Speaker 1: Big article today in Colorado Politics dot Com.
Speaker 2: The headline let me just read it to you.
Speaker 1: Colorado budget faces one billion dollars shortfall. Atalys say it's
Speaker 1: due to federal tax overhaul. Joining me now with perhaps
Speaker 1: a different perspective, is Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer. She's been a
Speaker 1: part of the Joint Budget Committee for the past few
Speaker 1: years and has been sounding the alarm about the spending
Speaker 1: that has been codified over the last few years by
Speaker 1: Democrats who have taken one time dollars from arpun created
Speaker 1: ongoing programs with them, and now I feel like the
Speaker 1: chickens have come home to Ruth. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: Senator Kirkmeyer, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna start off with something that happened at
Speaker 1: the end of Ross Kiminski show, because I came in,
Speaker 1: as I do at the end of every Ross Kiminski show,
Speaker 1: and he was talking to the governor and Ross asked
Speaker 1: a question, did you just grab the Governor's answer?
Speaker 2: Zach, is that what you grabbed?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 1: Wait, hang on, I just want to say up the
Speaker 1: question if you just grabbed the answer?
Speaker 2: So Ross asked him.
Speaker 1: He said, look, you know, your party is not really
Speaker 1: known for cutting spending, So how do you plan to
Speaker 1: wrangle your party into line to cut the kind of
Speaker 1: spending that we need to cut Because we're in the
Speaker 1: whole of billion dollars and this is what the governor
Speaker 1: had to say.
Speaker 3: You're going to see really funny politics for us. You're
Speaker 3: going to see Republicans advocating for more spending and less
Speaker 3: cuts and bigger government. I mean, you're you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: you're absolutely right. Democrats of the responsibility governing, they're gonna
Speaker 3: have to agree to this one hundred percent. You will
Speaker 3: also hear Republicans making the argument, don't cut this, don't
Speaker 3: cut this, and then they don't have to add up
Speaker 3: the numbers because they are not governing all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: they don't want to cut anything, and the budget is
Speaker 3: out of balance and they're big spenders. So you will
Speaker 3: hear wacky politics out of this. There's no question you
Speaker 3: can follow it, you know, if there's a special session
Speaker 3: and beyond. But at the end of the day, I
Speaker 3: hope it's bipartists in governing majority. But perhaps the Republicans
Speaker 3: feel that you can score political points by opposing these
Speaker 3: cuts because you know, they value healthier, they value schools.
Speaker 3: So I don't know what to predicts. Ship absolutely enters
Speaker 3: a picture in terms of how legislators pay. At the
Speaker 3: end of the day, we just need to get it
Speaker 3: done with the majority, whether it's all Democrats, whether it's
Speaker 3: fly pars and whatever it is. A majority will need
Speaker 3: to figure out how to say balance the budget, because
Speaker 3: that is of course a customers requirement, a good one.
Speaker 3: I would add one night support we should have balance
Speaker 3: the budget now.
Speaker 1: Senator Kirkmeyer, I know you're probably shocked to find out
Speaker 1: that the Republicans in Colorado are the party of big
Speaker 1: spending and big government. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2: I think that is funny. He's funny. He's a funny guy.
Speaker 2: As sevest one liner.
Speaker 4: I've heard all day today, and it came from the
Speaker 4: governor that we're not going to want to cut.
Speaker 2: Seriously, it has not been the issue.
Speaker 4: With the minority party. I mean, he's one party in
Speaker 4: the one party control party. They have control of every
Speaker 4: you know, the House, the Senate, and the Governor's office.
Speaker 2: Why haven't they fixed the budget?
Speaker 4: I mean in this last year when I kept saying
Speaker 4: everybody needs to cut ten percent.
Speaker 2: Every department should cut ten percent. We didn't get there.
Speaker 4: And a year when inflation was two point four percent,
Speaker 4: we increased our general fund operating budget.
Speaker 2: By three point six percent. So an a year.
