Tag: henry sobanet

Lawmakers are rolling the dice in an effort to drive down the state’s prison population. The $28.9 billion state budget approved Thursday includes no...

Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration doubled down on its calls to open a shuttered private prison, saying efforts by lawmakers to enact sentencing reforms instead...

Consumer spending is up. Businesses are investing more. The economy is hot, state economists say — but now they’re warning it may overheat. The...

The Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) announced today that the state general fund revenue is projected to be $164.5 million higher in the next fiscal year than was forecast in December. The net increase to the general fund will be $149 million because of declining severance tax revenue.

If Gov. John Hickenlooper has anything to say about it--and he will--most of a potential increase in state tax collections this year and in 2012 will go to restore some of the money cut from K-12 budgets in the past few years.

A single person, paying nearly $50 million in back taxes helps move the state budget in the right direction. Nonetheless, "sand dune" like conditions will likely slow economic growth, causing legislators to warn that cuts to those programs will still be deep as a one-time infusion of cash is spread out over several budget years.