The most unkindest cut of all

The Joint Budget Committee today voted unanimously to cut and additional $300 million from state colleges and universities. This would be on top of nearly $100 million cut earlier in the year.


If the legislature agrees with the recommendation, the budget for higher education will be cut in half. It's unlikely that the state could keep open all of the existing colleges and universities on that amount of money.


We've spent the last month scraping the state budget for things to cut and for ways to add revenue. We have not found a way to avoid this terrible decision.

Federal Money

Colorado's getting a lot of money from the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Just how much is hard to say, because it's coming in a variety of ways and depends on various conditions.

Figuring out how it will help us balance our state budget is a little easier. The money that helps us do that is coming in two forms:

• State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (Stabilization money)

• Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP or "Medicaid match")

Stabilization Fund

We're getting $760 million in State Fiscal Stabilization Funding. Of that amount, 82% has to go to education. Of the 82%, some goes to K-12 and some goes to higher education; the governor decides how much goes to each. His decision is outlined in the table below.

FMAP

The increased Medicaid match gets factored into budget as a savings. Most Medicaid spending is mandatory, so when we get a higher federal match, we can spend less money from the General Fund.

We get the increased match for:

• 3 quarters in 2008-09

• 4 quarters in 2009-10

• 2 quarters in 2010-11

The amount of the federal match increase depends on the state's unemployment rate. For the current year it works out to a 40-60 match: for each 40 cents we put in, the feds contribute 60 cents. We won't know for a while what match we'll get for next year.

Source/Use	Use	Fiscal Year	Amount	Who Decides
Stabilization		2008-09 2009-10 2010-11	$760 million	Congress/President
	Education		$486 million	82% of the total, by federal law
	K-12	2009-10	$149 million	Governor's Decision
		2010-11	$337 million	Governor's Decision
	Higher Ed		$135 million	Governor's Decision
		2008-09	$30 million	Governor's Decision
		2009-10	$53 million	Governor's Decision
		2010-11	$53 million	Governor's Decision
	Other		$138 million	Governor Deciding
FMAP	Medicaid
		2008-09	$196 million	3 quarters
		2009-10	$304 million	4 quarters
		2010-11	$150 million	2 quarters

There's a lot of other federal money that's coming to Colorado through ARRA. Here's some of it. (The online version has links to more information).

Source/Use	Use	Fiscal Year	Amount	Notes
Transportation			$500 million
	CDOT		$329 million	Map of ARRA projects
	Denver Regional Council of Governments		$55.9 million
	Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments		$13.1 million
	North Front Range MPO		$5.8 million
	Transit		$103 million	Distribution of transit money
Unemployment Benefits & Job Training			$174 million
Food Stamps & Food			$178 million
Housing Help			$68 million
Additional Money for Education			$319 million
Water Projects			$66 million
Public Safety			$35 million