Governor Polis's Budget Proposal Preserves Education Funding, Makes Strategic Investments in Public Safety, Makes Government More Efficient and Protect Colorado's Future

DENVER - On November 1, 2024, Governor Polis released the administration’s Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget proposal. This strategic budget proposal makes prudent investments that protect Colorado’s funding for education, continue investing in public safety, and prioritize fiscal responsibility to maintain financial reserves and ensure the state is prepared for future rainy days. 

“We’ve made real progress on what matters most to Coloradans over the last five years, and this budget is about protecting those investments while ensuring that we are putting fiscal responsibility front and center, driving greater government efficiency, and continuing delivering for Coloradans. This budget reflects tighter budget conditions due to rapidly declining inflation, and I’m proud of the values and priorities represented here,” said Governor Jared Polis. 

Since taking office in 2019, the Polis-Primavera administration has delivered on the priorities most important to Coloradans. This includes everything from delivering free, full-day kindergarten and universal preschool; cutting health care costs through Reinsurance, the Colorado Option, Prescription Drug Affordability Board, capping the cost of insulin and more; saving Coloradans money by cutting income, and property taxes; moving closer to the goal of 100% renewable energy while saving Coloradans money on their energy bills, and more. This work all continues. 

This budget builds on those investments with continued support to help make Colorado one of the ten safest states. This includes:

- $15.0 million to support and sustain Colorado’s emergency and operational communications dispatching system, which is used by 90 percent of the state’s first responders. This will help first responders do their jobs effectively.
- $3.4 million to the Crime Prevention Through Safer Streets program. This grant program supports local governments and law enforcement entities in making physical infrastructure and security improvements like improved lighting, which can reduce crime and make neighborhoods safer.
- $1.7 million to increase the bed cap for youth detention to reflect increasing demands across the state and provide more services for at-risk youth.
- $1.8 million in repurposed funding for Colorado Youth Detention Continuum (CYDC) programs to provide community-based placements for at-risk youth.
- $2.0 million to the Youth Delinquency Prevention and Intervention program, which supports the collaborative work of community-based organizations and local governments to reduce crime among youth.
- $0.9 million for legislation to address the penalty for firearm theft, the connection between motor vehicle theft and firearm possession, and establish an entity to research and make recommendations on criminal justice policy.
- $7.6 million to expand capacity at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Fort Logan for competency restoration, which will accommodate more individuals in the criminal justice system to gain competency and proceed to trial more quickly.
- $6.1 million for Community Corrections to expand the capacity at facilities often called “halfway houses,” which are an effective and less expensive alternative to traditional incarceration facilities.
- $0.6 million to support crime victims by investing in the Address Confidentiality Program resources. This increase in state investment will backfill declining federal funds so that DPA can continue this program to protect survivors of stalking, sexual assault, and domestic violence.

This budget also prioritizes education funding to ensure the success of students and educators, including:

- $115 million from the General Fund to bolster Total Program funding for education in an effort to preserve a significant balance in the State Education Fund to ensure the state never has to go back to a Budget Stabilization Factor.
- Proposed changes that move Colorado to the best-practice of a current-year enrollment funding method. Adopting a method based on current-year enrollment more accurately represents the current population of students to better target resources to where kids are. Only nine other states employ a method that averages enrollment over multiple years.
- $13.5 million in categorical funding to specific groups of students and student needs, including special education, transportation, English language proficiency, and career and technical education.
- $3.4 million in repurposed funding to provide greater support to young students with reading deficiencies (K-3) using evidence-based interventions.
- $2.0 million to provide support and new learning opportunities to students attending turnaround and priority improvement schools.
- $7.8 million placeholder for Universal Preschool reflecting anticipated Proposition EE and General Fund revenue.
- $3.6 million funding increase to support Early Intervention, which provides developmental supports such as speech therapy to children from birth through age two with developmental delays.

Fiscal responsibility is also front and center in this budget with a proposal to maintain a 15 percent reserve level in FY 2025-26. This was made possible by difficult decisions and balancing actions made to balance the budget and protect funding for critical investments in education, public safety and health care. 

This budget also requests a number of transfers, efficiencies, and other policy changes to slow the growth in spending and limit spending to create space for critical budget needs. 

In addition to these priorities, the budget also makes critical investments in economic growth, housing, child care, higher education, health care and Medicaid funding, support for counties and benefits administration to help connect Coloradans to services faster, support for homelessness, expanding behavioral health care, in Colorado’s state employees, and investments to help Colorado celebrate its 150th birthday and America’s 250th birthday. 

In total, this budget requests total expenditures of $46.1 billion, including $17.8 billion General Fund. Read the full budget letter here and view the slide deck here.