Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I'm very pleased to welcome back to the show
Governor Jared Polis. He's had to do some very serious
work on a very short time frame here because after
the passage of the big beautiful bill in Congress. Because
of the way, and Governor Polis actually explained this last
time he was on the show, so we're not going
(00:20):
to go into it too much, but because of the
way Colorado does state taxes, changes in federal taxation impact
Colorado taxation immediately, so Colorado needed to find some money
to fill in a eight hundred million dollars ish budget
whole we already spent time talking about how the state
legislature raised a bunch of taxes. Then they're also going
(00:41):
to take some money out of the reserve fund or
rainy day fund. So what was remaining to be done
was cutting some spending and those decisions were basically left
to the governor. He made those decisions in the past
day or two. We just learned about him, and I
asked the governor to join us to explain how he
decided what to cut. So, without long introduction, Jared, welcome back,
(01:02):
And why don't you just jump in wherever you want
to jump in.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I think we need a one minute review here of
what's going on. So Colorado has rolling concurrent it here
in the federal tax changes. So that means we're one
of only four states where Colorado's get the benefit of
those tax cuts this year. Now for people, it's things
like no tax on tips. That's not only federal. We're
one of only four states where nobody pays state tax
(01:28):
on tips up to twelve five hundred. Nobody pays state
tax on overtime. So we advanced that up effectively.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
A year over some other states to do to a
year later.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And then there's other states that are totally diswetted from
the federal they're never going to give state tax breaks
to tips or overtime. Now, I see tips are overtime,
those affect people, But the vast majority of these are
corporate things, right, And the single biggest that costs the
state money doesn't cost the state money over ten years
ross it cost us statement over one year.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It's accelerated depreciation for companies.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
That's the single biggest thing, and we merit for the state.
But it means that what they would have paid over
ten years, they get the advantage of not paying in
year one.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It's a stimulus. It's a stimulus HR one.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's not talked about enough, and nets out for the
Feds over ten years, probably nets out for the states
over ten years. But it drills a hole in your
budget in the first year, and the state gets more
money in the out years. The Feds get more money
in the out years. One more framing thing. This whole
big bill substantially increases the federal deficit. They don't care.
(02:31):
I wish they did. I support a constitutional amendment that
they have to balance the budget. They should do that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
This made the budget less balanced, increase the national debt.
We don't do that in Colorado. We balance our budget.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So because of the changes in the current tax year, Yes,
it blew a hole in our budget, not nearly as
big as the hole they blew in their own federal budget,
which they don't care about.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
But it blew a hole in our budget.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So yesterday it now it's two hundred and fifty three
million dollars in cuts the state spending, and the state
budget is now back in balance. In fact, we have
about a ten to fifteen million dollar surplus just for
a little Wriggle room.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So that's what we did yesterday.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So I'm looking at a couple of your official documents,
and there's one line item in that two hundred and
fifty million dollars number that is much bigger than any
other individual line item, and it says diversion of OED
Prop one twenty three funds to GF, which I assume
(03:28):
means general funds. Can you please explain that line item
to me because I don't I don't understand it entirely.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, So I think it's what makes sense.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Ross is I described to two or three or four
biggest items, because I mean there's there's, you know, two
hundred thousand dollars just savings here and there, And we'd
have a two hour show if we were going into
all those because we kind of tried to find savings everywhere.
So when the voters pass Proposition one twenty three, part
of what Proposition one twenty three said is in years
where you are below the taper cap a budget deficit,
(03:57):
this is the initiative that funds housing for the state,
affordable housing, land banks, a bunch of variety of different
housing related causes. In years where we're below the taper
cap you can use those those funds to balance the budget.
That was in a blue book in the initiative. Prop
one twenty three brings in about three hundred and eighty
(04:18):
million dollars a year. We're diverting about one hundred millions
dollars of that money that would have gone to what
we call land banking and equity mechanisms to help people
low income people with home ownership, and we're effectively pausing
some of those for a year and diverting that to
the general fund.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So that's one of the largest.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
The other large one, I think it's some thirty eight
million dollars is medicaid provider rates.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
These are rates that providers get paid.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It effectively would freeze them at last year's levels, plus
a small increase because we're not One of the reasons
that and you mentioned this earlier urgency was important is
our fiscal year for the state July first to June thirtieth.
We're only in the second month of our fiscal year.
So by making the cuts now instead of say waiting
till let's say January the legislature came back or March.
