Panel tables bill giving tuition to decorated vets
Measure stalls over whether to limit eligibility
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published March 1, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Gallegos says he plans to resurrect the bill next week.
In the duel between veterans and the Colorado Department of Higher Education, the bean counters came out on top Friday.
Lobbyists for Colorado's cash-strapped colleges and universities unwittingly revealed in an e-mail earlier this month that they planned to kill House Bill 1068, which would grant free tuition to Colorado's decorated combat veterans.
The universities contend that they can't afford the tuition break and that no one can say how many veterans would qualify.
For now, the lobbyists' plan is working. As of Friday, the bill was ailing, if not dead.
The bill was tabled after the House Appropriations Committee cast a tie vote on whether to add an amendment restricting free tuition to disabled veterans who had received a Purple Heart or higher medal for actions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Rep. Rafael Gallegos, D-Antonito, who sponsored the bill, said he was willing to compromise on limiting the tuition break to post-Sept. 11 service members. But, Gallegos, who served in the Air Force, said it's too restrictive to require that veterans be disabled.
"We're talking about our countrymen who are serving to protect us and provide the freedom we all enjoy," Gallegos said. "These are the people who put their lives on the line for us. They deserve to be taken care of."
An optimist, Gallegos plans to resurrect the bill next week.
John Karakoulakis, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Higher Education, said his side also will work toward a compromise. Higher education officials had supported the amendment. But, without it, the bill has little chance of advancing.
"We were concerned that this was such a wide-open bill. We were trying to address the neediest veterans," Karakoulakis said. "We're going to keep trying to work as well," he said, but added that the cost of the bill is still unclear.
"There is no good number out there (of how many veterans would qualify)," Karakoulakis said. "We don't have estimates of costs right now."
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