On the final day of the 2017 legislative session, the Colorado House of Representatives gave final approval to perhaps the most significant — and controversial — bill of the session: the reclassification of the hospital provider fee.

The wide-ranging bill touches virtually every aspect of state spending, boosting funding to hospitals, schools and roads; mortgaging state buildings; raising pot taxes; cutting business taxes; and increasing medical co-pays on the poor.

The measure avoids a $528 million cut in payments to hospitals while generating $2 billion by mortgaging state buildings. It fulfills a long-standing Democratic priority to pull the program — under which the state collects fees from hospitals and matches the money with federal dollars that are redistributed to cover the costs of uncompensated care — out from under the state’s constitutional spending limits. It also lowers the spending cap under by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights by $200 million.

The House approved the measure with wide bipartisan support, 49-16, sending the measure to the governor over the objections of a split Republican caucus, torn between ideological objections and a desire to boost funding to their districts.

Read the full story at http://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/10/colorado-spending-overhaul/.