Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. Colorado is facing a budget
deficit estimated around one point two billion dollars. Some lawmakers
say it's due to the changes in the federal tax
and Spending bill.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
However, other Republican leaders released a statement saying years of
reckless state spending and the democrats refusal to prioritize sustainable
budgeting practices is to blamee Joining us now in the
KAE Commaspirit Health hotline. Republican state senator, a member of
the Joint Budget Committee. It's Barbar Kirkmeyer. I always appreciate
you coming on with the senator. Were you surprised when
you heard about the deficit or what was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, I was not surprised about the deficit we had.
First of all, thanks for having me on. Let's start
talking there. But you know, we had documents a document
from our executive director at the Joint Budget Committee, Craig Harper,
and from our chief economist Greg Skabinski, all the way
back in like March of this last year that said
(00:56):
very clearly we were on an unsustainable path. I've known
about this structural deficit in our budget since March of
twenty twenty one when the then chairman of the Joint
Budget Committee is the now Speaker of the House, so
we've known about this. We also got information in June
at our forecast meeting that we were already going to
(01:16):
be about seven hundred million dollars short coming up on
the twenty six to twenty seven budget. So no, I
wasn't surprised. The part that was surprising to me, though,
is how the Democrats now are trying to shift blame
to the federal bill, the bill that was passed, that
was passed on July fourth. All of that other stuff
happened before the federal bill.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Senator Kirkmeyer, we're asking our listeners on our social media
platform this morning of what they believe is contributing to
this billion dollar deficit. Are we seeing that overspreading by Democrats?
Are we seeing that federal spending bill a little bit
of bulls, a little bit of neither. Do you think
there could be more to it or is it simply
the reckless overspending. Is there a number of factors that
(01:59):
are contributing to the deficit.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It's well, there's a difference between the deficits and then
what's causing the issues in this current fiscal year. So
the deficit in our twenty sixth, in our twenty five
twenty six year, and when we started talking about the
budget last year, in our last session, know, we were
one point two billion dollars short. What we didn't do
was set priorities and fund those priorities first. We funded
(02:25):
all sorts of other things. We continued with one time
spending in the twenty five twenty six budget year, which
we are currently in and which is now leading to
a deficit that we're going to have in twenty six
twenty seven. Then what happened is those crazy Republicans back
in the federal government decided to give everybody tax relief
and tax breaks, and that is impacting the revenue that
(02:48):
comes into our state in this current fiscal year, and
that is what we have to deal with. So it's
kind of, you know, there's two things going on here.
It's what's going on in this current fiscal year versus
our twenty six twenty seven budget. Regardless, we still have
a one point two billion dollar deficit. You know that
we you know, it's a lack of revenue coming in
(03:09):
again because we're getting tax breaks and it's impacting our revenue.
So you know, the Democrats put us in a position
of consistent over spending. I said, you know, literally I
said this to someone the other day. They have literally
driven the car off the cliffs, and now they're telling
everybody to buckle up. You know, we did tax credits,
(03:30):
we did a lot of one time spending, a lot
of things that have gone on within our budget that
have put us in this situation. So it's not necessarily
because of the federal bill. The federal bill again, we're
we're getting tax breaks that will impact our revenue here
in this state, and we're going to have to deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Is there some daylight or a way out of this, Senator,
And will it require some drastic cuts to certain things
that people may be used to here in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It could require some drastic cuts. I'm not sure how
how much people are used to them. But the thing
is this, at least for the last three years that
I've been on the Joint Budget Committee and dealing with
the budget very specifically, is I've noticed that we have
what's called what I call a crisis of priorities. We
last year, literally our last few votes were on funding
(04:17):
K through twelve. Education Medicaid provider rates, post secondary education
and training, funding for neglected and abuse kids, kids in
early intervention programs, so kids with disabilities. Those were our
last votes that we were taking. So instead of funding
our core critical components of government, things that you know
we should be funding because there are things that people
(04:38):
can't do for themselves, we wait till the very last
day when we're closing out the budget as the Joint
Budget Committee, before we walk it across the street to
the other ninety four members, we're waiting till the last
day to fund our core critical programs. You know, why
aren't we funding our priorities first and then determining what
else we can fund after that. We funded the I
(05:00):
used to have before we funded what we have to
have kind of thing, and that's just backwards to me.
