Appropriations committee adopts amendment shifting $40M for health plan subsidies, lays over Senate Bill 178

The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted amendment L10 to Senate Bill 178 and later laid the bill over for a future meeting after extended debate about funding sources and program impacts.

Sponsor Senator Mullica told the committee L10 replaces a proposed $40 million payment from insurance plans with a one‑time transfer from the marijuana tax cash fund reserve and returns a state building into the reserves ‘‘so that there is still an asset in there.’’ ‘‘Essentially, what this amendment does is … take the $40,000,000 piece that was going to be paid by the plans and instead takes that from the marijuana tax cash fund reserve,’’ Mullica said.

Committee members questioned whether the transfer would draw from the TABOR emergency reserve. Senator Kirk Meyer explained the marijuana tax cash fund money is currently in the TAGOR/TABOR emergency reserve and said the proposal would use $40 million of that $100 million set aside. "We are taking of that 100,000,000 we're going to take 40,000,000 out of that TABOR reserve that's required under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights to use for bonding so that we don't increase fees on insurance plans," Kirkmeyer said.

The amendment passed on a roll-call vote 6–1. Later in the same hearing the committee debated two more sponsor‑moved amendments (L11 and L12) that would impose guardrails and reporting requirements on the enterprise. L12 — a quarterly written report to the Joint Budget Committee and an in‑person briefing after the December forecast — was adopted without objection. L11, which would lower the on‑exchange subsidy eligibility from 400% of the federal poverty level to 300% and require premiums to be set in 2027, prompted intense debate about coverage loss and lost federal match. Senators and advocates said the amendment language arrived late and needed more stakeholdering.

Because members sought more time to evaluate the program changes and potential federal consequences, the committee voted to lay Senate Bill 178 over to a future Appropriations meeting rather than advance it today.

Votes and next steps: The committee adopted L10 (6–1) and L12 (unanimous adoption), debated L11 at length, and then laid SB178 over to allow additional stakeholder discussions and analysis. The bill will return to committee at a later date with requests for clarifying fiscal modeling and stakeholder input.