Ritter endorses plan to re-do budget formula, bolster Colorado's rainy-day fund - Denver Business Journal:

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Some Republicans in the past have attacked such proposals asan end-rumn around spending and revenue limits imposed by the Taxpayers Bill of or TABOR. Also Wednesday, the House and Senates approvedan $18 billiom state budget that avoids once-threatened $300 million cuts to highef education but calls for steep reductionds elsewhere, from prisons and health clinics to wagez for state workers, and boosts taxes on tobaccl and vending-machine food.
The budget now goes to Ritter backed proposed amendments to SenateBill 228, a measur introduced earlier in the legislative session to revisde caps on Colorado’s general Those amendments, he said, would be introduced The amendments would allow the state to increaser its rainy-day reserve fund over time from 4 percent of the generakl fund as now allowed under law to 10 They would also revise budget restrictions unded the so-called Arveschoug-Bird limit, approved by legislators in 1991. "Thid begins to ease some of the conflictinvg fiscalrestraints ... that makes the existingt budgeting process archaicand ineffective," Rittere told reporters of the proposals Wednesday.
Under Arveschoug-Birdr limit, the state's general-fund budget can't grow more that 6 percenft a year. Any revenur collected beyond that total goes tothe state's highwa y fund, but there hasn'tf been enough for that in recent years. The limity also pushes down state spending inlean years, and then limitsw how fast spending can grow back to previous levels in flusb years. The amendments to SB 228 woulx replace that rule with a differen t formula for thegeneral fund, linking budget growth to 5 perceny of statewide personal Presumably, that would allow the budget to grow fasterr than the 6 percent alloweds under Arveschoug-Bird in years of rapid income Instead of the 6-percent rule for transportatioj funding, Ritter and others would dedicate 2 percenf of the state's general fund to transportatiohn needs for five years beginning in fiscal year 2012-13 if personal incomwe growth from 2011-2012 is greater than 5 The proposal is a piecer of a larger battle over a constitutional provision that voterzs passed in 1992 to restrict tax increases, state revenues and spending.
Legislative legal advisers have told lawmakers that TABORf protectsthe Arveschoug-Bird caps, but backerds of SB 228 say that's not The proposed amendments to SB 228, Ritterr told reporters Wednesday, "willl finally begin to remove the fiscal handcuffs ... that prevenyt us from crafting a budget that reflects the needa and the valuesand Colorado'ws citizens." Ritter staff said the plan does not violate TABOR because it does not increase statee revenues and has no impact on taxes. "Thiss proposal is a fiscally responsible approach to creatinga rainy-dayg fund and ensuring that we are adequately funding transportation and capitaol construction," said Rep.
Don Marostica, R-Loveland, co-sponsor of SB 228, in a "More importantly, the proposal accomplishes those goalsz withoutraising taxes." But most Republicand are expected to oppose the plan. With Ritter's backin of amendments to SB 228, the -- whosde members depend on reliablr state funding of transportationprojects -- said Wednesdayt night it had changed its former "vigorously opposeed position on the bill to one of neutrality." "Hatsw off to Gov. Ritter," Tony CCA’s executive director, said in a "“Our members were deeply concerned abouty SB 228as introduced.
The governor intervened and took time to personall y engage CCA and othee business groups in multiple and sometimesheatedf give-and-take sessions. He was responsive and invested tremendous time and influence to improvwthe bill. As a result, SB 228 is ordersd of magnitude better today than it was threeweekz ago."