CO Budget Factoids

Debt on Transportation Bonds
The Colorado Department of Transportation currently budgets $168 million annually to service debt on Tax Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANS) issued during the Owens administration. This level of debt service will continue until 2016. These bonds were issued in order to build the I-25 Southeast Corridor through Denver (known as “T-Rex”), including the light rail line running parallel to I-25. The same bonds also financed new transportation construction throughout other areas of the state. In 2017, payments drop to $130 million, the year in which this outstanding debt will be retired.

Medicaid eligibility grew for non-traditional groups.
Medicaid was initially designed to pay for health care for impoverished families, the disabled and the impoverished elderly. Analysis of the Colorado Medicaid caseload composition shows large increases in recent years for “expansion adults” and “other.”

Proponents defined Amendment 23 as being “for the children,” and it increased the education budget each year even when revenues dropped. Political decisions are about making trade-offs. More for education means less for something else. Amendment 23 locks in the rest of the budget as losers to the largest and more powerful entities and lobbying organizations. Do Colorado taxpayers want funding increases to stay on autopilot forever in order to have higher teachers’ salaries and more spending? The legislature could add repeal of Amendment 23 to the November 2012 ballot for voter consideration.

For more information see: http://tax.i2i.org/citizens-budget/