Colorado: Mitchell

The Colorado Senate moved forward tonight with a plan to tap $500 million from a workers' compensation fund to balance the state budget, a move Republicans compared to a Venezuelan-style takeover of a private company.

Even some Democrats had concerns about whether the plan to take a portion of Pinnacol Assurance's assets would work or was fair to businesses. The quasi-governmental agency offers guaranteed workers' compensation insurance, and Republicans have argued that because the insurer's assets were funded by businesses paying insurance premiums, the state should keep its hands off the money.

They also said that because Pinnacol was likely to challenge the move in a lawsuit, the money would be tied up in court so long it would be unavailable to balance next year's budget.

Following a nearly 10-hour debate Monday that stirred up partisan tensions, the Senate gave initial approval to a bill that would lift a key constraint on the state budget.

Arguments over repealing the budget provision ended only after Democrats cut off debate despite the objections of angry Republicans that Senate rules were being abused.

Named after the lawmakers who sponsored it in 1991, the Arveschoug-Bird provision limits growth in the state's general fund to no more than 6 percent a year. Money collected beyond that limit goes to roads and other construction needs.

SB 228, sponsored by Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, would repeal the 6 percent limit as well as the automatic transfers of money above the limit to roads and other projects.

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

On Wednesday, the Colorado Senate Finance Committee approved Senate Bill 228 — legislation that seeks to provide greater flexibility to lawmakers in deciding where to spend the state’s shrinking revenues.

State Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. (Photo/Bob Spencer, The Colorado Independent)

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. John Morse, the bill would eliminate the so-called Arveschoug-Bird provision, which restricts the state’s General Fund to 6 percent growth per year and allocates any surplus specifically to transportation and construction projects. Morse’s bill and the problem it seeks to address are tongue-twisting and arcane, yet the small corner room of the Capitol where the hearing took place was filled with laptop jockeys, community leaders, a webcast crew and a buzz that hung in the air when it became clear that SB228 was going to clear its first public hurdle.

Senate Republicans are positively giddy that a drug prescription bill Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter touted in his first year is now being repealed.

Senate Bill 1 in 2007 directed a state agency to negotiate discounts on generic drugs for up to 264,000 Coloradans who don't have health insurance and whose income is less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

But only about 40 people have taken advantage of the program, Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, said Tuesday.

"This is a red line through the Colorado Promise," chortled Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield.

Ritter's campaign blueprint in 2006 was called the Colorado Promise, and included health care reform.