Colorado’s budget hole: How Democrats’ spending spree forced a special session

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC)

Just Stop Digging!

You can almost smell the school supplies in the air as all families with school-age children or university students start scheduling their year and make the annual trek back to campus or begin rearranging and assigning their homeschool curriculum. Fall is in the air, but for the Colorado State Legislature, another budget session begins on August 21st to plug the self-induced hole in the 2025-2026 state budget. 

The session will last a minimum of three days but can continue as long as it takes the General Assembly to complete its work. Since Colorado law requires a balanced budget, Governor Polis announced a Special Session to resolve the issue.

The Governor’s announcement was entitled “Governor Polis Calls Special Session to Address Budget Hole Created by Federal Bill,” but it should actually be called “Governor Polis Calls Special Session to Plug Budget Hole Self-Created by Colorado Democrats.” Yes, it’s true, Governor Polis and Colorado legislators knew this was coming, but chose to ignore President Trump’s stated goals of making tax cuts permanent, adding work requirements to SNAP and Medicaid benefits, and reducing waste and fraud in those programs. Our state spent the federal tax cut money anyway. 

A new program to fund Medicaid for illegal immigrants called Health First Colorado and Child Health Plans Plus began on January 1, 2025, and proudly proclaimed that “immigration status does not matter.” Additionally, if illegal immigrants don’t qualify for those programs, Omnisalud is another option described as “a program that provides Coloradans, no matter what their immigration status is, including adults 19 and older, with a safe way to compare affordable, private health insurance plans and enroll on a secure online platform.” Perhaps this was a bad idea to implement right before President Trump was sworn in?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was initially created to be a temporary help for needy families, not to create a permanent dependent class of citizens. However, since the federal government has funded 100% of the program, it resulted in more money for states that kept welfare recipients on the program longer, thereby incentivizing a dependent class. HR1 reforms the program to require state cost-sharing, beginning in 2027, which provides a benefit to states that move individuals from welfare to the workforce. This commonsense solution will reduce costs and increase accountability.

Sanctuary State Colorado doesn’t see it that way, though. We have illegal immigrants on our benefit rolls, and the federal budget bill includes an increase in noncitizen restrictions. SNAP is listed as a primary reason in Governor Polis’ statement on our resulting budget shortfall.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS OF COLORADO

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