Gov. Bill Owens’ top budget officer on Thursday offered a peek at the future if Referendum C fails – outlining $255 million in budget cuts that would close parks, raise college tuition and eliminate programs such as feeding the elderly and ensuring clean air.
“If Referendum C fails, significant cuts across state government are unavoidable,” wrote Henry Sobanet, the governor’s budget director, in a 28-page memo that detailed proposed cuts. “While some of the cuts in recent years may not have affected the general public, this subsequent round of reductions would diminish public safety, and result in higher tuition for families and reduced consumer protection and services to the elderly.”
Opponents of the ballot measure accused the governor of fear-mongering on the eve of the Nov. 1 election on Referendum C, which asks voters to give up $3.7 billion in tax revenues that would otherwise be returned to them under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
“The governor has directed his staff to move the date of Halloween by a week to scare voters into supporting a tax increase,” said Jon Caldara, a leading opponent of Referendums C and D. “The idea is to scare children and little old ladies.”
Caldara said the state should eliminate economic-development grants, which he dubbed “corporate welfare,” and funding for services to illegal immigrants.
Sobanet’s memo, which presents potential cuts offered by directors of state departments, outlines a series of cuts that would spread pain from border to border, wiping out programs that affect rich and poor, healthy and sick.
Colorado would cut programs that feed the elderly, bury the poor, provide prosthetics for the disabled, protect victims of domestic violence and ensure clean air.
The state would close 11 state parks permanently, and 15 others would be shuttered seasonally.
The elderly would not get property-tax exemptions back.
The state would quit funding the poison-control hotline and the office of suicide prevention. The state would no longer conduct instant background checks on gun buyers. The state would cut its database on uninsured motorists.
Colorado would no longer oversee mental-health providers. The state would stop inspecting plumbers and electricians. The insurance and securities fraud unit would be eliminated. The program that monitors ski lifts would be cut.
The budget for public colleges and universities and state prisons would be cut 10 percent. Sobanet said public-safety concerns would most likely force leaders to drop the prison cuts and trim the higher education budget by 20 percent.
Sobanet has projected that the state will need to cut $365 million in spending next year if Referendum C fails. His memo released Thursday compiles $255 million in potential budget cuts.
To come up with the remaining $110 million, Sobanet said, the state might consider transferring severance taxes into the general fund. Severance taxes on oil, gas, coal and other mineral extraction raised about $143 million last year.
The state faces a squeeze next year because of conflicting mandates to increase school and health care spending while returning excess taxpayer money.
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, added by voters to the Colorado Constitution in 1992, limits how much taxpayer money the state can keep. Referendum C would suspend that limit for five years, letting the state keep an estimated $3.7 billion. Referendum D would let the state borrow an additional $2.1 billion.
Sobanet rejected claims that the proposed cuts are an attempt to scare voters.
“My job is to prepare a budget with the available resources,” Sobanet said. “This is our process.”
During the summer, Owens ordered directors of state departments to prepare two budgets – one that assumes Referendum C passes and another that assumes it fails. The governor’s budget proposal is not due to state lawmakers until Nov. 15, but Sobanet’s memo was released to comply with public-records requests from media outlets, including The Denver Post.
House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, said the cuts avoid many other ways the state could save money for taxpayer.
“Let’s talk about real Medicaid reform,” Stengel said. “…Let’s talk about streamlining departments. Let’s talk about meaningful reform before we start talking about cutting programs that pick on the poor.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
