COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Colorado have set their sights on the cost of living in Colorado as the Joint Budget Committee tackles an estimated $700 million deficit.
The 75th General Assembly gets underway on Wednesday and Republican Representative Rose Pugliese who serves as the House Minority Leader and represents Colorado Springs explained the cost of living was top of mind for her constituents when she went door to door during the election cycle.
"Affordability is really the top concern," House Minority Leader Pugliese explained. "Whether it's seniors who live on fixed incomes trying to make sure they can make ends meet, and hardworking families who just want to make sure they can raise their kids in Colorado. Neither want to move out of the state, but yet are really struggling with affordability. And so the legislation we're going to be pushing forward, and hopefully you can find some bipartisan support, is around increasing affordability, rolling back regulations that are harming families, and then hopefully decreasing some fees as well."
Democrats echoed the push for affordability during a news conference on Tuesday.
“As I step into the role of Senate President, I’m focused on making Colorado a place where everyone has the opportunity to thrive – where anyone can work hard, afford basic necessities like a safe place to live and high-quality health care, and earn a good life,” said Senate President-designee James Coleman, D-Denver. “I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to deliver results for Coloradans. We’re prioritizing solutions to lower the cost of living, protect our freedoms including reproductive health care and voting rights, and ensure safe, thriving communities.”
It is too early to tell if both Republicans and Democrats share the same vision when it comes to achieving a more manageable cost of living in the Centennial State.
"We're still continuing those conversations, obviously, at the very beginning of the session, before bills are introduced," Rep. Pugliese stated when asked how the Republican plan could be the same or different compared to proposals from Democrats. "It's a little bit hard to have the conversations as to the nuts and bolts, as to what their ideas are... They heard the same conversations at the doors that we did. People are really struggling to make ends meet here in Colorado, and they want to be able to support their families or continue to live here as seniors. And so I think those were conversations that I'm really excited to have, and I believe they will be bipartisan."
According to data from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the overall cost of living in our state is 12% higher than the national average. In California, it is 36% higher than the national average. However, Colorado is also 16.2% above the national median household income.
Some Democrats put the Trump Administration on blast before Inauguration Day.
"I’m excited to get to work to lower costs for families, make our communities safer, and protect the Colorado Way of Life as the Trump Administration threatens to undermine our rights and freedoms,” said Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge. “With a tight budget year ahead, we will be focused on protecting our most vulnerable and preserving the important investments we’ve made in health care, education, and public safety. We will fight back against attacks on abortion rights, attempts to roll back protections that support our immigrant communities as well as clean water and air, eliminate health care coverage for Coloradans or repeal life-saving gun violence prevention legislation.”
One of the glaring hurdles lawmakers have to face this session is an estimated $700 million deficit in the budget, with a lot of cuts expected. It isn't completely clear what sectors will be hit the hardest, but both Gov. Jared Polis and Rep. Pugliese want to make sure education feels less of an impact.
"I focus a lot around public education and making sure that public education is fully funded," Rep. Pugliese who used to be on the education committee said. "As your listeners might be aware, there was a lot of work done through the legislature last session to be able to fund public education, which we have a constitutional requirement as legislators to do. And public education includes charter schools... I think making sure that we have the funding that we need in order to provide public education funding is going to be really important."
The Governor's Office submitted a supplemental and budget amendment request to the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) earlier this month after an update on the economic forecast with an emphasis on funding education.
"This balanced budget request is generally good news due to higher than expected population growth since the November budget and will help us deliver for Coloradans," said Gov. Polis. "Even in a tight budget year, these investments will help all Colorado students thrive, continue to crack down on crime to keep our communities safer, make government more efficient and responsive to the needs of Coloradans, and ensure fiscal responsibility.”
Rep. Pugliese also pointed out how the pandemic has impacted the budget even years later.
"During COVID, there was a lot of federal one-time money that had come into the state, which kind of artificially inflates the budget," Rep. Pugliese added. "So when you create new programs or add new employees based on one-time funds, it is incredibly difficult to sustain that. And I think while that is not the complete picture, it is part of the picture that we're seeing with these budget deficits."
The Governor's Office highlighted the following in their most recent supplemental budget request to the JBC:
- $35 million, for a total increase of $150 million, to fulfill the updated student-focused school finance formula and implement 18% of the formula and fully implement over 6 years
- $12 million to support students who are at risk
- $10 million to support the Child Care Assistance Program to help address new federal unfunded mandates
- Restore funding of $19.5 million to support pediatric behavioral health
- Restore funding of $14.6 million to support Colorado’s rural institutions of Higher Education
- $5.8 million to increase youth detention bed capacity faster, helping keep our communities safe and give youth the tools they need to successfully rehabilitate
- $3.3 million in increased funding for Colorado’s popular money-saving Universal Preschool to continue to support providers
- Restore $2 million for crime prevention grants
- Includes $43 million of additional balancing proposal and reductions that have been presented by Joint Budget Committee Staff
You can watch the full interview with Rep. Pugliese at the top of this article. The legislative session starts Wednesday and the governor is scheduled to give his State of the State speech on Thursday.
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