(05:07):
They are smaller because they're spread a cost across ten
months or eleven months.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
If we delayed, delayed, delayed, took action.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
In January, you would effectively have you'd only have five
months to do those cuts.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So they would be DRACONI, very dracconiing. So this is
basically a.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Freeze of provider weights from last year for the remaining
nine months.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Of the year. The first three months they got a
one point six percent.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Increase, and we're negating that. Those were two of the
largest ones. Another one that we are adding in is
pre and post claim and review for different behavioral therapy.
We you know, we as a policy said let's make
it easier to get behavior health, removed some of the
pre claim review for medicaid as a payer. Adding that
(05:50):
back in adds about seven million dollars to the budget.
So those are a few of the larger ones. And
then again there's many many. You know, a million two
million email and that's real money. But you know what
is the same a millionaire a million there sooner or later.
As of the real money, I mean for the state
budget in two hundred and fifty three million, you need
a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Of those, Okay, So my next questions come from my
own personal kind of bias, and you know what my
biases are in economic perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You're a flame in progressive liberal, socialist right right on
the right shelf.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, so I I would have preferred to see more
cuts to government spending and fewer tax increases. How do
you feel about the balance as it was handled this year?
Kind of a third to third to third ish between
tax increases, Rainy Day Fund and the cuts that you
had to come up with.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It is it's about it's about a third to third
or third almost almost exactly. So first, this is what
I think we probably share. The fiscal responsibility piece. You
do not raid the reserve and spend down the reserve
with these cuts. That's what some said, They said, just
take it all out of the reserve. I think it
would have wiped out most of the reserve. We would
effectively have no cushioning or reserve. One of the things
(07:03):
that we've been really focused on is making sure Colorado
has an a rating that we are fifteen percent reserve.
Now thirteen percent, but when I came in it was
five percent, right, so we want to reserve in that
twelve to fifteen percent range for recessions right for the countercyclical.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Use so that we can continue to make sure that
our state is in sort physical shape. So we took it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
We took, you know, a little bit from reserves. We're
over thirteen percent, right. We hope to get it back
to fifteen. But as long as you're in that thirteen
percent fifteen percent range, you're healthy. The others came from
divided between both revenue and cuts. You know, obviously open
to both. Wasn't sure what the legislature would do on revenue.
Some of these make a lot of sense, Ross, probably
(07:48):
to you. Also, like they listed several countries that are
tax shelters, they expanded that list to include several others,
so they're not treated favorably under Colorado law.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We decouple on things that didn't make sense. But I
think the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Important context here, Ross is color raddens get more tax
cuts than any other state except for the four states
that have this concurrent adoption of federal attack.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So for better or worse, we can go into all
the federal ones.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Even when you net out what the legislature did, Colorados are.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
In the top four businesses and individuals. We didn't touch
the individuals.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Legislature did not take a single tax advantage away from individuals.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
But they look at some of the corporate ones.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But we are still in the top four states for
making for actually delivering in this current year the tax
cuts that pss.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, So you're right about that, of course, And that's
the other side of the coin. That causes the budget
shortfall that you have to fill is that. But the
members of your party in the legislature have spent all
of their time and running ads, and you got Shad
Marie running these ads, you know, blaming Republicans for blowing
(08:55):
this hole in the budget.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And of course I have never heard a.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Democrat until you right then saying Colorados should be grateful
the Big Beautiful at least the parts of the Big
Beautiful Bill that do offer some tax relief will benefit
Colorado's more than almost any other state.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I appreciate that level of honesty.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, that's just the other side of the coin, right,
So it's difficulty for the state budget.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's because there's less revenue. That I mean, somebody paid
less taxes, right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You can argue about whether they should or shouldn't have,
but yeah, no, I mean, whether you like or hate
the Big Beautiful Bill, it took effect earlier and quicker
in the current fiscal year for Colorado state taxes.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I don't like it from a planning perspective, ross because
we did deliver a balance budget in April, and frankly,
changes shouldn't be retroactive in my opinion. I mean, I'd
say changing for the next year will adjust, We'll use
the forecast of balance. It was a very frustrating thing
from you know, if you're running a business, it's the
same example. If in the current year you're in there's
a massive change in the market, you adopt in real time,
(09:55):
and that's what we have to do.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It would be better from a planning.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Perspective if these were prospective taxes changes, if they were
for the next fiscal year rather than the current fiscal year,
that would have allowed us to deliver the balance budget.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They weren't. Again, for better or worse.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Right, like is accelerated appreciation stimulus good or bad? I mean,
I'm not weighing strongly one way or the other, and
nets out.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Over ten years. It gives the business to the advantage
in the first year, all right, me.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Let me get a couple more questions and I know
I don't have you for much longer. One thing that
many of my listeners have been frustrated with for some
time is the amount of money that we spend on
health care for illegal aliens. And it seemed like you
cut little or none of that. And I'm curious, like,
when when are we going to stop spending money on
or so much money on illegal aliens in a way
(10:42):
that I've long said turns Colorado generally and Denver specifically
into a magnet for illegal aliens, which is why Greg
Abbott sent so many of them here.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Illegal aliens do not get Medicaid.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
They get something like Medicaid.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
They get something like medicaid, they get this, they get
something like medicaid. This meny salute and cover all color
runs and all that.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, we have a program they could actually pay in,
so they could actually pay in and pay.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Some of their own health care costs.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Generally speaking, folks who are undocumented here illegally they get
charity care from community health clinics. They're not They're maybe
paying fifteen twenty bucks or something, but no, they're not.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Part of Medicaid. The state generally.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Supportive of our community health clinics for people who are uninsured.
