Ritter leaves development, tourism untouched in budget-cutting plan
Medicaid provider rates will get cut again, but Colorado’s economic-development initiatives and tourism funding will remain almost wholly intact under a $320 million budget-balancing plan announced Tuesday by Gov. Bill Ritter’s office.
The state’s departments of corrections, human services and health care policy and financing take the biggest hits under the plan that was presented to the Joint Budget Committee, the Denver Business Journal reports. Ritter will enact most of the cuts via policy changes or executive order on Sept. 1, though he must wait to get legislative approval early next year for a few of the measures.
Reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers, which have dipped several times during the economic downturn, are going down again. Medical providers will receive 1.5 percent less, mental health and development-disability service providers will get 2.5 percent less and pharmacies also will see formulaic cuts under the plan.
The proposal also eliminates $15.6 million in funds that private hospitals have received for the costs of uncompensated care for indigent patients.
Todd Saliman, director of Ritter’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, emphasized that the cuts come only after a bill passed earlier this year allows hospitals to put a fee on beds that will cover more uninsured people and help with those provider rates. The governor will seek legislation as well that would allow the new fee to provide the indigent-care reimbursement that is getting cut to private hospitals, Saliman said.
Click here for the Denver Business Journal story.
Sure, balance the budget on the backs of disabled people. Great idea. At least we still have tourists.
Healthcare is cut, too, rmjdbm. Since my husband has been unemployed for a year and a half and has returned to school in a three-year nursing program (he’ll be 63 when he graduates), I’m even more depressed with the state of funding.
As for tourists, they pay taxes and buy “things” so I’m all over it. Though I’m a native and hate seeing the place trashed, I appreciate the tax money that funds what’s left of education programs, public safety, etc.
On the bright side, didn’t Douglas Bruce go to jail recently?
To regular people 1.5 – 2.5% cuts seem like peanuts. Then often, these are not even real cuts, but just cuts in the hoped rate of increase. But to an elected politician this is like pulling teeth. Not spending peoples money is the most difficult thing for them.
It must be tough to always find yourself torn by your own narrow minded hypocrisy gene. I mean, you are all for choice, so long as people choose what you want them to. Freedom of choice is great you’d say, but I’m certainly not pro choice, woman can’t have the right to choose to end a pregnancy, regardless of circumstance. Now you see a governor making toucie choices about how to balance a budget, and you can’t stand to see a democract doing what you thought only a republican would and decide to put out an insult about how hard it is not to spend other peoples money.
Okay, you are right. Maybe I am too narrow minded. I think I will say “screw freedom.” Who needs it. I think I will go with the flow. Don’t make any waves. And on that ugly subject, you brought up, let a woman do whatever she wants. Like Margaret Sanger who started Planned Parenthood proposed. If I sign onto this abortion business, I just hope I am not called a r_______. It is ugly. Anyway, it doesn’t effect me, I am a man. I will propose taxing people more. I will get more than I pay in, so I will not worry. You can afford to pay for my share. I guess I had better support Ritter, because he will make sure I get my fair share of your money. I feel better already. People will like me more. I am going to e-mail our president and tell him how much he means to me. I know he needs the support. His poll numbers are tanking. Thanks, ol buddy.
Gene – thank you so much for the post. It was a fine example of genuine frontier gibberish. A real piece of americana. You don’t see that much these days, oh you know, since the gold rush ended.
“since the gold rush ended” lmao!
Gene, thanks for thinking for us “regular” folk, I for one do not know what I would do without you doing so.
Buckler,
You will do well to get away from that California tax system.
Never paid California state income tax. I fought the law, and I won.
tax law that is
ben,
are you one of those people that are hurting the common man by not paying your fair share? I thought you were a wise lad but I hope you are not selfish with what you can do for others. those taxes you should pay coudl help the health of a person in needing help.
art
Art, Ben made it clear below that he pays his taxes, fair & square. However, I do want to go on record as agreeing with you in that I despise those who weasel out of paying their taxes.
I completely agree with you so rarely, I though it deserved its’ own separate comment!
