Colorado state House legislators on Wednesday debated and advanced a $44 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year.

They also approved 63 “orbital” bills designed to change state law in order to balance the state budget.

As introduced, the fiscal year 2025-26 budget stands at $43.9 billion, including $17 billion in general funds and $14 billion in federal dollars. General funds are the discretionary dollars, derived from individual and corporate income taxes, as well as sales and use taxes. Cash funds make up the rest, about $12.8 billion.

Lawmakers’ biggest hurdle is closing a $1.2 billion general fund shortfall, driven by higher-than-expected Medicaid costs and a structural deficit.

The first act of the House was to route the budget bill, Senate Bill 206, and the orbitals through the House Appropriations Committee.

The committee stripped out all the changes to SB 206 added by the Senate, including funding for obstetrics services in southeastern Colorado and higher provider rates for occupational, physical, and speech therapists, both in the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

As the second reading debate on Wednesday began, Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Douglas County, said she is “grateful for almost a budget deficit so we can start going through and DOGE-ing what we don’t need in our government.”

Bradley had at the ready 10 amendments during Wednesday’s debate on the main budget bill. Only one would have resulted in the state spending less money — an amendment to gut funding for the office of gun violence prevention, which would save $3 million.

Other Republicans offered numerous amendments to reduce state spending in a variety of programs, ranging from a low of $38,000 to as much as $36 million.

Just over a dozen amendments were adopted throughout the day, adding less than $5 million in general funds to the budget.

The first amendments dealt with decisions made in the state Senate last week.

Colorado Springs lawmakers offered an amendment to restore $436,616 in funding to the National Cybersecurity Center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. It would be funded by withdrawing the same amount of general fund dollars earmarked for a recreation program at the Department of Corrections. The amendment, which was adopted, was sponsored by House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese and Rep. Amy Paschal, a Democrat. The Senate had adopted the same amendment.

The Senate amendment to increase provider rates for occupational, physical and speech therapies, which also drew bipartisan support, was also restored. That’s $1.95 million in general funds, $450,000 in cash funds and $4.1 million in federal dollars. The amendment, which came from Reps. Rebekah Stewart, D-Lakewood and Anthony Hartsook, R-Parker, did not have a corresponding source for the general funds.

An amendment from House Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winter, R-Trinidad, would have restored the $1.2 million in general fund dollars for obstetric services at the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta.

While the amendment passed in the Senate, it failed in the House, putting those services in jeopardy.

The Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center plans to close its obstetric services this month, leaving a facility in Lamar, about 35 miles away, and another, two hours away in Pueblo, as the only maternity services in southeastern Colorado.

Winter later tried to resuscitate the amendment on a procedure that required a vote, and while it picked up Democratic votes, it still failed, 29-33.

Rep. Matthew Martinez, D-Monte Vista, attempted an amendment to tap the wolf reintroduction program for $50,000 to pay for a state farmers’ market project in the Department of Agriculture. Winter called the amendment “the best of both worlds,” and Republicans lined up to support it.

No farmers’ market program exists in state law, and the amendment would have created the program through the budget bill, which isn’t allowed.

Republicans targeted some of their priority issues in the long bill, such as funding tied to immigration, reproductive health, unions and firearms.

Rep. Carlos Barron, R-Fort Lupton, was among several who offered unsuccessful amendments to reduce the budget by $34.7 million in general funds, most of it for health care for immigrant children, and divert those funds to other purposes, such as K-12 education.

Another unsuccessful amendment, from Winter, sought $1,363,010 from the budget of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The very precise amount had a very precise purpose: a transfer from CPW’s Parks and Outdoor Recreation Cash Fund to the Firearm Safety and Training Course Cash Fund contained in Senate Bill 3.

Republicans also targeted funds to pay for pet projects in their districts: money for Fort Lupton High School from Barron; $360,000 to pay for compliance costs for the Americans with Disabilities Act in Brush from Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-Fort Morgan; $20,000 for robotics grants for Western Slope schools from Rep. Larry Suckla, R-Cortez; several grants for programs for Colorado Springs D-11 from Rep. Rebecca Keltie; and four different small-scale transportation projects for the Colorado Springs district of Rep. Mary Bradfield.

The entire veterans caucus stood up for a successful amendment from Rep. Bob Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch, to take $500,000 from the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media and the state’s welcome centers and divert it to a veteran’s court in the Judicial Department.

Marshall, in defending his proposal, told the House he could “wax poetic on film subsidies,” pointing to $500,00 given to Amazon to do a documentary on CU football Coach Deion Sanders.

“This is the most bipartisan amendment” of the day, said Rep. Sean Camacho, D-Denver.

Thirty-six counties have one or more veterans courts that deal with alcohol, drug abuse or other issues affecting veterans.

An annual effort to increase funding for the Tony Grampsas Youth Services Program in the Department of Human Services succeeded, with $1 million diverted from the auto theft prevention authority in the Department of Public Safety. Grampsas, known as the “grand marshall” of the General Assembly and a former chair of the Joint Budget Committee, was a Republican lawmaker from Golden who died in 1999 while serving in the state Senate.

An unsuccessful amendment from Rep. Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, tried to add a footnote that stated general fund dollars would not be used to “invalidate” the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a reference to House Joint Resolution 1023, which would require the General Assembly to sue the state over the constitutionality of TABOR.

DeGraaf brought the amendment back later through a procedural amendment that required a vote, and it failed, 40-22, a potential indication of how the vote on HJR 1023 might fare. The resolution is awaiting debate in the House.

The final amendment, after more than 12 hours of debate on the budget bill and the 63 orbitals, would require the licensure of professional circus clowns in Colorado who earn more than $43,977 annually (the current salary for most lawmakers).

That’s actually a joke — part of a recurring tradition to run a made-up, humorous amendment when debating the House budget.

The purported “need” this time around? No oversight mechanism for debates, committee hearings and speeches.

“Clowns, in particular, often work closely with lobbyists, special interests (including the Governor), the Unicycle Association, the Mile High Classroom Mime Association, Trapeze Artists, and are known to do contortion to save a bill,” the gag went.

The amendment, sponsored by Reps. Michael Carter, D-Aurora, Matt Soper, R-Delta, William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield — and “Skelton,” “Bozo,” “McDonald,” “Crusty the Clown,” “Pennywise,” “Joker,” “Chaplin” and Marcel” — passed.

But it won’t show up in SB 206 — the amendment dictated that it would be on “Page 10,000, line 800.”

On the more serious note, no one asked that SB 206, with its 728 pages, be read at length, under a deal made between the two caucuses that means a few less weekends working between now and the end of the session.

Finally, another tradition of the day, House Republicans honored the memory of the late House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, by wearing bowties. It’s a tradition McKean started in the 2022 session for the day the House debates the annual budget.