The Joint Budget Committee, which is responsible for drafting the infamous “long bill” or appropriations bill, has a new member.  The Denver Post reports that staunch TABOR supporter and principled fiscal conservative Kent Lambert, representative from Colorado Springs, replaces TABOR critic Don Marostica.  

The Colorado Union of Taxpayers awarded Lambert a 100 percent rating for the 2009 legislative session, making him the highest rated Colorado House member and a great friend to taxpayers.  In comparison, Marostica consistently has been one of the lowest scoring Republicans in the House.

Two things about House Minority Leader Mike May’s pick:  First, Northern Colorado will no longer have an elected official on the JBC for the first time in a long time.  Both Senator Steve Johnson and Representative Dale Hall  preceeded Marostica on the JBC.  Second, the JBC’s long standing tradition of consensus on the long bill is in jeopardy.  My guess is that Representative Lambert won’t tow the JBC line just because it’s tradition to do so.

The JBC may be fun to watch this year!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 5:32 am and is filed under TABOR, northern Colorado, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.