August 27, 2025 • 10 mins
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.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk to a woman who is part of the
Joint Budget Committee. She is State Senator Barb Kirkmeyer. Barb,
you look well rested. You look like you caught up
on your sleek a little bit, a little bit, So
what did the legislature inflict on Coloraden's what did you?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What did you guys? Do we increase this tax We
increase taxes? Well I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
The Democrats and the legislature increased taxes. They took away
a fee that we pay small businesses retaillers who collect
our sales tax We took away that fee, that's the
tune of twelve thousand dollars. It wasn't enough in the
first place to pay them to collect our sales taxes.
Typically it costs them about forty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We took away twelve.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So now they're putting the bill themselves to collect our taxes.
And we're selling two hundred and fifty million dollars worth
of tax credits for two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So we're shortening ourselves fifty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And you know that's it increase taxes by about two
hundred and fifty million dollars. We're shorten ourselves by fifty
million dollars in the general fund on the cell of
tax credits, and we screwed over.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Small businesses yet again.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Wait, but they're making sure that planned parenthead gets more money.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Right, Oh, well that's true. Yes, that was in there. Okay,
So Barb, I mean we did.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We did extend the AI bill, the deadline in AI
artificial intelligence. We extended that to June first of next year.
So that's a good thing. That was one good thing
that happened.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So I actually voted for that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Let's talk about where we are budget wise right now.
Because the tax increases that you're talking about on small businesses,
there's a zero percent chance that we're not going to
see some kind of lawsuits against that. Michael Fields at
Advance Colorado has already said he's going to add it
to his lawsuit about other things that violate TABOR.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So what does that mean? I mean, let's just say.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
A judge puts an injunction on on you know, collecting
those taxes. What does that mean for our budget right
this second?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
It means we will be Right now, we are seven
hundred million dollars in the red to start the next
budget year, So we have to find that money to
start even in the next budget year because.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
We have to have balanced budgets.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So to start off a budget, you've got to have
a budget that you can close out that's balanced as well,
and those are that's a constitutional mandate.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So we had that already in play. That was in
June eighteenth. We already knew that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And then you know, with the passage of HR one,
which gave us federal tax relief, and because our state
tax code is tied to the federal tax code, essentially
when they make changes, it changes ours, we also got
one point two billion dollars worth of tax relief at
the state level. So what that ended up doing is
causing a seven hundred million dollars shortfall, a gap in
(02:48):
this current fiscal year of tax revenues tax collections, and
so we were trying to fill the gap. That's what
we were supposed to be doing. Now, there was nothing
in the call, which the governor gets to set. Think
of it as the agenda for the special session. Nothing
in there that said we could carry any legislation, carry
a bill to reduce spending. All it was was to
(03:10):
increase taxes, sell tax credits, and like I said, it's
screw small businesses out of that fee.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So where we and you you already we've talked about
this before, but we're looking at a deficit for next year.
And was that deficit in place before HR one passed,
because weren't we offered Yeah, I mean, all of this
is yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So and then what HR one did is it impacted
our tax collections because our taxes are going down at
the state, so we're getting federal tax relief. We're getting
some state tax relief still to the tune of one
point two billion dollars. And what that did is it
increased our you know, they keep calling it revenues.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is tax collections.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Our revenues equal taxes, right, so it's the taxes you
pay in or our revenues at the state. So our
tax collections went down as a result of the tax
breaks at the federal level.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And the Democrats are so upset.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
God, we had to have a special session just to
come back and increase some taxes back. So what they
did is they increased it back from what I was
trying to figure out. I mean, don't anybody go quote
me on this number. But it's about two hundred and
fifty two hundred and fifty three million dollars to try
and fill that gap.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, the gap was.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Seven hundred million or more right somewhere in there. So
now the discussion is going to be tomorrow. The Joint
Budget Committee is meeting with the governor and he has
you know, executive order privileges, and he's going to reduce
spending supposedly, And I hear he's going to reduce spending.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
This is what I hear.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't know. I mean, I'm a Republican. It's not
like he comes to talk to me about it and
tells me. But what I'm hearing is he's going to
reduce spending by cutting Medicaid provider rates, which will effectively
cut access for over one point two billion people in.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Our state that are US citizens.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And he's going to do that, and he's going to
cut higher EDG and then what I'm hearing is, well,
we will probably take a third of that. So he's
going to do those kind of cuts up to two
hundred and fifty million approximately again my guess, and then
the last third of our gap, he's going to take
out the reserves, which I just have to tell you.
