{"id":50654,"date":"2020-11-03T00:13:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-budget-plan-includes-1-3b-to-kick-start-state-economy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:52:30","slug":"colorado-budget-plan-includes-1-3b-to-kick-start-state-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-budget-plan-includes-1-3b-to-kick-start-state-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado budget plan includes $1.3B to kick-start state economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis speaks to reporters at a news conference on Oct. 13.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis is proposing a<\/p>\n

The stimulus package is a key part of the $31 billion budget proposal the Democrat issued Monday, and it includes the previously announced $375 checks to unemployed workers, as well as a temporary state sales tax break for small businesses pinched by COVID-19 public health orders and $220 million in spending on shovel-ready infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

The budget plan \u2013 for the fiscal year starting July 1 \u2013 includes $2 billion more in discretionary spending than the current year, a 20% increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis budget isn\u2019t about just getting back to where we used to be \u2013 that wasn\u2019t good enough,\u201d Polis said in a budget presentation. \u201cIt\u2019s about taking this challenging time, this difficult time, to utilize lessons learned and boldly forge a path that positions our state for the future in a more equitable way by making key strategic investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s budget proposal is the first step in a six-month process that Colorado lawmakers undertake to write the annual spending plan. But Polis is pressing the Democratic-led state legislature to act quickly and approve major spending when it returns in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can get an increase in funds for this fiscal year, those can create jobs and dollars in the economy right away,\u201d said Lauren Larson, the governor\u2019s budget director.<\/p>\n

So far lawmakers are expressing caution amid significant questions surrounding the state\u2019s fiscal outlook. The Polis administration built its 2021-22 fiscal year spending plan on rosy economic predictions that anticipate $1 billion more in state revenue<\/a> than legislative economists are forecasting.<\/p>\n

In addition, four measures on the 2020 ballot will impact the state\u2019s revenue picture and complicate the budget plan.<\/p>\n

The governor noted the \u201chistoric uncertainty\u201d and put aside a $1.26 billion reserve \u2013 the highest since at least 1985 at 10% \u2013 to cover a potential deficit. It\u2019s not clear if lawmakers will take the gamble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all things we are exploring. Obviously the governor\u2019s budget request is just his recommendations for what he thinks should be done,\u201d said state Sen. Dominick Moreno, a lead Democratic budget writer.<\/p>\n

Moreno said lawmakers are having \u201ca lot of conversations \u2026 about whether this is the right type of relief, the right amount of relief\u201d to address the pandemic-crippled economy. \u201cThose are really policy questions for the legislature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Polis started his budget presentation with a warning about the rising rates of coronavirus infections in the state, saying \u201cColorado\u2019s economic strength depends on our strength in preventing the COVID virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is asking lawmakers for an additional $200 million from discretionary spending in the general fund to combat the virus in the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

His spending plan also would restore some of the $3 billion in spending cuts lawmakers made earlier this year after the pandemic lockdown reduced state revenues. Polis wants to add money back to K-12 education and higher education to restore them to the 2019-20 spending levels \u2013 a move that would still leave them short of recent increases in cost and growth.<\/p>\n

Polis also identified dozens of spending cuts across state departments totaling $422 million, including $272 million in discretionary spending.<\/p>\n

The governor put the price tag for his budget at $35 billion, but it includes $4 billion in double-counted dollars shifted between state agencies, bringing the true price tag closer to $31 billion.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

acknowledges \u2018uncertainty\u2019 of fiscal outlook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,819,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50654","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=50654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87794,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50654\/revisions\/87794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50654"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}