October 27, 2010 07:28 PM UTC

Budget Games Down the Stretch

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

In the last two years, as everyone who follows Colorado politics knows, major cuts have been made to the state budget as revenue declined during the recent recession. A recurring theme, given that the state legislature has been controlled by Democrats during this period of budget cutting, has been vitriolic attacks from the GOP minority on the individual cuts, while offering no realistic alternatives–not to mention that the GOP normally campaigns on budget cuts, adding another layer of unreality to these attacks.

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports today, the chair of the Joint Budget Committee Rep. Mark Ferrandino offered his Republican counterparts an opportunity to identify, specifically, what “nonessential” items remain in the budget to cut. This offer came as Republicans criticized the latest round of revenue-forced budget cuts announced by Governor Bill Ritter.

No takers.

State Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, on Oct. 7 invited Republicans in the Senate to provide the JBC with a list of programs it would eliminate to balance the state’s $248 million shortfall during the current fiscal year and the estimated $1 billion budget gap that is anticipated in the next fiscal year.

Monday was the deadline Ferrandino set for a Republican response…

“The serious problems Colorado families face demand more than press gimmicks from elected officials,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, R-Littleton. “This is why the Senate Republican office has ignored Representative Ferrandino’s letter.”

Kopp said he would welcome Ferrandino’s support for the Blueprint for A Leaner Government, contained in the Senate Republicans’ agenda…

“This bill will identify and budget to the core functions of government, giving us a framework to categorize essential and nonessential programs,” Kopp said. “Senate Republicans have been open and honest about how they will navigate Colorado out of this difficult economy. It’s time Representative Ferrandino and his colleagues are open and honest about which taxes they plan to increase for 2011.”

We suppose that it’s just not realistic to expect an honest debate about the budget one week before the election, but the fact is, this is exactly the same thing the GOP minority in the legislature has been doing for two years–all the while taking every opportunity to attack the majority’s mandated efforts to balance the budget. In January of 2009, they wouldn’t tell you what they would cut. In the final week of October of 2010, they still won’t. And that’s a strategic decision.

We noted a couple of weeks ago a story in the Colorado Springs paper about GOP legislative candidate Karen Cullen, and her pursuit of a “false statement” complaint against a 527 who dropped a mailer in her district, claiming she wants to “cut $140 million from education.” Cullen claims this is false, because the source cited only indicates she opposes the recent repeal of several targeted tax credits–what the $140 million figure is based on.

We’ve waded into on this debate a number of times, acknowledging what everyone under the Dome knows: there’s very little left to cut in the budget other than education, so unless you suspended those tax credits for items like bull semen, food containers, and candy and soda, education would without question take the hit. Governor Ritter said as much in no uncertain terms at his budget press conference last Friday: “Without actions on credits and exemptions, particularly, and the Homestead Exemption, K-12 and higher education would be taking cuts by as much as $200 million more than they have. Any suggestion otherwise–any claim that there’s an easy, pain-free way to balance the budget–is not just wrong but completely disingenuous.”

Back to Cullen, who in clueless Dan Maes style hilariously told the Springs paper in her candidate questionnaire that “since the Governor operates separately from the Joint Budget Committee, spending control by the Legislature is limited.” We’re not completely sure what she was trying to say here, but it certainly doesn’t reflect a qualified opinion on the Colorado budget.

Who is Cullen to say that this mailing that says she wants to cut $140 million from education isn’t entirely accurate? Because not even the incumbent Republicans she wants to join in the legislature next year appear able to back her up. In fact, they seem to be backing up the 527 attacking her.

It’s all just a game, to take advantage of the budget crisis for electoral advantage. Perhaps the worst thing that could happen to them would be to actually win, and have to make the decisions they’ve been punting and criticizing–but they’ll worry about that in January.