FISCAL POLICY
COLORADO FISCAL POLICY
Our Perspective
Colorado’s fiscal system has a structural imbalance - created by inherently conflicting constitutional mandates - that will continue to widen the gap between General Fund revenue and necessary expenditures. Even as Colorado’s economy improves, the imbalance, although unintentional, will persist because of contradictory constitutional provisions initiated and passed by Colorado voters at different points in time.
Despite ongoing efforts to create new efficiencies, reduce expenditures, and stimulate job growth, it is evident that Colorado cannot rectify this structural fiscal imbalance simply with budgetary cuts and/or stimulating economic growth. Until additional resources are generated, recurring budget cuts will continue to jeopardize some of the State’s most important projects and services, including PreK-12 education, our higher education institutions, and our transportation infrastructure. Coloradans need to determine what state services they wish to preserve and what they are prepared to eliminate, given these fiscal constraints.
Our Work
The Colorado Forum has been deeply engaged on matters of state fiscal policy for more than four decades. The Forum convened the Fiscal Planning Project which worked to examine the State’s financial situation, inform Coloradans about the fiscal challenges facing the State, and develop options for viable solutions. In 2015, the Forum, along with other civic and business leaders, initiated a research, education, and outreach endeavor, Building a Better Colorado. The initiative is exploring the imbalance between citizens’ expectations of the services that government should provide and the ability of their government to address those expectations. Building a Better Colorado is convening 37 community meetings across the State in 2021, as it has for the previous several years. This year, the BBCO conversations will focus on K-12 education.
NATIONAL FISCAL POLICY
Our Perspective
The nation’s growing debt and deficit is a serious threat to the economic well-being and national security of the United States. It is urgent and essential that our leaders in Congress and the President of the United States put in place a plan to address our skyrocketing debt/deficit and manage our domestic policy. These priorities must ensure that our country allows everyone to thrive.