I mean, I'm sure you can all hear the frustration
of my voice, because it is totally stupid.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To take money out of the reserves.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
When we take money out of the reserves in this
current fiscal year, we have a statutory reserve requirement of
fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
We just have to replace it in this fiscal year.
It does nothing for us other than to say, yeah,
we're making it look good.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
But really, by the time we get into March of
twenty twenty six, you're gonna have to replace that because
we have to have a balanced budget before I can
before we can introduce the next budget.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That's how crazy it is.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And then on top of it all, they sold tax credits,
so instead of pausing the tax credits.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You know, tax credits are tax relief.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So generally Republicans, myself included, we support a lot of
tech credits, not all of them, but we do support
a lot of tax credits. So tax credits are tax relief. Okay, well,
we have over two billion dollars worth of tax credits
that we give out. Okay, we just fell below the
tabor cap, which.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Means we now have no surplus.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
There isn't going to be any tabor refund because there
is no surplus. So instead of pausing tax credits, those
goofballs down there said no, no, no, We're going to
sell two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of tax
credits for two hundred million dollars. So when they catch
it in their tax credits sometime in the future when
(06:39):
we have surplus, there's.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
A constant's fifty million bucks.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, let me clarify what Marv just said, because we
start talking about this and people are like, I cannot
keep up. But in order to eliminate taber refunds, this
is just my take on this, and you can correct
me if I'm totally wrong, in order to eliminate taber refunds,
so they could then argue with the ballot box the
taber is used with anyway, so why do we even
have it, So then we would take any spending protections
(07:04):
off of the legislature. They have reallocated all of our
table refunds using tax credits to other favored groups in
their minds, maybe it's an expanded earned income tax credit,
Maybe it's other kinds of tax credits that our table
refunds are going to go fund. What Barb is saying,
is why not just do away with those tax credits
until we have a surplus again? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Correct? And we didn't even have to get rid of
all the tax credits we have.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I mean, you know some I mean I don't know
if I voted for the earned income tax credit, but
I probably would. I mean, those are the least you know,
people who can't afford things in our state, right, I mean,
they're the most vulnerable among us. I mean, they're below
sixty thousand approximate LAYD dollars in income that's coming in,
and you know, I don't. I mean, they're probably not
(07:50):
really paying that many taxes in the first place.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But let's give them a tax holiday. I'm okay with that.
But you're right.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
They turned tax credits. They turned our table refunds into
tax credits for everyone else, and we have over two
billion of them. All they need to do is pause
seven hundred million dollars worth of them.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So somebody just hit the text line Barb and said, Mandy,
does Barb Kirkmeyer have any comment on the millions of
dollars of state funded taxpayer grants to legislator run nonprofits?
And NGOs run by people like Javier Mabriy, Lorena Garcia
or others. I just saw a stat on X and
I have not had a chance to look into that stat,
(08:29):
but it showed how much money was flowing to these NGOs,
and that is a concerning thing because that starts to
feel like a slush fund. And we've seen at the
federal level that Democrats are very unhappy when their NGOs
stop getting money, not because they're doing anything great, but
because they're kind of, you know, a circular way to
circulate more money into Democrat pockets. Is there a chance
(08:52):
that any of that is happening here?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Absolutely, I've seen the same things out on X that
have been being posted.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I'm just I'm not in session right now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And plus then we had to do the special session stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But I'm not in a regular session.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
But when I get back into the Joint Budget Committee
come November, I'm going to start looking into that.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And so my email is very easy. It's capital S. E. N.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Sen Kirkmeyer k I R K M E Y E
R at gmail dot com. Send me the information you
have so I don't have to keep digging all by myself,
and I'll start wherever you left off and see what
I can find out, because that not only sounds like
a conflict of interest to me, it sounds highly unethical
that we are funding I saw the stuff about Representative
(09:38):
Garcia on online, and it sounds highly unethical that we
are funding a state legislator to the tune of millions
of dollars for her and her family through what's called
a non governmental organization, a nonprofit organization.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Essentially.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I don't know what that nonprofit organization is doing for us,
but what I do know is we need to start
cutting in this state, and maybe that's the first place
we should start.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, from your lips to the governor's ears,
we both know it's not going to go the way
we want it to. But I appreciate you and your
fellow Republicans trying in a special session where the Democrats
did everything but tell you to shut up and sit down.