Some of those people who are uninsured are legal, some
are illegal.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Again, these are not usually questions that they ask at
community health clinics. If they are legal and they're qualified.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
For medicaid, we want to get them into medicaid. If
they're not insured, then you know, they're usually paying something
on a copay.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
It's usually that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Doesn't mean it's okay, I know, but we still got
this omni.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Salute thing, right, and it's not free.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's costing taxpayers millions of dollars and maybe they pay
a little bit in but that doesn't mean they're coming
anywhere near to covering their college.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So there's other ways to I mean, good if people
are here and they're getting health care. If the state
is not helping in some way, it's going to lead
to higher insurance rates for Americans who get their health care.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So there's different ways to do it. We support our
community health.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Federal government does too, right, I mean, if Trump wants
to pretend like they're not supporting health care for illegal immigrants,
he can say that, but they absolutely are. There's any
money to qualified community health clinics, and who do they serve?
They serve people that aren't insured, and some of them
are legal, some of them aren't.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So I mean, you know the thing is when you don't.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Cover them and pay for them in some way, they're
going to show up in emergency rooms, drive a high
cost of care, and then all of a sudden, you
and I are paying higher insurance ross because it gets
transferred onto us because the emergency room, and get zero compensation.
So however you do it, you know, people need health care,
they show up at emergency rooms, there's dying.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
We're a good people.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
We believe in providing care, not just Colorado's national law.
When somebody shows up at a hospital the need urgent care,
you give it to them. But if they need to
have access to preventive care because they're not insured, it
often us more to deal within.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
The emergence room. I mean, as you know, it can
be two thousand bucks for one visit.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, all right, last quick thing, I want to go
back to that big line item in the budget cuts
the prop one twenty three is that the right number,
and so that's money that within the proposition is supposed
to go for.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
As you said, land banking and helping.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
With home ownership for lower income people and some stuff
to help with with homelessness and things like that.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And as you said, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
In the measure that you can use that money if
we're below the Tabor caps.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Was that did you.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Get a lot of pushback on that?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I know you didn't have to go to the legislature
to make these decisions. Is that a thing where people
in your party are saying, no, we got to keep
spending the money on the homeless and so on and
find cuts somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I mean, I don't know who's saying one, obviously, but
I did go to the Joint Budget Committee yesterday, which
is the powerful budget writing committee first date, which ultimately
has saved by the way, they're able to find different cuts.
If they want ross and they say, you know, they
can't find no, But if they say we want to
cut this three million into that, they could They could
certainly do that. That was not one they pushed back
on because it was in the initiative, because it was
(14:08):
only about a third of the overall funds, and it's
also just for one year. In fact, our state is
our projections are us we return to a budget surplus
next year now barring recession, right right, Our economists forecast
forty to fifty percent chance of recession.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But if there's you.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Know, normal growth, we will be back to a healthy
surplus next year. And that means tabor rebates for everybody.
And I want to be clear, we had tabor rebates
scheduled for this year. Everybody would have got a refund,
but those were wiped out by the federal tax changes.
