Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, talked privately on the side of the House chambers late Thursday with Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, after Pabon introduced a budget amendment that infuriated Republicans.A budget debate in the Colorado House blew up late Thursday after a final amendment by a Democrat that Republicans argued was akin to a touchdown victory dance and spiking the ball in their faces.
Republican Rep. Cheri Gerou of Evergreen raced across the House chamber to yell at her two Joint Budget Committee colleagues, Democrats Claire Levy of Boulder and Crisanta Duran of Denver, telling them the move cost them GOP votes on the budget. Duran responded that Gerou was an example of Republican childishness.
After the House adjourned at 10:13 p.m., Gerou also ripped a fellow Republican, Rep. Lori Saine of Dacono, saying her comments during the budget debate didn’t help the situation.
Asked about Gerou’s criticism, Saine said it sounded like the two needed to “have a chat.” But Saine, a freshman lawmaker known for talking on bill after bill, said she doesn’t think she did anything inappropriate.
During the Colorado budget, Saine offered an amendment to cut the budget by 5 percent across the board. Levy and others pointed out that across-the-board cuts cause catastrophic problems, and that a 5 percent reduction would strip education of $155 million, wipe out the additional money put into Human Services for child welfare and mental health programs and reduce money both sides agreed was needed for the Department of Corrections. When that failed on a voice voice, Saine offered amendments to cut the budget across the board by 1 percent and .1 percent. Those also failed on voice votes.
“We’re not being strategic or surgical. We’re taking a meat axe to the budget,” Levy said. “It’s not smart.”
At end the end of the debate, when lawmakers sometimes try to revive their amendments, Saine again offered across-the-board cuts, but only on her 1 percent and .1 percent proposals. She called one of the proposals her “Magpul” amendment, a reference to an Erie-based manufacturer of ammunition magazines that says it is leaving Colorado because of a gun bill Democrats passed.
House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, chided Saine at least three times, telling her to address her amendment.
But Saine didn’t offer the 5 percent cut, which would have required fellow Republicans to cast recorded votes that Democrats could later use to say the GOP supported slashing education and other programs. SO. Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, offered that amendment. He later withdrew it, but by then Republicans were livid.
House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, and Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, used football metaphors to rip the Democrats. McNulty, who was the House speaker until Democrats won back the majority in November, complained Democrats were doing a touchdown dance at the expense of the minority. Waller talked about spiking the football.
“I don’t think it was spiking a football,” Ferrandino said afterward. “I think it was making a point to Rep. Saine that amendments have consequences and if you believe this you should be able to stand up for it.”
Gerou said that the speaker and the minority leader had worked “very, very hard” on a compromise hard to get eight to 10 Republicans from the 28-member House GOP caucus to support the budget when it comes up for an official vote Friday. Not a single Republican voted for the budget when it passed the Senate. She now worries about Republican support.
“I’m not saying Rep. Saine didn’t go over the line, she did,” Gerou said. “But when you’re in leadership you have to be bigger than the situation and they weren’t.”