Speaker 4: After I lectured them on the state floor day after
Speaker 4: day after day, I mean they got tired of hearing me,
Speaker 4: we still increased our general fund operating budget, which is
Speaker 4: what needs to be cut over inflation. So and that
Speaker 4: would be on the Dems. That would be on them.
Speaker 4: So we'll see. But if the governor's coming in thinking
Speaker 4: he's going to cut K through twelve education.
Speaker 2: He needs to think again. This guy needs to.
Speaker 4: Actually define what the priorities are and what they should be.
Speaker 4: And in my book, that's K through twelve education, that's
Speaker 4: Medicaid provider rates, it's neglected and abuse kids, and you know,
Speaker 4: I mean the list kind of goes on from there.
Speaker 4: But those are the top three that we should be funding.
Speaker 4: Those are the top three things that this governor and
Speaker 4: his budget request last year thought it was a good
Speaker 4: idea to try and cut and keep a hold of
Speaker 4: all these other projects that we just don't even need.
Speaker 2: I bet he can't even list all the projects, but anyways,
Speaker 2: and new programs that he started. But I would like
Speaker 2: to he is going to have to cut.
Speaker 1: Well, I'd like to ask what you just listed off
Speaker 1: three priorities. What do you think the governor's priorities are
Speaker 1: that he's demonstrated in his budget requests that are different
Speaker 1: than education, Medicaid providers, and connected neglected and abuse kids.
Speaker 4: Sure, I'll tell you what his priorities were in the
Speaker 4: budget request back in November first of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: He wanted to fund that big, ugly bridge. You want to.
Speaker 4: Fund a new take a book down at the state
Speaker 4: Fair because you know it's O one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
Speaker 4: He wanted to cut rural health care, so that wasn't
Speaker 4: a priority. He wanted to cut funding for neglected and
Speaker 4: abuse kids, so obviously that's.
Speaker 2: Not a priority.
Speaker 4: He came in cutting Medicaid provider rates, not a priority
Speaker 4: for him. And he wanted to cut K through twelve
Speaker 4: education by one hundred and.
Speaker 2: Fifty million bucks. Again not a priority.
Speaker 4: So I'm thinking all that other stuff that we don't
Speaker 4: really need are his priorities and what I think are
Speaker 4: core critical components of government. A person who does know
Speaker 4: how to govern talking here is what we should be funding.
Speaker 4: So if he's going to call me a big spender
Speaker 4: because I fund those things that are utmost important.
Speaker 2: To the people in the state of color you know,
Speaker 2: like public safety, education, healthcare, then go ahead, call me
Speaker 2: a big spender.
Speaker 4: He's right, we're not going to cut those, but we
Speaker 4: can cut all those other things like that Office of
Speaker 4: just Transition that needs.
Speaker 2: To go the all the new employees.
Speaker 4: You know, over the course of the last six seven years,
Speaker 4: we have increased employees state employees in the state by
Speaker 4: about one thousand employees year over year. Now, granted some
Speaker 4: of those are within the Department of Higher Education, but
Speaker 4: he's still signed off on it.
Speaker 2: When he signed that budget. We are, I mean, we're.
Speaker 4: Close to seventy thousand new employees, our seventy thousand employees
Speaker 4: in the state of Colorado.
Speaker 2: With at least seven thousand of them being new employees.
Speaker 2: So he's the.
Speaker 4: One who's not going to want to cut Why didn't
Speaker 4: he do a hiring friese you know it? And he
Speaker 4: doesn't have to wait for the legislature. By the way,
Speaker 4: while we have to budget to current law, he doesn't have.
Speaker 2: To spend a current law, he could cut spending.
Speaker 4: Now, he can do what Bill Owens did and tell
Speaker 4: all of his department heads, you're going to have to
Speaker 4: cut ten percent this year, so start cutting now and
Speaker 4: let me know where it's at kind of thing.
Speaker 2: But he hasn't done that.
