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March 28, 2011 04:42 AM UTC

State Budget Impasse Imminent?

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Pay attention to what the Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel reported this weekend, folks:

The machines in the cluttered basement print shop across the street from the Capitol should be humming right now, printing hundreds of copies of the 2-inch-thick state budget.

But the shop is quiet because there is no state budget.

The six lawmakers on the budget committee – three Republicans and three Democrats – cannot agree about whether to make additional cuts to public schools or to take money earmarked for local governments and businesses…

The Democrats have all but agreed to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s plan for a historic cut to public schools, but they don’t want to make the cuts any bigger.

On the other side are Republicans who want the state to end the new sales tax on cigarettes and stop raiding money for local governments and businesses…

Unless Hodge’s committee comes to a unanimous agreement, it cannot send the budget to the Legislature. This year, it is split 3-3 between the parties, and although the members remain friendly, they were far from making a deal Friday.

As of now, the situation as we understand it can’t be called close to a deal–we’re still very much in the posturing phase, with the Senate Minority demanding further cuts (for some odd reason, as they’re probably the least relevant player), local governments understandably trying to protect themselves, and K-12 education pretty much the only place left to cut further. And not really.

All of which makes the unrelenting drive to reinstate repealed tax exemptions, or cut cigarette taxes, in our view, a very risky proposition politically–good for paybacks, very bad politics if the full facts of these respective positions are widely publicized. If all of those Colorado voters who are upset–or about to be–by massive cuts to their kid’s public school clearly understand which side wants to make it even worse? By cutting taxes on cigarettes?

We’ll wait and see whether cooler heads prevail here, but as we’ve warned several times, “cooler heads” is not the first thing one associates with the name Kent Lambert. Or frosh Jon Becker. From Lambert’s Glenn Beck-style gold obsession to Becker’s windbagging over a seven-cent fee hike, these just are not responsible custodians of a seven billion dollar general fund.

And the choices they are making, not to mention the choice made by their colleagues for them to serve on the Joint Budget Committee, may be a very public debate soon.

Comments

12 thoughts on “State Budget Impasse Imminent?

  1. Really? Seriously? Come on, now. Republicans are delaying the goddamn state budget a thing we actually kind of do need around here, to get cheaper cigarettes at the cost of schools?

    Are we living in a religious cartoon handed out as a newsprint pamphlet outside of Halloween parties or something? Did the Republicans all grow nicely waxed handlebar mustaches overnight? And do the enterprising Polsters need to band together to remove some distressed maidens from the train tracks? (Oh, wait, the train tracks aren’t going to be finished for another 30 years or so…)

  2. By a large margin, iirc. I could be thinking of something else, but if I’m not wouldn’t that mean that the Republicans are arguing to cut education so they can afford to directly go against voter’s wishes? Why does the GOP hate democracy?

    What’s Lundberg’s stance on that? (Seriously asking and yes, it could be considered half a thread jack.)

    I’m also confused about why the JBC belongs to Hodge when it sucks. Bad deal for Mary. Unless she gets it when it’s doing something un-clusterfucked.

    Local media better come through here. I better here the word “disgusting” at least once. (You know who you are.)

  3. The Long Bill has already been postponed a week.  The decks that were cleared two weeks ago for the Long Bill were uncleared on Friday.

    Some might say “imminent.”  I would say “at hand.”

  4. Do you want education or roads?

    Close and combine schools or close and combine police stations?

    My daughter is a first grader in Jeffco Public Schools and I’ve already received news from them that they are cutting over 200 employees and closing or combining at least 2 schools.

    On the other hand, I work for a smaller suburban city whose revenue comes almost solely from sales tax. My evil Employee Association agreed to 4 furlough days this year along with a wage and hiring freeze. Any request for new equipment, no matter how small, is scrutinized by anyone who manages a budget in the city.

    I guess I would ask: How much do schools and local governments depend on that revenue from the state? How much and how long would it hurt them not to receive those funds?

    My uneducated guess is that it’s easier for local governments to adjust to a loss of state money than it is for school districts. I have no idea if I’m right though.

  5. Stop posting expensive signs about Obama, Ritter and Faster as these are wasteful political advertisements.

    Stop placing expensive overhead signs that warn of fog( can not see them in the fog) and other stupid items as these slow traffic more than anything

    Lay off ВЅ off all State liawyers.

    Abolish redundant branches of gov such as DOLA.

    The are many ways to save without touching education. I know education is giant part of the budget but it is the waste that the people hate to fund not education. Only the hardcore want to cut education. I am willing to pay taxes for reasonable roads(not gold plated) and education but anything else is giant giant waste.

    You could lay off ВЅ of all government staff(teachers excluded) and things would not miss a beat!  I have dealt with may areas of gov and I have to tell you, they have nice digs and twice the required staff . K-12 is the exception.

    Try harder!

    1. we could also raise income taxes to 15% and sales taxes to 10%. Or we could completely abandon Medicaid. But just because you CAN do it doesn’t mean it’s good governing.

      Outside of paying teachers, personnel costs are fairly minimal. The budget goes almost entirely to school districts, Medicaid reimbursements, prisons, and college students – not to state employees!

    2. The only good idea you came up with, Mark G., is to eliminate the Department of Local Affairs. The rest of your suggestions simply  would not produce enough savings to make a difference.

      The other problem is that you think government agencies can function with half their lawyers. First, most agencies have very few of those on staff. The agency that has the most, the Department of Law, needs them to do its job, which is representing state agencies and prosecuting people suspected of crimes. Mr. Suthers already is short-staffed. He doesn’t need to have his job made even harder.

    3. to Somalia where there are no government services. It would make everyone happier, they’d have no taxes. Government would be run by those who have a vested interest in making it run well, not sabotaging it a la Doug Bruce.  

  6. Just about everything MarkG suggested cutting is NOT in the $7.2B general fund. The state could lay off every single employee paid by the general fund and would still only cut $596M out of the needed $1.2B in cuts. Of course in doing so we lay off all of the state police, CBI, all of our prison guards and prison staff and so on. The needed budget cuts canonly be found in 6 areas, 46% of which is K-12 education.

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