{"id":46732,"date":"2021-05-17T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-governor-signs-34-billion-budget-into-law\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T23:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:30:00","slug":"colorado-governor-signs-34-billion-budget-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-governor-signs-34-billion-budget-into-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado governor signs $34 billion budget into law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis speaks before signing Colorado's 2021-22 fiscal year budget into law. (Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Jesse Paul<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis signed Colorado\u2019s $34.1 billion fiscal year 2021-22 budget into law on Monday, restoring cuts made as the coronavirus crisis descended on the state last year while also saving a historic amount for future economic downturns.<\/p>\n

The Joint Budget Committee, the Legislature\u2019s budget-writing panel, had to contend with constantly changing tax-revenue projections that were made uncertain by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the culmination of a yearlong process \u2013 and it\u2019s always hard. But this is the hardest it\u2019s ever been because of the changing numbers,\u201d Polis said just before signing Senate Bill 205 at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

The budget takes effect in July, when the next fiscal year begins. It sets aside more than $1.5 billion for Colorado\u2019s reserve fund that can be tapped by future legislatures. It also includes 3% raises for state employees, $480 million to reduce Colorado\u2019s annual K-12 school funding shortfall and a $20 million line item to create hundreds of new around-the-clock care slots for people with developmental disabilities.<\/p>\n

Also in the budget is $800 million for a state coronavirus stimulus package, the largest slice of which is being dedicated to infrastructure projects. Bills that are part of the package are still being debated in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

The governor called the budget \u201can investment in our children, an investment in our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis delivers his State of the State address in front of the House of Representatives at the Colorado Capitol on Feb. 17. (Photo by Aaron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/span>AAron Ontiveroz<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

State Sen. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, who leads the Joint Budget Committee, marveled at the difference a year has made in the state\u2019s budget situation. His panel went from having to make tearful cuts to having enough money to pay for new programs and initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much good in this budget that will help Colorado recover,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, who is vice chairwoman of the panel, highlighted spending in the budget around wildfire preparedness and response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to make sure that we are ready for this year\u2019s wildfire season,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers had far more money to spend next year than expected because the pandemic\u2019s toll on Colorado\u2019s economy wasn\u2019t as bad as the state\u2019s fiscal analysts feared. The budget represents $3.8 billion more in spending over the current fiscal year. Much of the windfall represents unspent tax revenue, not future revenue.<\/p>\n

As the budget was debated in the Legislature, lawmakers made a number of changes to the document first drafted by the Joint Budget Committee. The ones that made it into the final version include:<\/p>\n

$1 million more for body camera expenses for local law enforcement agencies, bringing the total to $4 million.<\/div>\n
$1 million for the School Bullying Prevention and Education Cash Fund.<\/div>\n
$250,000 for the Suicide Prevention Program.<\/div>\n
$1.1 million in general fund money for reintroduction of gray wolves.<\/div>\n
$125,000 to hire a chief educational equity officer in the Colorado Department of Human Services. <\/div>\n

The changes resulted in a smaller amount \u2013 13.41% of the budget instead of 13.5% \u2013 being set aside in the reserve fund. The Joint Budget Committee initially wanted $1.75 billion to be put in the savings account, but that number was reduced to about $1.5 billion to balance out the changes requested by other lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The budget does not include $3.8 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus money heading to Colorado as part of the American Rescue Plan. That money will be distributed by the Legislature separately. Lawmakers and nonpartisan staff members are still working to determine the rules around how that money can be used.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bob Rankin, one of two Republicans on the budget committee, praised Moreno for how he ran the budget process. But he noted that the panel\u2019s work isn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe task ahead of us is almost as hard,\u201d said Rankin, who lives in Carbondale. \u201cWe literally have $4 billion (to determine how to spend). So the work is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$1.5 billion set aside for reserve fund that can be tapped by future legislatures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,819,28,29,12],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-state-budget-and-tax"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46732"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}