Speaker 4: In fact, yesterday in front of the legislative committee that
Speaker 4: I wasn't actually invited to be at, but I went
Speaker 4: in too. Anyways, Farandino, the governor's budget guy, Director Farandino,
Speaker 4: said he's telling people they need to cut two point
Speaker 4: five percent. How the heck does he think that's going
Speaker 4: to get get us to a balanced budget. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's not even close, just not even close. So we'll
Speaker 4: see what they come up with. I'd like to see
Speaker 4: what their plan is. And let's see what he's going
Speaker 4: to say his priorities are, because if they aren't education,
Speaker 4: medicaid provider rates, and neglected and abuse kids, then he's
Speaker 4: in the wrong place.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about medicaid for a moment. Because we
Speaker 1: have expanded medicaid. We are now we have a program
Speaker 1: to cover illegal immigrants. We are allowing people up tw
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty eight percent of the poverty level
Speaker 1: to sign up for Medicaid. We have able bodied, childless
Speaker 1: people that are on Medicaid. None of these people were
Speaker 1: actually intended to be covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is our
Speaker 1: biggest expenditure in the state. I understand what do we
Speaker 1: do with that? Is there a real potential to scale
Speaker 1: back some of that expansion?
Speaker 2: Well, first of.
Speaker 4: All, the program that one of the programs you were
Speaker 4: talking about for undocumented immigrants, the covering all Colorado's and
Speaker 4: then there's the omni soluted program, which are both health
Speaker 4: insurance programs. I'm not sure why we need them both
Speaker 4: in the first place, but they both are. Those are
Speaker 4: fun for undocumented immigrants, and those are not actual Medicaid programs.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing.
Speaker 4: I keep asking everybody what criteria, eligibility criteria did the
Speaker 4: Feds change because I didn't see it in there. All
Speaker 4: they've done is said that those people who are able
Speaker 4: bodied and I mean keep in mind able bodied individuals
Speaker 4: without dependents get to be on Medicaid and we're paying
Speaker 4: for that. And all they said was you've got to
Speaker 4: work at least part time, or go to school or volunteer.
Speaker 2: You've got to do something.
Speaker 4: And the reality is from what I hear about sixty
Speaker 4: percent of those individuals already do have a job. So again,
Speaker 4: you know, we went through this, Our state went through this,
Speaker 4: so did the rest of the states went through this
Speaker 4: went back in like nineteen ninety six when Bill Clinton
Speaker 4: was president and we did welfare reform and added on
Speaker 4: work participation rates, required individual responsibility contracts of people who
Speaker 4: are on welfare, and said you've got to go get
Speaker 4: to work, or you've got to go to school, and
Speaker 4: you could only be on temporary aid to needy families
Speaker 4: for two years at a time, five years as a lifetime.
Speaker 4: We figured that out, and we didn't need three thousand
Speaker 4: new employees. Like the Executive Director of Healthcare Policy and
Speaker 4: Finances trying to say, so, you know, maybe they should
Speaker 4: go take a look back in history and instead of
Speaker 4: repeating their history, go back and repeat somebody's history that
Speaker 4: actually worked. Because right now, Healthcare Policy and Finance should
Speaker 4: be looking at that Combined Benefits Management Program, which is
Speaker 4: the computer system that hasn't worked since inception, So they
Speaker 4: should be going back and looking at that to try
Speaker 4: and make that work.
Speaker 2: And they should look at.
Speaker 4: The application process because right now what I'm hearing is like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, I'm probably going to exaggerate here, but
Speaker 4: it's like forty pages or it's so got off along
Speaker 4: that people can't get through it.
Speaker 2: So how about the.
Speaker 4: Executive director, instead of going out and scaring people all
Speaker 4: over the place, just go fix that application process, go
Speaker 4: fix the redetermination.
Speaker 2: So it's a heck of a lot quicker and smoother.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've got computers, we've got the Internet. We
Speaker 2: got to be able to figure this out.
Speaker 1: So where would you suggest they start. You've got to
Speaker 1: cut a billion dollars. You've got a billion dollar shortfall.
