Colorado budget improves 9.5 percent while spending, not revenue, drives the shortfall
By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
State economists brought the Joint Budget Committee a number that sounds like relief. General Fund revenue is projected to grow 9.5 percent this fiscal year.
Then came the rest of the September forecast.
The same document that promises 9.5 percent growth also shows Colorado's labor force shrinking at a pace the state's own analysts say normally shows up only in a recession.
It shows the state keeping money it used to send back to taxpayers.
And it shows spending that Legislative Council Staff, the legislature's nonpartisan forecasters, say is the real reason the budget keeps breaking.
Read past the headline and the improvement is less about a growing economy than about the state holding onto ...