The hole in the Colorado state budget keeps getting bigger by the day.

The latest figures show a shortfall of about $1.2 billion, and the state’s chief economist says the reserve will be completely drained by 2029 if nothing changes. For months, lawmakers on Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee have poured over every line item in the general fund looking for a way to cut more than $1 billion.

Colorado State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Republican representing District 23 is livid at the State government and State legislature for what she calls a misplacement of priorities. Credit: Wikipedia

State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who is one of six lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee has admitted publicly that the state is on an unsustainable path with the budget if there is no change to the current spending habits.

According to the Colorado Senator who represents District 23, lawmakers have simply overspent; pointing out the state has added more than 7,000 full time employees and 17 new state offices in the last six years alone.

As it stands, the biggest budget driver is Medicaid. It makes up a third of the general fund and has ballooned by nearly $600 million in the last year. The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing says the increase is due largely to utilization by older Coloradans and people with disabilities, who make up only 9% of the Medicaid population but account for 50% of the costs. Colorado has the second fastest growing population of people over age 65 — they outnumber those under 18 — and long-term care is covered by Medicaid, not Medicare.

According to various sources, the state is generating enough revenue to cover expenses but lawmakers can’t tap all the money. Apparently the problem isn’t spending, rather it’s the Taxpayer Bill of Rights — or TABOR — which caps how much the state can spend to the growth in population plus inflation.  The feeling is that the budget committee is also limited in where it can trim expenditures. In addition to Medicaid, K-12 education accounts for another third of the general fund while the other 40% is divided among higher education, human services, corrections and judicial.

Gov. Jared Polis, who has come under fire in recent times for proposing to scarp funding for neglected children in the state, is surrounded by members of the Joint Budget Committee, JBC staff and cabinet officials, signs into law the state’s $40.6 billion budger for 2024-25. That budget had included $2 billion more in spending. Credit: Coloradopolitics.com

As the budget writers were searching for where to cut, Senator Kirkmeyer found a surprise in the legislature’s own budget — about $22 million in unspent general fund allocations from previous years. The money has been deposited in a cash fund used primarily for renovations at the capitol. She discovered the money when she filled in for the Senate Minority Leader on a committee and it piqued her curiosity.

The more the congresswoman dug, the more upset she became. For over 12 years, leadership in the legislative branch has been rolling unspent general fund money into a fund controlled by six people — the state speaker of the house, president of the state senate, the two majority leaders and two minority leaders. All of them voted unanimously to use $10 million from the fund to facilitate an office swap.

Currently, legislative staff members have offices in the basement of the Colorado State Capitol, while some lawmakers’ offices are in other buildings. They want to move staff to a building across the street, so every lawmaker can have an office at the Capitol. They plan to spend $6 million to renovate offices and another $4 million on new furniture.

For Kirkmeyer and a few others, they still cannot wrap their heads around the fact that the legislature is spending $4 million on new furniture they do not need. Considering the fact that at the same time, members of the Joint Budget Committee are talking about the governor’s budget request to reduce the $3 million earmarked for the neglected and abused children in the state’s child welfare services. How anyone can think this course of action is ok remains to be seen.

There are nearly a thousand cash funds in various departments throughout the state. Kirkmeyer says the budget committee needs a full accounting of those funds.

The legislature’s cash fund was approved by lawmakers more than a decade ago. State House Speaker Julie McCluskie says they are planning to return more than $4 million from the cash fund to the general fund. She says the legislature’s executive committee — made up of leadership from both parties — decides how to spend the money and it’s also cutting the legislature’s overall budget by 5%, including eliminating all interim committees this year.

Sen.Kirkmeyer says she’d like to see all $20 million in the cash fund returned. But McCluskie says they need the money to move lawmakers’ offices into the capitol. Many are in other buildings right now that she says aren’t as easily accessible to the public. They are also moving about 200 legislative staff from the capitol to another building that she says needs big renovations, including an estimated $4 million in furniture alone.

It is absurd that $4 million is being approved to furnish the offices of legislators while at the same time Gov. Jared Polis is proposing cutting child welfare funding by $3 million. It is clear that there is a misplacement of priorities right now in Colorado, and surprisingly still, the general public seems to be blaise about the whole fiasco.

A society where furniture is valued over neglected and abused kids is one that shouldn’t be allowed to stand. The pertinent question is; who’s going to talk some sense into the state’s leadership?