Be On The Record
BlogSign inSubscribe
HearingsBillsAlerts
← Hearings

Joint Budget Committee

Thursday, February 5, 2026·3h 18m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Budget Committee advanced most Department of Personnel budget requests and all Department of Law figure-setting items, but deadlocked 3-3 on a new state payroll system common policy after members objected to a one-year parallel operation and unanswered questions about FTE planning — forcing the core operations common policy to be tabled pending a comeback.

Key Actions

·Special Purpose Authorities – Informational OverviewNo Vote

+ 14 more actions

Controversies

R1 State Payroll System — one-year parallel operation and FTE planning

Senator Kirkmeyer stated she is 'a no for now' until the full one-year overlap of old and new payroll systems is explained, and questioned whether the Department of Personnel was 'just winging it' by not budgeting FTE during system development. Representative Taggart stated he is 'not used to seeing a one year parallel' and questioned the burden on departments of double data entry. Tom Dermody stated he did not have a good assessment to offer on the parallel timeline. Vice Chair Bridges also objected. The result was a 3-3 deadlock with Bridges, Kirkmeyer, and Taggart objecting.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“The funds of special purpose authorities generally speaking exist outside of the state treasury, which means that we can't direct the state treasurer to transfer funds from them to say the general fund.”

Pierce Lively, Office of Legislative Legal Services — Lively was explaining the limits of General Assembly oversight over special purpose authorities, in the context of questions about whether Pinnacle and other special purpose authorities could have their funds redirected.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

R1 State Payroll System Common Policy — staff recommendation (no legislation required)Failed
No (3)Vice Chair Jeff Bridges, Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, Representative Rick Taggart
Unlock the full summary

Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.

Sign in to subscribe
TranscriptPreview
All right, the joint budget committee will come back to order. We are first going to hear from the Office of Legislative Legal Services on special purpose authorities. Mr. Lively, whenever you are ready. Thank you, Madam Chair. Pierce Lively, Office of Legislative Legal Services. Give me just a second to share my screen here. Yeah, Thursday. There we go. Great. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, for the record, Pierce Lively of office, Office of Legislative Legal Services. I realize some might have looked at the scheme schedule and thought this was scheduled for three and a half hours, but I promise this will take far less than three and a half hours. So special purpose authorities have come up and at least one of the governor's budget requests and have just generally been talked about this year as an attempt to give the state some more fiscal flexibility. Special. There aren't all that many special purpose authorities, and they aren't often discussed. So I was asked to give a brief overview of what these are, how they and how they work to the committee so that you all are better informed both with the governor's budget request…
Continue reading

Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Colorado committee hearings.

Sign in to subscribe