"I think this state would be hard pressed to design a program that cost the taxpayers more and delivered less," Bob Lee, the head of Colorado's Office of Economic Development, told the committee. Lee's office administers the program.

Lee called for abolishing the program in its present form and setting up a new system that would create jobs and help the economy.

State Treasurer Mike Coffman, who has called for abolishing the program outright in favor of tax cuts that he says would be passed along to consumers, issued a statement that said he "sincerely hope(s) that the legislature drives a stake through the heart of this monster and doesn't allow it to come back in some mutated form."

CAPCOs have spent $471,503 of their funds on lobbyists. They also could use the money to sue the state if it changes the current law.