Colorado lawmakers learned Monday that the hole in the state’s budget is not quite as big as they’d feared last week.
The bad news, though, is that they have only a few days to come up with more than $900 million in cuts or other ways to fill the gap.
“We’re definitely not going to be making a lot of friends over the next two days,” said Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, which crafts the budget.
Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, the chairwoman of the JBC, said budget analysts were running out of ideas and that significant cuts to programs would be inevitable.
“When the staff doesn’t know where else to trim, that’s scary,” Keller said.
Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, put it more succinctly.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” he said.
Lawmakers already were trying to finish re-balancing the budget in the current fiscal year, which ends in June. The state was facing a more than $600 million shortfall in the current year, and lawmakers had raided one-time pots of money like cash funds and reserves, cut spending and changed a variety of policies to balance the budget.
But legislative economists last Friday predicted that because of plunging tax revenues, the hole in the current year would be another $207.5 million larger. They also predicted the amount lawmakers would need to cut from the budget next year would top $900 million.
However, JBC staff told lawmakers Monday that legislative economists had not taken into account some of the spending trims lawmakers had already made. Subtracting those from the new revenue estimates, the state’s deficit in the current year now only stands at $156.3 million, while lawmakers would need to cut just $768.8 million in the next budget year, which starts in July.
It was little comfort to members of the JBC. Staff director John Ziegler told lawmakers they had to fill the $156.3 million hole in the current year’s budget by Wednesday so that staff would have enough time to prepare and print legislation before Monday, when the budget bill for next year is introduced.
And lawmakers have until Friday to come up with $786.8 million in cuts for the next year.
JBC members now are preparing for long sessions the next two days to slash spending in the current year, which could involve tapping more cash funds and finding programs that can be cut with only a few months left in the year.
Spending cuts next year almost certainly will include the elimination of a more than $90 million property tax break for seniors and could mean suspending some school testing or cuts to full-day kindergarten programs. Colleges and universities also are likely targets for cuts and prison closures and sentencing reduction policies could be on tap.
And while lawmakers had ruled out furloughs for state employees in the current year, they may rethink that for next year.
It’s still possible federal stimulus money will rescue the state’s budget in some measure. Colorado is set to receive billions of dollars over the next several years, but it’s unclear to budget analysts precisely how all of the money can be used to plug holes.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
