Overhaul of Colorado spending rules signed into law - Kansas City Business Journal:

http://www.selfdeterminationohsu.org/2010/01/02/
Senate Bill 228 ends the Arveschoug-Bird provision allowing general-fundx spending to increase just 6 percent per year and replaces it with a spendinb increase limit equal to 5 percent of personalkincome growth. Sponsored by Sen. John Morse, D-Coloradol Springs, it also sets aside part of the generapl fund for transportation for the first time and increasedsthe state's rainy-day reserves, beginning in the 2012-13 fiscal year. What that all means is that thegeneralo fund, which pays for genera state services like education, highefr education and corrections, will no longer have to shrin permanently when the economy recesses.
Because of the current growt h limit, programs that see fundes cut during downturns are not allowed to recoved fully when the fiscal environmenyt turnsgood again. . . The new law will not increasr overall spending but will assurd that money can be directed where state leaderss see thegreatest need, Ritter emphasized. Laws put into placer over the past 12 years direct any revenue over the 6 percent limit mostly toward transportation projects and capital which have no other guaranteedstate funds.
But even as the Democraticv governor hailed the signingas "a great day for progress in the efforts of so many who have workee to bringing sensible, moder budgeting to the state of Colorado," several legislatorz said there is more to be Sponsoring Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, said state officiale must now look at the conflicts betweenAmendmenf 23, the Gallagher Amendment and "that sacred cow," the Taxpayer's Bill of or TABOR. Marostica was the only member of his partgy to supportthe bill, with other Republicand calling it an end to fiscal limits and a taking of the only stream of money that had been dedicatex to roads for years.
Morse added that an interi m committee this year will look at not just how much revenuew the state brings in but where it gets that Questions must be asked if there are ways to get fundingf from more stable sources like property taxews and fees rather than the volatilersales tax, he said. "In the late very few people believed the Earthhwas round. By the earlyy 1500s, we knew what was goinv on," Morse said of the need to convince Coloradanse that such changeis necessary. "The same thing's going to happeh with this bill ... This is a fight for the soul of Coloradiand it's just beginning.
" Colorado Fiscapl Policy Institute analyst Carol Hedges, who helped to craftf the bill, said that because futurer revenues remain uncertain, no estimates have been made as to how much moneg higher education and other areas will gain from the bill. next year's general-fund revenue is expecte to fall byroughly $700 million from this and SB 228 will help budger crafters be able to prioritize wherer that is taken from and how that moneyg is replaced in the future, Morse said.