With a stroke of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s pen, Colorado’s $26.8 billion budget that boosts school funding, averts cuts to hospitals and secures funding for a new state-led program to combat homelessness, was signed into law Friday.
As The Denver Post reports, the final version of the bill includes a $185 per-pupil increase in education funding and $15 million new spending on an affordable housing program aimed at helping the homeless,
The budget also includes $9.5 million to connect rural areas to high-speed internet and a salary increase of up to 2.5 percent for most state employees.
Combined with a separate bill that restores a state hospital fee, the 2017-18 budget also avoids what Hickenlooper said would have been “draconian cuts” to hospitals and schools.
The only unanswered question is what if anything Hickenlooper will do to salvage the $3.1 million Colorado Energy Office, which among other things is tasked with promoting a variety of energy sources like wind and solar, and without lawmakers’ authorization, sunsets on July 1.
