Friends

Colorado's current fiscal situation can be summed up in just three words:

Arveschoug. Bird. Crisis.

Arveschoug-Bird is a provision of Colorado's budget named after the two state legislators who sponsored the bill creating it in 1991. Arveschoug-Bird, sometimes abbreviated to simply "A-B", reduces the flexibility that our elected state representatives and state senators have in setting Colorado's budget priorities. It limits the amount that legislators can appropriate from the state's "General Fund", which pays for essential public services like education, judicial and corrections services and Medicaid, to the prior year's amount plus 6 percent.

In a recession, Arveschoug-Bird can lead to a Crisis. With the economy contracting, the General Fund contracts too, and Colorado has less money to invest in education, healthcare, public safety, and other priorities. Eventually our economy will recover. But because of Arveschoug-Bird, our General Fund cannot recover as quickly, and education, healthcare, and public safety will continue to suffer.

Here's an example:

Suppose in 2009 that General Fund appropriations total $100. Then, under Arveschoug-Bird, in 2010, General Fund appropriations could be $106 - 6 percent more than the prior year.

But suppose, due to the recession, that General Fund Appropriations shrink to $90 in 2009. Then, even if the economy recovers in 2010, General Fund Appropriations can only be $95.40 - again 6 percent more than the prior year. After the recession, our elected officials might want to invest $106, and we might want them to, to recover from cuts made during the recession to important public services. But under Arveschoug-Bird, they couldn't.

But this year, the Colorado General Assembly has an opportunity to repeal Arveschoug-Bird and give our elected officials more flexibility to make our state budget reflect our values. Repealing Arveschoug-Bird won't increase taxes, and it won't increase total spending. It will just let legislators invest public resources more efficiently.

Senator John Morse (D - El Paso County) is sponsoring Senate Bill 228 to repeal Arveschoug-Bird. More than two dozen other Democratic legislators are co-sponsoring the bill.

Senate Bill 228 will be heard in the Senate Finance Committee this Tuesday, February 24. Please contact your legislators to let them know that you support this important bill. You can find phone and email contact information for your state legislators on the General Assembly web site here: http://www.leg.state.co.us

Thank you for caring about Colorado's future

Pat Waak
CDP Chair

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