From: Tanya Kelly-Bowry, Vice President, Office of Government Relations University of Colorado System

(June 22, 2009) Today, the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) met with Legislative Council Staff (LCS) Natalie Mullis and the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) Director Todd Saliman to discuss the quarterly economic forecast for June 2009.  Click on the LCS and the OSPB forecasts or check out the Governor's press release at: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1245677987843 

Leg Council numbers included:

• FY 08-09-Additional $249.0 million shortfall. This will be pushed into FY 09-10.
• FY 09-10- $384.0 million cumulative shortfall (included $249.0 million from FY 09 and additional $135 million)
  

OSPB

• FY 08-09- Additional $256 million shortfall. This will be pushed into FY 09-10.
• FY 08-09- Projects budgetary shortfall of $81.8 million.

This large shortfall has to do with the fact that the Legislature used a number of one time fixes to balance the budget such as cash fund transfers & reserves. 

Senator Keller stated that the Legislature would not have to come back for a special session at this time because of the contingencies they put in place this past session.  She also stated that cutting higher education is not an option currently, because of the stimulus requirements of the ARRA funds, so many other departments will have to absorb cuts. However, we will have to watch this carefully as the state of Colorado could seek a waiver from the federal government which could result in additional cuts to higher ed. Senator Keller also mentioned having the departments' report to the JBC in September on their recommendations for cuts as one of the options to begin balancing the budget.

Senator Majority Leader John Morse stated that we would have to cut the equivalent of our entire prison system to make up for this shortfall. 

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry asked the Governor to call the Legislature into a special session during a radio address this morning. Senator Penry requested he do so in order to balance the budget for the full fiscal year now as opposed to doing budget balancing in January 2010 when only six months will remain in the fiscal year.

Again, we want to emphasize that these are estimates and that the numbers will continue to change.  The next forecast will come out in September. We will continue to keep you updated on any additional information that we get from the Legislature or the Executive Branch.  Although this year was a very difficult budget year in terms of cuts, next year could be much worse both because the economy is still declining and it will be an election year which will make some of the votes to cut much more difficult to make. Special thanks to Tobin Bliss and Kirsten Castleman for attending the hearing today.