Budget Cuts

The Joint Budget Committee — the six-member, bipartisan panel that drafts the budget — tweaked the spending package after debate in the full legislature earlier in the month.

Students, caregivers, immigrants, rural communities and parents will all feel the impact of Colorado’s $1.5 billion shortfall.

Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley of Littleton called for the entire 650+ page budget bill to be read aloud, a roughly 15-hour ordeal that halted proceedings in the House this week.

Medicaid took the brunt of the final reductions, include a reimbursement rate cut for providers and a cap on Cover All Coloradans, which provides health care to immigrants who are children or pregnant.

Colorado’s Medicaid spending has grown dramatically in recent years, making it tough for the state’s budget writers to avoid deep cuts to the program.

Colorado's budget shortfall was $500 million higher than earlier projections.

The news was met with shock from state lawmakers, who have been reeling in recent weeks as they cut Medicaid and other state services to address a $1 billion budget shortfall.

Family caregivers are worried the cuts will jeopardize their livelihoods and ability to support their loved ones. Lawmakers and public health officials say they have no choice but to make them.

Nonpartisan staffers told lawmakers this month that the way they spent billions of dollars in one-time federal funds given to Colorado during the COVID pandemic contributed to the state’s budget shortfall.

The federal government shutdown delayed the release of key business and labor data, leaving forecasters in the dark about the true state of the economy.