Landree Heidenreich guides her pig BJ in the swine house during the opening day of the ColoradoStateFair at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo last August. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/The Denver Post)
Finally legislators could hear some good news about the finances of the Colorado State Fair when its latest audit is presented Tuesday morning. The state fairgrounds has been a money loser for at least a decade, not because of the fair itself, which turns a profit on its own, but because of upkeep on the 80-acre site and its buildings the rest of the year.
A year ago the Colorado State Fair was at the end of its financial rope. Tuesday morning legislators are expected to hear it’s still hanging on when they review the fair’s latest audit. The findings of the audit won’t be public until the meeting starts at 7 a.m.
John Salazar, who last month instead of sticking around for Gov. John Hickenlooper’s second term, said Monday he expects the audit to find a much-improved outlook. About $800,000 was cut from the fair’s budget last year, as a foundation that started in 2011 picked up more of that slack, and lawmakers provided a one-time supplement of $300,000 in the last legislative session.
“We’ve done quite a bit,” Salazar said.
A year ago state examiners told the joint Legislative Audit Committee the fair lost $2.8 million the year before, which was about $400,000 farther in the red than the year before. The fair couldn’t go on with those kinds of losses, auditors suggested. The fair gets about $2 million from state and local subsidies, on top of its income from about 500,000 visitors each year during its 11-day run up to Labor Day.
Salazar expects the fair to be solvent this year, or next year at the latest. As agriculture commissioner, Salazar, a San Luis Valley farmer, appointed himself to the State Fair Board to have the most direct role possible in getting the fair on its feet. And though he’s no longer commissioner, he hopes to remain a member of that board.
“I’m hopeful the new commissioner will allow me to stay on, so we can keep pushing some of the changes we’ve made and keep the fair moving in a positive direction,” Salazar said.
The fair’s economic impact to the state has been estimated at $33 million annually. The fair started in 1872, four years before Colorado became a state. In recent years it’s provided about $450,000 in free events and programs for 4-H and Future Farmers of America students each year.