Speaker 1: What's on the Barb Kirkmeyer shopping block to get us
Speaker 1: to a billion dollars quickly?
Speaker 4: Well, this is where it's going to be painful, because
Speaker 4: the places that we need to look at are going
Speaker 4: to be tax credits and then new programs or programs
Speaker 4: that just aren't working. And this is where the Democrats
Speaker 4: have a really difficult time of I mean.
Speaker 2: They wring their hands. I mean, seriously, Mandy.
Speaker 4: Last year in the Joint and Budget Committee, it took
Speaker 4: four hours to cut one hundred thousand dollars out of
Speaker 4: the Department of Agriculture's budget. Four out and we were
Speaker 4: one point two billion dollars short last year in our
Speaker 4: know that we had to cut in our budget, but
Speaker 4: it took four hours for them. And I finally if
Speaker 4: I said, oh, oh my god, we're never going to
Speaker 4: get done afe you people don't learn how to make
Speaker 4: a decision.
Speaker 2: But that was the Department of Agriculture. I'm like, you
Speaker 2: know what.
Speaker 4: And we waited till the very end before we took
Speaker 4: the long bill across the street to the other ninety
Speaker 4: four legislators to vote on the school finance, to vote
Speaker 4: on higher education, and to vote.
Speaker 2: On the medicaid provider rates. I think we should do
Speaker 2: those three things. First.
Speaker 4: We should set our budget and then determine our budget
Speaker 4: around them and start cutting programs that you know, that
Speaker 4: just aren't necessary anymore, or that maybe we.
Speaker 2: Just can't afford.
Speaker 4: And so we're gonna have to look at programs, and
Speaker 4: we're going to look at some of.
Speaker 2: Those tax credits.
Speaker 4: Because here's what I heard yesterday in the hearing that
Speaker 4: the Democrat legislative leadership had and the two minority leaders
Speaker 4: were there as well, so the two Republicans basically I
Speaker 4: heard this, what are we going to do about those
Speaker 4: crazy Republicans back in d C. They have the audacity
Speaker 4: to tell people, we're going to cut your taxes and
Speaker 4: give you a tax break, and because of that, our
Speaker 4: revenues are going to be less so and this was
Speaker 4: ker McCluskey who said this, basically, so, because of those
Speaker 4: corporations are getting the tax break, we're going to have
Speaker 4: to figure out how to raise taxes to get.
Speaker 2: Our revenues back up.
Speaker 4: So those crazy Republicans in DC are saying we're going
Speaker 4: to cut taxes and give everybody a tax break, and
Speaker 4: those crazy Democrats.
Speaker 2: In Colorado are saying, oh, not.
Speaker 4: So fast, We're just going to increase your taxes. That
Speaker 4: is not something that Republicans will vote for. The governor's
Speaker 4: correct on that.
Speaker 1: So let me ask this question specifically about that about
Speaker 1: raising taxes, because you are part of a lawsuit that
Speaker 1: has just been filed about the move that was done.
Speaker 2: In another bill that essentially.
Speaker 1: Says, even if you get a break on overtime, we're
Speaker 1: still going to count that as taxable income because we
Speaker 1: don't want to lose those tax dollars. You're arguing that
Speaker 1: that's a tax increase in a violation of Tabor correct.
Speaker 2: Correct And it is a tax increase.
Speaker 4: Anytime you have a change in tax policy that increases
Speaker 4: revenue to the state, you're supposed to go to a
Speaker 4: vote of the people.
Speaker 2: Anytime that you have a tax change that.
Speaker 4: Increases revenue, you're supposed to go to a vote of
Speaker 4: the people. And it specifically says in that statute, and
Speaker 4: it was House Build twenty five, twelve ninety six, it
Speaker 4: says that you're right that if the federal government exempts
Speaker 4: taxes on overtime, we are going to add them back on.
Speaker 2: We are going to add on a tax.
