State Budget

Colorado lawmakers propose budget full of cuts and cash sweeps

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Lawmakers on Monday introduced in the state Senate the legislation setting up the 2025-26 budget, which contains hundreds of millions of dollars in funding cuts, transfers and sweeps.  

The spending plan comes in at $43.9 billion.

The plan includes $16.7 billion in general fund dollars. That is the discretionary money that comes from corporate and individual income taxes, as well as sales and use taxes. Lawmakers use that money to fund new programs, although it will be in short supply in a year when the Joint Budget Committee will have to find ways to cover a $1.2 billion shortfall.

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Ballooning Medicaid costs, TABOR limits expose flaws in Colorado’s big government spending spree

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By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board After years of overreach and unchecked government growth, Colorado lawmakers are now scrambling to plug a $1.2 billion hole in the state budget — a crisis largely of their own making.  Colorado budget writers voted Wednesday night to finalize a 2025–26 budget plan that slashes transportation funding, eliminates programs,

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Rep. Gonzalez: Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem

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In the state of Colorado, we are facing over a $1.2 BILLION dollar shortfall. As we are now halfway through the 2025 legislative session, we have seen little progress from the lawmaking majority on making hard and significant cuts to our budget. Rather than admit the improper allocation of taxpayer dollars, the majority uses this predicament to go after and attack our Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).

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Colorado lawmakers debate when, how to fund $350M voter-approved public safety mandate

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Colorado lawmakers are scrambling to figure out exactly how to carry out voters’ approval of a ballot measure that directs the General Assembly to put $350 million into a fund to help recruit, train, and retain local law enforcement.

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Proposed state budget could cut $110 million from already pothole-laden highways

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Colorado’s ability to build and fix the highways that are key to transporting goods and people could take a $110 million hit in the next fiscal year under budget-balancing proposals being offered by Gov. Jared Polis.

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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, lawmakers spar over proposed budget

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The Colorado legislature’s budget drafting body, stung by criticism from the governor over hiking Medicaid provider rates last spring higher than what he wanted, bit back when Gov. Jared Polis met with the committee last week to discuss his 2025-26 budget proposal.

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Colorado owes taxpayers $34M in refunds it never sent. That means trouble for the state budget. 

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The state government owes Colorado taxpayers an extra $34 million in refunds it should have sent out years ago, legislative budget staff told lawmakers Friday, blowing a hole in the state’s budget with just days left in the 2024 legislative session.

Colorado owes taxpayers $34M in refunds it never sent. That means trouble for the state budget.  Read More »