Yes, Colorado lawmakers, it’s still important to deal with a projected budgetary crunch triggered by future tax refunds even if they are no longer likely in the next fiscal year.
The problem is only being delayed for one year. Refunds will almost certainly be required in the following years under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights unless the economy entirely tanks. And yet they will come at the expense of critical transportation, capital maintenance and education funding. Indeed, transportation funding is already slated to decline in next year’s budget.
In other words, lawmakers still have urgent reason this session to reclassify the hospital provider fee into a separate “enterprise fund” to allow the state to remain below TABOR revenue limits without refunding money.
Shouldn’t putting the budget on a sustainable path remain a high priority even without the pressure of impending refunds?
Unfortunately, House Bill 1420, which reclassifies the hospital fee and is sponsored by House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, faces rough sledding, at least in the state Senate. And one reason is the belief by some lawmakers that if they take the hospital fee out of the general fund, they are obliged to lower the state revenue limit, too — essentially canceling out the benefit to the budget.
Their fear would have more weight if the hospital fee had existed before the current revenue limit was established. Yet that’s not the case. It was created in 2009, after the current TABOR cap was established by voters.
In a hearing this week in the House appropriations committee, the director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting, Henry Sobanet, explained that the state has been consistent in how it moves fee-based services into enterprise funds. If a fee existed before a revenue cap was in place, then the cap is lowered. But if the revenue limit predates the fee, then the cap has remained the same.
Why should the hospital provider fee be treated any differently? The answer is that it shouldn’t — not unless lawmakers are simply looking for an excuse to oppose a plan they would want to vote against anyway.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