Speaker 4: I think it's pretty clear that they should have gone
Speaker 4: to back gone to a vote of the people to
Speaker 4: see if they wanted to tax their overtime. Sorry, I
Speaker 4: just have to laugh about it because it's crazy to
Speaker 4: me that they think that's okay. You know, like they
Speaker 4: can't figure out how to manage a budget, They can't
Speaker 4: figure out how to govern, they don't know what their
Speaker 4: priorities are. This is one party control. They could do
Speaker 4: anything they wanted to do because it is one party.
Speaker 2: They've got the majority. I'm in the minority.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they've gotten us in this budget mess all by themselves.
Speaker 4: The first thing they did is they blamed COVID. Remember,
Speaker 4: I mean, we got all this money. It was supposed
Speaker 4: to be for one time spending, but gosh, we just
Speaker 4: could and help ourselves. So we turned it into ongoing spending,
Speaker 4: and we started overspending and overspending and overspending. And then
Speaker 4: because we can't we can't blame COVID forever, they started
Speaker 4: blaming Tabor.
Speaker 2: Tabor's the problem, you know. Tabor's why we don't have
Speaker 2: nice things in government.
Speaker 4: That's what Senator Jeff Bridges used to say all the time,
Speaker 4: and he finally stopped saying it because I would retort back, Tabor.
Speaker 2: Is why the people could have nice things.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Tabor is what limits government, and that's what we need.
Speaker 4: If we didn't have tabor, oh my gosh, we'd be
Speaker 4: even in worse shape.
Speaker 2: But so then they blamed it on Tabor. Well, now
Speaker 2: they figured out, you know, in our.
Speaker 4: June forecast, they already figured out we were going to
Speaker 4: have to make.
Speaker 2: Cuts to tax credits and cuts to programs. We already
Speaker 2: had this discussion. This was not new, this was all
Speaker 2: prior to the federal bill passing.
Speaker 4: And now it's like, oh wait a minute, why miss
Speaker 4: this opportunity.
Speaker 2: Let's just blame it on the Feds.
Speaker 4: Let's blame it on the Republicans back there, because silly,
Speaker 4: crazy Republicans are just trying to give you.
Speaker 2: A tax relief.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna use it later and see if I
Speaker 1: can make a map of which states are now facing
Speaker 1: a budget shortfall because of the big beautiful bill. Let's
Speaker 1: just assume that that's correct. I bet you there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of states that aren't.
Speaker 2: That's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, why are we in this pickle when other
Speaker 1: states are not in this pickle? And I think that's
Speaker 1: the big thing? Or why not ask why not have
Speaker 1: the Republican leadership go and say, look, we need ten
Speaker 1: percent from every department. Can you guys find it. We'd
Speaker 1: love for you to provide for US programs, redundancies, whatever
Speaker 1: you think is not working, whatever we can take. Give
Speaker 1: us ten percent. If we find out we don't need
Speaker 1: ten percent, we'll give you the extra money. But why
Speaker 1: not take a more proactive stance if the governor's not
Speaker 1: willing to do it. I only say this because I
Speaker 1: have a friend who worked for a private company. It
Speaker 1: was a large company, but as a family owned and
Speaker 1: they had a couple really rough years, and the owner
Speaker 1: of the company called everybody in for a meeting and
Speaker 1: said exactly that, guys, I need ten percent of your budget.
Speaker 1: You know how you spend your money better than I do.
Speaker 1: You figure out where we can take that from.
Speaker 2: And everybody.
Speaker 1: Now it's a private company, so it's a little bit
Speaker 1: different in terms of incentive. But everybody went back to
Speaker 1: their departments and said, where do we have ten percent?
Speaker 1: They then provided them the list and it was painless because.
Speaker 2: Everybody had buy in.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody was already on board with with what
Speaker 1: we needed to do exactly.
Speaker 4: So I did that at the Joint Budget Committee and
Speaker 4: I said, look, everybody, you just need to cut ten
Speaker 4: percent because here was the thing.
Speaker 2: You know, we were trying to find one point two billion.
