With yet another possible $1 billion shortfall looming for the state of Colorado, we got out our sharpened pencils to see if we could determine what it would take to make up the deficit.
First, we axed all the general fund money for the state departments of agriculture, law, local affairs, military affairs, personnel, regulatory agencies, public health and natural resources. Zeroed it out.
That got us to about one-tenth of where we need to be.
Hmmm, how about getting rid of the judicial department? Who needs all those judges, courts and probation officers anyway? Still, not even half way there, and we find ourselves painfully aware of the dysfunction we’ve created.
All right, let’s go another route. How about cuts in state worker pay and benefits? The governor’s budget planners told the Post in March that total personnel costs are $590 million a year. But even if you gave every state worker a completely impractical six-month furlough, you still wouldn’t get there.
The truth is, as Gov. Bill Ritter recently pointed out in a Colorado Public Radio interview, there are only five areas one can hit to take $1 billion out of a general fund budget that hovers around $7 billion.
Those are: higher education, K-12 education, health care, human services and public safety. Those choices can be further circumscribed, as the governor pointed out, by mandated spending (K-12 via Amendment 23) and by expenses driven by caseloads.
Coloradans need to get honest with themselves about what they consider core government functions and how this state ought to go about fairly paying for them.
We think building roads, educating our young people, putting bad guys in prison are basic functions of government. And it could be difficult to meet those obligations beginning in July 2011 if the shortfall runs as high as $1 billion as federal stimulus money runs dry.
We expect education would take another whack. Especially vulnerable is higher education, which has no protections written into the constitution.
State lawmakers already have approved tuition flexibility, which gives state colleges and universities the ability to raise tuition up to 9 percent a year for the next six years, and perhaps even more if they can meet certain requirements.
Even 9 percent is a phenomenal increase considering the rate of inflation has been so low — essentially flat in 2009. With unemployment so high, the ever escalating cost of college tuition is going to pinch families hard.
It doesn’t take but five minutes with economic development folks, who spend their days trying to lure and retain businesses in the state, to get an earful about how much value employers put on a robust university system. This is especially true of those offering the kind of jobs we want in the state — high-paying professional jobs.
We think tuition flexibility should be only a stop-gap measure to help schools balance their budgets for the next several years.
In the meantime, our leaders need to engage Coloradans in a conversations about what we value as core government functions in this state and how we intend to pay for them.
Yes, government should eliminate unnecessary spending but it’s not going to close the state’s budget gap, nor is simply trimming state employee salaries.
It’s long past time to rethink government, and business, as usual.