So again, when we're looking at our budget, we don't
need to be looking at things, you know, like funding
furniture that we don't need. Funding a second salary for
the lieutenant government, our lieutenant governor, that's just not necessary.
We funded things just in other departments that are like,
(05:20):
come on, we need to fund you know, take through twelve. Education,
we need to fund medicate providers and our healthcare system
in this state. Those are things that we should be
looking at first with a.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Little time we have left. What immediate action would you
like to see from the governor in order to address
this deficit? Is a special session needed or is there
anything that like the Joint Budget Committee or anyone else
can do before calling everybody together, maybe just the logistics
of how this can work going forward.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, I'll tell you the governor didn't. They didn't come
forward with any plan. I didn't hear any plan in
June at our forecast meeting with the Joint Budget Committee.
I didn't hear any plan with the leadership meeting from
the Governor that said, hey, here's the things that we
know we need to cut. There are certain things like
certain tax credits that the Democrats put in place. They
also put triggers in place in those tax credits that
(06:10):
will shut them off, we think. But there wasn't anything
that I heard from the governor that said, here's what
we're going to do. So I'd like to know what
his plan is because he could do things like hiring freezes.
He could do things like talk to all of the departments.
I mean, you know, excuse me. One thing I did
here is the OSPP director, Director Farandino did say, well,
(06:31):
you know, we're telling everybody to cut two point five percent.
They need to be cutting more like ten percent. They
need to be maybe stop spending and looking through their
programs and seeing things that aren't you know again, need
to have kind of situations and stop that spending. Now.
He could do that as a governor. Instead, I just
saw an ad for another staff position over in healthcare
policy and finance that's in the hundreds of thousands of
(06:53):
dollars for that staff person. So why isn't he doing
a hiring freeze. Why hasn't he told his staff, his directors,
his executive directors, to go through their budgets and start
cutting now up to ten percent and stop spending now
up to ten percent. He can do that as governor.
He doesn't have to wait for the legislature.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Republican State Senator, member of the Joint Budget Committee at
Barbara Kirkmeyer, thank you, Thank you,
Now on Colorado's Morning News. Colorado is facing a budget
deficit estimated around one point two billion dollars. Some lawmakers
say it's due to the changes in the federal tax
and Spending bill.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
However, other Republican leaders released a statement saying years of
reckless state spending and the democrats refusal to prioritize sustainable
budgeting practices is to blamee Joining us now in the
KAE Commaspirit Health hotline. Republican state senator, a member of
the Joint Budget Committee. It's Barbar Kirkmeyer. I always appreciate
you coming on with the senator. Were you surprised when
you heard about the deficit or what was your reaction?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, I was not surprised about the deficit we had.
First of all, thanks for having me on. Let's start
talking there. But you know, we had documents a document
from our executive director at the Joint Budget Committee, Craig Harper,
and from our chief economist Greg Skabinski, all the way
back in like March of this last year that said
(00:56):
very clearly we were on an unsustainable path. I've known
about this structural deficit in our budget since March of
twenty twenty one when the then chairman of the Joint
Budget Committee is the now Speaker of the House, so
we've known about this. We also got information in June
at our forecast meeting that we were already going to
(01:16):
be about seven hundred million dollars short coming up on
the twenty six to twenty seven budget. So no, I
wasn't surprised. The part that was surprising to me, though,
is how the Democrats now are trying to shift blame
to the federal bill, the bill that was passed, that
was passed on July fourth. All of that other stuff
happened before the federal bill.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Senator Kirkmeyer, we're asking our listeners on our social media
platform this morning of what they believe is contributing to
this billion dollar deficit. Are we seeing that overspreading by Democrats?
Are we seeing that federal spending bill a little bit
of bulls, a little bit of neither. Do you think
there could be more to it or is it simply
the reckless overspending. Is there a number of factors that
(01:59):
are contributing to the deficit.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It's well, there's a difference between the deficits and then
what's causing the issues in this current fiscal year. So
the deficit in our twenty sixth, in our twenty five
twenty six year, and when we started talking about the
budget last year, in our last session, know, we were
one point two billion dollars short. What we didn't do
was set priorities and fund those priorities first. We funded
(02:25):
all sorts of other things. We continued with one time
spending in the twenty five twenty six budget year, which
we are currently in and which is now leading to
a deficit that we're going to have in twenty six
twenty seven. Then what happened is those crazy Republicans back
in the federal government decided to give everybody tax relief
and tax breaks, and that is impacting the revenue that
(02:48):
comes into our state in this current fiscal year, and
that is what we have to deal with. So it's
kind of, you know, there's two things going on here.
