A working group of legislators met with prison officials about suspicious budget estimates Wednesday, and it was deemed adequate “good faith” in the Colorado House Thursday.

A few weeks ago Republican and Democratic legislators hoed up a $1.4 million request for private prison beds in the current year’s budget. As a result, Gov. John Hickenlooper issued an executive order Friday instructing his prison, parole and budget staff to work out the issue with legislators.

Colorado Politics was the first to report on the executive order and lawmakers’ distrust of the prison system.

On a preliminary vote Thursday morning, the House passed the supplemental budget request, House Bill 1158. It still must pass a recorded vote before moving to the Senate for more deliberation.

Lawmakers, led by Rep. Cole Wist, R-Centennial, contend prison officials have miscalculated the number of inmate beds it would need in budget requests in seven out of the last 10 years. Some Republicans suspect the reason for that is to game the budget for more money, while some Democrats want prison and parole programs to implement legislative orders to transition non-violent offenders out of incarceration and back into society, instead of in the care of taxpayers.

“It’s my hope and my sincere belief that this working group will provide us the opportunity for dialogue,” Wist said on the House floor Thursday. “The Department of Corrections has come to this meeting in good faith, certainly in a very transparent gesture, to provide us this information.”

Other members weren’t as trusting. Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, who is running for attorney general, dropped the request on the floor and stood on it as he spoke. He begged for more time before approving the request.

“This is not a new concern and it’s not the concern of only one member in the House of Representatives,” he told the chamber. “This has been a six-year long concern for me as a state representative, and for some of you it’s been a concern as well that we can’t ever seem to get a straight story from the Department of Corrections.”

He said Colorado prison leaders “have not been telling the truth” about inmate population estimates, why many of those eligible for parole have not been processed or why beds in community-corrections programs are empty while the Department of Corrections wants more money for more beds in private prisons.

Colorado prison populations have been declining since 2009, but the Department of Corrections, in its formal budget request for next year, said it expects to house 1,000 more inmates next year with  more growth in 2020.

Salazar’s oppositions was joined by fellow Democrat Jovan Melton of Denver and Republican Rep. Lori Saine of Dacono Thursday.

Both said they were conflicted about the $1.4 million request, but opposed approving the money until they see more.

“I want to make sure we’re not being sold a bill of goods,” Melton said. “I want to make sure the governor’s office is going to step forward and negotiate in good faith. I’m not sure of that right now.”

Said Saine, “So far the Department of Corrections has not self-corrected.

Rep. Alec Garnett, D-Denver, told fellow lawmakers that they still have sway over the prison system, if the negotiations don’t work out. Hickenlooper’s executive order asked the working group to wrap up April 1, before lawmakers finalized the department’s overall budget for next year.

“We have set up an opportunity for this body to hold the department accountable for this issue that has been raised and to make sure we have meaningful policy reforms before the (state budget) shows up in the House,” he said.