House Appropriations Committee advances wide slate of budget bills, many unanimously

The Colorado House Appropriations Committee on Monday advanced a large package of budget bills and technical fixes, voting to send most measures to the Committee of the Whole with favorable recommendations.

The committee considered measures ranging from school‑meal funding and broadband for correctional facilities to transfers of unclaimed property money and changes to the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund (MMOF). Sponsors generally said the bills were necessary to close a large budget shortfall and to align statutory language with current fiscal practice.

Why it matters: The packages move several funding changes that will shape state support for schools, behavioral health grants, transportation projects and housing programs. Some measures pause or eliminate statutory transfers and reduce appropriations that advocacy groups and local governments said they rely on for ongoing projects.

Most bills were presented by Representative Brett Taggart, who repeatedly framed the measures as difficult but necessary cuts to balance the statewide budget. For example, a set of education bills adjusted assessment and program funding, including HB13‑53 (eliminating an elementary social‑studies state assessment and saving an estimated $302,000) and HB13‑51 (transferring funds between the Healthy School Meals for All program and the State Education Fund and pausing a statutory transfer for two years).

Several other measures carried little or no public testimony and moved quickly. The committee advanced HB13‑48 to complete broadband infrastructure installations at several correctional facilities and HB13‑66 to permit Denver Health to draw additional federal matching funds at no extra cost to the state.

Votes at a glance (as recorded by the committee clerk): HB13‑48 — reported 9–1 (Joseph excused); HB13‑49 — 10–0 (1 excused); HB13‑50/HB13‑51 — advanced with favorable recommendations (clerk recorded mixed readouts in some roll calls); HB13‑52 through HB13‑56 — advanced with favorable recommendations; HB13‑55 — advanced after sponsor corrected the cut amount to $1,750,000; HB13‑58, HB13‑66, HB13‑67, HB13‑68, HB13‑69, HB13‑70, HB13‑71, HB13‑72 — all moved forward, mostly by unanimous or near‑unanimous votes; HB13‑74 — advanced following public testimony (clerk recorded 10–2/9–2 in spoken counts); HB13‑75 through HB13‑97 — advanced; HB13‑98 and HB13‑99 — each advanced 10–1; HB14‑01 — advanced 9–2; HB14‑03, HB14‑04, HB14‑06, HB14‑07, HB14‑08 — advanced. (Note: the committee’s spoken roll‑call counts included a few numeric inconsistencies noted on the record; see audit.)

What’s next: Bills reported out of Appropriations will be considered by the Committee of the Whole, where they may be debated further or combined into the long bill package.

Committee procedure and context: Committee members repeatedly emphasized the difficulty of making cuts this year. Several sponsors and JBC staff said they tried to preserve core services while identifying one‑time or statutory transfers that could be adjusted to close gaps. Many bills were technical or timing corrections intended to align statute or cash‑fund mechanics with current practice.

The committee adjourned and will reconvene at 7 a.m. Tuesday to continue review of the long bill and remaining measures.