March 16, 2026 03:35 PM UTC

State Lawmakers Gird For Budgetpocalypse 2026

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• by: Colorado Pols

At the midway point in this year’s session of the Colorado General Assembly, Democratic majority lawmakers are working to pass a number of important pieces of legislation on such hot-button topics as gun safety, protecting Colorado residents from unlawful behavior by federal immigration agents, and the new perennial battle over regulating artificial intelligence decision-making systems that increasingly dictate the terms of American consumer life. Each of these subjects enjoys strong public interest, and in general solid support for the Democratic legislative agenda. By the time the legislature adjourns in May, Democrats hope to have another demonstrable record of achievement to take to voters in the November elections.

But as Bente Birkeland and John Daley reported for Colorado Public Radio last week, progress on individual policy priorities this year is taking place against the backdrop of painful looming budget cuts, already totalling $1 billion and potentially far worse depending on the new projections coming this week:

The state’s powerful Joint Budget Committee voted Thursday to make cuts to Medicaid caregivers and reduce services for Coloradans with developmental disabilities to help fill a massive budget gap.

The decision was expected, as Medicaid continues to take up a larger chunk of the state budget. The full Legislature will have to approve the cuts as part of the overall budget, but the votes mark a significant step in the budget-writing process…

The Legislature faced roughly a billion dollars in cuts last year as well, and avoided cutting patient care. This year is different.

“We’re making cuts to things that are $35,000. We are really, the couch cushions are being shredded looking for these coins,” [JBC Vice-Chair Sen. Jeff] Bridges said.

As the Denver Post’s Nick Coltrain and Seth Klamann reported over the weekend, this week’s revenue forecast could make the change budget makers are painstakingly finding in the state’s proverbial couch look like the easy part:

That forecast will tell the Joint Budget Committee, which had been working off older projections, exactly how much money it has to spend — and how much it needs to cut. This year’s budget includes a nearly $17 billion general fund, with about 60% of it going to Medicaid and K-12 education…

The costs of Medicaid services and other state programs continue to rocket up faster than the amount of spending allowed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, a state constitutional amendment that limits the growth of government. And changes to federal tax policy last summer, now mirrored in the state tax code, are further squeezing the budget.

As a result, this is the third legislative session in a row, including the summer special session last year, that lawmakers have had to close a nearly $1 billion budget gap.

Although we won’t get the exact numbers until everyone else does, the prevalent rumor at the Capitol is that the economic forecast is going to come in much worse than expected, as the combined effects of Republican federal budget cuts and the slowing Trump Golden Age economy eat deeply into state revenues. If the numbers are as bad as some are telling us to get ready for, the Democratic majority in Colorado will be forced to vote for politically nightmarish cuts in order to meet their constitutional obligation to balance the state budget.

The indignity of being forced into cuts that are anathema to the goals of expanding health care and properly funding public education, which have driven state policy for almost 20 years, will be made even more humiliating as local Republicans try to hypocritically stick Democrats with the blame for cuts forced by their partisan colleagues in Washington. We don’t expect these duplicitous tactics to move the needle with voters who are expected to punish Republicans at the polls in November. But you’ll never see local Republicans like “Both Ways Barb” Kirkmeyer “fighting for the little guy” like they do when Democrats have no choice but to cut the budget.

The inevitable games will be played, but voters will know who to blame.

Their names all end with (R).