But we should return to a healthy surplus next year
under current forecasts.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
That's Governor Jared poul Us.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Thanks so much for your time, thanks for explaining the
process of making those budget cuts, and we'll talk with
you again soon.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Have a great holiday weekend.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Thank you. Ross all right,
And I'm very pleased to welcome back to the show
Governor Jared Polis. He's had to do some very serious
work on a very short time frame here because after
the passage of the big beautiful bill in Congress. Because
of the way, and Governor Polis actually explained this last
time he was on the show, so we're not going
(00:20):
to go into it too much, but because of the
way Colorado does state taxes, changes in federal taxation impact
Colorado taxation immediately, so Colorado needed to find some money
to fill in a eight hundred million dollars ish budget
whole we already spent time talking about how the state
legislature raised a bunch of taxes. Then they're also going
(00:41):
to take some money out of the reserve fund or
rainy day fund. So what was remaining to be done
was cutting some spending and those decisions were basically left
to the governor. He made those decisions in the past
day or two. We just learned about him, and I
asked the governor to join us to explain how he
decided what to cut. So, without long introduction, Jared, welcome back,
(01:02):
And why don't you just jump in wherever you want
to jump in.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I think we need a one minute review here of
what's going on. So Colorado has rolling concurrent it here
in the federal tax changes. So that means we're one
of only four states where Colorado's get the benefit of
those tax cuts this year. Now for people, it's things
like no tax on tips. That's not only federal. We're
one of only four states where nobody pays state tax
(01:28):
on tips up to twelve five hundred. Nobody pays state
tax on overtime. So we advanced that up effectively.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
A year over some other states to do to a
year later.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And then there's other states that are totally diswetted from
the federal they're never going to give state tax breaks
to tips or overtime. Now, I see tips are overtime,
those affect people, But the vast majority of these are
corporate things, right, And the single biggest that costs the
state money doesn't cost the state money over ten years
ross it cost us statement over one year.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It's accelerated depreciation for companies.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
That's the single biggest thing, and we merit for the state.
But it means that what they would have paid over
ten years, they get the advantage of not paying in
year one.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It's a stimulus. It's a stimulus HR one.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's not talked about enough, and nets out for the
Feds over ten years, probably nets out for the states
over ten years. But it drills a hole in your
budget in the first year, and the state gets more
money in the out years. The Feds get more money
in the out years. One more framing thing. This whole
big bill substantially increases the federal deficit. They don't care.
(02:31):
I wish they did. I support a constitutional amendment that
they have to balance the budget. They should do that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
This made the budget less balanced, increase the national debt.
We don't do that in Colorado. We balance our budget.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So because of the changes in the current tax year, Yes,
it blew a hole in our budget, not nearly as
big as the hole they blew in their own federal budget,
which they don't care about.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
But it blew a hole in our budget.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So yesterday it now it's two hundred and fifty three
million dollars in cuts the state spending, and the state
budget is now back in balance. In fact, we have
about a ten to fifteen million dollar surplus just for
a little Wriggle room.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So that's what we did yesterday.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So I'm looking at a couple of your official documents,
and there's one line item in that two hundred and
fifty million dollars number that is much bigger than any
other individual line item, and it says diversion of OED
Prop one twenty three funds to GF, which I assume
(03:28):
means general funds. Can you please explain that line item
to me because I don't I don't understand it entirely.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, So I think it's what makes sense.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Ross is I described to two or three or four
biggest items, because I mean there's there's, you know, two
hundred thousand dollars just savings here and there, And we'd
have a two hour show if we were going into
all those because we kind of tried to find savings everywhere.
So when the voters pass Proposition one twenty three, part
of what Proposition one twenty three said is in years
where you are below the taper cap a budget deficit,
(03:57):
this is the initiative that funds housing for the state,
affordable housing, land banks, a bunch of variety of different
housing related causes. In years where we're below the taper
cap you can use those those funds to balance the budget.
That was in a blue book in the initiative. Prop
one twenty three brings in about three hundred and eighty
(04:18):
million dollars a year. We're diverting about one hundred millions
dollars of that money that would have gone to what
we call land banking and equity mechanisms to help people
low income people with home ownership, and we're effectively pausing
some of those for a year and diverting that to
the general fund.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So that's one of the largest.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
The other large one, I think it's some thirty eight
million dollars is medicaid provider rates.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
These are rates that providers get paid.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It effectively would freeze them at last year's levels, plus
a small increase because we're not One of the reasons
that and you mentioned this earlier urgency was important is
our fiscal year for the state July first to June thirtieth.
We're only in the second month of our fiscal year.
So by making the cuts now instead of say waiting
till let's say January the legislature came back or March.