Speaker 4: Part of that was the three hundred and fifty million
Speaker 4: from the you know, ballid measure for back the Blue,
Speaker 4: the Prop one thirty, and you know, I figured out
Speaker 4: a process for that to make sure that, you know,
Speaker 4: we were able to work that into our budget. But
Speaker 4: I told everybody in in the sessions that we were having,
Speaker 4: we have hearings first, we have briefings at the Joint
Speaker 4: Budget Committee, with.
Speaker 2: Departments, then we have hearings, and then we have.
Speaker 4: Figure setting the whole way through. I'm like, you guys
Speaker 4: need to cut ten percent.
Speaker 2: I told judicial.
Speaker 4: You know there's the judicial branch like no, no, no,
Speaker 4: we need new judges, we need to do this, we need.
Speaker 2: All this stuff. I mean, they wanted to increase their
Speaker 2: budget skyrocketed. I lectured them all. I'm telling you, I said,
Speaker 2: we need ten percent cut.
Speaker 4: They wouldn't come back in and you know what, again,
Speaker 4: I'm on the minority.
Speaker 2: It's me and.
Speaker 4: Representive Taggart were the only two Republicans on a six
Speaker 4: member joint Budget Committee, and the other four Dems were
Speaker 4: like no, they just wouldn't make all those cuts.
Speaker 2: They just couldn't make the cuts. Even this year.
Speaker 4: On that last day before we were again closing out
Speaker 4: the budget and bringing it over to the other ninety
Speaker 4: four members, I told them all, I said, you realized
Speaker 4: you've looked at the overview, right you realize that we
Speaker 4: have one time cuts in here, one time spending at
Speaker 4: least a half billion dollars that I can add up.
Speaker 2: In my head right now.
Speaker 4: That's we're going to have to add it on to
Speaker 4: that next year and We're gonna have to find that
Speaker 4: next year, and there aren't going to be any more
Speaker 4: couch cushions to look under. There's no more shellgame shenanigans
Speaker 4: that you get to do with the budget. We are
Speaker 4: going to have to cut programs or tax credits, and
Speaker 4: you all are going to have to come to the
Speaker 4: table and start answering where you want to make those cuts,
Speaker 4: because everything I propose, they would just, you know, say, yeah,
Speaker 4: we don't really want to do that.
Speaker 1: To my earlier point, I know you're in the minority,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to beat you up, but I
Speaker 1: would love to see Republican leadership kind of go to
Speaker 1: the Democrats and say, look, we don't want to make
Speaker 1: these unpopular cuts. We don't want to cut things that
Speaker 1: are going to be detrimental, So why not get the
Speaker 1: buy in from these different departments. It takes the pressure
Speaker 1: off of us of having to make these difficult decisions
Speaker 1: when we're asking people in these various departments to cut
Speaker 1: the dead weight. And you know, as well as I do, Barb,
Speaker 1: in every operation, whether it's a private company or it
Speaker 1: is a public organization, there is dead weight that can go.
Speaker 1: And that's what i'd like to see go first or
Speaker 1: ub Kirkmaier.
Speaker 2: I don't envy you. I agree, I don't envy you.
Speaker 2: This special session, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be amazing. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to call Rose and see if i can put that
Speaker 1: our ear because at a bare minimum, one of the
Speaker 1: things I want to see out of the Republican Party
Speaker 1: in the state. And we've got new leadership in place,
Speaker 1: and from what I understand, there's a pretty intensive focus
Speaker 1: on winning elections, not just being ideological pure or or
Speaker 1: you know, making sure that we're saying the right things.
Speaker 1: They really want to win elections, and in order to
Speaker 1: do that, we got to demonstrate to the people of
Speaker 1: Colorado that we have good ideas, right, that there are
Speaker 1: good ideas, and we've got to put them out there,
Speaker 1: get them in front of people, make sure they're heard,
Speaker 1: and if they don't get taken up, well, there's not
Speaker 1: a whole lot you can do about it because of
Speaker 1: the counts in the House, in the Senate.