It's what's going on in this current fiscal year versus
our twenty six twenty seven budget. Regardless, we still have
a one point two billion dollar deficit. You know that
we you know, it's a lack of revenue coming in
(03:09):
again because we're getting tax breaks and it's impacting our revenue.
So you know, the Democrats put us in a position
of consistent over spending. I said, you know, literally I
said this to someone the other day. They have literally
driven the car off the cliffs, and now they're telling
everybody to buckle up. You know, we did tax credits,
(03:30):
we did a lot of one time spending, a lot
of things that have gone on within our budget that
have put us in this situation. So it's not necessarily
because of the federal bill. The federal bill again, we're
we're getting tax breaks that will impact our revenue here
in this state, and we're going to have to deal
with it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Is there some daylight or a way out of this, Senator,
And will it require some drastic cuts to certain things
that people may be used to here in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It could require some drastic cuts. I'm not sure how
how much people are used to them. But the thing
is this, at least for the last three years that
I've been on the Joint Budget Committee and dealing with
the budget very specifically, is I've noticed that we have
what's called what I call a crisis of priorities. We
last year, literally our last few votes were on funding
(04:17):
K through twelve. Education Medicaid provider rates, post secondary education
and training, funding for neglected and abuse kids, kids in
early intervention programs, so kids with disabilities. Those were our
last votes that we were taking. So instead of funding
our core critical components of government, things that you know
we should be funding because there are things that people
(04:38):
can't do for themselves, we wait till the very last
day when we're closing out the budget as the Joint
Budget Committee, before we walk it across the street to
the other ninety four members, we're waiting till the last
day to fund our core critical programs. You know, why
aren't we funding our priorities first and then determining what
else we can fund after that. We funded the I
(05:00):
used to have before we funded what we have to
have kind of thing, and that's just backwards to me.
So again, when we're looking at our budget, we don't
need to be looking at things, you know, like funding
furniture that we don't need. Funding a second salary for
the lieutenant government, our lieutenant governor, that's just not necessary.
We funded things just in other departments that are like,
(05:20):
come on, we need to fund you know, take through twelve. Education,
we need to fund medicate providers and our healthcare system
in this state. Those are things that we should be
looking at first with a.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Little time we have left. What immediate action would you
like to see from the governor in order to address
this deficit? Is a special session needed or is there
anything that like the Joint Budget Committee or anyone else
can do before calling everybody together, maybe just the logistics
of how this can work going forward.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, I'll tell you the governor didn't. They didn't come
forward with any plan. I didn't hear any plan in
June at our forecast meeting with the Joint Budget Committee.
I didn't hear any plan with the leadership meeting from
the Governor that said, hey, here's the things that we
know we need to cut. There are certain things like
certain tax credits that the Democrats put in place. They
also put triggers in place in those tax credits that
(06:10):
will shut them off, we think. But there wasn't anything
that I heard from the governor that said, here's what
we're going to do. So I'd like to know what
his plan is because he could do things like hiring freezes.
He could do things like talk to all of the departments.
I mean, you know, excuse me. One thing I did
here is the OSPP director, Director Farandino did say, well,
(06:31):
you know, we're telling everybody to cut two point five percent.
They need to be cutting more like ten percent. They
need to be maybe stop spending and looking through their
programs and seeing things that aren't you know again, need
to have kind of situations and stop that spending. Now.
He could do that as a governor. Instead, I just
saw an ad for another staff position over in healthcare
policy and finance that's in the hundreds of thousands of
(06:53):
dollars for that staff person. So why isn't he doing
a hiring freeze. Why hasn't he told his staff, his directors,
his executive directors, to go through their budgets and start
cutting now up to ten percent and stop spending now
up to ten percent. He can do that as governor.
He doesn't have to wait for the legislature.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Republican State Senator, member of the Joint Budget Committee at
Barbara Kirkmeyer, thank you, Thank you,
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