Status of Colorado State Finances - BLEAK!

[donco6]

'PARTIES MUST WORK TOGETHER TO SOLVE STATE BUDGET WOES'
by Andrew Romanoff

Colorado faces a fiscal crisis, but voters will have no chance this year to resolve it. The legislature failed in its efforts to craft a solution in time for the November election.

Why that happened has been the subject of considerable debate. Over the past three weeks, Gazette readers have been treated to an exchange of views between Rep. Keith King and me.

King insists the failure was my party’s fault – an accusation that one Gazette news story described as “politically expedient” but “not exactly true.” One of King’s own Republican colleagues, Senate Majority Co-Leader Norma Anderson, was even less charitable; she called King’s claims “baloney” (“Springs lawmakers jump into state budget fray,” Metro, Aug. 24).

But figuring out why our negotiations failed is less important than deciding what to do next.

The Colorado Constitution requires a balanced budget. To meet that requirement, we’ll need to slice at least $215 million from the budget next year.

That’s roughly the equivalent, in General Fund terms, of our entire state court system. It’s more than one-third of the amount we spend on higher education. It’s twice as much as we put into the Departments of Agriculture, Military and Veterans Affairs, Natural Resources, Public Safety, and Public Health and Environment – combined.

Which of these services should we cut? With just four months remaining before the legislature convenes, we ought to begin that discussion now.

Let’s start by pointing out what we can’t cut:

K-12 education. The Colorado Constitution requires the General Assembly to maintain “a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state.” The constitution also requires K-12 funding to keep pace with inflation, student enrollment growth, and, until 2011, an extra 1 percent per year.

Medicaid. The federal government requires states to provide health care for their poorest and most disabled residents. Few of these services are optional.

Together, K-12 (at approximately 44 percent) and Medicaid (21 percent) consume nearly two-thirds of our state’s General Fund.

What’s left? The biggest items are higher education (10 percent); prisons (9 percent); and human services (8 percent).

Some of these programs are shielded from budget cuts, too – by court order if not by the state constitution or federal law. Nearly 7,500 children in Colorado, for example, were victims of abuse or neglect last year; their protection is not expendable. The bottom line: There are no easy choices here.

Of course, we could avoid tough decisions by resorting to a quick fix. Securitizing Colorado’s tobacco settlement would buy us a temporary reprieve. So would selling off and leasing back state buildings.

In the long run, though, there are only two ways to bring our budget into balance: increase revenues or reduce expenditures.

The best way to increase revenues is to grow the economy. And the best way to do that – as the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation and other business groups agree – is to build “an efficient transportation system, an effective higher education system and quality research universities that foster innovation” (Rocky Scott, “Coloradans support fixing TABOR’s flaws,” Other Voices, May 12).

These assets are rapidly eroding. Our state has one of the worst high-school graduation rates in the country. And our investment per student in higher education recently hit a 20-year low.

Colorado’s physical infrastructure is in equally critical condition. The budget crisis has forced us to shortchange road repairs and new construction, leaving us with a multibillion-dollar backlog.

Reversing these trends should rank among the legislature’s top priorities. But the benefits of even the most aggressive economic development strategy are unlikely to materialize soon enough to boost next year’s budget. And even if revenues soar, constitutional limits will continue to trap our state at a recessionary level of services.

We can place a constitutional solution to this crisis on the ballot next November. Until then, it’s time to cut the budget – and the baloney.

[Supply Side Jesus]

1. start by eliminating TABOR

goddamn doug bruce. that greedy asshole should be dragged out into the street and let all the kindergarden kids have a shot at him.

[donco6]

2. Sadly it's too late for that this year.

IMO, the biggest plum the legislature has to pluck is K-12 funding. Last year, they charged us for the cost of the School Finance Unit at the Colorado Department of Education (which up until then had it's own appropriation.) I wouldn't be surprised to see the entire department coming out of our K-12 funding pot this year.

It's called "supplanting" and it's not allowed in federal grants, but at the state level - anything goes.

[mountainvue]

3. It's the 80's in Colorado

all over again.