Colorado facing multiple budget shortfalls

The Colorado General Assembly has experienced trouble in finding an agreement to meet the needed funding for Colorado's crumbling infrastructure. The General Assembly only meets for 120 days of the year and are a third of the way through their session. Without meeting funding demands, which total over $9 billion. Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature appear to be at an impasse on how to go forward with meeting this funding demand.

Multiple ideas have been proposed to solve this issue but none in particular appear to be gaining widespread support among the legislature. Ideas that have been proposed include increases in various state taxes. None of these proposals have gained much popularity throughout the Assembly. But this is not the only budget shortfall Colorado is experiencing. Colorado's public schools are currently facing a shortfall of about $135 million. Representative Crisanta Duran (D), the current Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives has proposed tying any transportation funding into any bill that addresses the infrastructure spending demands. While popular among progressives, this idea is not supported by many conservative members of the legislature. This too does not seem to be gaining much support throughout the Assembly.

However, on Wednesday, Rep. Crisanta Duran (D) and Sen. Kevin Grantham (R), who is the President of the Senate of Colorado have agreed to discuss the shortfall and find a bipartisan solution that can win support in the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate. Whether or not these talks will bear any fruit, the legislature has only about two-thirds of its 120-day session remaining and time is running out.

If no agreement is made between the two, the Governor has expressed interest in putting a funding proposal to the voters on their next ballot, as required by TABOR. Past disagreements in the Assembly has led the Governor to take this route and put the issue to the voters but this route is not seen as the most likely to provide a positive outcome as any tax increase placed on the ballot would face steep chances of becoming enacted with Colorado's historic disapproval of raising taxes,