Overhaul of Colorado spending rules signed into law - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Senate Bill 228 ends the Arveschoug-Bird provision allowinf general-fund spending to increase just 6 percent per year and replacess it with a spending increase limit equal to 5 percent of personalincome growth. Sponsored by Sen. John D-Colorado Springs, it also sets aside part of the generak fund for transportation for the first time and increase sthe state's rainy-day beginning in the 2012-13 fiscal year.
What that all meansz is that the general which pays for general state services like higher educationand corrections, will no longer have to shrinkm permanently when the economy Because of the current growth limit, programs that see funds cut during downturnsx are not allowed to recovefr fully when the fiscal environmenrt turns good again. . . The new law will not increas e overall spending but will assurwe that money can be directed where state leaderse see thegreatest need, Ritter emphasized. Laws put into place over the past 12 yearsa direct any revenue over the 6 percent limitg mostly toward transportation projects andcapital construction, whicy have no other guaranteed state funds.
But even as the Democratic governotr hailed the signingas "a great day for progress in the effortas of so many who have worked to bringing sensible, moderm budgeting to the state of Colorado," severaol legislators said there is more to be done. Sponsoring Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, said state officialx must now look at the conflicts betweenAmendmenty 23, the Gallagher Amendmeny and "that sacred cow," the Taxpayer'sx Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Marostica was the only membe of his party to supportthe bill, with other Republicanzs calling it an end to fiscal limitzs and a taking of the only stream of moneyu that had been dedicated to roads for years.
Morse addecd that an interim committe e this year will look at not just how much revenued the state brings in but where it gets that Questions must be asked if therse are ways to get funding from more stablw sources like property taxes and fees rather than the volatilrsales tax, he said. "Ihn the late 1400s, very few people believerd the Earth was By the early we knew what wasgoinvg on," Morse said of the need to convincd Coloradans that such change is necessary. "The same thing's going to happen with this bill ... This is a fightf for the soul of Coloradokand it's just beginning.
" Colorado Fiscal Policyy Institute analyst Carol Hedges, who helpeed to craft the bill, said that because future revenue remain uncertain, no estimates have been made as to how much moneg higher education and other areas will gain from the However, next year's general-fund revenue is expected to fall by roughlgy $700 million from this and SB 228 will help budgety crafters be able to prioritized where that is taken from and how that moneyh is replaced in the future, Morse