The Colorado state budget is nearing the finish line as the state Senate gave final approval to the $46.8 billion spending plan Thursday.

The budget passed the House of Representatives on Saturday. It now heads back to the Joint Budget Committee, which will act as a conference committee to work out the differing amendments passed by both chambers.

It passed the Senate on a 25-10 vote.

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“This is not a budget I love. This budget has cuts that have kept me up at night,” JBC member Senator Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, said. “The budget is a moral document. It puts in black and white, dollars and cents, exactly what we value and how much we value it. More than any year, those values were in competition.”

The Senate’s work on the budget was more efficient and had an overall lighter tone than in the House, which saw four days of work, including 15 hours for the bill to be read at length due to a request from a Republican representative. The Senate, meanwhile, started its preliminary debate late Wednesday morning with a barbecue and offered preliminary approval on Wednesday evening after considering dozens of amendments.

“This budget, in my mind, protects what matters most,” JBC member Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said. “We continued historic funding for education. We protected access to health care for everyone, not just those that are the poorest of poor and medically fragile, but for everyone in the state of Colorado. And we preserved critical investments in public safety.”

Lawmakers needed to close a roughly $1.5 billion budget gap this year — the difference between maintaining current levels of spending and how much tax revenue the state can keep under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. To do that, they cut Medicaid provider rates by 2 percent, put limits on other Medicaid coverage, reduced the state’s reserve fund, transferred money from various cash funds and eliminated funding for programs across departments.

Two of the most contentious cuts are a 56-hour cap on caregiver compensation for people who care for a family member with an intellectual or developmental disability, as well as a reduction to the Medicaid “lookalike” program for pregnant people and children who lack legal status.

No money for new wolves

The budget includes $17.4 billion in general fund spending, an increase of about $212 million from last year’s budget. Colorado’s entire budget is made up of the general fund, various cash funds and federal dollars. The budget under consideration is for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

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The Senate and House both adopted amendments related to the highly-controversial gray wolf reintroduction program in the state, which has outpaced projected costs from when voters approved it in 2020 and has led to livestock injuries and deaths at Colorado ranches.

One amendment from Senator Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, and Senator Marc Catlin, a Montrose Republican, would strike about $272,000 from the Department of Natural Resources set aside for wolf purchases and transfer it back to the general fund. The House adopted a similar amendment that would only allow new wolf purchases through gifts, grants and donations. Corresponding footnotes declare the Legislature’s intent that the state’s general fund shouldn’t be used to buy wolves.

“We don’t believe in this time of cutting health care for sick children, money for transportation projects across the state, difficult times for education funding, that the general fund should be used for buying new wolves and transporting them to Colorado,” Roberts said.

A second wolf-related amendment from Senator Larry Liston would move $2 million from the Natural Resources to instead fund obstetric care.

In its earlier deliberations, the JBC rejected a $450,000 request from Colorado Parks and Wildlife for new wolves.

Money for DNA evidence kits

A Senate amendment Wednesday from Senator Janice Marchman, a Loveland Democrat, and Senator Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, would allow high school seniors enrolled in a teacher recruitment program to finish their final year. Originally, the program was set to be entirely slashed. The amendment transfers about $800,000 from a cash fund for electrifying school buses to the program.

“The first students who could earn a teaching license under this program graduate this May,” Marchman said. “What this amendment will do is extend the program, so those who are in year five can complete their year six, and graduate with their (Teacher Recruitment Education Program) and their teaching license.”

Another successful amendment from Senator Mike Weissman moves $500,000 from the governor’s Office of Economic Incentives and Marketing to help the Colorado Bureau of Investigations work through its backlog of DNA evidence kits.

It is not guaranteed that any of the 12 amendments the Senate passed and eight amendments the House passed will stick onto the final version of the budget sent to the governor’s desk. The JBC will work to rebalance the budget in consideration of the passed amendments.