By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
A coalition opposed to a $10.8 million proposal to open one of three towers at Colorado State Prison II is calling on the powerful Joint Budget Committee today to reject the proposal supported by the Department of Corrections and Gov. Bill Ritter.
Criminal defense attorneys, mental health advocates and justice reform proponents say now is not the time to be approving additional funding for new prison beds — not when the state has already cut over $2 billion in the current fiscal year and is looking at another $1.5 billion in cuts in the upcoming year.
The JBC is expected to weigh the $10.8 million proposal today.
As part of Ritter’s latest $340 million budget-balancing proposal unveiled in February, the governor is calling for opening 33 percent, or 316 beds, of the new Colorado State Penitentiary II. Supporters of the proposal point to a string of violent incidents caused by some of the state’s most violent and destructive prisoners who are being housed in regular prisons.
The new tower would house some of the state’s most violent offenders, with inmates locked up about 23 hours a day.
Proponents of the proposal point out that DOC services and facilities have been cut by $14.8 million as part of recent budget-balancing measures, making the issue a matter of public safety.
At a news conference last week, Corrections officers pointed out that there have been three inmate murders over the last several months. They also pointed to a Corrections officer who had her throat slashed by an inmate at Limon Correctional Facility and another Corrections officer who was murdered at Limon — all within the last decade.
But critics say housing the state’s most violent offenders in one unit is a poor fiscal and social move. They say increasing vocational programs and so-called wrap-around services for parolees is a better use of money. The state recently backed out of $3 million in vocational programs and $1.8 million in wrap-around services when the economic downturn intensified and budget shortfalls increased.
“It is counterintuitive and counterproductive to cut successful, research-based programs that promote productivity and safety both within prison and after release,” said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.
Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the DOC, says those educational programs were not actually cut, because the programs had yet to start.
“No actual services that we currently have in place are being cut,” she said. “We’re not actually decreasing any of our programs or services in those areas.”
Meanwhile, the state’s recidivism rate has actually increased slightly since 2006 to 53.4 percent. Sanguinetti says that is a result of budget cuts in 2002 during the last recession that cut DOC services and staff. Parolees hitting the world in 2006 and 2007 had less access to educational and drug and alcohol treatment programs as a result, she said.
Critics of opening new beds at CSP II say if the DOC is truly concerned about public safety, then they’ll increase mental health services and stop housing inmates with mental health issues in restrictive environments.
“Colorado needs to stop depending on long-term solitary confinement as a correctional tool,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado. “It is too expensive, it does nothing to prepare prisoners for their eventual return to their communities, and it has been condemned by human rights advocates as cruel and unusual punishment, especially for prisoners with serious mental illness.”
The coalition states that 37 percent of inmates housed in so-called administrative segregation units are offenders with a mental health condition. The group believes such inmates should be housed in a general population environment with a higher ratio of inmates to mental health workers.
But Sanguinetti says the issue is a balancing act for DOC officials.
“The offenders that need to be in those high-security beds, they make the whole system unsafe, and in order for treatment to be effective, you have to feel safe in your environment,” she said. “Part of that treatment and those recidivism efforts being effective is getting the right offender in the right bed.”

Mark Hillman writes in The Denver Post: The anti-taxpayer majority on the Colorado Supreme Court soon will have another chance to stand the constitution on its head, thanks to a remarkably unambiguous ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals. In an opinion written by Judge Sean Connelly, a three-judge panel ruled that the Colorado Department of Revenue cannot increase the severance tax rate applied to coal mining without a public vote. Adopted in 1977, the severance tax is paid by companies that extract minerals, oil or gas from the ground and is calculated by multiplying the quantity extracted by a statutory rate that accounted for changes in the Producer Price Index. Originally, the tax rate for coal was set at 36 cents per ton and had increased to 54 cents by 1992. READ MORE HERE.

In a season of budget cuts, Jennifer Dennis is glad to have some good news, the Longmont Times-Call reports. The state won’t be cutting her 10-year-old son’s mental health program. Not yet, anyway, “I’d heard rumors the program wouldn’t be funded anymore,” said Dennis, a Lafayette woman whose child attends day treatment services at his school. “My husband and I said ‘What will we do? What can we do?’”

Prison employees joined Democratic lawmakers on Friday to share personal stories of how budget cuts have impacted their lives and to protest further proposed trims, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. State Reps. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, chided Republican proposals in the Legislature about balancing the budget by making across-the-board cuts to state departments. Instead, the Democrats said, it would be wise to look closer into each department’s budget and save money only in areas that wouldn’t compromise the safety of the public or state workers.

