Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has taken the reins of state government at a time when a reviving state economy has put thousands of Coloradans back to work.
That’s brightened the outlook for the state budget, but the state’s new chief executive knows too well that a crazy quilt of conflicting constitutional mandates will continue to hamstring efforts to rebuild Colorado’s battered system of higher education. A recent study ranks Colorado 48th in higher-education spending per capita, and 32nd in students entering college within a year of graduating from high school.
In the long run, voters may have to earmark a new revenue source, such as a mineral severance tax, to rebuild higher education in Colorado. That’s because no matter how much new revenue the expanding economy generates, a 1992 law will limit the state to just a 6 percent increase over the current $6.8 billion general fund. Revenue above that ceiling will go into capital construction, mostly highways. (The 6 percent limit pre-dates the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and wasn’t affected by Referendum C.)
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff says mandated increases in public school funding and Medicaid and the need to repair at least some of the damage the state’s higher education network has suffered, will consume all the allowable 6 percent increase, leaving little or nothing for other state agencies that are trying to rebuild from the 2001-03 recession.
“The magic number – and it’s an easy one to remember – is zero,” Romanoff told The Post last week.
Last month, the state’s top economist, Mike Mauer, released an optimistic new report predicting the state will collect a total of about $49.8 billion in the five years ending in 2010, about $2 billion more than originally predicted. If that happens (and it’s just a prediction, not cash in the bank), it means Referendum C will raise about $5.7 billion over the five-year timeout from the byzantine TABOR rules, rather than the $3.7 billion first predicted. Existing laws would allocate most of the new money – about $1.6 billion – to new highways. The rest would be available for other capital construction needs.
The good news didn’t stop Independence Institute chief Jon Caldara from drenching his anti-Ref. C crying towel again while complaining, “How big is the Colorado state budget?”
There’s a simple answer to that question. Colorado’s general fund budget next year will be about $7.2 billion. By comparison, that’s about two-thirds of the $10 billion profit Exxon posted in just the second quarter of 2006.
We don’t begrudge Exxon stockholders their dividends – they invest plenty to realize such a return. Colorado taxpayers are likewise entitled to feel good about the dividends they’re already receiving from Referendum C.
