Despite Colorado’s $1.2 billion budget deficit, increasing regulatory woes, and a souring economic outlook, the state legislature continues to proliferate new legislation that promises to increase government size and spending.
The 120-day 2025 legislative session is beyond the halfway point, and Colorado’s 35 senators and 65 representatives have introduced over 500 bills so far, with several containing significant fiscal impacts.
Using data from the Legislative Council Staff’s Fiscal Note Reports, I consolidated bills into interactive charts to display the proposed legislation’s impact on government employment, the General Fund, and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in FY2025-26. .
Growing government
According to the data, all proposed legislation thus far in 2025 would add over 300 full-time equivalent (FTE) hires to the state’s payroll, reduce General Fund revenue by over $900 million, and reduce funds subject to TABOR by over $1.3 billion.
Of course, legislators will not pass all these bills, and some bills with significant fiscal impacts have already been rejected.
As previously reported in Complete Colorado, the lack of political competition in Colorado’s legislature has ushered in an unprecedented era of ballooning government expansion, and that extraordinary growth is now coming home to roost.
But this year’s budget shortfall did not appear out of thin air.
As I previously explained, Colorado’s billion-plus dollar budget hole was caused by government overspending and the shirking of fiscal responsibility and accountability.
In short, the government spent one-time federal money for COVID relief on ongoing programs, inflation continues to cool (slowing government growth as allowed by the state constitution), the cost of Medicaid continues to increase, and the legislature continues to expand special interest tax breaks.
This is while resisting transparency and accountability and instead deflecting blame onto TABOR, which progressives blame for holding back the state’s ability to offer essential services.
In reality, TABOR just reasonably limits the growth of government, forcing the state to be more efficient, effective, and responsible when spending Coloradans’ money.
The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) is actively witnessing how TABOR promotes fiscal discipline as they adjust the budget. Thus far budget writers have eliminated such “essential” spending as a half million dollars for marijuana growing efficiency, $38 million for school bus electrification, and $72 million to promote “alternative transportation.”
And as they close the $1.2 billion gap, they will continue to determine which services are actually essential and which are excessive.
Without TABOR, they would have little accountability in spending taxpayer money.
Still not getting the message
Colorado’s economic outlook is worsening due to the increasingly oppressive regulatory atmosphere, government spending, and market interventionism, and the legislature must deal with the effects of their spending binge.
For a state struggling under the weight of overspending and overregulation, it makes little sense why so much legislation is being introduced this year that will immediately exacerbate the state’s problems.
Coloradans want to hear that the state government is concerned about these problems and is willing to take the difficult steps necessary to fix them. Instead, lawmakers are sending a message of bitter indifference.
Nash Herman is a fiscal policy analyst at the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
