state budget

The Denver Post
Guest commentary
(Editor's note: This guest commentary is part of a point-counterpoint about Colorado's budget crisis. Companion commentary by Barry Poulson.)

By Wade Buchanan, Chris Watney and Carol Hedges

This year, Colorado's General Fund revenues will hit their lowest point in recent history, and the implications are dire for the state and its residents.

ByTodd Engdahl
Education News Colorado

After spending a day and a half trying to absorb brain-numbing financial presentations, printed reports and Power Point slides, it was only fair that members of the state Fiscal Stability Commission got a little entertainment Thursday afternoon.

Colorado’s Fiscal Challenge
Presentation to the Colorado Long-term Fiscal Stability Commission

Click below for PDF of PowerPoint presentation

When it comes to the state budget, Colorado is digging a hole.

That's one of the conclusions in a new report, Looking Forward: Colorado's fiscal prospects amid a financial crisis, by the Bell Policy Center, the Colorado Children's Campaign and the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.

Executive summary

This report projects the amount Colorado would need to spend to maintain state services at 2007 levels through fiscal year 2012-13 and the amount of revenues that will be generated to pay for them. The costs of services were estimated based on factors that drive the budget, such as the number of students in college, inflation rates and the number of prisoners. It updates our December 2007 Looking Forward report.

(This report was updated to reflect the repeal of the Arveschoug-Bird funding formula in April 2009. It was passed out during a presentation by Wade Buchanan to the interim Fiscal Stability Commission on July 9, 2009.)

The road to 2009
Almost three decades of constitutional amendments, legislative acts
and economic ups and downs

Take TABOR. Please. And while we’re at it, take Gallagher and Amendment 23 and the handful of other constitutional and statutory formulas that stand between us and a sane state budget. After a quarter-century of jumping from one ballot measure to the next, it's time to stop setting fiscal policy by formula.

Email to supporters: It's not our habit to intrude with multiple emails on one subject, but there has been an important development with Senate Bill 228, and we wanted to share the news with you. SB 228, the proposal to eliminate the Arveschoug-Bird funding formula, was not heard as scheduled Tuesday afternoon, and part of the reason for the delay was to allow time for negotiations on key elements of the bill.

Email to supporters: The Bell is asking our friends to join us in supporting Senate Bill 228, the proposal to eliminate the Arveschoug-Bird funding formula. Tomorrow afternoon, the bill comes up for debate before the House's Transportation & Energy Committee. Eliminating the 6% formula is a critical step in restoring fiscal sanity to Colorado.

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 27 years, and at some of the economic and political factors that drove those decisions. (An update of "The Road to 2007," part of "Looking Forward, Colorado's fiscal prospects after Ref C.")