Rural schools could get an additional $30 million, on top of the $30 million granted through a 2017 bill, under a revised budget proposal submitted by Gov. John Hickenlooper Tuesday.

The money would come from higher taxes Coloradans will pay under the Tax Cuts and Job Act recently signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Hickenlooper is seeking permission to revise the state’s 2017-18 budget and to retool his 2018-19 proposal based on improved revenue numbers released last month.

The Dec. 20 report from the governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) said the state has an additional $179 million available for 2017-18 and about $106 million more for the following year. 

Legislative Council economists predicted in December the state could see a bump of about $200 million in tax revenues in 2018-19 as a result of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, all of it coming from higher individual income taxes.

Hickenlooper said at the time that he would look at those extra dollars as a possible way to fund transportation and education, and Tuesday he made good on that pledge.

A letter submitted Tuesday by the governor’s budget guru, OSPB Director Henry Sobanet, to the Joint Budget Committee proposed spending an additional $85.8 million in the 2017-18 budget.

The proposal directs $30 million to rural schools on top of the $30 million that rural schools got from Senate Bill 17-267. Another $30 million would go to the School Finance Act, and $10 million of marijuana tax cash fund revenue would address teacher shortages through a joint program of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the Colorado Department of Education.

Sobanet also proposed using an additional $256.5 million in the 2018-19 budget. He asked the JBC to use $108.3 million to increase the state’s General Fund reserve from 7 to 8 percent. The rest, $148.2 million, would go to the State Highway Fund for “high-priority state transportation projects.”

The next revenue forecast on March 20 will dictate just how much the state can spend in 2018-19. When those estimates are updated, Sobanet wrote, “We expect a clearer picture will emerge about the ongoing new revenue the State can reasonably expect” from the federal tax law. “These new resources should be prioritized for high-priority state infrastructure needs, additional support for K-12 education, and further building up our reserves.”

Democrats reacted with optimism to the revised budgets Tuesday. JBC Chair Rep. Millie Hamner, a Dillon Democrat, said, “Our state has no shortage of unmet needs. As the budget picture becomes clearer in the coming months, we will be seeking a balanced approach to investing any new state revenue to maximize the benefit to Colorado families.”

The money headed to transportation is seen as a down payment in a longer-term solution. Mike Kopp, CEO of Colorado Concern told Colorado Politics Wednesday that the request is a solid start, “but it is only a start.”

The state’s growing economy is producing record-setting revenue growth, Kopp, a former state senator, continued.

“We believe very strongly that the legislature should use a significant share of these new dollars to immediately address the state’s transportation deficit,” he said.

Kopp specifically identified projects along I-70, I-25 and “long-ignored rural highway priorities.”

But lawmakers and budget-writers also should make a “substantial, long-term investment in roads from their existing coffers,” Kopp added.

A ballot measure is still needed to deal with the full backlog of transportation projects, some $30 billion. Kopp also believes voters will be more likely to support a ballot measure that raises money for the “growing traffic mess if they know elected leaders have already done all they can with the financial resources they have.”