Special session to address Colorado's projected $1 billion budget shortfall looming
State leaders say Colorado is disproportionately affected by the Big Beautiful Bill compared to the rest of the country because it's one of four states that mirror or align with federal tax policy. The path forward is complicated.
"That's actually a staggering number that we're going to have to adjust this budget, which we already adjusted by $1.1 billion, so there's not a lot of room there to fix this," said Democrat Senator Judy Amabile, who serves House District 49 and sits on the Joint Budget Committee.
The expectation is that a special session will be called sooner rather than later.
"In that special session, we can address some of the tax treatments, at least for 2026, and we can start to make some of the cuts that need to be made, because every day that goes on, the cuts get bigger," said Amabile. "We have to tell the agencies to stop spending on various things."
While there's a lot of work to be done to make up for such a massive shortfall, it doesn't appear Republicans and Democrats are on the same page about much, including how the state got to this point to begin with.
"On June 30, we had a balanced budget. And then on July 4, we had a $1.2 billion hole in that budget," said Amabile.
"Our budget was balanced and on July 4, we had a $1.2 billion hole; wrong," said Republican Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, who represents Senate District 23. "On June 15, we knew that we were already dipping into reserves to the tune of about $84 million, approximately. We learned that because of the structural deficit we're in, that we didn't make enough ongoing general fund cuts in the budget."
Kirkmeyer also sits on the Joint Budget Committee and says the blame for the federal budget is inflated.
"They tried to insinuate that we're going to have to shut off the Family Affordability Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit because of those 'crazy Republicans' trying to give us a tax break in DC. Director Ferrandino, the governor's budget guy, told us back in June that he assumed that both of those tax credits would be triggered, and they would be shut off. So that was already happening prior to the federal bill passing."
But regardless of how and why, the fact is, Colorado is facing a massive shortfall and will be receiving less tax revenue. The tax cuts, a big cost for a small benefit to Democrats.
Legislative Democrats held a committee meeting Thursday to speak with stakeholders and industry leaders to get a full picture of the scope of impact of the federal budget bill, which includes cuts to SNAP and insurance benefits.
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