Bad news is often easier to manage than uncertainty. At least you know what you are facing and can begin to plan for it.
This is the second session where we have asked legislators to reauthorize the hospital provider fee as an enterprise fund. During last year’s session we were asked to hold our proposal as internal discussions took place in the legislature. The bill wasn’t proposed until the end of session and that raised concern about having enough to time to address such a complex issue. Questions were also raised about whether the hospital provider fee is a tax or a fee. We made headway on that issue in December and February when the Office of Legislative Legal Services and the attorney general both agreed that the fee is indeed a fee.
Then another concern was raised about the constitutionality of the proposal, and that, too, was resolved in these past few weeks. Both the current and former attorneys general and two former legal advisers to Colorado governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter all agree that creating a hospital provider fee enterprise fund is indeed constitutional:
- “…My opinion is based solely on the law and its application to the facts. The debate over whether to create a Hospital Provider Fee enterprise can now shift back to the General Assembly,” said Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman
- “I believe that some form of a hospital provider enterprise could be designed to be constitutional under state law,” said former Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.
- “The proposal should receive serious consideration from legislators as a legally sound and fiscally responsible approach,” wrote attorneys Jon Anderson and Trey Rogers.
And, Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst announced she’ll introduce a bill to create a hospital provider fee enterprise fund. On Sunday, The Denver Post called for creating a hospital provider fee enterprise fund, writing, “The hospital fee in no way has boosted spending allowed by TABOR. And by the way, the present spending level was set as a result of the statewide popular vote on Referendum C in 2005. Lowering it would be a slap in the face to voters who approved that measure … to argue that there remain outstanding constitutional issues involving the budget shift is no longer tenable in the wake of Coffman’s opinion.”
The Chamber sees reenacting the hospital provider fee as an enterprise fund as a priority—an action that must be taken to ensure we are able to fund transportation and education in Colorado. As each of these issues has been put to rest, we hope now we can really have a discussion with the legislature about whether they share this priority with all of us.
Kelly Brough is president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.