Seriously, when I was still able to work, I was damn well paid, and my husband was no slouch, either. Our income peaked in 2004 at a gross of $175,000. While that is far from wealthy by American standards, it is a pretty big pile of money. Our Federal taxes alone were near the median income for the area we lived in. For about $400, we could have hired a slick accountant that would probably have saved us a couple of grand in taxes. We talked about it, and literally made a moral decision not to. We deducted everything we clearly had a right to deduct (e.g. mortgage interest & property taxes), and paid our taxes on that basis.
Since we spent the last ten years I was working paying every debt we had, including most of our mortgage, we no longer have enough deductions to itemize. But we have a decent household income, even if it is nowhere near what it used to be, and we just pay our taxes & don’t bitch. Especially now that I am on SSDI, and am a tax user (although I am still a taxpayer, as well – our income is high enough that I have to pay income taxes on my SSDI).
Art,
I said California state income taxes in my earlier post. I am not a California resident nor is my home of record in California, thus I do not have to file with California.
You said you thought I was a wise lad. You aure sound like Gene.
so you are racial prejudiced against them california folks. you are the one that sounds like gene being racist.
art
Art, how do you get “racist” out of not liking Californians?? “Bigot”, maybe. A bigot is one with an unreasoning prejudice against a specific group. Therefore, racists are bigots, but not all bigots are racist. Sexism is a form of bigotry that is every bit as ugly as racism. Everybody talks about the Fourteenth Amendment giving blacks the right to vote, but it didn’t. It gave black MEN the right to vote. Women, no matter what color, had to wait another FIFTY-TWO years to have the right to vote.
Of course, Ben made it perfectly clear that he is neither a racist, nor a bigot, nor one who avoids paying his taxes. He merely refused to let California suck him into their administrative morass – if he HAD done that filing, the result at the bottom of page four-billion and three would have been that he owed Cali zero. He just refused to play their game. Having lived in Cali for thirteen years, I have some idea of what I speak, and I say good for him.
Art,
Please read my posts again. I am not a legal residence of California, nor is my home of record in California, thus I am taxed by the state that my home of record is in. Why I made that joke is that I have been filing with my home of record state taxes while being in California, and then California came at me saying they wanted to tax me too. I told them NO, I do my taxes from my home of record state and I will be damn if I file 2 state tax returns from 2 different states. Please do not imply I am racist again.
I was born and raised in California and I got out just before the fall. It’s not Californian’s as much as the lunatics they elect. They are on the brink of collapse.There will have to be a major overhaul to get that ship righted again! I can’t believe they want to tax you twice, oh wait yes I can. They also want to use the census to incorporate anyone that is in the state at the time of the census, including tourists, to help redistrict and add state representative to the government. I kid you not. They want to become a mini country. I say let them, I’ll stay home!
Scott – which fall? When I left in 1992, the budget deficit was higher that the BUDGETs of forty-eight of the remaining forty-nine states, and unemployment in the bay area was 11 percent. You needed an armed guard just to go Christmas shopping at the mall.
Everything I’m hearing on the news now sounds exactly the same. They kept their economic boat from sinking last time by floating it on the dot.com bubble, then the mortgage bubble. Now that both bubbles have burst, sounds like they are sinking faster than ever.
Art,
Below is some interesting thoughts on claiming racism from a person named Ed Morrissey. I know you are challenged by and seek to justify the problems of Obama. Perhaps you feel others are racist because of the reasons Ed cites.
“Claiming racisim comes from a sense of desperation on the Left, borne of the realization that they miscalculated the health-care debate. As objections have grown, they have tried to find ways to silence the opposition — because they can’t answer the actual objections. Some advocates have honestly tried to argue for the benefits they see from a government-run system, but most just vilify and demonize the opposition instead. The racism charge is truly a desperate, Hail Mary rhetorical pass. Supposedly, all of this opposition comes from the color of our President’s skin, despite the fact that he won 53% of the vote just nine months ago. However, how do these people explain the same exact furor over the Clinton effort to nationalize health care 16 years ago?”
Sammy
Good to hear from you Sammy. – I got my hands full these days. New libs. New racism all over the place. Yes I did read the new Gallup poll today.
