DENVER – Following Governor Jared Polis’ budget briefing this afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert (R-Douglas County) issued the following statement:
“Governor Polis seems to have adjusted well from the deficit-spending of Washington D.C. to the budgetary realities of Colorado state government. Here in Colorado, a dollar is a dollar, and we have to pass a balanced budget every year. I thank the Governor and his staff for sitting down with us to discuss his budget proposal. While we obviously have some disagreements over budget priorities, we more importantly see many places in this proposal where we can work together.”
TRANSPORTATION
“Over the past four years, Senate Republicans have advocated for at least a $300 million General Fund investment in our roads and bridges year over year. We are pleased that our voice has been heard and that a $550 million baseline investment is included in this budget. We also look forward to finally seeing the bipartisan bonding measure in Senate Bill 18-001 reach the voters in 2020 to start chipping away at our multi-billion dollar Department of Transportation backlog. Senate Bill 18-001 passed the Senate unanimously under a Republican majority.”
EDUCATION
“For years, Democrats criticized the Budget Stabilization Factor, previously known as the Negative Factor, and the need to ‘pay back’ money owed to school districts. Once Democrats took full control of the legislature, the urgency to pay back that debt dissipated. In 2018, under Republican control of the Senate, we put $150 million toward the Factor. Last year, when Democrats took control, that amount fell to $100 million, and in this proposal, it falls to $40 million. Instead of paying back the current $572.4 million debt owed, Democrats have focused on creating new spending obligations that increase our baseline, year-to-year obligations. We urge the Governor and legislative Democrats to reconsider this path and pay back the education debt owed to Colorado school districts before creating additional spending obligations.”
HIGHER EDUCATION
“In 2014, House Bill 14-1319 became law, requiring our institutions of higher education to focus on providing value to their students in order to earn state funding. We are happy to see that the Governor supports those ongoing efforts to hold colleges and universities accountable for their performance.”
HEALTHCARE
“We look forward to working with the Governor on increasing transparency and focusing on local solutions to bring down the cost of healthcare for all Coloradans. We also recognize Senator Bob Rankin for his bipartisan leadership in the legislature on this issue last session and thank him for his work in making healthcare more affordable.”
###
For media inquiries, please contact Sage Naumann at sage.naumann@state.co.us