{"id":2453405,"date":"2020-01-18T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=319354"},"modified":"2020-01-18T10:26:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:26:00","slug":"colorado-budget-writers-seek-millions-in-undisclosed-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/colorado-budget-writers-seek-millions-in-undisclosed-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado budget writers seek millions in undisclosed funds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colorado state capitol.<\/strong>
Denver Post file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DENVER (AP) \u2014 After former Gov. John Hickenlooper came under fire for how he spent money from a little-known account in his office, KCNC-TV has learned<\/a> there are similar accounts throughout state government that hold millions of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

The money in the accounts comes from sources like federal dollars and legal settlements, and departments don\u2019t have to disclose it to the legislature.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Dominick Moreno plans to change that will a bill he says the powerful Joint Budget Committee is drafting this year.<\/p>\n

As vice chair of the committee, he has in-depth knowledge of state finances. But he says even he didn\u2019t know about all the money state departments take in that isn\u2019t reported, and that the legislature has no control over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government provides money to individual agencies and then expects them to use the funding as they\u2019ve outlined in federal statute,\u201d said Moreno.<\/p>\n

But as the account in the governor\u2019s office revealed, oversight is sometimes lacking.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun, which contributed<\/a> to this report, notes that that account is paying ongoing legal bills related to an ethics complaint against Hickenlooper, who is running for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

In its final months, Hickenlooper\u2019s administration used federal funds from a 2003 account to cover a prominent Democratic attorney\u2019s $525-an-hour fee and spent $13,385 for a legacy website designed to tell the story of how the governor and his team \u201cpaved the way for Colorado\u2019s journey and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans on the Joint Audit Committee asked for an audit of the fund after the questionable expenditures surfaced. Democrats shot down the request.<\/p>\n

Moreno says he wants full transparency and is offering a bill to require it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regularly get requests from departments that say, \u2018We have a deficiency in this area, we need more resources.\u201d But if we don\u2019t have a complete picture of all the resources that those departments draw upon, then we can\u2019t make an informed decision,\u201d said Moreno.<\/p>\n

Moreno says the governor\u2019s office also distributes state dollars from an emergency response fund for things like the 2013 floods \u2014 but there is loose accounting there, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple of line items that read, \u2018Road: $2 million. Road: $500,000.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, which road? Which sections were approved?\u2019 That\u2019s the type of specificity that we expect and will hold departments accountable to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreno expects his bill will encounter some pushback. He says it will involve a lot of data collection and reporting by state departments.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado state capitol.Denver Post file photo DENVER (AP) \u2014 After former Gov. John Hickenlooper came under fire for how he spent money from a little-known account in his office, KCNC-TV has learned there are similar accounts throughout state government that hold millions of taxpayer dollars. The money in the accounts comes from sources like federal dollars and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 20:21:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}