STATE BILL COLORADO
DENVER − What’s good for YouTube apparently isn’t good for Colorado’s House and Senate.
The state’s recently formed Colorado Channel Authority on Friday briefly considered − then just as quickly dismissed − a proposal to allow for embedding of video of floor proceedings into other websites.
The authority handles cable and Internet broadcasts of the two legislative chambers.
Video embeds allow videos to stream on other sites without web users visiting the host site. Such technology is commonplace on YouTube and other video-hosting sites. A request came into the state seeking changes to allow embeds, but the legislative staff recommended against it.
“We kind of said, no, we didn’t want to do that,” said Scott Nachtrieb, a member of the Legislative Council staff who is advising the authority on technical and policy aspects of the broadcasts. “The reason we didn’t want to do that. … We want people coming to the Colorado Channel home page to see all of the things we’re going to offer.”
Nachtrieb cited potential coverage of the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the legislative committees (though none of that coverage is imminent; authority members were told courts broadcasts wouldn’t begin until 2013, at the earliest.)
The authority broadcasts on Comcast Channel 165 and at www.coloradochannel.net.
Authority Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Benefield, a Democrat, said, “ I think it’s really important that (video viewers) come to that home page in order for all the links, if the embedded code gets corrupted or whatever … it could be a bad taste for the general public. We thought it was better to not give anyone that opportunity.”
No one else spoke on the issue at Friday’s meeting.
The person who requested embed technology wasn’t identified.
About $240,000 annually of taxpayer money goes to pay for the broadcasts, which began in the House in 2008 and the Senate this year.

ALSO ONLINE: Complete list of U.S. legislatures’ broadcast operations.

Democrats ripped state Sen. Shawn Mitchell on Thursday after he referred to a colleague as “Sen. OneYear,” implying Bruce Whitehead, D-Hesperus, is going to lose his upcoming election. They said Mitchell’s comment was uncalled for and amounted to electioneering, which shouldn’t happen on the Senate floor, The Denver Post reports.

The Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to almost $500 million in budget cuts that would balance the state’s budget, surmounting what was a $2.2 billion deficit, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. A final vote on the budget-balancing bills is expected as soon as Friday. While most of the items the Senate worked on Wednesday involved taking funds from departments, projects and programs, it gave $2.1 million to the state’s parks.

By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Colorado lawmakers this week are considering a package of bills that would cut 393 full time state employees as part of an effort to save the state nearly $48 million this fiscal year.
The Senate Appropriations Committee Monday passed 10 bills that would make across-the-board cuts for all state departments. The cuts include eliminating full time jobs for select state departments.
Some state departments would be hit harder than others. The Judicial Branch, for instance, would have 200 full time jobs cut, while several departments — like Law, and Labor and Employment — would have several full time jobs added. Overall, the personnel reduction would represent .7 percent of all state workers.
Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, said he went into Monday’s Appropriations Committee hearing assuming he would support all of the bills because they supposedly called for across-the-board cuts. However, he ended up opposing several of the bills because he said they rely on cash transfer “gimmicks” to fill the budget gaps.
“I’m not going to be a party to any gimmick,” he said.
Colorado Republicans have been calling for across-the-board cuts for the entire state government. A bill being proposed Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, would require Gov. Bill Ritter to reduce state payroll spending by .24 percent this year and 4.39 percent next fiscal year.
But Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, Monday said that Penry’s bill is nothing more than a political ploy. Even though Republicans knew about the dire budget shortfall since June, Senate Republicans didn’t use any of the 70 bills they were allowed to introduce to address the budget, Shaffer said. He added that it wasn’t until the week before Democrats introduced part of their budget balancing plan that Penry asked him if he could introduce a late bill that would detail the Republican budget balancing plan.
“You look at it and you understand how politically motivated that proposal was, it had nothing to do with the substance,” Shaffer said. “It gets headlines and it makes it into articles, but at the end of the day that proposal is a political proposal, not a good faith proposal for how to actually address some of the shortcomings we have.”
However, Penry has said that his plan would have made it unnecessary for the Legislature to pass nine bills earlier this month that will suspend or eliminate tax credits and exemptions for a variety of Colorado industries, from bull semen to soda. The GOP said the bills, which have been sent to Ritter for his signature, will hurt the Colorado business community.
“This one’s an economic no-brainer,” Penry said of his budget balancing plan earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, said that such a massive across-the-board cut would have a big impact on the private sector because the state contracts out many jobs to private groups.
“My point is that it isn’t so simple to say reduce government spending and lay off people, because it’s intertwined with the private sector,” she said.
The entire Colorado Senate is expected next week to hear the package of bills that the Appropriations Committee passed Monday. The House passed the set of bills last week.

