DZǰ’s $46.8 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year will head to Gov. Jared Polis after both chambers of the legislature agreed Tuesday to the final version approved by the powerful budget committee.
The House and Senate had previously adopted a series of amendments to the state spending plan that needed to be reconciled. The Joint Budget Committee decided which amendments would stick, and in which fashion, as it sought to meet the constitutional requirements to pass a balanced budget.
The JBC’s approved changes included higher caps for dental care for immigrants without legal status who benefit from a Medicaid-like program, money for veterans services, and more time to allow children with intellectual or developmental disabilities to transition automatically to adult comprehensive care.
The committee also added $10 million to address an ongoing consent decree, a 2019 federal order that requires the state to reduce wait times for court-ordered mental health evaluations and treatment. The state could face fines reaching multiple times that amount if it doesn’t make progress on cutting those wait times.
This budget, which sets the state’s spending plan for the fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30, 2027, was the latest to feature deep cuts as the state grapples with skyrocketing costs in must-spend areas.
One estimate had put the state’s general fund deficit this year at $1.5 billion. The overall general fund, which covers most day-to-day operations in the budget, is set at $17.4 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
In their efforts to close the budget gap, lawmakers have cut into the rainy-day fund and reserves, halted across-the-board pay raises for state employees, and turned to legal and fiscal maneuvers such as trying to count the past overpayment of tax refunds against future refund obligations.
Medicaid, which provides healthcare for DZǰ’s poorest residents, has seen its costs increase at a much faster pace than what state revenues or the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights allow. That made it a target as lawmakers sought to reverse the “structural deficit” in which the state has spent more than it can afford.
Among the cuts were the elimination of automatic enrollment for children with severe intellectual or developmental disabilities to adult programs, a reduction in paid caregiver hours and more.
“This has clearly been a lengthy and painful set of discussions about how we address our Medicaid budget,” Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat and chair of the Joint Budget Committee, said after the final vote Tuesday. She said long-term support and services paid for by Medicaid, in particular, have grown rapidly.
Sen. Lisa Frizell, a Castle Rock Republican, won an amendment that sought to prevent a cap on Medicaid-paid caregiver hours, while limiting a proposed expansion of the waitlist for people awaiting services for severe disabilities. That amendment was ultimately stripped off, though, and replaced with an extension for the automatic enrollment program. It was set to end July 1 but will now run through the end of the year to give those families less of a shock.
Frizell called the waitlist for developmental disability services — currently at seven years and likely to grow following the budget cuts — “unconscionable.” She said she sought to keep not just the status quo, but to wrench down the waitlist.
“I’m talking about families where you have adults who are the caretaker for their 30- or 40-year-old child,” Frizell said, adding that she has friends and neighbors in that situation. “This has just been a real gut punch to these families to have to worry about whatap going to happen (to their children).”
But, Frizell added, she wasn’t sure how she would have juggled the decisions the budget committee had to weigh this year.
Victoria Moul, the founder of the advocacy group Impacted Caregivers of Colorado, said her members were terrified of losing their homes, their cars and their children with the upcoming budget cuts.
These families rely on Medicaid reimbursement for time they spend caring for their children, who often have such complex needs that the family members can’t hold down traditional jobs. Moul, who lives in Ault, had cancer when she was pregnant with triplets, who were then born very prematurely and developmentally disabled.
“You explain to me, how can a caregiver who can’t go out and get another job afford to care for a disabled person when they can’t afford the rent?” Moul said.
The budget committee lamented the cuts to Medicaid services but saw slashing as necessary to balance the budget now and in the future.
Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat on the budget committee, invoked his own family members with intellectual disabilities. He and others on the budget committee said extending the timeframe when children automatically transition to receiving adult services was a way to still help families while trying to bend down unsustainable long-term costs.
“One of the things we really struggled with in this budget is ensuring that the cuts we’ve made aren’t just one-time,” Bridges said.
Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat on the budget committee, promised her colleagues that budget writers would continue to look at Medicaid spending and the ripple effects of cuts.
“I want to know, what is really the right way to go about this — and when we cut things, who does it impact? And how are those people impacted in other ways?” Amabile said. She added that her intent was “just to take a more holistic view of how these departments interact, with Medicaid being at the center of this conversation.”
