08-27-25 Interview - Barb Kirkmeyer - The Not So Special Session is Over

THE NOT SO SPECIAL SESSION IS OVER And Democrats, instead of looking at cutting anything, just raised taxes on businesses instead. And I say that because not a single Republican voted to raise taxes on small business, and every bill brought forth by Republicans was killed on the very first day of the session. So what happened? The Denver Gazette has this wrap up:

Five tax bills passed along party-lines in both chambers, offered by the majority Democrats in the House. The measures are designed to raise general fund revenue to cover a portion of the shortfall. The fiscal notes said they could raise as much as $253.2 million. But the rest is now up to Gov. Jared Polis, who will present a spending reduction plan to the Joint Budget Committee on Thursday afternoon that could cover another third of the shortfall. The state's general fund reserve, set at 15% of general fund spending, or $2.33 billion, will cover the last third.Those dollars, however, will have to be recovered in the 2026-27 budget — and, already, the June 2025 revenue forecast showed that budget would start with about $700 million in the red.

Hmmm, why, if they "fixed" the issues that were "created" by HR 1 would be we starting the next budget year in the red? Could it be that it ISN'T HR1, it is the massive overspending we've seen since 2019 when Democrats took everything over? Member of the Joint Budget Committee Barb Kirkmeyer joins me at 2:30 to talk about it all. Here is a list of the eleven bills, only one of which got any Republican votes, that were passed by Democrats this year.