spending

Several months ago, we wrote you about "TBD Colorado" – Gov. John Hickenlooper's non-partisan, collaborative effort to spark informed and constructive conversations among Coloradans about some of the biggest issues facing the state.

More than a thousand Coloradans have invested a great deal of time in community meetings to learn about the state's budget, education, health care and transportation systems and personnel challenges. Then, they considered policy options.

By Jason Hoppin
St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press
Nov. 5, 2009

After seven years of budget battles, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday proposed a constitutional amendment to limit state spending.

Under the plan, spending in Minnesota's two-year budgets could not exceed revenues raised during the previous biennium. The impact would be to limit spending, since revenues tend to grow with the economy.

Rich Jones quoted in article: DENVER – So far in 2009, state lawmakers have focused on spending measures, talk about babies with AIDS and a partisan rancor that festered as the Colorado General Assembly’s session neared its halfway point. But some political observers say lawmakers should turn their attention to 2010, when a timeout from revenue collection restrictions expires and when, some say, the state could be facing far worse budget problems than those happening right now.

Our goal was to take the current state General Fund budget and extend it six years into the future. Looking Forward estimates how much it will cost to keep pace with growth in the major forces that are driving the budgets in each area.

Colorado state government collects revenues from a variety of sources, and divides them into specific types of funds. The legislature appropriates money from these funds to pay for state government activities. State law places limits and restrictions on how the legislature can use the money from each type of fund.

A quarter century of constitutional amendments, legislative acts and economic ups and downs To understand how Colorado finds itself in its current fiscal condition, it is helpful to look back at some critical decisions made by legislators and voters over the last 25 years, and at some of the economic and political factors that drove those decisions.

The revenue portion of the Looking Forward project involved projecting state revenues for one final year of the six-year study period, FY 2012-13. For the first five fiscal years in the study period, we used the Colorado Legislative Council staff revenue projections published in September 2007.

The Department of Higher Education receives funding from a variety of sources. These include state General Fund dollars, General Fund Exempt dollars, made available through Referendum C, Cash Funds, Cash Funds Exempt, which include tuition and fees spending authority, and federal funds.

The Colorado Department of Health Care and Policy Financing (HCPF) is responsible for administering the state???s Medicaid program and other federally subsidized health care programs for children, the disabled, elderly, low-income and uninsured Coloradoans.

The Department of Human Services has 11 budget areas: Child Welfare, Disability Services, Division of Youth Services, Mental Health & Alcohol/Drug Abuse, County Administration, Executive Director???s Office, Information Technology, Operations, Child Care, Adult Assistance and Self-Sufficiency.