DENVER (AP) -- The fight seems to have gone out of the Colorado budget debate.
A Senate committee started work on a laundry list of budget cuts to balance the $7 billion general fund budget on Thursday. They plodded through the phonebook-sized plan with few questions and little debate.
The Appropriations Committee was poised to send the spending plan on to the full Senate later in the day.
The proposed spending plan for next year would cut some $250 million to K-12 education and close a southeast Colorado prison. It would also sweep some $71 million from severance taxes from drilling and mining that would otherwise go to local governments.
Opposition was muted as the committee was on track to adopt the entire package agreed to by top Democrats and Republicans earlier this week.
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