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

By Debi Brazzale, COLORADO NEWS AGENCY
Gov. Bill Ritter submitted an additional $340 million in proposed cuts and anticipated savings to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee today in order to balance next year’s budget.
“This is a common-sense, fair, thoughtful and balanced plan to balance the budget,” said Ritter, speaking to members of the press gathered in his office this morning.
Most of the savings itemized in the proposal stem from anticipated federal money as well as reduced caseloads in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Plan Plus program while avoiding cuts to higher education or further cuts to K-12 education. Smaller adjustments include the transfer of prisoners to lower-cost facilities, eliminating some scholarships, a $900,000 cut in spending for a prison boot camp, and tapping into cash funds. An additional $15 million in revenue is anticipated to be generated by stepped up tax compliance programs in the Department of Revenue.
Ritter pledged to make every effort to protect public safety, protect the safety net for those in need, and to maintain programs that promote job creation and economic recovery.
“It will take all of us working together to make these difficult decisions and to keep positioning Colorado for a strong, stable, and sustainable economic recovery,” said Ritter.
Minority Republicans who have suggested across-the-board cuts to government bureaucracy as a more prudent path to balancing the budget took issue with the governor’s proposal.
“More than half of the proposed budget balancing was put on the federal government’s credit card, and a good portion of the rest of the measures are either gimmicks, cash transfers, or accounting misdirection all of which only result in pushing the really tough choices to next year,” said Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, of Grand Junction.
Assistant Minority Leader Greg Brophy of Wray responded to the governor’s proposal with questions.
“Is the governor really saying that the only place left to cut in state government is prison beds, prison boot camps and college scholarships? Is the bureaucracy off-limits to the party in power? What part of across-the-board cuts isn’t clear to the party in power?” asked Brophy in a prepared GOP response.
The governor’s proposal will be taken under consideration by the Joint Budget Committee as it begins to formulate a 2010-11 budget for the governor to sign.

In other coverage:

The Denver Post: A prison boot-camp program in Buena Vista would close and a scholarship fund would be tapped to help balance an estimated $203.3 million shortfall remaining in the state budget for the fiscal year that begins in July. The plan Gov. Bill Ritter announced Thursday to finish balancing the budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year also relies on $204.5 million in one-time federal money to help offset Medicaid costs, funding that Congress still must approve.

The Denver Daily News: Part of the state’s new maximum-security Colorado State Penitentiary will open this summer, but funding for a scholarship program that helps students attend college will be cut under Gov. Bill Ritter’s new budget balancing plan. Ritter yesterday submitted a $340 million proposal to the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee to re-balance the Fiscal Year 2010-11 budget. A majority of the savings — $204.5 million — relies on the federal government continuing to provide increased funding for the state’s Medicaid costs. A decrease in projections for the Medicaid caseload and inmate populations also provide a large amount of expected savings for the budget.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Gov. Bill Ritter presented his budget-balancing plan Thursday that addresses yet another $1 billion to cover an expected revenue shortfall. The governor said balancing next year’s budget was particularly hard because it comes on top of more than $2 billion the state has addressed over the past two budgets. As with previous cuts, Ritter said these won’t come without pain for just about everyone, particularly the Department of Corrections. During the last round of cuts, Ritter closed a women’s prison in Canon City. This time it’s an inmate boot camp program at Buena Vista Correctional Facility.

Associated Press: Vowing to protect the state’s safety net for struggling families, Gov. Bill Ritter recommended Thursday that the state liquidate a scholarship trust fund, close a prison boot camp and go after delinquent taxpayers to rebalance Colorado’s budget. The governor said the state has to cut another $340 million to balance next year’s $7 billion proposed budget. That’s on top of the $2.2 billion the state had to cut this year and a $1 billion cut already proposed for next year’s budget that begins July 1.

Education News Colorado: A revised 2010-11 budget plan announced Thursday by Gov. Bill Ritter includes no additional cuts to K-12 support or to higher education. Perhaps the most significant education news out of the governor’s announcement was that he’s open to some form of tuition flexibility for next year, if college presidents can come up with a proposal that won’t harm low- and middle-income students.

The state House on Wednesday gave initial approval to cutting $474.5 million in spending and transferring $104.8 million in one-time money to help balance the budget in the current fiscal year that ends in June, The Denver Post reports. Along the way, lawmakers fought over cuts to agriculture, water projects and other programs. Democrats on Wednesday touted their efforts at balancing the budget, saying they were being responsible and spreading the pain.

In other coverage:

Associated Press: Colorado lawmakers slashed jobs and state services Wednesday in an effort to cut another $475 million from this year’s budget, targeting education, prisons and Medicaid patients. The 31 bills approved by the House cut nearly every sector of state government as lawmakers worked to cut $1.5 billion over the next two years. The bills face a third reading before they head to the Senate.