Last week, the Senate voted 32-1 to approve the Long Appropriations Bill, SB 205. It’s the first time since 2017 that the Senate has been more or less united in its support of the state budget bill.

Even last year’s behemoth of budget-cutting didn’t get the support that the 2021-22 state budget got from the state Senate last Friday. That was a 24-11 vote, with all “no” votes coming from Republicans.

The first thing the House Appropriations Committee did when SB 205 arrived this week was to strip off the 14 amendments — and the $33.5 million dollars in spending — added to the Long Appropriations Bill in the Senate last week.

“You don’t need to run any amendments,” quipped JBC Vice-chair Rep. Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, during a Tuesday caucus meeting of House Democrats. That’s the same advice given to Senate Democrats last week.

That turned into 38 amendments offered by senators last Thursday, with 13 offered by Democrats.

The 2021-22 budget is at $34.1 billion, including $16 billion in general fund dollars. That’s primarily individual and corporate income tax revenue and state sales tax. General fund dollars are the discretionary funds that lawmakers can tap to pay for existing appropriations as well as new programs. It also includes $800 million in dollars set-aside for a state stimulus program that is in the works, $627.7 million for JBC bills that will help balance the budget, and $302 million set aside for other legislation in the 2021 session.

That $16 billion includes a $1.7 billion general fund reserve, the largest in state history, at about 13.53% of most (but not all) general fund dollars. It also includes $11.9 billion to cover existing obligations.

The two JBC members from the House Democratic caucus, McCluskie and Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, fielded questions on the reserve during Tuesday’s caucus meeting, a reserve that McCluskie called “protecting our piggy bank.”

“We are still in a state of emergency,” Herod said. “We think and hope we’re coming out of it but we don’t know how our economy will go up and down” in the next few years. “It’s imperative to have a healthy reserve” to safeguard the state from some of the tough and disastrous decisions of the past.

The JBC was also able to provide state employees with a 3% raise in the long bill, after no raises and furloughs in the past year. In response to a question from House Majority Leader Rep. Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, who is working on a bill to allow all public employees to unionize and engage in collective bargaining, McCluskie said that state employees are about 16% below market compensation in the private sector.

McCluskie also noted that the 5% across-the-board cut to state agencies in their personnel budget lines in 2020-21 also has been restored, which means the state is going to be hiring, since many agencies handled that cut by not filling positions.

Within the Department of Corrections budget, Herod explained that the $500 per corrections officer bonus who agreed to get vaccinated, which was not approved by the JBC, is coming from moving some funds around from one line item to another. When the decision was made, about 30% of correctional employees were vaccinated, Herod said. Rep. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, referred to the bonus as a “bribe.”

That lack of vaccination among workers has led to more outbreaks among inmates, since the vast majority of inmates were not vaccinated at that time due to the Polis administration decision to provide vaccines based on age group, not on whether someone was in congregate housing, such as a prison.

The bonus appears to have resulted in more corrections workers getting vaccinated, she indicated.

There’s also 1,749 fewer beds needed in corrections, she said.

Speaker Pro tem Adrienne Benavidez, D-Adams County, asked about the status of the state’s last two private prisons, in Crowley and Bent counties. The reductions in beds have been weighted toward the private prisons, Herod explained, but they expect an increased need for those beds once the courts fully reopen. It will be at least a year, to allow for a stabilization in the prison system, before they can start thinking about the future of private prisons, Herod added.

A study commissioned by the General Assembly last year on private prison utilization produced mixed results, Herod said. Closing private prisons will have a cost to the local governments (Crowley County gets 54% of its property taxes from its private prison) but the services offered at those prisons are not the same as those available in state prisons. The long bill includes a footnote that requires the private prisons to employ the same staffing levels and services as the state prisons. If they can’t meet those requirements they have to report that to the JBC, Herod said.

McCluskie said one of the saddest moments of the budget process last year was cutting 58% of the general fund support for higher ed. They’re just as happy to restore those cuts, along with $100 million for financial aid for first generation and underrepresented minority students.

“This is one step in the equity equation,” Herod said.

Democrats gave little hints on the amendments they could offer when the long bill and the 23 related “orbitals” are debated by the full House on Wednesday. But amendments addressing concerns over the online system at the Department of Labor and Employment, as well as certain benefits for legislative aides, wouldn’t be a surprise.

Republicans were similarly guarded when it came to discussing amendments during their public caucus though JBC member Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, did point to areas that GOP lawmakers could look at addressing.

She highlighted an amendment run by the Senate that would increase the $3 million provided in the long bill to broaden the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement officers as part of Senate Bill 20-217.

“If we don’t have an amendment from our caucus, I’m sure we will from the majority caucus,” Ransom said. “If not, somebody here should run that because it was passed in the Senate.”

Within the Department of Public Safety, Ransom told her caucus an amendment could be run aimed at providing a boost to school safety funding.

But the greatest point of agitation among House Republicans came as the caucus reviewed the Department of Transportation’s budget.

Ransom noted only about 2% of the agency’s expenditures on transportation infrastructure come from funds allocated by state lawmakers. The rest are paid for by the Highway Users Trust Fund, giving lawmakers little oversight.

“They are outside of our purview, they are outside of what we can say, do or fix and the state of Colorado continues to go downhill… unless you hit a pothole and crash off the side of the road,” said Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose. “It seems to me we gave up our authority somewhere long, long ago. I’d like to find out how to get it back.”

Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, also called for accountability measures for CDOT, asking Ransom if JBC could do anything.

“The short answer to that is no,” Ransom said. “I’m sorry to let you know that the budget has to be the current law so unless you can get a bill passed or unless you can change the law via legislation, we won’t be able to do anything with budget amendments.”

Amendments are due by 4 p.m. on Tuesday. House lawmakers are expected to debate the bill on Wednesday before taking it to a vote on final passage on Thursday.