A plan to ask Colorado voters in November to approve $3.5 billion in bond sales for transportation needs took a detour late Wednesday.
DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL - State Senate Democrats, teaming with two Republicans and the chamber’s lone unaffiliated member, amended the much-debated Senate Bill 1 to push back a ballot question regarding the bonding to 2019.
The move was made to allow one of two potential business-led tax-hike initiatives to go to the ballot first this year and to find language that could get the bill through the Democrat-majority House, where leaders have spoken against it since the start of the legislative session.
An amendment placed onto the bill by Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, also decreases the annual amount set aside to repay bonds to $250 million and increases the Colorado Department of Transportation’s budget for the next fiscal year by $500 million. That mirrors a request made by Gov. John Hickenlooper Monday following a budget forecast predicting that the Legislature will have a $1.3 billion surplus to spend beginning on July 1.