Gene,
Actually I do not think you have as full of hands as those that try to justify failed and failing policy. The more it fails the more they look for other reasons and people to blame. I have found that the more some of these oppose reality the more sure you can be they are hearing the death knell of their own beliefs.
Sammy
Hi Sam! I was wondering where you went – I like your arguments. They are always clear and coherent, even when I disagree with your conclusions.
Also, I do agree with Ed Morrissey, up to a point. Obama really did try the bipartisan route for the first few weeks, but was shot down on both sides. I am so sick and tired of the same old partisan bull****, but I know it isn’t going away in my lifetime, if ever.
. . bipartisan route . . ha . ha ha, ha, HA HA . . ha . ha ha, ha, HA HA . . ha . ha ha, ha, HA HA
Mary,
As usual, you are most gracious. I enjoy your contributions also. I like someone, like you, that disagrees with me yet gives good reasoning for that disagreement. It helps hone my own thoughts and keeps me aware of all sides of an issue.
With school starting this week I have been recently busy while preparing for that start.
The partisan bikering can be tedious yet it is also what was intended. As you and I keep each other honest, the partisanship should keep politicians somewhat honest.
What is interesting is the last month or so has shown that Obama’s opposition is not partisan. In fact, it is quite serious non-partisan opposition-he is getting it from all sides. Our friend Art has also noticed this and seems to be grappling with the reasons for all that opposition. I think it is a real simple answer: Obama is a great reader of a teleprompter and has soem very strong ideological beliefs but in his short time of leadership has never learned to face serious opposition or to hone his own reasoning and beliefs. I believe the public is starting to see that the emperor has no clothes. The emperor knows he is seens as naked and is quite upset about that.
Sammy
I disagree. I will agree that the two sides are “saying” their “principles” may be at odds with the public option, and are not sure if it is a good idea. As far as I am concerned, if the health care option is not passed, than the “two” parties are the same, and Creater help us then.
Remember folks, I am not promoting it, but I am saying it will come, Chaos, unfortunately. I know how to survive and provide for my wife and one dog, and you LEFT and RIGHT nutcases, you better bring a high and white flag to my front yard when you want to talk if you bring an AR15 or a Flower, and my only weapons are my thoughts and hands.
Screw it, my wife knew this day would come, I am going Jermiah Johnson on you all.
Ben,
When it is cocktail time in Colorado, you guys still have to wait an hour. I think you jumped the gun.
Yes, because of Mountain time versus Pacific coast time frame, unless your Arizona. Come on now Gene, I am drinking Coors, but in your defense, I did not tell you I actually become sharper when I am drinking Coors…It must be because of the Rocky Mountains’ water.
Okay, lets hear from you how I read your last post incorrectly. 
While I am waiting for you to reply, I am going outside to smoke a cig, please do not tell the DoD if they actually passed the no smoking “ban”
And damn, jump the gun to drink??!!! I am drinking with my wife and friends, not going on a nature hike through the Apalachians, through New Orleans (Sorry Pres Bush)down through the Mexican Rockies, through the Panama Cannal (Sorry Sen McCain, where is YOUR birth certificate by the way?) to Argentina to drink and have extra marital affairs.
Don’t worry about that cig., as your Commander in Chief is probably standing out back right now doing the same thing. Actually he is probably doing it right in the Oval Orifice. I can’t disagree with you on your choice of beer. Am drinking the same. You didn’t appreciate that ‘Peters out or Peters in’ toast, so how about one to Joe Coors. Heres to Joe Coors. (He founded the Heritage Foundation).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMjvfLdRlxg
I will toast to Joseph Coors whos family makes good beer. But he had a family named “Adolph”, does one treat that the same way as one with the middle name “Hussein”?
I don’t, but Gene, sometimes I worry about you doing so. 
Joe Coors was the grandson of Adolf Coors, founder of the brewery. Joe’s son Pete, ran for Colorado Senate seat and lost to current Senator Saladczar. . . Heres to all the Coors. ! ! !
family member, sorry.
Kampai!!!!