Remember that this time last year, we were all watching the Covid graph climb higher each day and listening to experts take their best guess as to what the future held. So last year when we went back into session to pass a budget, the prediction was that the 2021/22 budget would be just as dismal as the current year. That would have been an accurate projection if you left out the word “dismal.”
Thanks in part to the federal stimulus packages that paid generous unemployment benefits, it turns out state revenue collections were up significantly this year. The expectation is 2021/22 will continue on that path. While unemployment benefits are ending for many people, we expect some return of service level jobs due to the pent-up demand for tourism and eating out as people shake off cabin fever produced by the Covid restrictions.
That leads to the record setting 34.1-million-dollar budget passed by the Senate this past week. The budget now moves to the House for their amendments and then back to the Joint Budget Committee for reconciliation. To clarify, the legislature only has control of a little over a third of that. The balance is on auto pilot, basically pass through dollars from the federal government, various cash funds and funds that have been appropriated by the voters at the ballot box.
As always, lots of amendments were offered, some bipartisan, a few were approved, but most were not. I offered several amendments moving money to transportation projects in the district that had been identified by CDOT in their 10-year plan. Senate District 2 is the only district that has I-70, I-25 and U.S. 50 so there were plenty of projects to pick from. Unfortunately, transportation was obviously not a priority for the majority party as my amendments were all voted down on party line votes.
As much as transportation was the big loser, schools were a big winner. Not so much the students where we were trying to put additional dollars in summer programs to help compensate for what they missed this past year. Electric charging stations may be popping up throughout the state thanks to a 40-million-dollar line item in the budget. Maybe someday we will be glad we did that, but you can buy a lot of asphalt with that money and asphalt will never be cheaper than it is today.
Another big winner was the reserve account, we've never had so much money in reserves. Some of that money could and should have been spent on roads and bridges but since that wasn't the priority this year, I'm glad it is in reserves. At least, we'll have another shot at spending it on what Coloradans have said is important to them and not on legislative pet projects.
I welcome your thoughts and comments on the happenings here at the Capital. Lots of ways to stay in touch; Office phone: 303-866-4877, Mobile phone: 719-351-2121, Email: SenatorHisey@gmail.com, Twitter: @SenDennisHisey, Facebook: Senator Dennis Hisey.