What Kind of Colorado Do We Want?

State Sen. Rollie Heath says he is facing some of the most difficult problems of his career, dealing with Colorado’s financial trouble.

Heath came to politics late: a Wisconsin law school graduate, he served for over 20 years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s office, then was a successful CEO in private business. He ran for governor of Colorado in 2002 and was elected to the state Senate last November.

Heath told the Boulder Rotary Club recently that some of the state’s financial problems are related to what’s happening all over the world economically. But underlying the immediate issues is a nest of contradictory decisions that the citizens themselves have made over the years through the initiative process.

“Colorado has a constitutional provision that prohibits the General Fund to carry a deficit over from year to year,” Heath said. “That means that each year on June 30 the total expenses cannot exceed the total revenue of the year.” In a year like this one, when revenue from sales taxes has dropped well below what was projected a year ago, the state’s officers must lower budgets during the course of the year – a task that effectively destroys effective planning.

“We have to take millions out of this year's budget before June 30,” Heath said. “There’s no alternative.”

And Heath pointed out that public needs grow in times of economic downturn.

“Unemployment benefits rise, we have increased demand for Medicaid, and more people seek education through our public system, especially the community colleges,” he said. “At the same time, our revenue is falling.”

But he said these immediate issues should not mask long-term underlying factors.

“Colorado is ninth highest in the list of state per capita income," he said. “But Colorado is the sixth lowest in per capita spending, third lowest in state revenue per $1,000 income, and next to the bottom in spending for public higher education per $1,000 income.”
These contrasts make one ask, “What kind of state do we want Colorado to be?” he said.

Heath is chairing a state commission to raise that question with citizens, holding public meetings throughout the state, including one in Boulder at Chautauqua on October 24.

He hopes the commission can generate thoughtful ideas on continuing concerns over early childhood education, closing the learning “achievement gap” between different ethnic groups, maintaining roads and bridges (he noted that 126 bridges are in the “at risk” classification), maintenance of state parks, continued growth in prison population, and other issues.

“The basic question is, ‘What kind of state do we want – for ourselves and for our kids?’” he concluded. “Are we willing to invest in our state? A conversation in depth is needed among the people.”




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