Looking Forward

Letter to the editor: With revenues falling, a hiring freeze and budgets being trimmed, we applaud The Post for saying that Colorado “needs to fix this fiscal mess.” Colorado’s budget has evolved into a tangle of often-conflicting laws, rules and formulas that result in cutbacks in some areas and mandated increases in others — and very little savings for the future. It defies common sense ...

CDOT???s budget is driven by four key factors: Size and condition of Colorado???s transportation system; Projected growth in state population; Projected growth in system use as measured by vehicle miles traveled; Projected decline in federal funding for transportation

Overview

Referendum C, passed by voters in 2005, allows state services to recover from cuts made during the 2001-03 downturn or that might be made during future recessions. It does this by bypassing TABOR???s ???ratchet effect.???

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.

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.

Two economic forecasts project slower growth for Colorado; one projects recession; Looking Forward report pushed back to reflect 3rd quarter economic forecasts; Ritter announces pro-business legislative package