Passage of Referendum C in 2005 was a wonderful victory for fiscal sanity in Colorado, but it is only temporary. The 2007-08 budget that the legislature has been debating is the third of the five budgets lawmakers will write under Ref C, with only two more to follow. The state’s resources still are extremely limited compared to future needs.
So it is time to start talking about the post-Ref C world.
Government budgets should reflect a society’s most important values. That’s why Colorado’s budget priorities should align with the core values of opportunity and self-sufficiency.
The Bell Policy Center’s “Blueprint for Opportunity,” published last August, makes 38 recommendations to help Colorado families move up the economic ladder toward financial stability. Some require action by the business community, but most fall into the realm of state government. Here are some of the recommendations we believe are vital:
Most of these expenditures would be allowed under Referendum C. They are the kind of investments we promised during the Referendum C campaign, and they are the kind of investments we need to make to expand opportunities for all Coloradans.
But they are expenditures we largely cannot afford under current tax and budget constraints – this year or for years to come. The proposed budget contains a little more money for some of these priorities. But, for the most part, these gains are marginal.
The good news is that many Coloradans are starting to talk about this problem. The Economic Futures Panel at the University of Denver, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, university and college presidents, transportation interests, regional groups such as Club 20, the public education community and others already know we have a problem.
The Bell Policy Center plans to focus on two specific aspects of our state’s fiscal predicament.
First, we will work with other groups to document, as best we can, how far our current and future resources will take us in meeting future needs in the five largest budget areas: schools, colleges, health and human services, prisons and transportation.
Is there really a gap? If so, how big is it? Where are the greatest deficiencies? Do our aspirations for education, health care and transportation really fit the revenues we will generate? If not, what are our options?
Second, we will work toward a comprehensive and permanent fiscal solution – and to avoid competing, piecemeal proposals.
Different interests already are considering how to solve their own pieces of this problem. We honor their intentions and share their motivations.
But if we learned anything from our experience with Amendment 23 and other efforts, it is that when we dedicate revenue streams or guarantee funding for specific programs or departments, we further complicate Colorado’s already convoluted budget formulas and constraints, and we widen the gap between winners and losers.
At the Bell Policy Center, we believe all these issues are really just one issue. A state of opportunity is not a place with good schools but bad colleges, world-class roads but second-class health care. Rather, it is a state that recognizes each must be a priority.
If we don’t work together, Colorado’s fiscal crisis will evolve into an opportunity crisis and a diminished quality of life for all of us.
Wade Buchanan is president of the Bell Policy Center. The “Blueprint for Opportunity” is online at www.thebell.org.
