Newly inaugurated Gov. Jared Polis had an encounter with the state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) the other day. It won’t be his last.

In the governor’s first budget request, Polis asked for a total of $253 million to provide full-day kindergarten in every public school district in Colorado. State Sen. Dominick Moreno of Commerce City, the Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, commented: “I think he (Polis) is well aware … that the Joint Budget Committee has the final say on what’s actually in the budget.”

Moreno added that the JBC may find “transportation” rather than all-day kindergarten a higher priority.

With Polis being a Democrat, and the Democrats having a four-to-two-person majority on the Joint Budget Committee, you might expect the governor to have no problems with the JBC. But it is not as simple as that. There is a historical tradition, in most years, of playing down partisanship on the JBC. The six members spend so much time together they develop a high esprit de corps and sense of loyalty to the committee. Ideally all six members work together to enforce good budgeting principles rather than pursuing partisan agendas. We will find out in the next few months how that is going to work in this session.

The JBC was created by the state legislature in 1959 and thus has a more than half century of tradition behind it. It is the only committee of the legislature with a large full-time professional staff of its own. It occupies a suite of offices in the Legislative Services Building, just south of the Capitol building. The six committee members begin working on the budget in November and December, two months before the legislature begins its January-to-May regular session.

The JBC is supposed to begin its work by looking at the governor’s proposed budget, but there are lots of stories, and jokes, about how little attention the committee pays to the governor’s fiscal handiwork. One observer noted that the governor’s budget has as much status in the Capitol as “a child’s letter to Santa Claus.”

The JBC has been revered and feared. It is revered because, over the years, it has built a tradition of budget expertise that few other members of the legislature are willing to challenge. It is feared because it can shape department and lobbyist budget requests to its own liking, cutting them severely if it wishes.

The JBC proceeds about its work in a highly ritualized fashion. It begins in December with the revenue estimates, being well aware that it can only spend the money the state takes in through taxation. By February it is figure setting, writing into the budget the actual amounts of money to be spent on each item. The result is what is called “the long bill,” the massive budget bill that eventually goes to the state House and the state Senate for legislative approval.

Two developments have somewhat weakened the influence of the Joint Budget Committee in recent years. Term limits have caused higher turnover as experienced committee members are forced to leave the legislature after only eight years in office. This loss of expertise among the elected committee members has enhanced the power of both the governor’s and the JBC’s budget staff.

TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, has also weakened the JBC. As money for state government services has become less available under TABOR, due to the difficulty of raising taxes, the JBC has mainly had to cut programs rather than expand them. That is not much fun.

No matter which political party is in control of the state legislature, the JBC has a fiscally conservative effect on the state legislature. It puts the emphasis on sound budget practices and spending only what the state gets in taxes. It likes to save money for future rainy days. As Polis may or may not be about to learn, the JBC can deny or modify a governor’s pet spending requests when the JBC considers the requests unwise.

Polis has a good chance of winning substantial funding for his signature all-day kindergarten initiative – at least for the time being. This is in part due to a state budget surplus from the past year. But he and the legislature will have to find new monies for transportation and more accessible health care. Polis and the JBC will meet again.

Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy are retired political science professors who were longtime members of the faculty at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.