College costs in Colorado stopped climbing, with implications

Jared Polis offers revised budget proposal

Gov. Jared Polis last week updated his budget request, offering plans for how to implement the state’s new school finance formula and the Proposition 130 law enforcement support fund.

“The tight budget environment we face in FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 requires us to make tough decisions,” Polis wrote in his latest budget letter, dated Jan. 2. “We believe, however, that these proposals strike the right balance to protect key priorities while driving efficiency and preserving fiscal discipline.”

The revised proposal, which comes out each January in order to incorporate the December revenue forecasts, also reverses some cuts and implements new ones in response to concerns raised by the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.

Here’s a few highlights:

Proposition 130: Polis proposes pulling $350 million from the state’s $2.3 billion general fund reserve in order to implement the voter approved ballot measure to recruit and retain law enforcement. The law enforcement grants would then be doled out over the next six years.

That would reduce the rainy day fund to 12.8% of general fund appropriations, 2.2 percentage points below the current statutory requirement of 15%. Polis proposes replenishing the reserve over the next seven years in annual installments of $50 million.

School finance: Polis’ latest request would fully fund Colorado’s new school finance formula over the next six years, as initially planned by the state legislature. That’s a departure from his initial proposal in November, which would have slowed its rollout in order to reduce spending next year.

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