Despite Prosperity, Colorado State Government Faces Budgetary Problems

By Jonathan Baker • Nov 16, 2015

Gov. John Hickenlooper during a July 2015 taping of Colorado Matters.
Credit Hart van Denburg / Colorado Public Radio

Despite a booming economy in Colorado, the state is experiencing a $373 million budget gap, reports Colorado Public Radio. The gap is between what the state will owe and what it will bring in starting in July 2016.

The reason the state is having trouble filling its coffers is because of a rule called the TABOR limit, which says that if the state takes in a certain amount of money, it must return some to the citizens instead of keeping it. So, essentially, the state government is being penalized for taking in too much profit.

Much of the excess dollars are coming from the Hospital Provider Fee, which hospitals pay to the state in order to get federal dollars. Governor John Hickenlooper has proposed removing the fee from the TABOR calculation, but he’s received resistance on the idea from the state Legislature.

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John Hickenlooper
Colorado

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