(05:07):
They are smaller because they're spread a cost across ten
months or eleven months.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
If we delayed, delayed, delayed, took action.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
In January, you would effectively have you'd only have five
months to do those cuts.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So they would be DRACONI, very dracconiing. So this is
basically a.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Freeze of provider weights from last year for the remaining
nine months.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Of the year. The first three months they got a
one point six percent.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Increase, and we're negating that. Those were two of the
largest ones. Another one that we are adding in is
pre and post claim and review for different behavioral therapy.
We you know, we as a policy said let's make
it easier to get behavior health, removed some of the
pre claim review for medicaid as a payer. Adding that
(05:50):
back in adds about seven million dollars to the budget.
So those are a few of the larger ones. And
then again there's many many. You know, a million two
million email and that's real money. But you know what
is the same a millionaire a million there sooner or later.
As of the real money, I mean for the state
budget in two hundred and fifty three million, you need
a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Of those, Okay, So my next questions come from my
own personal kind of bias, and you know what my
biases are in economic perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You're a flame in progressive liberal, socialist right right on
the right shelf.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, so I I would have preferred to see more
cuts to government spending and fewer tax increases. How do
you feel about the balance as it was handled this year?
Kind of a third to third to third ish between
tax increases, Rainy Day Fund and the cuts that you
had to come up with.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It is it's about it's about a third to third
or third almost almost exactly. So first, this is what
I think we probably share. The fiscal responsibility piece. You
do not raid the reserve and spend down the reserve
with these cuts. That's what some said, They said, just
take it all out of the reserve. I think it
would have wiped out most of the reserve. We would
effectively have no cushioning or reserve. One of the things
(07:03):
that we've been really focused on is making sure Colorado
has an a rating that we are fifteen percent reserve.
Now thirteen percent, but when I came in it was
five percent, right, so we want to reserve in that
twelve to fifteen percent range for recessions right for the countercyclical.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Use so that we can continue to make sure that
our state is in sort physical shape. So we took it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
We took, you know, a little bit from reserves. We're
over thirteen percent, right. We hope to get it back
to fifteen. But as long as you're in that thirteen
percent fifteen percent range, you're healthy. The others came from
divided between both revenue and cuts. You know, obviously open
to both. Wasn't sure what the legislature would do on revenue.
Some of these make a lot of sense, Ross, probably
(07:48):
to you. Also, like they listed several countries that are
tax shelters, they expanded that list to include several others,
so they're not treated favorably under Colorado law.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We decouple on things that didn't make sense. But I
think the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Important context here, Ross is color raddens get more tax
cuts than any other state except for the four states
that have this concurrent adoption of federal attack.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So for better or worse, we can go into all
the federal ones.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Even when you net out what the legislature did, Colorados are.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
In the top four businesses and individuals. We didn't touch
the individuals.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Legislature did not take a single tax advantage away from individuals.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
But they look at some of the corporate ones.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But we are still in the top four states for
making for actually delivering in this current year the tax
cuts that pss.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, So you're right about that, of course, And that's
the other side of the coin. That causes the budget
shortfall that you have to fill is that. But the
members of your party in the legislature have spent all
of their time and running ads, and you got Shad
Marie running these ads, you know, blaming Republicans for blowing
(08:55):
this hole in the budget.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And of course I have never heard a.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Democrat until you right then saying Colorados should be grateful
the Big Beautiful at least the parts of the Big
Beautiful Bill that do offer some tax relief will benefit
Colorado's more than almost any other state.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I appreciate that level of honesty.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Well, that's just the other side of the coin, right,
So it's difficulty for the state budget.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's because there's less revenue. That I mean, somebody paid
less taxes, right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You can argue about whether they should or shouldn't have,
but yeah, no, I mean, whether you like or hate
the Big Beautiful Bill, it took effect earlier and quicker
in the current fiscal year for Colorado state taxes.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I don't like it from a planning perspective, ross because
we did deliver a balance budget in April, and frankly,
changes shouldn't be retroactive in my opinion. I mean, I'd
say changing for the next year will adjust, We'll use
the forecast of balance. It was a very frustrating thing
from you know, if you're running a business, it's the
same example. If in the current year you're in there's
a massive change in the market, you adopt in real time,
(09:55):
and that's what we have to do.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It would be better from a planning.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Perspective if these were prospective taxes changes, if they were
for the next fiscal year rather than the current fiscal year,
that would have allowed us to deliver the balance budget.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They weren't. Again, for better or worse.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Right, like is accelerated appreciation stimulus good or bad? I mean,
I'm not weighing strongly one way or the other, and
nets out.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Over ten years. It gives the business to the advantage
in the first year, all right, me.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Let me get a couple more questions and I know
I don't have you for much longer. One thing that
many of my listeners have been frustrated with for some
time is the amount of money that we spend on
health care for illegal aliens. And it seemed like you
cut little or none of that. And I'm curious, like,
when when are we going to stop spending money on
or so much money on illegal aliens in a way
(10:42):
that I've long said turns Colorado generally and Denver specifically
into a magnet for illegal aliens, which is why Greg
Abbott sent so many of them here.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Illegal aliens do not get Medicaid.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
They get something like Medicaid.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
They get something like medicaid, they get this, they get
something like medicaid. This meny salute and cover all color
runs and all that.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, we have a program they could actually pay in,
so they could actually pay in and pay.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Some of their own health care costs.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Generally speaking, folks who are undocumented here illegally they get
charity care from community health clinics. They're not They're maybe
paying fifteen twenty bucks or something, but no, they're not.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Part of Medicaid. The state generally.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Supportive of our community health clinics for people who are uninsured.
