Colorado faces trillion dollar budget shortfall after DOGE and HR1 federal funding cuts.

Photo above – Kevin Costner plays with stunt wolf “Teddy” in the hit 1990 film Dances with Wolves. Colorado may be forced to cancel its wolf reintroduction program because of a budget crisis.

At first I was worried that Colorado politicians were going to have their vacations cut short. They are being called back to Denver to close a $1 Trillion budget gap. Then I read further (link below) and discovered that state officials are only going to spend one day on this. Two at most. They will be done in plenty of time to watch the Broncos – Titans game on Sunday, and enjoy the long weekend.

Emergency Colorado budget strategies being discussed include “raising taxes on the rich” and cutting the gray wolf relocation program. I’m serious. See the link at bottom.

The major problem with Colorado’s old budget seems to be that it relied on perpetual federal funds to pay for their citizens' healthcare. But at $130,000 average income, Colorado is one of the wealthiest places in America. Only a couple of states like California and Connecticut are richer. So why is Colorado dependent on handouts from Washington DC to pay its medical bills? Why should lower income taxpayers in places like Kentucky and Kansas be subsidizing hospital bills in the land of mega-expensive ski chalets?

Colorado DOES appear to have plenty of headroom to raise state income taxes. They collect a flat tax of 4.4% now, even on billionaires and millionaires. California’s top rate is 13%. But Colorado is adjacent to states like Wyoming (no income tax) and Texas (also no income tax), so legislators may want to take more than 1 or 2 days to think this through. There's always the chance that residents may check out U-Haul rates after their 2026 taxes are filed.

The cancellation of the Colorado Parks and Recreation Gray Wolf program is the part that really caught my attention though. There are literally dozens of websites and news releases touting its past successes. They all sound exciting until you dig deeper and discover that only 29 wolves have been released in 4 years. The number of surviving wolves among the original 29 was not revealed. As of 2024 the program had cost $5 million, or about $600,000 per wolf. Somebody in Colorado must REALLY love wolves, eh? But I bet this is providing a LOT of jobs in the Colorado Parks and Recreation Department.

Why were there no wolves left in Colorado before 2020? They were “extirpated”, which I guess means “shot by ranchers”. Extirpation avoids using any triggering terms. Except that . . . (drumroll) . . . the last Colorado wolves to go were not “extirpated”. They entire wolfpack migrated on their own to Wyoming. You can’t make stuff like this up.

I’m just sayin’ . .

This blue state is the first to grapple with megabill response

Income by State: Statistics and Percentile Calculator

RosaMarie · 46-50, F

What your analysis failed to consider:

Colorado pays about 14B more in Federal taxes than they recieved in Federal assistance.

Kansas, on the other hand, recieved 2B more in Federal Funding than it contributed in Federal taxes. Kentucky, a staggering 23B.

With that additional information, it sounds more like Colorado has been supporting Kansas and Kentucky than the other way around.

I only sourced data from one year, but that has been the case for at least the last decade, which is as far back as I bothered to look.

Source 2023 data: https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-contribute-the-most-and-least-to-federal-revenue/

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@RosaMarie yes - this is stock/schlock excuse of EVERY state that get's some sort of freebie from DC.

but it fails to explain why an extremely wealthy state like colorado needs federal money for in-state healthcare services.

should the conclusion be that federal income taxes are too high, if colorado is paying out billions more than they're getting back in freebies?

RosaMarie · 46-50, F

@SusanInFlorida I'm not defending our Federal tax policy. But you've singled our Colorado on an issue that is actual true in all states. Medicare / Medicaid is a Federal program. However, each state is expected to run the program at the state level from the Federal Funding. Right or wrong, every state right now has it baked into their budget that they will receive a pool of money from the Feds for Healthcare, roads, education. The change was made with no warning. Colorado may be the first to act, but all states will be similarly affected.

You've set your post up to portray Colorado as the problem. I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'll simply ask: Isn't the bigger problem that the Federal Government collects a big pool of money and then returns it to the states to run state programs?