State Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, is going to have bucks on the brain when he heads back to the Colorado Legislature next Wednesday for the 2008 session.

Buescher’s top priorities include chairing the joint budget committee, repaying the more than $2 million that the state borrowed from the veterans trust fund in 2003 and reallocating severance tax dollars in Colorado.

Severance tax dollars are paid to the state when a company extracts resources, including coal, oil, gas and oil shale, from public land. Western Colorado is a prime spot for this extraction, and Buescher wants to ensure impacted communities here see a decent share of that money.

“This could be the most important economic state-driven factor for Western Colorado. We need to make sure we get a fair share of those revenues,” Buescher said.
Some of that money needs to be tucked into a rainy day fund, Buescher said. That “rainy day” will come when energy industry operations slow.

The rainy day fund is a possible beneficiary of severance tax money from drilling in, on or under the Roan Plateau. Buescher said drilling on the Roan is inevitable — he just hopes it’s done slowly, at a slant instead of straight down and with the best equipment possible.

The fund would sate all state programs in case of a recession like the one in 2003, when the state had to borrow from other funds and cut programs to cover the basics, Buescher said. Higher education, mental health and transportation would probably benefit most from the saved money, he said.

A bill Buescher and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, will sponsor would allow energy companies to pay severance taxes early so the state can start collecting and sending that money to communities now.

The bill proposal came from an interim committee with members from both parties, including Buescher and Penry.

Buescher said despite a Democratic majority in the house and senate, he expects the state legislature will be up for compromise and working across the aisle this year. Or at least, he will.

“There will be a number of Democratic bills I’ll support or oppose, the same is true for bills supported by Republicans. It’s not the party that comes up with good ideas, it’s debate and coming up with practical solutions,” Buescher said.

Outside of what he’s doing for the year, Buescher said health care should be a big topic this session. He would like to see more health care coverage for children and disease prevention encouragement, such as insurance company-provided incentives for living a healthy lifestyle.

Buescher said improving health care would take a joint effort and “shared responsibility” from the government, insurers, health care providers and others. Finding a solution that will make every happy could be tricky, though.

“A very large portion of the Colorado population agrees we have to make fixes to our health care system. Unfortunately I haven’t found that majority of folks who agree on what that fix should be,” Buescher said.

Buescher’s goals for the joint budget committee involve investing in early childhood education and reducing prison recidivism.

<i>Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.</i>