Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said he hopes to persuade his
colleagues next year to pay back the nearly $3 million they borrowed
from the Colorado State Veterans Trust Fund during the state’s recent
recession.
The Colorado State Veterans Trust Fund was established in 1998 to use a
portion of the state’s tobacco settlement to fund grants for
veteran-assistance programs or projects.
King said he wants the trust fund repaid with money from the state’s
general fund despite the headaches that could cause lawmakers who have
to keep the budget under the previous year’s total plus 6 percent, as
required by law.
“I want to pay it back under the 6 percent because that’s where the
money went,” King said. “I think that we’ll return it the same way we
took it, in one lump sum and get it done.”
Following Colorado’s 2001 recession, lawmakers dipped into cash stored
in state reserve funds, including the Colorado State Veterans Trust
Fund, to keep the budget afloat.
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“If we don’t … look at doing this now and stepping up in the right way
now, what are we going to do when we hit that inevitable downturn in our
economy?” King said.
Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, said the idea of refunding the Colorado State
Veterans Trust Fund is not new.
The Joint Budget Committee member said that at a Republican Party caucus
meeting last year, a Colorado Springs lawmaker suggested a series of
budget cuts to divert funds into the reserve account. That effort
failed, White said.
“It’s tough,” White said. “It’s been tried.”
He said given the state’s fiscal outlook, it will be an uphill slog for
King or any other lawmaker to consider using general fund dollars to
refill reserve accounts.
“It seems there’s never anything left,” he said. “It’s not going to be
an easy deal.”
King said he also plans to introduce legislation to make the senior
homestead property tax exemption transferable for longtime, elderly
Colorado residents who want to move near family or into a smaller home.
The senior homestead property tax exemption allows Coloradans over 65
who have owned and lived in the same home for at least a decade to
exempt up to $100,000 of their home’s value from property taxes.
King said the bill will be a boost to seniors facing rapidly rising home
prices who may want to move, but are fearful about incurring steep
property tax burdens.
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