They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board

They built the budget bomb. Now they say Trump lit the fuse.

Colorado Democrats want you to believe they’re victims of the Big Bad Federal Budget Bill. That the state’s $1.2 billion shortfall just… happened. Like a pothole after a snowstorm. Nothing to do with how they’ve governed.

Governor Polis says, “The Trump Administration is withholding needed funds from our classrooms,” and Senate President James Coleman warns, “There’s no avoiding the fact that these cuts will hurt Colorado families.”

Convenient. But here’s the part they don’t mention: Colorado’s fee-based revenue—the stealth tax that doesn’t require a vote—blew through the roof to $25.8 billion last year. 

That’s right. More than half of the entire state budget now comes from fees that never showed up on a ballot—but always show up on the bill.

So while lawmakers like Sen. Robert Rodriguez rage about “tax giveaways for billionaires,” they spent years giving the middle class a different kind of gift: road use fees, delivery fees and payroll taxes for state-run insurance programs. 

According to the Common Sense Institute (CSI), since 2018, fee-based revenue for non–higher education enterprises rose by an amount equivalent to a 1.5 percentage-point increase in the income tax rate—while actual income taxes were cut by 0.38 percent. 

Voters thought they were getting relief. Instead, they got a stealth hike and a receipt stamped “Enterprise Fund.”

It’d be hilarious—if it weren’t draining your paycheck.

Let’s talk Medicaid. Polis said Republicans “voted to slash Medicaid.” But Colorado’s Medicaid tab has risen every year since the 2014 expansion. 

We’re now spending nearly $13.8 billion annually—up from $4.7 billion in 2012. That’s a 193% jump in just over a decade. The general fund share has ballooned, crowding out spending on everything from roads to education. 

Medicaid now accounts for nearly 20% of the state’s own-source revenue, up from just 15.3% in 2010.

And while Polis warns that federal policy might force tough decisions, he forgets to mention that Colorado already made those decisions—by locking in structural spending it can’t afford. In a CPR interview, he said the federal bill would be “disastrous,” adding, “Not only would enormous health care costs be shifted onto the state… it would actually reduce revenue to the state.”

Translation: We planned a spending spree assuming the feds would always pick up the tab.

Mark Ferrandino, the governor’s budget director, added, “We don’t have the money to pay our bills.”

That’s not a defense. That’s a confession. It’s also the kind of thing you expect to hear from someone who maxed out their credit card on ski gear and then blamed the interest rate.

Colorado’s budget strategy has all the discipline of a teenager with a Venmo account and no curfew.

Budgeting in Colorado now works like this: make grand promises, expand benefits, send the invoice to Washington and when it bounces—cry sabotage.

Step 1: Swipe the card. Step 2: Blame the bank.

Republicans saw it coming.

“Colorado’s budget crisis is not the result of federal reforms,” said Rep. Rose Pugliese. “It is the product of years of reckless overspending by Democrats.”

Sen. Cleave Simpson agreed: “This crisis is entirely self-inflicted… We’ve been warning them all along.”

“The Democrats have control of the budget and they blew it,” said Sen. Lisa Frizell. “Plain and simple.”

“Rural families are tired of footing the bill for Denver’s spending habits,” added Rep. Ty Winter.

And Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who serves on the Joint Budget Committee (JBC)  didn’t mince words: “We don’t need a special session. We need an intervention for Democrats’ addiction to overspending.”

Let’s not forget Rep. Rick Taggart—a man whose karma must’ve caught up with him from a past life as a budget-haggling pirate. This year, he barely made it back to Mesa County during session, also logging long days on the JBC while trying to keep the state’s finances afloat. “The Governor could start today by implementing a hiring freeze and repealing unsustainable programs that were created with one-time dollars,” he said. “Instead, Democrats are blaming everyone but themselves, while doing nothing to fix the budget.”

Budget battles aren’t flashy, but Taggart kept showing up to duel progressive excess with nothing but a spreadsheet and sheer grit. Call it boring. Call it unpopular. But watching the books is how you keep the whole thing from crashing.

They’re not wrong. Even after voters passed Proposition 117 in 2020 to rein in the fee explosion, lawmakers pushed through ten new state enterprises—none of which appeared on a ballot. 

SB21-260 alone created a fee structure that brings in $91 million annually across multiple enterprises, including the Clean Transit and Community Access funds. Others are set to rake in even more under SB25-270 and SB25-320.

In Colorado, ballot measures are a suggestion. Legislators treat them like parking signs in Boulder—optional if you’re feeling confident.

It’s worked. In 1996, less than half the state budget was TABOR-exempt. Today, 74% of it is, meaning nearly three-quarters of what Colorado spends isn’t even subject to voter review. 

That’s $9,265 per person—spent with your name on it, but not your vote.

Meanwhile, CSI shows that for every $1 increase in general fund revenue per Coloradan since 2008, fee collections rose by $2.69. In 2000, enterprises collected $225 per Coloradan. By 2024? $4,322.

And who pays the price? Low-income Coloradans. 

As the Bell Policy Center and CSI both confirm, most fees are flat dollar amounts—meaning they take a far bigger bite out of small paychecks than big ones. A 2025 study found that Colorado’s retail delivery fee is 6.5 times more burdensome for households earning under $25,000 than for those making over $200,000.

As CSI’s analysis shows, if the state had funded all its enterprises through income tax instead of hidden fees, the rate would’ve jumped to 12.57%. 

So while Democrats brag about cutting taxes, they’ve simply moved the collection window around back—then charged you a service fee for walking through it. 

In the words of CSI, fee revenue growth didn’t slow after voters passed Prop 117—it sped up. Ten new enterprises, including one legislative package that created $91 million in annual transportation-related fees—with absolutely zero public consent.

Democrats talk about equity while quietly designing a system that taxes poverty at checkout.

The state’s unofficial slogan might as well be: “Equality means everyone pays the same fee—whether they can afford it or not.”

Sen. Robert Rodriguez may call Republican warnings “blind loyalty to Trump,” but Coloradans aren’t blind. They’ve been hit with fee after fee, promised programs that never delivered and now they’re being told it’s all someone else’s fault.

Pugliese said it plainly, and correctly: “Democrats broke the budget. Now they are trying to break the process and rewrite the truth.”

That’s the most expensive fiction of all.