DENVER \u2013 A state senator continues to look for $17 million for his idea to buy an airborne firefighting fleet, but his allies doubt they can secure the money by next Wednesday, when the Legislature goes home for the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things that are possible in the last seven days,\u201d said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, sponsor of Senate Bill 245.<\/p>\n
King drafted the bill to create the Colorado Firefighting Air Corps and buy three heavy air tankers from the federal government.<\/p>\n
His bill is advancing through the Legislature, but without any money to buy planes.<\/p>\n
King testified on his own bill Wednesday at the House Agriculture Committee. The panel voted 11-1 to send the bill to the House Appropriations Committee, which controls access to the Legislature\u2019s purse. A Friday meeting could be King\u2019s best chance to get his bill funded. King met with Gov. John Hickenlooper last Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good meeting. I think those talks are still ongoing,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
But the House sponsor of King\u2019s bill, Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, sounded pessimistic that legislators would come up with $17 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t going to get appropriated at that at all,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n
The committee amended the bill with an idea from Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, to tell Colorado firefighting officials to report back to the Legislature by April 2014 about whether it would be a good idea to get into the slurry bomber business.<\/p>\n
That report, obviously, would come too late for the upcoming wildfire season. The state already contracts for two single-engine air tankers to respond to fires, and the federal government operates a small fleet of heavy tankers.<\/p>\n
Rep. Lori Saine, R-Dacono, became the first legislator to vote against the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of it sounds like a great idea,\u201d Saine said. \u201cBut I would like to see a business plan. I would like to see a cost-benefit analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
But King maintains that the threat of big wildfires is so serious that there\u2019s no time for further study.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only limited by our imagination as to how we\u2019re going to fund it,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, legislators pressed ahead with wildfire preparations on several other fronts.<\/p>\n
The House Agriculture Committee advanced a bill for $10 million in wildfire prevention grants to pay for local forest-thinning projects. All three Southwest Colorado legislators \u2013 Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango \u2013 are sponsors.<\/p>\n
Also Wednesday, the House passed another Roberts bill, which would create a permanent committee of the Legislature for wildfire preparedness.<\/p>\n
The bill now goes to Hickenlooper to be signed into law.<\/p>\n