• News
• Sports
• Opinion
• A&E
• Multimedia
• Features
• Obituaries
• Blogs

  Home Page » Opinion » More Cuts

More cuts

Making the best of a bad situation

On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Ritter presented his latest plan to cope with Colorado's still-unfolding budget crisis. This move was necessitated by the most recent revenue forecast, which showed the state $286 million short - even after three previous series of budget cuts.

In this round, Ritter moved money around, changed due dates and relied heavily on federal stimulus money. He did, in other words, what he could do.

But the tricks are about used up, as is the federal money. The really nasty business will come with next year's budget.

At least the governor will have the state's lawmakers to share the pain. Ritter will submit his 2010-11 budget proposal to the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee on Nov. 6. Revenue estimates from the governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting show the state having $1.3 billion less to work with than in a typical year. That will be a challenge.

For now, Ritter cut higher education by $145 million. That money should be backfilled with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The governor is using another $45 million in federal funds to replace cuts to the Department of Corrections. His proposal will also save about $10 million by refinancing Certificates of Participation used to pay for capital construction projects.

He also saved $37 million by suspending severance tax grants to local governments. Money from that has in the past paid for such things as an intersection in Ignacio, a fire truck for Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Department and La Plata County planning. Clean Energy Fund grants from the Governor's Energy Office totaling $14 million were also suspended.

Ritter's plan also includes a 1 percent reduction in rates paid for certain functions under Medicaid. And it shifts Medicaid payments from the last two weeks of this year - fiscal 2009-10 - into 2010-11.

There are other similar moves, and taken together apparently they will close this year's gap. But they are accounting tricks, one-time moves that cannot be repeated, or risky steps - such as cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates - that really cannot be taken further.

Ritter was right to use the federal money. It was meant for exactly such purposes. But barring something unexpected from Washington, that is all there is. And next year the cuts to higher education will be real. Then what?

Various steps have been proposed, but in this the governor's critics have not been particularly helpful - probably because if there were any easy or obvious fixes Ritter would have done them.

Josh Penry, the senate minority leader and a Republican candidate for governor, said the cuts should be made permanent, which may or may not be a good idea but does not find any more money. He also suggested ending some programs, but did not say which.

Penry and others have suggested selling state buildings. But does the state have a lot of unnecessary buildings? And is this really a good time to depend on real estate sales?

There are also the evergreen proposals to privatize prisons and the state's colleges and universities. But do we really want to put public safety in the hands of the lowest bidder or price the children of the middle class out of higher education?

It might come to that. But before it does, Coloradans should explore all the options - including raising revenue.