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Sen. Johnson calls Colorado budget "spider-web"
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: News
State Sen. Steve Johnson (R-Fort Collins) criticized shortcomings in the Colorado state budget that affect higher education tuition at CSU's student government meeting Wednesday night.
The state needs to rewrite the entire budget, not allow tuition hikes, Johnson said, to make improvements at colleges and universities.
A hot issue on the Colorado budget docket is Gov. Bill Ritter's higher education proposal that GOP officials are saying doesn't allocate sufficient funds to higher education institutions.
But Johnson said lawmakers have bigger fish to fry.
"That's a very good question," he said when asked what he thought about Ritter's proposal. "But it's like asking, 'How was your room on the Titanic?' … The government cannot keep up with the demands of the economy because of the way the TABOR limit is structured."
TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, closed the gate that allowed excess taxes to flow to state programs and reallocated the money to the hands of taxpayers.
The most extreme measures-including referenda C and D in 2005-taken to fix the budget have done almost nothing to fix the state's huge problems, he said.
"We've all lived within a bigger budget picture, and our state's fiscal situation is not stable. Referendum C … I think it saved the state, and it's the most significant thing I've been involved in, in the 12 years I've been a legislator," Johnson said, "But it's a Band-Aid."
Last year, Colorado's legislators voted to raise overall tuition 7 percent, but colleges and universities needed more. Johnson said the decision was not easy to vote on because the lawmakers knew schools needed more than 7 percent of what they already received.
"It's a difficult vote for legislators because they know they've under-funded institutions of higher ed, and we all want health care and higher education," he said. CSU raised tuition $287 this year-10 percent more than the 7 percent agreement with the legislature after heated debate over a proposal from university President Larry Penley to allow an increase of about $1,200 per year for in-state students.
The state needs to rewrite the entire budget, not allow tuition hikes, Johnson said, to make improvements at colleges and universities.
A hot issue on the Colorado budget docket is Gov. Bill Ritter's higher education proposal that GOP officials are saying doesn't allocate sufficient funds to higher education institutions.
But Johnson said lawmakers have bigger fish to fry.
"That's a very good question," he said when asked what he thought about Ritter's proposal. "But it's like asking, 'How was your room on the Titanic?' … The government cannot keep up with the demands of the economy because of the way the TABOR limit is structured."
TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, closed the gate that allowed excess taxes to flow to state programs and reallocated the money to the hands of taxpayers.
The most extreme measures-including referenda C and D in 2005-taken to fix the budget have done almost nothing to fix the state's huge problems, he said.
"We've all lived within a bigger budget picture, and our state's fiscal situation is not stable. Referendum C … I think it saved the state, and it's the most significant thing I've been involved in, in the 12 years I've been a legislator," Johnson said, "But it's a Band-Aid."
Last year, Colorado's legislators voted to raise overall tuition 7 percent, but colleges and universities needed more. Johnson said the decision was not easy to vote on because the lawmakers knew schools needed more than 7 percent of what they already received.
"It's a difficult vote for legislators because they know they've under-funded institutions of higher ed, and we all want health care and higher education," he said. CSU raised tuition $287 this year-10 percent more than the 7 percent agreement with the legislature after heated debate over a proposal from university President Larry Penley to allow an increase of about $1,200 per year for in-state students.
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