State Budget

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.

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.

The measure would expand the treatment options EMS agencies can bill for and lower state health care spending by reducing emergency room visits.

If the legislature and then voters sign off on the plan, every dollar of the surplus used for a tax credit over the next decade or more would be a dollar that could have otherwise been used for the general fund.

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 shortfall means two major things: The General Assembly will have to make funding cuts and it also has no money available to spend on new programs. Those two realities will shape the legislature’s entire 120-day lawmaking term.

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.