Senate District 14
NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED
By State Sen. Bob Bacon
Originally published in The Senior Voice
Colorado remains in the throes of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The members of the General Assembly worked extremely hard to pass a prudent, responsible and balanced budget and to make up for the budget shortfall of $1.454 billion. To do this we made many difficult decisions and we weighed every option.
With a combination of federal dollars, state reserve funds and surgical cuts, we avoided slashing essential state services like clean water, child immunizations and K-12 education. Programs considered for cuts were breast and prostate cancer screening, full-day kindergarten, pediatric care, higher education, child welfare, nursing home services, the Senior Homestead Exemption, mental illness programs, early childhood education, and prisons. No stone was left unturned.
As the recession rages on, the outlook for next year’s budget is grim. The current fiscal year budget must be reduced and the following fiscal year budget will again need to be cut drastically. In all, we need to reduce the state’s budget by an additional $840 million over the next year. Unfortunately, we are left with no good options. Every cut will hurt, and no one in the legislature likes what we have to do.
We will be asking, “What kind of Colorado do we want?” meaning, what state services are most important? Our choices may be between funding higher education or children with disabilities. We will continue to do our best to protect Colorado’s most vulnerable, but we will be forced to cut funding for people and programs that Coloradans depend on such as: schools, water, police officers, roads and bridges, nurses and children with disabilities.
As we continue making difficult budgetary decisions, most citizens will see programs they value appreciably diminished or cut. We plan and hope for a speedy economic recovery, but in the next few months, state services and programs we have come to expect cannot be the same.