Income, sales taxes are biggest hits to Colorado’s revenue

A forecast on how much the state has to spend — or doesn’t — rocked state lawmakers in the past week and showed that the 2020-21 state budget will be short some $3.3 billion.

It’s the largest single-year drop in state revenues in history, greater than the Great Recession and the recession that followed 9/11.

Members of the Joint Budget Committee, who are writing the state budget in the coming weeks, had little to cheer from an updated May 12 forecast.

They sought an updated forecast after one in March showed the state revenues had dropped more than $800 million between December and March. Given the growing pandemic, they feared the news would be worse in another month.

It was.

The only good news: There will be a balanced budget for 2019-20, which is required by the state constitution. That’s due to the cuts the JBC made to the 2019-20 budget a week earlier, combined with suggested cuts from the administration of Gov. Jared Polis, and what’s available from one of the state’s rainy day funds, a general fund reserve.

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