The Colorado lawmakers tasked with writing the state budget tentatively gave Gov. Jared Polis most — but not all — of the money he wanted to implement one of his main campaign promises: all-day kindergarten.

The powerful six-member Joint Budget Committee approved $185 million of Polis’ request to pay for statewide full-day kindergarten Tuesday afternoon. Polis had asked for $227 million.

“We felt it was a more realistic way to fund at least the first year,” said Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat and vice chair of the JBC. “I think we realized that not 100 percent would be utilized in the first year. And in a tough budget year, we wanted to be realistic about what the cost may end up being.”

Here’s what she means: If the JBC allocated enough money to cover every kid who could attend kindergarten this fall, it’s likely that a substantial amount of money would be left over because not every school could implement a program that quickly and not every parent wants their child to attend all-day kindergarten. All those extra dollars wouldn’t go back into the general fund. They’d get locked in the state education fund, and Esgar said the JBC wanted more flexibility in spending that $42 million — especially with recent forecasts predicting a slowdown in the economy.

So, the JBC decided to give Polis an amount of money based on “utilization,” or how many kids they think will actually attend all-day kindergarten in the fall.

The vote was 5-1 with Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, joining all of the Democratic members in supporting it and Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, objecting.

“Right now we have a lot of priorities and we’re taking on new obligations that I think will have to be kept up in the future, and I’m just concerned with the current forecast that we have,” Ransom said. “I don’t like to get into obligations that we may or may not be able to keep in the future.”

Polis and his team took to social media to declare victory soon after the $185 million allocation was announced.

“We’re celebrating tonight,” said Lauren Larson, Polis’ budget director. “It’s exactly what we need.”

But it’s not final.

Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, pointed out that this just a placeholder number, so the budget committee can move forward with their figure setting.

Zenzinger voted for the placeholder Tuesday afternoon but said she’s reserving judgment on whether to support the final, official allocation until she sees the all-day kindergarten bill that’s still being drafted. She’s still deciding whether all-day kindergarten deserves to go the front of the funding line, she said, when there is a long list of priorities getting cut in order to pay for this one.

“They are right now haircuts, and we are curious to know where that puts us given some of our other priorities, and it may not be enough,” Zenzinger said.

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