Republicans accused Democrats of "stealing" lottery proceeds by floating a bill that would use millions of dollars to study the repair needs of rural schools instead of fixing them.

A bill that passed the Senate on a party-line voice vote Thursday calls for spending up to $6 million to study construction needs of schools over three years.

Democrats said the state has a responsibility to help poorer rural districts get a handle on what's needed to bring crumbling buildings up to the quality of buildings in larger, richer school systems.

"We have a disparity in the state that's unconscionable when it comes to funding rural schools," said the measure's sponsor, Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village.

"This bill simply takes some of the dollars currently being spent on capital improvements to assess the needs of rural school districts. We're entitled to more accountability and transparency on how those dollars are spent."

Schwartz withstood a blistering attack by Republicans who said that the measure strips away millions in lottery proceeds that should go to fix schools, not study them.

"It doesn't drive one nail. It doesn't build one school. It doesn't accomplish anything but yet another study," said Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs.

Said Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, "She is stealing the money," referring to Schwartz.

Senate Bill 41 creates a 14-member advisory board to study the construction needs of all public school districts, with an eye toward helping poorer schools first.

Last year, Republican former Gov. Bill Owens vetoed a similar bill.

The Democrats' latest measure calls for spending $600,000 next year to assess the construction needs of schools with less than 200 students and up to $5.4 million the following two years for all districts.

Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, proposed a failed amendment to require lottery proceeds to be spent solely to fix schools in rural districts.

Penry, echoing an opinion issued by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, argued that the Democrats' plan could expose the state to lawsuits if it fails to fully fund rural schools' wish lists.

Colorado is already on the hook for a 1998 lawsuit over a disparity in state funding to fix rural schools.

Under the terms of the lawsuit, the state must earmark funds to repair rural schools when the economy is doing well and state coffers are full.

So far, it has spent $15 million on such repairs.

Democrats argued that if the state doesn't make a good-faith effort to comprehensively address the needs of rural districts, it will end up in court again.

"The truth is, we don't do a good enough job funding rural schools," said Sen. Brandon Schaffer, D-Longmont.

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