Speaker 4: But there is this separation between the branches, right between
Speaker 4: the legislative branch and the administrative branch, but even within
Speaker 4: with the budget, when it comes across the Street. We
Speaker 4: all the legislators have the opportunity to amend the budget
Speaker 4: and put their fingerprints on the budget, and Republicans do
Speaker 4: come up with amendments and say, you know, let's cut
Speaker 4: this and cut different things. Like Senator Pelton said, why
Speaker 4: aren't we cutting our you know, legislative increase, Why aren't
Speaker 4: we cutting that second salary to the lieutenant governor. I mean,
Speaker 4: we had all sorts of areas to cut the budget,
Speaker 4: and the Dems all vote against it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we.
Speaker 4: Just can't get it through, you know, and the Governor's office,
Speaker 4: they're his departments. They don't I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 4: they don't try to work with us, but they don't
Speaker 4: have to.
Speaker 2: And certainly when it comes to the budget, everything's a secret.
Speaker 4: Even that meeting yesterday with the leadership, you know, all
Speaker 4: that information that was there, the Democrats had it before.
Speaker 2: The Republicans did, Like we got it at the meeting.
Speaker 4: Most of them you could tell by the scripted messaging
Speaker 4: and the scripted questions that they.
Speaker 2: Had it at least a couple of days in advance.
Speaker 4: The newspaper had it in advance before anybody else. I mean,
Speaker 4: so we don't even get it. So they do a
Speaker 4: lot of stuff behind closed doors. They talked just to
Speaker 4: amongst themselves. They don't want to include the Minority Party
Speaker 4: because again one party control, they don't have to, so
Speaker 4: they just go off on their merry little way doing
Speaker 4: whatever they want to do.
Speaker 2: Over spending.
Speaker 4: It's like a Senator Rich said at one point, she goes,
Speaker 4: we don't need a special session, we need an intervention
Speaker 4: to help them with their addiction to overspending.
Speaker 2: I thought, I'm going to use that.
Speaker 4: Janets everywhere I can, because that is it exactly. And again,
Speaker 4: we can try, we can try to have meetings. I mean,
Speaker 4: just for example, I asked Senator Bridges, who is the
Speaker 4: chair of.
Speaker 2: The Joint Budget Committee. I asked him.
Speaker 4: Yesterday in a text, like why are we not having
Speaker 4: we meaning the Joint Budget Committee? Why are we not
Speaker 4: having this type of hearing? Why aren't we getting this information?
Speaker 4: We're the ones who deals with this issue. It's in statute,
Speaker 4: it's supposed to be us. Why aren't we doing this?
Speaker 4: He doesn't respond. Then I said, can't we have a meeting?
Speaker 2: Doesn't respond. He has not responded to me.
Speaker 4: So I told Minority leader since them this morning and
Speaker 4: I said, Look, if he doesn't respond by.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow noon, I say we schedule our own meeting.
Speaker 4: Invite the chief economists, you know from Legislative Council Services.
Speaker 4: We invite Director Fernandino from OspB. We invite Craig Harper
Speaker 4: from the as the director of the Joint Budget Committee,
Speaker 4: and a few other people, probably Commissioner Conway the Division
Speaker 4: of Insurance, and we ask them our questions. So I
Speaker 4: don't need them.
Speaker 2: We don't need them to give us the presentation. Again.
Speaker 4: We need to be able to ask them questions and
Speaker 4: start drilling down on this as to what can we
Speaker 4: really start cutting.
Speaker 2: And so that's where we're that's where we are headed.
Speaker 4: If if we can't get a hearing with the Joint
Speaker 4: Budget Committee, then we're just going to do our own thing.
Speaker 1: Senator Barb Kirkmeyer is my guest. I will be talking
Speaker 1: to you, I hope through this special session, and boys,
Speaker 1: this one's going to be fun to watch. Thank you
Speaker 1: for making time for me today.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, thank you, and you have a great day.
Speaker 2: And let's keep go cutting that budget
Speaker 1: Aim into that that Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, we'll be right
Speaker 1: back