And the winner is . . .

In this legislative session, it was clearly higher education

The Rocky

Published May 6, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Though they'd never admit it openly, we wouldn't be surprised if in private the leaders at some of Colorado's institutions of higher education were swapping high fives as the legislative session draws to a close this week. Higher ed officials tend to be a grumpy lot when discussing finances. Haven't you heard their pitch that Colorado's public colleges and universities need an extra $800 million just to catch up with their peers in other states?

But by any account, colleges and universities were big winners during the second session of the 66th General Assembly.

First, higher ed received an 8 percent increase in general fund spending over last year.

Next, colleges and universities got permission to hike tuition far above the inflation rate - up to 9.5 percent for research institutions, 7.5 percent for four-year colleges and 5.5 percent for community colleges.

They also stand to gain a solid new source of funding, too, thanks to Senate Bill 218, which will shift a portion of revenues from mining and energy production on federal lands into a permanent fund whose earnings will be theirs to tap.

And finally, higher ed institutions should land a major share of a $26.5 million grant program targeting the commercial development of biotechnology, biofuels and medical devices.

So state colleges and universities, which took more than their share of hits during the revenue slump earlier this decade, clearly did well this session. And lawmakers deserve credit for coming to higher ed's rescue.

As they did last session, too, come to think of it.

Don't expect college and university leaders to crack a smile in public, though. There's next year's legislative session to think about, after all.

Higher ed is of course hardly the only winner in this year's session. Perhaps even more significant is a measure addressing local school districts' crumbling facilities - for years the subject of litigation. House Bill 1335 will free up as much as $1 billion to repair or replace unsafe school buildings without raising taxes or adding long-term debt. Instead, the state will use "certificates of participation" to get the funding up front and repay the obligation with money from the Colorado Public School Permanent Fund.

One form of infrastructure that should have been addressed by the legislature and wasn't is the state's roads and highways. It's true, as House Speaker Andrew Romanoff reminded us Monday, that thanks to Referendum C the state has spent as much as $300 million more a year on transportation than it would have if spending caps mandated by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights had not been lifted.

That said, a task force created by Gov. Bill Ritter concluded that the state requires at least $500 million more a year just to keep up with backlogs in maintenance and repairs. Yet when the legislature was presented with a reasonable plan this month involving a hike in vehicle registration and rental car fees, it balked.

Meantime, proposals to toll Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower Tunnel - in one case during peak hours only - and use the funding to expand capacity along that crucial corridor also withered on the vine.

The failure of lawmakers to address those transportation priorities is a major disappointment.

Oddly, one of the issues that everyone thought would dominate the session - election reform - ended in total anticlimax when a much-ballyhooed proposal to conduct the 2008 elections mostly on paper ballots fell apart, leaving county clerks to manage this year's voting as they had initially planned.

So how would we rate the session? Well, we hesitate to give it a grade since it's not over yet, and there are bills still pending that are both good and bad public policy - including a very important measure that would allow school districts to create "zones of innovative performance" in which they could waive certain state and local regulations.

Fortunately, some of the very worst proposals were killed - or at least amended until they were far more acceptable. Those include measures that would have raised health-care costs by rewriting this state's limits on medical-malpractice judgments, made it impossible to mine for uranium, outlawed payday loans, and boosted the cost of auto insurance with a medical coverage mandate, just to cite a few.

There were a number of low points, naturally, including a refusal to pass a much-needed measure to restrain the Regional Transportation District from condemning property on which it then permits private development, to cite one disappointment.

No doubt the biggest shock of the session had nothing to do with spending money - or at least not tax money. After decades of deadlock, lawmakers decided that a vintage law barring Sunday retail sales of liquor was ripe for repeal. That may sound like small consolation if you're facing, say, the sticker shock of next year's CU tuition bill, but it still counts as one of those small gifts that helps smooth life's pitted byways.

• May 6, 2008

  6:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

  Tax monet - read our money. When the school "Leaders" are the ones with their hands out, not the parents doing the asking, one should be very suspicious.

• May 6, 2008

  7:01 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  anarchist writes:

  Mike_in_Hartsel, the likes of plagiarist Ward Churchill cost more than "ordinary" honest and non-agenda driven professors, so naturally the leaders would have thier hands out, after all, you don't expect them to hire honest and worthy professors to actually teach anything meaningful, do you?

• May 6, 2008

  7:39 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  thats_just_me writes:

  Sasquatch - I'll drink to that now that I can finally buy my liquor on Sunday.

• May 6, 2008

  8:38 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JYP3500 writes:

  Educrats need to "do more with less", just like their counterparts in corporate America. Let’s see them eliminate tenure, establish a performance ranking system for teachers and administrators, and get rid of poor performers.

  Until they take aggressive actions to cut expenses, waste and organizational bloat, and use the money they have more efficiently, I say hold back the tax dollars.

  Based on the windfall profits they get from raised tuitions, what do you think…will they offer a free ride for returning combat vets?

• May 6, 2008

  11:20 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jay writes:

  The winner is the state of colorado's reputation...because honestly...who wants to be last in higher education funding?

• May 6, 2008

  12:20 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  RickyLee writes:

  Count De Monet...

  "Your majesty, you look like the piss boy"!

• May 6, 2008

  1:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  JYP3500 writes:

  I know...let's outsource Colorado's higher education administrators & teachers. We could get more teachers, with the same or better quality, for a fraction of the cost.

• May 6, 2008

  9:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Sweetpickle writes:

  In colorado politics trumps education every time.
  Just like other low ranked states.

• May 7, 2008

  11:35 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Lowtaxequalsfreedom writes:

  "The winner is the state of colorado's reputation...because honestly...who wants to be last in higher education funding?"

  Jay do you lap up every piece of propaganda you are fed?

  That statistic was produced by the education lobby and it was year to year increase from 03-04. We were last.

  When you compare dollar to dollar we are in the middle.

  Mike Rosen did a great job debunking this myth. Ben Degrow has also tackled the issue

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