GOP puts a dose of reality into the state budget

An early-morning decision in the House Finance Committee Tuesday had Republican majority lawmakers saying they are injecting a dose of reality into the state budget while some Democratic minority lawmakers called it a case of lowered expectations.

House Joint Resolution 1007, by Rep. Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, grants official certification by the legislature of the revenue forecast used to guide the Joint Budget Committee in drafting the budget. Usually, the resolution is a formality because it merely OK’s revenue figures provided by quarterly economic forecasts issued by legislative economists. This time, however, the GOP-led Finance Committee amended the resolution to anticipate a 2.75 percent reduction in revenue. The lawmakers say the move is an effort to rein in expectations given past forecasts that overshot the amount of revenue the state actually took in.

When the resolution was taken up by the full House later in the morning, DelGrosso said the recalibration would help avoid difficult adjustments later.

“Revenue forecasting is not an exact science,” said DelGrosso. “The governor has had to come out and make drastic cuts to programs and services that the state provides. Let’s not budget to spend every penny. It’s much easier to have the conversation of, ‘We brought in too much money—what are we going to do with that?’”

Some Democratic lawmakers came to the mic challenging the measure, saying that the more prudent path is to anticipate an ability to meet budgetary needs.   – More -

Via - CoNewsAgency