Colorado Commits to Kids claims that funds raised from Amendment 66, also known as the billion dollar tax increase, would not go to backfilling PERA’s 23.5 billion black hole.  Too bad for them that supporter Gov. John Hickenlooper has put that notion to rest.  The truth is that once the billion dollar tax increase funds hit school districts, the money is fungible.

WatchDogWire exclusively reported Hick’s comments.  Listen below for yourself.  You know, just in case you needed another reason to vote against Amendment 66.

Transcript (courtesy of WatchDog Wire):

Gov. Hickenlooper: Anything else? What else?

Sharf: OK, so a question about the PERA. So, you had said that it can’t be used to backfill PERA, which is certainly true at the state level.

Gov. Hickenlooper: Yep

Sharf: Well, once the money gets to the districts…now, under SB1, which was supposed to be the fix for PERA, the districts were supposed to split – there was a lot more money going into PERA, there was some increases, some supplemental payments, that were going to go into PERA.

Gov. Hickenlooper: Right

Sharf: And, the districts were supposed to split that increase with the employees, with the unions.

Gov. Hickenlooper: Yep

Sharf: But with the exception maybe of Adams, they haven’t really. Overwhelmingly…

Gov. Hickenlooper: I’m not sure that that’s right –

Sharf: Well, Greg Smith –

Gov. Hickenlooper: They have not split it, they’ve just swallowed it.

Sharf: Right, that’s what I mean, is that they’ve basically just swallowed it.

Gov. Hickenlooper: Well, if you want to fix that, if that’s what’s happening, then we can’t legislate that. There’s a certain amount of money that goes into the districts, and that is the way our education system is structured. If you want to fix that, put it up on our website, how much of that money the district is spending on PERA. And I guarantee PERA will go down.