Colorado just signed a $46.87 billion state budget where, in the words of Rep. Rick Taggart, “Nobody won.” That is about the most honest thing said at a budget signing in years, which means somebody in the room probably had to be checked for a fever.
Gov. Jared Polis signed the 2026-27 spending plan Friday after lawmakers filled a hole of more than $1 billion with cuts, transfers, and budget-balancing gymnastics. No line-item vetoes. No vetoed footnotes. The thing goes live July 1, like a software update that somehow costs more and breaks more features.
Here is the part normal Coloradans will notice: the budget is bigger than last year’s originally approved $43.9 billion budget, but lawmakers still made painful cuts. That sounds insane until you remember how government budgeting works: costs balloon, programs grow teeth, one-time patches expire, and suddenly a bigger pile of money still isn’t enough to feed the machine.
So everybody gets to stand around pretending this is responsible adulthood while vulnerable families get squeezed, taxpayers get lectured, and next year’s disaster is already warming up in the bullpen.
The big flashing red light is Medicaid. According to the source article, Medicaid drove overspending in the current fiscal year and next year’s budget, with about $1 billion in cost overruns over the past year. The program is facing allegations of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, and Congress is investigating those fraud allegations.
Allegations are allegations. But the math is not a rumor. Polis himself said health care costs cannot keep rising 10% or 11% a year when outcomes are not improving at that same rate. His word for that was “idiocy.” Congratulations, Governor, you found the correct drawer and pulled out the correct label.
Now comes the obvious question: if Medicaid keeps eating a bigger chunk of the budget every year, what gets shoved off the plate next? Caretaker pay? Rural services? Public safety? Higher ed? Roads? Some other unfashionable line item that doesn’t have a lobbyist in a nice suit hovering outside the committee room?
Lawmakers made a big point of saying K-12 education was protected. Fine. Good. Fully funding schools and moving forward with the new school finance formula is not nothing. Rep. Emily Sirota and others clearly wanted that point nailed to the wall.
But the budget also hit caretaker pay for families with loved ones who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. Those families showed up and testified. They are not abstractions. They are not spreadsheet confetti. They are Coloradans doing exhausting, sacred work while the state discovers, yet again, that compassion gets a lot cheaper when somebody else provides it at home.
Then there are the “orbital” bills — 64 companion bills still sitting out there to make the budget math work through changes in law. That is where Coloradans need to keep both eyes open. The big budget bill gets the signing ceremony. The orbital bills are where the fine print crawls around in the vents.
Which cuts are temporary and which are permanent? Which transfers are one-time duct tape? Which bills raise costs, shift money, change eligibility, or quietly move the pain to someone without a podium?
And while we are asking questions, what exactly will the Medicaid commission be allowed to examine? Real spending drivers? Eligibility? Utilization? Fraud controls? Management failures? Or will it become another official Colorado task force where obvious answers are slowly murdered by process?
Polis also told agencies to follow legislative footnotes, including directives around the wolf reintroduction program, “to the extent practicable and appropriate.” That phrase is bureaucratic incense. It smells official, fills the room, and tells you almost nothing.
This budget is not a victory lap. It is the bill coming due after years of structural deficit warnings, cost growth, one-time fixes, and political cowardice dressed up as compassion.
So read the budget summary. Track the 64 orbital bills. Watch the Medicaid commission bill. Call members of the Joint Budget Committee and ask what gets cut next year when the duct tape dries out.
“Nobody won” is not a slogan. It is a confession.
Source: the source article
Just Stop It
