Tag: Colorado Budget
Top Senate Democrats pay bonuses while state struggles with cutbacks
Outgoing Colorado Senate President Peter Groff paid eight legislative employees $30,000 in bonuses before leaving office to take a job with the Obama administration, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
His successor in the leadership post, Longmont Democrat Brandon Shaffer paid a $5,000 bonus to a single employee at the end of the legislative session, which saw lawmakers hacking hundreds of millions of dollars amid a state budget crisis that has led to plans for unpaid furloughs for other state employees.
Ritter signs budget reform bill, ends reign of Arveschoug-Bird
Gov. Bill Ritter signed budget reform Senate Bill 228 into law this morning. The controversial bill -- the work of bipartisan co-sponsors Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, and Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver -- made an amazing journey this past legislative session. And, as law, will now serve to test hotly debated partisan theories about public spending in the state.
Reason Magazine’s laughable libertarian fantasy Colorado
Nick Gillespie, editor in chief at Reason magazine, a libertarian guide to life and politics, posted a comic example of media carpet-bagging yesterday when he blogged on how he'd like to move to Colorado because of the amazing job Taxpayers' Bill of Rights has done in saving our state from the ravages of the recession.
Obama Admin to yank state’s $3 million immigrant detention subsidy
Colorado is set to lose approximately $3 million in federal funds that are used to cover the costs of detaining undocumented immigrants in the state, according to current budget documents released this month.
Innovative budget reform bill passes House
Senate Bill 228, the controversial budget reform bill introduced to lawmakers and the public in February, was passed in the House today, clearing yet another hurdle on its remarkable path toward loosening the state's famously rigid spending structure.
Sponsored by Colorado Springs Democratic Sen. John Morse and Loveland Republican Rep. Don Marostica, the bill inspired exasperated attacks in the Senate that culminated in an historic GOP filibuster, where members of the minority party argued the bill was an unconstitutional attack on voter-mandated spending limits and that it would drain the state's transportation fund.
A blood-red visual record of the unemployment crisis
This week, as Colorado officials reported record state unemployment percentages, Slate posted a remarkable interactive map of jobs lost around the country over the last two years.
The map animates the shift as the financial system cracked and the Bush Administration floundered, each of the states bleeding from "jobs-gained" blue to "jobs-lost" red, presenting a slow-motion slasher-movie kind of horror, only worse for it all being real and with no end in sight.
Real Republican leaders emerge in budget battle
Faced with unprecedented budget shortfalls that could tank higher education in the state, forcing campus closings and steep tuition hikes, Colorado lawmakers are leaning on pragmatists Al White, R-Hayden, and Don Marostica, R-Loveland — both of whom labor on the Colorado Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, which has got to be one of the most difficult and thankless jobs in government.
Tempers flare over budget impasse; Marostica to Penry: ‘Go jump in...
The Colorado Senate finally gave an initial OK to an $18 billion state budget late Thursday night after approving a plan over vehement GOP objections to lift $500 million from a state worker's compensation fund to avoid massive cuts in higher education funding. But not before things got mighty testy.
Dwindling education budget funds to pay for GOP’s Churchill trial
The unending Colorado budget crisis continues. There's not enough money, say lawmakers, to grant undocumented Colorado students in-state tuition. The Legislature this week is floating a $300 million cut to higher education.
Yet there's lots of money to waste on political court battles that the state has no hope of winning.
How to fund education? Unity and brinksmanship
Senate lawmakers on the left and right came together Thursday to fund more schools in Denver, passing Senate Bill 256. It was a remarkable feat but it may be overshadowed by the big-time poker game the Joint Budget Committee began dealing out Wednesday, which could cost already strapped higher education in the state roughly $400 million. The committee threatened to cut $300 million in state funds, which would automatically disqualify Colorado for $100 million more in federal stimulus cash.