Stronger funding for transportation and education—and ultimately keeping Colorado economically competitive—was the focus for Colorado General Assembly Leadership at the 3rd Annual Business Legislative Preview this morning.
Democratic and Republican leadership agreed that more funding is needed, but had differing views on how to fund those priorities. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, which advocates on behalf of businesses at the Capitol and hosted the event with the Colorado Competitive Council and the Denver Business Journal, outlined a proposal to increase that funding by moving the Hospital Provider Fee to an enterprise fund.
“We never take a break from working for Colorado as a business community,” said Chamber President and CEO Kelly Brough.
The Hospital Provider Fee is a fee assessed on hospitals that is matched by the federal government and the funds are used to expand health care access to nearly 405,000 Coloradans. These are not taxpayer dollars or revenue from economic growth but are being counted as revenue—and contributing more than half a billion dollars toward the TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights) cap that would trigger a refund to taxpayers.
That, Brough said, is not accurate and is preventing the state from funding two major needs for a strong state. (Learn more about the Chamber’s position in Brough’s guest commentary with the Colorado Statesman.) Legislators agreed that this question of the Hospital Provider Fee and how it plays into the state budget will be top of mind.
“Our biggest challenge is our budget,” said House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst (D-Gunbarrel). “We as a state, for our business climate, for our residents, need to invest when we have the money to invest … With that booming population, with that increase in our revenues, we should be using that money to invest in infrastructure, to invest in education.”
Noting how growing funding for areas like health care have put more pressure on the budget, Senate President Pro Tem Ellen Roberts (R-Durango) agreed.
“We need to get our priorities straight,” she said. “We really need to focus on infrastructure as Colorado continues to grow.”
Hullinghorst predicted that if Colorado does not address these funding issues that the gains made by the state since the recession would be washed away in a matter of years.
Republican leadership cautioned that dollars made available by moving the Hospital Provider Fee to an enterprise fund would not be a reliable or long-term fix, and that even $1 billion over a number of years would not be enough address the transportation and infrastructure issues facing the state.
“The reality is we have to get creative on ways to fund transportation,” said House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso (R-Loveland).
Legislators agreed that moving the Hospital Provider Fee would not be a silver bullet to funding transportation.
“Transportation of course is one of our biggest and most important issues,” said Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman (D-Denver). “I think there’s always going to have to be an additional allotment of dollars.”
The other hot-button issue for both parties was another familiar topic for the business community: construction defects. For the past three years bills aiming to reform construction defects litigation and revive the development of attainable and affordable condos have died at the Capitol. But, there’s a difference this year, DelGrosso said: 12 municipalities have since passed their own reforms that mirror that legislation and those approvals create new momentum for a statewide solution.
“We’ve had more municipalities—including the one we’re sitting in right now—pass something at the local level that is basically the same legislation that we were trying to push through at the legislature,” he said. “It comes back to a patchwork, and there’s still uncertainty (for developers).”
Roberts agreed, adding that with a statewide fix and more certainty, the market can respond with more housing options for younger workers, like her daughter.
“I would like to see young Coloradans in particular to have an opportunity to invest in homes here in Colorado,” she said.
Chamber CEO Brough agreed that the Chamber would be back to advocate for this issue, and democratic leaders said they plan to bring a package of bills that will address affordable housing.
Brough also highlighted key policy issues that will hit ballots and not the Capitol this year, including asking voters to reauthorize the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District and consider measures that would restrict energy development, open primaries to independent voters and create a single-payer health care system.
This session and election season will be critical for Colorado, Brough said: “We have one of the strongest economies in the country and 2016 is a key year for us in determining whether we will continue to be that strong economy or not.”
Sara Crocker is communications manager for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.