Some of those people who are uninsured are legal, some
are illegal.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Again, these are not usually questions that they ask at
community health clinics. If they are legal and they're qualified.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
For medicaid, we want to get them into medicaid. If
they're not insured, then you know, they're usually paying something
on a copay.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
It's usually that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Doesn't mean it's okay, I know, but we still got
this omni.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Salute thing, right, and it's not free.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's costing taxpayers millions of dollars and maybe they pay
a little bit in but that doesn't mean they're coming
anywhere near to covering their college.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So there's other ways to I mean, good if people
are here and they're getting health care. If the state
is not helping in some way, it's going to lead
to higher insurance rates for Americans who get their health care.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So there's different ways to do it. We support our
community health.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Federal government does too, right, I mean, if Trump wants
to pretend like they're not supporting health care for illegal immigrants,
he can say that, but they absolutely are. There's any
money to qualified community health clinics, and who do they serve?
They serve people that aren't insured, and some of them
are legal, some of them aren't.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So I mean, you know the thing is when you don't.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Cover them and pay for them in some way, they're
going to show up in emergency rooms, drive a high
cost of care, and then all of a sudden, you
and I are paying higher insurance ross because it gets
transferred onto us because the emergency room, and get zero compensation.
So however you do it, you know, people need health care,
they show up at emergency rooms, there's dying.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
We're a good people.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
We believe in providing care, not just Colorado's national law.
When somebody shows up at a hospital the need urgent care,
you give it to them. But if they need to
have access to preventive care because they're not insured, it
often us more to deal within.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
The emergence room. I mean, as you know, it can
be two thousand bucks for one visit.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, all right, last quick thing, I want to go
back to that big line item in the budget cuts
the prop one twenty three is that the right number,
and so that's money that within the proposition is supposed
to go for.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
As you said, land banking and helping.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
With home ownership for lower income people and some stuff
to help with with homelessness and things like that.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
And as you said, it's.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
In the measure that you can use that money if
we're below the Tabor caps.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Was that did you.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Get a lot of pushback on that?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I know you didn't have to go to the legislature
to make these decisions. Is that a thing where people
in your party are saying, no, we got to keep
spending the money on the homeless and so on and
find cuts somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I mean, I don't know who's saying one, obviously, but
I did go to the Joint Budget Committee yesterday, which
is the powerful budget writing committee first date, which ultimately
has saved by the way, they're able to find different cuts.
If they want ross and they say, you know, they
can't find no, But if they say we want to
cut this three million into that, they could They could
certainly do that. That was not one they pushed back
on because it was in the initiative, because it was
(14:08):
only about a third of the overall funds, and it's
also just for one year. In fact, our state is
our projections are us we return to a budget surplus
next year now barring recession, right right, Our economists forecast
forty to fifty percent chance of recession.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But if there's you.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Know, normal growth, we will be back to a healthy
surplus next year. And that means tabor rebates for everybody.
And I want to be clear, we had tabor rebates
scheduled for this year. Everybody would have got a refund,
but those were wiped out by the federal tax changes.
But we should return to a healthy surplus next year
under current forecasts.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
That's Governor Jared poul Us.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Thanks so much for your time, thanks for explaining the
process of making those budget cuts, and we'll talk with
you again soon.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Have a great holiday weekend.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Thank you. Ross all right,
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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