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Senate OKs Colorado Budget After Vote To Keep Prison Open

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's Senate approved a $27 billion state budget Friday after heated debate over a last-minute allocation to keep open a privately-run prison in the rural town of Burlington on the state's eastern plains.

Republican budget-writer Sen. Kent Lambert argued the $3 million, first revealed during a conference committee meeting this week, will give Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper time to negotiate with Corrections Corporation of America.

CCA runs the Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington as well as two other state prisons. It says it needs the money to avoid closing the facility because the number of inmates there is dropping.

A closure could come fast: Colorado's contract with CCA allows CCA to shutter a prison and transfer its inmates to another facility with just 60 days' notice.

Lambert said the prison is the only non-agricultural employer in Burlington and closing it could devastate the town's economy. Other states operating under a compact with Colorado pulled their inmates from Kit Carson in the last three months, he said.

Lambert, of Colorado Springs, also said the Joint Budget Committee had set aside $5.7 million from the corrections department's budget at Hickenlooper's request while the administration studies possible consolidation of the state's prisons. The $3 million came from that $5.7 million and will give both the governor and Burlington time to prepare for a possible future closing, Lambert said.

Others protested the short notice they were given and worried it could set a bad precedent for an annual budget process in which schools and roads are chronically underfunded, in part because of constitutional spending limits.

"I oppose an 11th-hour, $3 million bailout for a for-profit prison," said Democratic Sen. Morgan Carroll of Aurora.

Senators approved the $3 million by a 24-10 vote and the fiscal year 2016-17 budget by a 29-5 vote.

The House had yet to consider the revised budget Friday.

(© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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