President (To Win Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
See Full Big Line
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
See Full Big Line
(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
See Full Big Line
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
See Full Big Line
(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
See Full Big Line
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%↑
30%
State Senate Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 18, 2009 07:59 PM UTC
16 Comments
The Governor is doing the best he can do with a bad hand when it comes to the budget.
I do want to see if there are actual layoffs rather than just a hiring freeze and attrition. He might be able to get to the reduction in FTEs by furloughs and other non layoff methods.
Ritter is handling this economic downturn that the fiscal straightjacket in our constitution superbly. What he’s pulled off is way better than even the most optimisitc of us had hoped for.
Of course, he’ll get no credit for this in the election because it’s minimizing pain, not bringing new services to people.
then Josh Penry should explain to his Grand Junction constituents who just lost a 32-bed nursing facility what else it is they don’t need.
The Governor is showing he can make really tough budgeting decisions within the framework of Colorado’s constitutional mess. I’d like to see the Republicans offer something that’s more than the abstract boilerplate that avoids specifically impacting real lives.
The press corps needs to ask both Messrs. Mcinnis and Penry what programs they would cut.
The Gov is doing the best he can?
How about not cutting jobs in the midst of a terrifying Depression 2.0? How about cutting his own salary, reducing perks to state reps and their aides, cutting down on waste and frivolous meetings and parties to celebrate how great they are? What happened to the stimulus money that’s supposed to make it so Ritter doesn’t have to make these cuts? Where are the new “green” jobs nobody can seem to get?
Republicans can attack Ritter for not cutting enough. I think good Dems should attack Ritter for cutting so much when he needs to be creating jobs with stimulus money and not hobbling unions.
Colorado has a balanced budget provision in its state constitution. Ritter is doing his job to balance the budget. This new round of cuts will bring this years total to over $1.8 billion. Despite the cuts, higher ed dollars, mental illness support is higher now than under the previous Republican leadership, which had a strong economy under it.
Ritter is also not taking pay during the days he’s ordered furloughs for state workers. State Reps. get paid crap compared to other states, and they have little staff support — usually interns making $8/hr.
Do you think they would work for $8 and hour though?
Let’s see, over the 24 hr/wk maximum aides work for five months, that would save:
$2/hr * 24 hrs. * 4 weeks * 5 months = $960/aide * 100 aides = $96,000 this next year.
Sure that’s only 0.0053% of what we had to cut this year, but nothing like making those college kids and recent college grads really know what poverty’s like!
The plan proposes a $10.50 charge for instant gun purchase background checks and some similar fees for criminal records checks.
Most of the fee increases are off budget. Tuition will surely go up in the wake of a more than 12% cut to higher education (about $80 million). Local governments may have to raise revenues to pay for services funded by grants that have been cut (tens of millions of dollars). Medical providers may have to increase their fees to patients with private health insurance to respond to decreased government funding (on the order of $100 million).
Stimulus funds help a lot. They make up more than $100 million (which Ritter is not counting as part of the cut).
But, there are almost no direct user’s fee increases, even where they would make sense. For example, agricultural department inspections are being cut, when an inspection fee could keep that service at current levels. Similarly, childcare licensing spending and commercial motor vehicle licensing funding are being cut despite the fact that these could also be addressed with increased user’s fees.
If there are increased user’s fees to pay for about $2 million in cuts in state park funding, it isn’t obvious, although these are services that the public is willing to pay for.
The $26 million of cuts to the corrections budget are also not ambitious, with most coming from prison education and shorting parole terms (a smart move because the recidivism risk from parolees is overwhelmingly on the front end of parole terms).
There is not a single cost cutting proposal that suggests reducing adult incarceration terms, despite the fact that this is low hanging fruit — Texas managed to lead the nation in reducing its incarceration (from an admittedly world record rate) simply by shortening maximum probation terms so that late term probationers aren’t sent to expensive sentences for technical violations of probatioon.
All of this matters because user’s fees that take costs out of the general fund free up tax money for programs like funding for at-risk children, people in mental hospitals, prisoners trying to reintegrate to society, and vulnerable people stuck in red tape while transitioning from one government program to another. These cuts put the state at risk of more problems down the road.
Of course, this is a short term patch. In the big picture, growth in health care and corrections (including youth corrections) costs are killing the state budget, that we are addressing with bandaid solutions. A greater hint of a longer term strategy in this short term patch, however, would be appreciated.
I agree that they need to make substantive changes in reducing adult incarceration terms where we can, decriminalizing drugs, etc. But I think change of that magnitude requires the legislature.
Ritter’s office claims the $80 million higher ed cuts “will be backfilled with federal Recovery Act funding,” so there should be no net effect? What am I missing?
It’s not like college kids vote, but their parents sure do.
I doubt if many of them will remember that it was Bill Ritter’s failed A-58 campaign that blew the chance to help ease their burden; but when people are hurting, they’ll find someone to blame. Their car fees just up as well — for good reason, though Ritter has done a poor job communicating that to them IMHO — and adding a tuition hike on top of that will just make his approval ratings dip even lower.
One repeated National Guard recruiting line is the tuition assistance they would get for signing up to serve your country. One weekend a month, two weeks a year, and you’ll have money for college!
I guess now that folks have served multiple deployments, fought in multiple deadly engagements, sacrificed being with their families thru birthdays, anniversaries and graduations, basically FUCK YOU and what we promised when we signed you up.
I know there’s going to be pain in the process of cutting the state budget, but this is beyond unfair. Minor trim, my ass.
That’s in the not cut category.
And if it’s any consolation, it’s a borderline miracles that we’re even going to have universities next year for anyone to attend.
…she said that she would get something from The Guv’s office later in the day. She wasn’t sure if that predicted a partial or complete cut, but she feared the worst.
If they weren’t going to cut the program, why let her know somethings’ coming? They’re going to add money to it?
Here response this morning:
“As far as I know it has not taken a hit.”
So nothing definite (which is good news) but it was kinda weird they sent her a heads-up note, then follow it up with a “never mind.”