Colorado’s budget is in trouble and needs federal help
A warning: What I’m going to share is not pretty or reassuring. If Colorado doesn’t get more federal assistance for our state and local governments, we could see schools, law enforcement, health clinics, correctional facilities and job training programs shut down or stop functioning. Seniors on Medicaid may lose dental care. Literacy, suicide and bullying prevention and homeless veterans programs may be cut. We may eliminate or narrow many infrastructure projects, including road, school and university maintenance and construction projects. This is a truly dire situation.
Economists expect a cut of around $2 billion to $3 billion to the state’s general fund, which is currently $12.4 billion and covers core priorities such as K-12 and higher education, corrections and critical health care and human services programs. Cuts of this magnitude may not spare the institutions that sustain our communities — our schools and universities. These are the worst cuts we have ever faced, far worse than the cuts made after the Great Recession.
Congress recently passed legislation that provided some funding to states to respond to the pandemic, but that funding came with strings attached that don’t account for the loss of state revenue. Therefore, we can’t spend that money on what our communities continue to need: schools, support for the elderly,
shealth care and more.
While other states can set aside money when times are good to save for when times are bad, a state constitutional amendment known as TABOR makes it nearly impossible for Colorado to do the same. As a result, we are the only state without a true “rainy day fund.”
What people may also not realize is that 36% of our state’s general fund goes to K-12 education, making up nearly two-thirds of the overall funding for our schools. Without Congress’s help, it will be impossible to balance our state budget without hurting our already grossly underfunded K-12 school system, which still hasn’t recovered from budget cuts during the Great Recession.
On Monday, Coloradans got our first look at just how tough the budget situation is. Nonpartisan analysts at the Joint Budget Committee released options for balancing the budget, and none of them are easy to stomach: deep cuts to higher education financial aid, eliminating services for youths in the child welfare system and cuts to mental health services in our communities. We may have to reduce services for our most vulnerable, such as Coloradans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, after years of trying to improve funding for these programs.
I’ve joined the National Conference of State Legislatures and a bipartisan coalition of elected officials across the country to plead for more flexible federal assistance for states and local governments. I am grateful to the Democrats in our congressional delegation who have sponsored legislation to provide this funding. It’s shameful that Mitch Mcconnell and many other Republicans are saying they won’t support it.
It wasn’t a problem for Mcconnell to add $1.5 trillion to our debt to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations in 2017, and again to give bailouts to big corporations in the COVID-19 relief package. Now he’s telling states and local governments that we’re on our own and that we should just declare bankruptcy. He won’t lift a finger to help our teachers and students.
When Mcconnell says he wants states like Colorado to go bankrupt, he’s saying he doesn’t care if thousands lose their jobs; or if we make heartbreaking cuts to our schools; or if we reduce funding for crime prevention programs, fighting wildfires, or paying doctors.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We were elected to make tough decisions, and I know that my colleagues and I will work as hard as we can to balance the budget and ease how painful this budget will be. But to do that effectively, we need Congress to show leadership and provide us the flexible funding we need to make Colorado whole again.