Levy presents governor’s budget plan to Rotarians
$320 million in cuts and changes
Just two days after Governor Bill Ritter announced his fiscal year 2009-10 budget plans, Representative Claire Levy was at Gilpin’s Peak to Peak Rotary Club meeting summarizing changes, particularly budget cuts. Revenue shortfalls and economic woes mean the State needs an additional $318 million. Ritter has achieved $320 million, mainly by executive order. Coloradoans will feel the full brunt of budget cuts in the 2010-11 fiscal year, said Levy. Stimulus money has offered some protection so far.
The Department of Corrections came up short this year and received a bail-out of approximately $45 million, via a year-end supplemental appropriation in June. Ritter’s plan cuts $25 million from that department, mainly by accelerating the number of offenders transitioning from prison to parole, and shortening parole terms. Prison academic/vocational education programs will not be expanded; 34 full-time positions associated with the education programs will be eliminated, resulting in savings of $3 million. Colorado’s incarceration rate is the 15th highest in the nation, Levy told the Rotarians, with 1 of every 29 adults under some kind of correctional supervision. The cost of maintaining one offender in prison for one day would provide probation services for 21 days. Further, Levy explained, the current system of “tough love” isn’t working. Colorado’s recidivism rate is 65%, meaning only 35% of offenders steered clear of crime during the first three years of release. “We need to be smarter about who gets probation and who goes to prison,” she said. Legislators are working on ways to revise the system that won’t jeopardize public safety. “The bottom line is, ‘What works, and how do we get there?’” she concluded. A couple of possibilities: intervention programs for youth and frontloading services to get offenders off parole up to six months earlier.
Levy provided copies of the August 18th presentation from the Joint Budget Committee. In addition to the Corrections cuts, it shows the greatest General Fund spending reductions in Higher Education, (-12.3%), Regulatory Agencies (-11.4%), Agriculture (-10.1%) and Natural Resources (-9.2%). Health Care Policy and Financing will see General Fund cuts of approximately 7% which would have been higher but for an infusion of federal funding. The Governor also plans to backfill Higher Education with the one-time stimulus funding. Personnel and Administration will be cut by 4.3%. Rotarians observed that despite a hiring freeze, the Governor had put 200 new employees on the State’s payroll. Levy explained that some areas were exempt from the hiring freeze, but noted that didn’t account for all of the new hires. In the Governor’s new plan, 270 full-time positions will be cut.
All in all, the Governor’s balancing plan finds $320 million by reducing General Fund spending ($262.2 million) and Cash Fund spending ($39.8 million), $6.1 million by changing the Old Age Pension cost of living adjustment and $12.9 million via reserve changes and a signing bonus the State received from a new procurement agreement.
The Department of Transportation is not funded from the General Fund, but via taxes and fees. Levy said Transportation needs $150 million just to make a start on 126 structurally unsafe bridges throughout the state. She described the increase in vehicle registration fees that took effect this year, and will ultimately add $500,000 in revenues, as “tough medicine for some people.” “It’s not a perfect bill,” said Levy, “but we needed to do it.” Another fee, for criminal background checks on gun purchasers, is expected to provide $500,000 in revenues, if passed by legislators. Levy left the Rotarians with final statistics: “Colorado ranks third from the bottom in state taxes (sales and income) and twelfth from the top in local taxes. We’re starving the State.” Legislators are now trying to determine what the State can afford to do, she told the group. They suggested legislators use Rotary’s Four-Way Test, which requires being fair to all involved, as a guide in their decisions.