Hickenlooper signs $27 billion Colorado budget

Gov. John Hickenlooper has signed a $27 billion state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Hickenlooper praised the bipartisan effort it took to craft the budget.

It slightly raises K-12 funding, allots $210 million to roads and increases the general fund by $50 million.

Leaders of the GOP-led Senate, Democrat-led House and key budget-writers attended Tuesday’s bill signing at the capitol.

Still pending is a House bill to free millions of dollars in future spending. It would do so by taking a fund, paid in part by hospitals to care for the needy, and transferring it outside the budget.

A Senate bill would ask voters to approve issuing $3.5 billion in bonds for critical road projects.