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October 27, 2010 07:28 PM UTC

Budget Games Down the Stretch

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

In the last two years, as everyone who follows Colorado politics knows, major cuts have been made to the state budget as revenue declined during the recent recession. A recurring theme, given that the state legislature has been controlled by Democrats during this period of budget cutting, has been vitriolic attacks from the GOP minority on the individual cuts, while offering no realistic alternatives–not to mention that the GOP normally campaigns on budget cuts, adding another layer of unreality to these attacks.

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports today, the chair of the Joint Budget Committee Rep. Mark Ferrandino offered his Republican counterparts an opportunity to identify, specifically, what “nonessential” items remain in the budget to cut. This offer came as Republicans criticized the latest round of revenue-forced budget cuts announced by Governor Bill Ritter.

No takers.

State Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, on Oct. 7 invited Republicans in the Senate to provide the JBC with a list of programs it would eliminate to balance the state’s $248 million shortfall during the current fiscal year and the estimated $1 billion budget gap that is anticipated in the next fiscal year.

Monday was the deadline Ferrandino set for a Republican response…

“The serious problems Colorado families face demand more than press gimmicks from elected officials,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, R-Littleton. “This is why the Senate Republican office has ignored Representative Ferrandino’s letter.”

Kopp said he would welcome Ferrandino’s support for the Blueprint for A Leaner Government, contained in the Senate Republicans’ agenda…

“This bill will identify and budget to the core functions of government, giving us a framework to categorize essential and nonessential programs,” Kopp said. “Senate Republicans have been open and honest about how they will navigate Colorado out of this difficult economy. It’s time Representative Ferrandino and his colleagues are open and honest about which taxes they plan to increase for 2011.”

We suppose that it’s just not realistic to expect an honest debate about the budget one week before the election, but the fact is, this is exactly the same thing the GOP minority in the legislature has been doing for two years–all the while taking every opportunity to attack the majority’s mandated efforts to balance the budget. In January of 2009, they wouldn’t tell you what they would cut. In the final week of October of 2010, they still won’t. And that’s a strategic decision.

We noted a couple of weeks ago a story in the Colorado Springs paper about GOP legislative candidate Karen Cullen, and her pursuit of a “false statement” complaint against a 527 who dropped a mailer in her district, claiming she wants to “cut $140 million from education.” Cullen claims this is false, because the source cited only indicates she opposes the recent repeal of several targeted tax credits–what the $140 million figure is based on.

We’ve waded into on this debate a number of times, acknowledging what everyone under the Dome knows: there’s very little left to cut in the budget other than education, so unless you suspended those tax credits for items like bull semen, food containers, and candy and soda, education would without question take the hit. Governor Ritter said as much in no uncertain terms at his budget press conference last Friday: “Without actions on credits and exemptions, particularly, and the Homestead Exemption, K-12 and higher education would be taking cuts by as much as $200 million more than they have. Any suggestion otherwise–any claim that there’s an easy, pain-free way to balance the budget–is not just wrong but completely disingenuous.”

Back to Cullen, who in clueless Dan Maes style hilariously told the Springs paper in her candidate questionnaire that “since the Governor operates separately from the Joint Budget Committee, spending control by the Legislature is limited.” We’re not completely sure what she was trying to say here, but it certainly doesn’t reflect a qualified opinion on the Colorado budget.

Who is Cullen to say that this mailing that says she wants to cut $140 million from education isn’t entirely accurate? Because not even the incumbent Republicans she wants to join in the legislature next year appear able to back her up. In fact, they seem to be backing up the 527 attacking her.

It’s all just a game, to take advantage of the budget crisis for electoral advantage. Perhaps the worst thing that could happen to them would be to actually win, and have to make the decisions they’ve been punting and criticizing–but they’ll worry about that in January.

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19 thoughts on “Budget Games Down the Stretch”

  1. “The serious problems Colorado families face demand more than press gimmicks from elected officials,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, R-Littleton.

    Total agreement.  He caught that they are still dealing with a shortfall this very year?  And he knows what happens once the money is gone while people aren’t putting forth actual solutions?

    I love this theory that the GOP (and ACP) are going to waltz into full majorities and start changing the constitution in time to stop literally every department from shutting down.

    This diary needs a poll about what the most obvious parts of Colorado’s budget are.  Voters have to approve tax increases?  The state can’t write checks in the red?  State programs aren’t free?  Good thing this shit isn’t coming out of a budget expert.  Whoops…

    1. Your warped chatter about all the cuts the state has been forced to make are false facts and with the election yet to be decided you are already planning the next assault on Coloradans and their businesses.

      Let’s start with the fact that the state spend is $19 billion, any takers?

        1. You, other bloggers on this site and Colorado in general is who I state this too.

          The basis of your arguements contain fatal flaws … to start with, the state of Colorado spends billions more then you would have us believe.

      3. The total budget for Colorado is $19.5 Billion dollars

        source: http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir…

        HOWEVER, the amount of the budget that the Legislature/Governor really have any control over is only $7.5 Billion.  The rest of the budget is Federal Match for programs, cash funds (revenues generated by a certain department – fees for service) and reapportioned funds.

        The general fund portion of the budget has not grown much at all since I have been paying attention to it. We have gotten additional matching dollars for federal programs, more fees for certain programs, etc.  

  2. Like their national counterparts, the local GOP has a whole lot of nothing. Nothing they’re willing to share with the voters, anyway, lest they be scared straight.

    Should the predicted bloodbath come to be, there are going to be a hell of a lot of moderate voters with buyer’s remorse in a very short while.

  3. Some expenses or investments should be publicly funded.

    Which ones? To what level? How to collect the necessary revenue?

    Answers that don’t address one, two or all three of these, are not “answers.” They are worse than useless distractions and confusions.

    In this case, since CO has declining revenue, actual answers would look like:

    – increase revenue by [__insert revenue increase source here____}

    or

    – reduce funding for (____insert area to cut____)

    or

    – here’s a function of CO gov’t we can eliminate or suspend

    Anything else is a lie. Or something.

  4. I’ve posted this before:

    Get rid of CO capital gains exclusion: $17+million per year.

    Disallow pension exclusion for those making over $250,000: $10 million per year.

    Disallow tuition contribution deduction for those making over $250,00: $4 million per year.

    These don’t balance the budget, but every bit helps.  Right?

    1. would put $4 million into the pockets of higher ed, but would likely not do anything on the general fund side…but it’s a good idea, nonetheless, and one that has been bandied about within higher ed circles for years – dating back at least to about 1992 or so.

      1. The tuition deduction reduces the amount of state income taxes paid by taxpayers.  Eliminating the deduction would simply increase the amount of income taxes collected by the state.

  5. And by waste I mean anything that doesn’t go directly into my pocket or maybe my buddies’, and by trillions I mean a big number I haven’t actually looked up.

    Vote for me!

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