Harper. Okay, Mr. McClear. Thank you, Madam Chair. Andrew McClear, JBC staff so I'm going to start you off with a simple one here. This is just a decrease of $100 from previous transfer you approved. There was a miscommunication between myself and OIT regarding the cost of this transfer to the IT capital sub account of the capital construction fund. Didn't we give you approval to make these changes or. No, the. Because the bill is entirely about this transfer. I was told by LLS that this is not a technical correction. Okay. All right, Senator Mobley. Well, I saw that hundred dollars on two different graphs. And so I'm wondering, is this the hundred dollars that appeared on two different graphs? I mean, because if it is, I'm in. You can have it. All right. Would you like to make a motion? Okay. I move that we do as we are asked and approve $100 reduction in the transfer bill. Are there any objections? I vote yes. That passes on a vote of 6 to 0. Thank you all. Yes. Representative Taggart? No.…

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