{"id":117153,"date":"2025-08-28T23:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/117153\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T23:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T23:35:10","slug":"colorado-governor-cuts-spending-on-medicaid-higher-education-and-grants-to-plug-750m-hole-in-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/117153\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado governor cuts spending on Medicaid, higher education and grants to plug $750M hole in state budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday he will reverse the state\u2019s plans to increase reimbursement rates for health care providers who see Medicaid recipients to help address a roughly $750 million hole<\/a> in the state budget caused by the Republican federal tax and spending bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That will save the state about $38 million by forgoing a planned 1.6% rate hike.\u00a0That\u2019s the single biggest cut made by the governor.<\/p>\n

Polis also said he will slash spending on higher education (by some $12 million) and grants (like $2 million to tackle health disparities) as part of $252 million in total cuts and redirected spending to help balance the budget this fiscal year, which began July 1.\u00a0The governor said he is making changes to about 20 budget line items.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy two commitments in managing these cuts \u2014 we\u2019ve kept them both,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not cutting our public schools one dime. K-12 funding is held harmless. We also have zero cuts to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor told reporters of his budget-cut plans Thursday morning and is set to present to the legislature\u2019s Joint Budget Committee later in the day. Lawmakers wrapped up a special legislative session Tuesday<\/a> to partially close the hole by increasing the taxes paid by businesses and business owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The General Assembly also passed a bill letting the state sell tax credits to raise $100 million to offset the deficit. The credits, which will effectively let the companies that buy them prepay their taxes through 2033 at a discount, will be sold at least 80 cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office also told the JBC on Thursday that the budget situation is even worse than they previously thought because of higher than expected Medicaid enrollment. As a result, Polis plans to tap about $325 million of the state\u2019s budget reserves to make up the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have a reserve north of 13% after all these actions are done,\u201d Polis said, \u201cand that is more than twice the reserve than when I took office.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the special session, the legislature passed a bill ceding the responsibility of cutting the budget to the governor\u2019s office, saying the executive branch was best positioned to slash spending quickly. But the move also had the political benefit of handing a hot financial potato off a lame-duck governor in Polis, who is term-limited and leaves office in early 2027.<\/p>\n

The legislation requires the governor to notify the JBC of his spending cuts, but it gives him unilateral authority to slash the budget. The cuts start to take effect Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Ferrandino, the director of the governor\u2019s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, said Polis made as many cuts as possible to programs where more money was allocated than needed. That includes $3.7 million to a program providing gender affirming care to transgender prison inmates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That spending is required<\/a> under a lawsuit settlement<\/a>, but Ferrandino said the state budgeted more money for the line item than the actual cost, which allowed for the cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to guess what it would cost,\u201d Polis said, \u201cand we guessed it would cost more than it actually cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announces cuts to the state budget to plug a roughly $750 million hole in the state budget caused by the Republican federal tax and spending bill. He was speaking to reporters on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, at the governor\u2019s mansion in downtown Denver. Polis used a scale to illustrate the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Colorado\u2019s finances. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

Some of the cuts (totaling $102.5 million) and redirected spending (totaling $146.7 million) by the governor include:<\/p>\n

About $105 million collected through Proposition 123, the affordable housing funding program approved by voters in 2022, will be redirected to the state budget. \u201cProp. 123 as a whole has over $380 million of funding,\u201d Polis said. \u201cWithout Prop. 123, we\u2019d be talking about cuts to education funding here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

About $9.5 million that was supposed to go to state colleges and universities is being clawed back, including about $97,000 for Colorado Mountain College and about $116,000 for Aims Community College.<\/p>\n

About $200,000 that was supposed to go to the state psychiatric hospital in Fort Logan<\/a> and about $1.5 million that was supposed to go to the state psychiatric hospital in Pueblo<\/a> is being cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

$3 million that was supposed to go from the state to local public health agencies<\/p>\n

$4 million leftover from a program aimed at ensuring kids have clean drinking water<\/p>\n

$500,000 that was earmarked for reproductive health care for people living in the country illegally was cut, as was $131,250 in \u201chealth benefits for children lacking access due to immigration status.\u201d The latter dollars were specifically for outreach, which the governor\u2019s office felt was being handled sufficiently by nonprofits.<\/p>\n

$2.5 million from a program that provides dental care for people on Medicaid is being cut<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office anticipates the state will save $3 million from a hiring freeze he put into effect through the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The Medicaid provider rate increase will be halted starting in October, Polis said. \u201cSo they will see the benefit of some of those increases,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

The governor also cut spending on Medicaid prior authorization, which allows patients to get care before reimbursement is approved by insurance.<\/p>\n

Polis said the Medicaid cuts he made Thursday were \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg\u201d when it comes to the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens over the next two years, when the actual cuts hit and some of the onerous paperwork requirements that would require additional work for the state, that\u2019s when there\u2019s even greater damage to Medicaid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Polis said the Medicaid cuts he made Thursday were \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg\u201d when it comes to the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens over the next two years, when the actual cuts hit and some of the onerous paperwork requirements that would require additional work for the state, that\u2019s when there\u2019s even greater damage to Medicaid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When he presented to the JBC on Thursday afternoon, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, pressed the governor on why he didn\u2019t cut Medicaid for people living in the U.S. illegally \u2014 the Cover All Coloradans program \u2014 before forgoing the Medicaid provider rate increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Polis didn\u2019t directly answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very supportive of health care, whether it\u2019s provider fees, whether it\u2019s Cover All Coloradans, whether it\u2019s a number of other areas that we invest in, and these are always difficult decisions,\u201d Polis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado Gov. Jared Polis presents his budget-cut plans to the legislature\u2019s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, at the Colorado Capitol in Denver. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

He added that he hopes Congress will renew discounts for health insurance premiums that expire at the end of the year, which would free up state funding the legislature designated for those during the special session.<\/p>\n

JBC Chair Jeff Bridges, a Democratic state senator from Greenwood Village, said that most Medicaid providers weren\u2019t asking for a rate increase. Both Bridges and the governor said they hoped to have a rate increase in the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The four Democrats on the six-member JBC didn\u2019t complain about Polis\u2019 cuts, though they asked the governor\u2019s office to try to make up for the slashed spending in the future.<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News<\/p>\n

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday he will reverse the state\u2019s plans to increase reimbursement rates for health care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[150,3832,48144,66887,97,252,253,10476,75752,75753],"class_list":{"0":"post-117153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-legislature","11":"tag-colorado-politics","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-care","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-jared-polis","16":"tag-politics-banner","17":"tag-state-budget"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}