It was, of course they did. Let's talk again soon, Okay,
(10:25):
all right, thanks for
Let's talk to a woman who is part of the
Joint Budget Committee. She is State Senator Barb Kirkmeyer. Barb,
you look well rested. You look like you caught up
on your sleek a little bit, a little bit, So
what did the legislature inflict on Coloraden's what did you?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What did you guys? Do we increase this tax We
increase taxes? Well I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
The Democrats and the legislature increased taxes. They took away
a fee that we pay small businesses retaillers who collect
our sales tax We took away that fee, that's the
tune of twelve thousand dollars. It wasn't enough in the
first place to pay them to collect our sales taxes.
Typically it costs them about forty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We took away twelve.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So now they're putting the bill themselves to collect our taxes.
And we're selling two hundred and fifty million dollars worth
of tax credits for two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So we're shortening ourselves fifty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And you know that's it increase taxes by about two
hundred and fifty million dollars. We're shorten ourselves by fifty
million dollars in the general fund on the cell of
tax credits, and we screwed over.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Small businesses yet again.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Wait, but they're making sure that planned parenthead gets more money.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Right, Oh, well that's true. Yes, that was in there. Okay,
So Barb, I mean we did.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We did extend the AI bill, the deadline in AI
artificial intelligence. We extended that to June first of next year.
So that's a good thing. That was one good thing
that happened.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So I actually voted for that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Let's talk about where we are budget wise right now.
Because the tax increases that you're talking about on small businesses,
there's a zero percent chance that we're not going to
see some kind of lawsuits against that. Michael Fields at
Advance Colorado has already said he's going to add it
to his lawsuit about other things that violate TABOR.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So what does that mean? I mean, let's just say.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
A judge puts an injunction on on you know, collecting
those taxes. What does that mean for our budget right
this second?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
It means we will be Right now, we are seven
hundred million dollars in the red to start the next
budget year, So we have to find that money to
start even in the next budget year because.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
We have to have balanced budgets.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So to start off a budget, you've got to have
a budget that you can close out that's balanced as well,
and those are that's a constitutional mandate.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So we had that already in play. That was in
June eighteenth. We already knew that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And then you know, with the passage of HR one,
which gave us federal tax relief, and because our state
tax code is tied to the federal tax code, essentially
when they make changes, it changes ours, we also got
one point two billion dollars worth of tax relief at
the state level. So what that ended up doing is
causing a seven hundred million dollars shortfall, a gap in
(02:48):
this current fiscal year of tax revenues tax collections, and
so we were trying to fill the gap. That's what
we were supposed to be doing. Now, there was nothing
in the call, which the governor gets to set. Think
of it as the agenda for the special session. Nothing
in there that said we could carry any legislation, carry
a bill to reduce spending. All it was was to
(03:10):
increase taxes, sell tax credits, and like I said, it's
screw small businesses out of that fee.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So where we and you you already we've talked about
this before, but we're looking at a deficit for next year.
And was that deficit in place before HR one passed,
because weren't we offered Yeah, I mean, all of this
is yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So and then what HR one did is it impacted
our tax collections because our taxes are going down at
the state, so we're getting federal tax relief. We're getting
some state tax relief still to the tune of one
point two billion dollars. And what that did is it
increased our you know, they keep calling it revenues.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is tax collections.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Our revenues equal taxes, right, so it's the taxes you
pay in or our revenues at the state. So our
tax collections went down as a result of the tax
breaks at the federal level.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And the Democrats are so upset.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
God, we had to have a special session just to
come back and increase some taxes back. So what they
did is they increased it back from what I was
trying to figure out. I mean, don't anybody go quote
me on this number. But it's about two hundred and
fifty two hundred and fifty three million dollars to try
and fill that gap.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, the gap was.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Seven hundred million or more right somewhere in there. So
now the discussion is going to be tomorrow. The Joint
Budget Committee is meeting with the governor and he has
you know, executive order privileges, and he's going to reduce
spending supposedly, And I hear he's going to reduce spending.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
This is what I hear.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't know. I mean, I'm a Republican. It's not
like he comes to talk to me about it and
tells me. But what I'm hearing is he's going to
reduce spending by cutting Medicaid provider rates, which will effectively
cut access for over one point two billion people in.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Our state that are US citizens.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And he's going to do that, and he's going to
cut higher EDG and then what I'm hearing is, well,
we will probably take a third of that. So he's
going to do those kind of cuts up to two
hundred and fifty million approximately again my guess, and then
the last third of our gap, he's going to take
out the reserves, which I just have to tell you.
