In another reversal of fortune, Secretary of State Scott Gessler will get to keep the $2 million from his cash fund that the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee had voted to sweep earlier in the week.
Gessler, a Republican, defeated Democratic incumbent Bernie Buescher in November. Buescher had pledged to transfer $3.5 million in surplus money from his office’s cash fund to help balance the state budget.
But when Gessler took office, he reversed that policy and said he was going to spend the money in his department. He argued that the money was generated by business fees and should go for the benefit of businesses.
On Wednesday, though, the Joint Budget Committee voted to sweep $2 million from the fund after Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, modified the original motion, which was to sweep the whole surplus.
But Lambert changed that today. He objected to a motion to include the $2 million transfer in a larger bill on cash transfers. With his objection, the $2 million transfer had to come out of the bill or the legislation would not have gotten a 6-0 vote and would not have been carried as a Joint Budget Committee bill.
That meant Gessler’s cash fund once again remained untouched.
In a statement, Lambert said later that the original vote to transer the $2 million never sat well with him.
“We need to be making sustainable decisions rather than focusing on questionable practices of transferring licensing fees for budget balancing,” he said.
Gessler issued his own statement saying he was pleased with the latest development.
“Coloradans deserve a sustainable budget,” he said, “and if we want our private sector to create jobs, then decisions like this to respect the contributions of Colorado businesses are steps in the right direction.”