After months of crunching numbers and making cuts, Colorado state lawmakers have a balanced budget.
The Joint Budget Committee, made up of four democrats and two republicans, voted unanimously on a budget proposal that increases funding for K-12 education and higher education but decreases funding for dozens of programs due to a $1.2 billion shortfall.
The cuts touch on everything from workforce development and multi-modal projects to school mental health screenings, disordered eating and kidney disease. Transportation funding will also see a reduction of at least $20 million after the committee cuts road safety fees.
For the first time, Medicaid, not K-12 education, accounts for the biggest share of the $16.5 billion general fund. The budget committee increased the reimbursement rate for Medicaid providers by 1.6%, or about $60 million.
K-12 will receive $150 million more in general funds, and, depending on how much of the new school formula the legislature decides to implement, schools could get an additional $100 million.
Meanwhile, budget writers earmarked an additional $40 million for higher education while capping tuition increases at 3.5% for in-state and out-of-state students.
They also kept a 2.5% pay increase for state workers but cut the size of the workforce by 1.5%.
Republican Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who sits on the budget committee, said this year's cuts were like ripping a band aid off but next year's cuts will need a tourniquet, "It's going to be 2, 3, 4-year process until we get to right sizing government; until we stop overspending. Our budget isn't constrained by TABOR. Our budget is constrained because we are overspending year over year. And that's the disappointing part to me, we should have done more cuts."
Democratic Sen. Jeff Bridges, who chairs the budget committee, said the state is generating enough revenue; it just can't spend it all due to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which limits spending to inflation plus population, "There's lots of cuts we can make moving into the future, and those hard decisions we will continue to make. But it's not because we don't have revenue. We're in the position we're in because we are up against the rationing limit in TABOR. That's why we're here. And that rationing formula is tied to population plus inflation, and the cost of what we invest in as a government goes up faster than inflation."
That is especially true for Medicaid, which increased by nearly $600 million this year.
The budget will be introduced in the senate Monday. It still needs approval by both chambers and Gov. Polis. Debate in the senate begins Monday.