Governor announces budget-balancing plan

Gov. Bill Ritter announced a budget-balancing plan Monday for the 2010-11 budget that will have a minimal effect on state services.

"The governor's task was eased by better-than-projected June revenue collections, which allowed the state to end the past fiscal year with a larger-than-expected reserve and transfer an additional $76.8 million to 2010-11," said Terry Scanlon a fiscal policy analyst for the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.

Scanlon continued: "The plan also includes $53.4 million in transfers from cash funds to the General Fund and $6.2 million in actual spending cuts. The biggest spending cut in the governor's plan was $4.9 million from personnel costs, which will be achieved by keeping positions vacant and delaying hiring on other positions. The other cut identified by the governor was $1.3 million from the Department of Corrections. The governor's plan protects Medicaid by using state funds to fill the gap in federal Medicaid funding that created the need for the governor to offer the plan."

More analysis of the state budget is available on the website.