I mean, I'm sure you can all hear the frustration
of my voice, because it is totally stupid.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
To take money out of the reserves.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
When we take money out of the reserves in this
current fiscal year, we have a statutory reserve requirement of
fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
We just have to replace it in this fiscal year.
It does nothing for us other than to say, yeah,
we're making it look good.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
But really, by the time we get into March of
twenty twenty six, you're gonna have to replace that because
we have to have a balanced budget before I can
before we can introduce the next budget.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That's how crazy it is.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And then on top of it all, they sold tax credits,
so instead of pausing the tax credits.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You know, tax credits are tax relief.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So generally Republicans, myself included, we support a lot of
tech credits, not all of them, but we do support
a lot of tax credits. So tax credits are tax relief. Okay, well,
we have over two billion dollars worth of tax credits
that we give out. Okay, we just fell below the
tabor cap, which.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Means we now have no surplus.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
There isn't going to be any tabor refund because there
is no surplus. So instead of pausing tax credits, those
goofballs down there said no, no, no, We're going to
sell two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of tax
credits for two hundred million dollars. So when they catch
it in their tax credits sometime in the future when
(06:39):
we have surplus, there's.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
A constant's fifty million bucks.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, let me clarify what Marv just said, because we
start talking about this and people are like, I cannot
keep up. But in order to eliminate taber refunds, this
is just my take on this, and you can correct
me if I'm totally wrong, in order to eliminate taber refunds,
so they could then argue with the ballot box the
taber is used with anyway, so why do we even
have it, So then we would take any spending protections
(07:04):
off of the legislature. They have reallocated all of our
table refunds using tax credits to other favored groups in
their minds, maybe it's an expanded earned income tax credit,
Maybe it's other kinds of tax credits that our table
refunds are going to go fund. What Barb is saying,
is why not just do away with those tax credits
until we have a surplus again? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Correct? And we didn't even have to get rid of
all the tax credits we have.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I mean, you know some I mean I don't know
if I voted for the earned income tax credit, but
I probably would. I mean, those are the least you know,
people who can't afford things in our state, right, I mean,
they're the most vulnerable among us. I mean, they're below
sixty thousand approximate LAYD dollars in income that's coming in,
and you know, I don't. I mean, they're probably not
(07:50):
really paying that many taxes in the first place.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But let's give them a tax holiday. I'm okay with that.
But you're right.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
They turned tax credits. They turned our table refunds into
tax credits for everyone else, and we have over two
billion of them. All they need to do is pause
seven hundred million dollars worth of them.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So somebody just hit the text line Barb and said, Mandy,
does Barb Kirkmeyer have any comment on the millions of
dollars of state funded taxpayer grants to legislator run nonprofits?
And NGOs run by people like Javier Mabriy, Lorena Garcia
or others. I just saw a stat on X and
I have not had a chance to look into that stat,
(08:29):
but it showed how much money was flowing to these NGOs,
and that is a concerning thing because that starts to
feel like a slush fund. And we've seen at the
federal level that Democrats are very unhappy when their NGOs
stop getting money, not because they're doing anything great, but
because they're kind of, you know, a circular way to
circulate more money into Democrat pockets. Is there a chance
(08:52):
that any of that is happening here?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Absolutely, I've seen the same things out on X that
have been being posted.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I'm just I'm not in session right now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And plus then we had to do the special session stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But I'm not in a regular session.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
But when I get back into the Joint Budget Committee
come November, I'm going to start looking into that.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And so my email is very easy. It's capital S. E. N.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Sen Kirkmeyer k I R K M E Y E
R at gmail dot com. Send me the information you
have so I don't have to keep digging all by myself,
and I'll start wherever you left off and see what
I can find out, because that not only sounds like
a conflict of interest to me, it sounds highly unethical
that we are funding I saw the stuff about Representative
(09:38):
Garcia on online, and it sounds highly unethical that we
are funding a state legislator to the tune of millions
of dollars for her and her family through what's called
a non governmental organization, a nonprofit organization.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Essentially.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I don't know what that nonprofit organization is doing for us,
but what I do know is we need to start
cutting in this state, and maybe that's the first place
we should start.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, from your lips to the governor's ears,
we both know it's not going to go the way
we want it to. But I appreciate you and your
fellow Republicans trying in a special session where the Democrats
did everything but tell you to shut up and sit down.
It was, of course they did. Let's talk again soon, Okay,
(10:25):
all right, thanks for
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.