Colorado’s state budget, in one place. It opens with right now: the reserve, the latest revenue forecast, TABOR and the refund, and the dates ahead. Then it shows where the money goes, what the state owes, and what a day of custody costs. The $100 receipt on the dashboard shows where this year’s money goes, and this page is what sits behind it.
The 50-state spending mix is the one comparison here with a U.S. figure on the same basis. The reserve, the borrowing, the TABOR refund and PERA’s funding are each set by Colorado’s own constitution and statutes. So no national line is drawn beside them.
Go deeper
This page is the budget as planned: the money the legislature set aside for the year. The pages below follow the money further, starting with what the state has paid.
On Follow Your Dollar: where the money came from and where it went, as planned or as paid, beside your own household’s share.
Part 1 of 4
Right now
The reserve, what changed since the last forecast, TABOR and the refund, and the dates ahead.
Two offices forecast the state's revenue. Legislative Council Staff (LCS) works for the General Assembly. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) works for the Governor. We show the two side by side and do not pick one. A forecast is an estimate, so each one names the month it was published.
The reserve is General Fund money the state keeps unspent at the end of each year. The law sets its size as a share of General Fund appropriations. An appropriation is money the legislature authorized to be spent, for one purpose and one year. The reserve is 13%FACT of them for FY 2026-27, and 15%FACT from FY 2027-28 on.
A second rule says what the Governor must do when the reserve falls short (C.R.S. 24-75-201.5). Its words are not quoted yetPENDING, because we have not found a public copy we can quote. The rate for FY 2025-26 is not quoted yetPENDING for the same reason.
Legislative Council Staff (LCS)
General Fund reserveLCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18)Every figure here: FACT
For FY 2027-28, LCS tests the reserve two ways. If appropriations stay at the FY 2026-27 level (its Scenario A), the reserve ends $685.8M above the 15% requirement. If the state funds what current law calls for (its Scenario B), it ends −$1,579.7M below it. A minus sign means below.
The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The reserve since FY 2019-20
The Joint Budget Committee staff project the reserve for each year in their Appropriations Report. These are their figures, beside the reserve the law required in each year.
What these figures are as of. These figures are projections, not audited balances. They rest on the March 2026 forecast by the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting. The Joint Budget Committee staff print them in their Appropriations Report of 9 July 2026. The shortfall against the old requirement is from their Long Bill narrative of 7 April 2026. Each earlier year is from the report the table names.
Exactly $2,198,000,000 · the total year-end General Fund reserve the state projects for FY 2026-27, including the $500 million held at PERA under S.B. 25-310 — a projection on the March 2026 forecast, not a balance anyone has audited · FY 2026-27
The reserve peaked at $3.38B in FY 2021-22. Every bar is the committee staff’s projection for its year, not an audited balance. The table under the chart names the report each year comes from. The required bar moves with the law as well as with the budget: the statute set a different share in different years.
Earlier yearsPENDING The earliest Appropriations Report this site reads is the one for FY 2020-21, and the earliest year it prints is FY 2019-20. No earlier year is drawn here, rather than one typed in by hand. Each year comes from the latest report that prints it. A year the staff projected twice carries the earlier projection in its note.
Exactly $2,175,800,000 · the dollar amount statute requires the state to hold in FY 2026-27, quoted from the Joint Budget Committee’s own table rather than recomputed from the percentage beside it · FY 2026-27
the statutory reserve requirement as a percentage of General Fund appropriations, as House Bill 26-1363 sets it for FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 · FY 2026-27
Exactly $22,200,000 · how far the projected balance clears the 13.0% requirement House Bill 26-1363 put in place — a margin, not a surplus · FY 2026-27
Exactly $340,100,000 · how far the projected balance fell short of the 15.0% requirement that was in force before House Bill 26-1363 lowered it, as the April 2026 Long Bill narrative stated it — the July report prints no such comparison, so this figure is not restated · FY 2026-27
The reserve is money the state does not spend. It is there so a recession or a wildfire does not become a mid-year crisis. Colorado sets its own requirement by statute, and for these two years the legislature lowered it. House Bill 26-1363 cut it from 15.0% of General Fund appropriations to 13.0%, and the budget balances to the lower number.
That is worth reading twice. The projected balance does clear the requirement now in force. The margin is twenty-two million dollars, on a requirement above two billion. Against the requirement that stood before the bill, the same projection falls short. Both sentences are true of one projection, which is why every figure here names the requirement it is measured against.
Each forecast says how it moved from the one before. LCS compares its September 2026 forecast with its June 2026 forecast, line by line. A plus means more than in June, and a minus means less. The last line nets the others: it is how far the money left over moved against the reserve the law requires.
LCS, June to September 2026
Changes from the June 2026 forecast, LCS Scenario ALCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18)Every figure here: FACT
The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
↻A TABOR over-refund that shows up twice. LCS's FY 2025-26 accounting adjustment is −$269.9M. LCS says it holds −$275.1M of earlier TABOR over-refunds, plus $5.2M for HB26-1358. The same amount, −$275.1M, shows up again in LCS's TABOR table for FY 2026-27, on the line for earlier over-refunds paid to taxpayers. Each figure here is FACT, from the LCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18).
TABOR is the part of the state constitution that limits how much revenue the state may keep each year. The limit in use is called the Referendum C cap. Revenue above the cap goes back to taxpayers as a refund.
FY 2025-26: the certified result
The State Controller certifies each year's result. The certified figure for FY 2025-26 is Waiting for the recordPENDING. So is the Controller's count of refunds paid to date above the surpluses they returned: Waiting for the recordPENDING. LCS reads FY 2025-26 revenue as −$175.9M against the cap, a preliminary figure. A minus sign means below the cap. It is FACT from the LCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18).
LCS reportsFACT that on 15 September 2026 the State Auditor said the evidence was not enough to finish an audit of the Controller's certification. The Auditor's own words are Waiting for the recordPENDING.
FY 2026-27 to FY 2028-29: the surplus, by office
LCS
TABOR revenue above the cap, and refundsLCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18)Every figure here: FACT
The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
Refunds by type
Not in a table yetPENDING Legislative Council Staff shows refunds by type only in a chart (September 2026, Figure 4). Its parts carry no labels on every bar, and they do not add to the totals it prints. We do not read a number off a chart by its position. This stays blank until a publisher prints the figures in a table.
The law appliesFACT only if the State Controller certified in September 2026 that FY 2025-26 revenue did not exceed the limit.
The Controller must set the FY 2024-25 over-refund amount before 16 November 2026FACT.
That amount may lower refunds from FY 2026-27 on, by no more than one-halfFACT of it in any one year.
The amount the Controller sets is Due before 16 November 2026PENDING. LCS's forecast takes out −$87.9M in FY 2026-27 and −$87.9M in FY 2027-28 for it. That is LCS's estimate, not the Controller's amount. Both are FACT from the LCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18).
The next Governor takes office in January 2027, in the middle of the budget year. These are the steps between now and then, in order. A date we cannot yet confirm from a public record is marked PENDING.
1 November 2026FACTDepartments send their budget requests to the Joint Budget Committee.
Before 16 November 2026FACTThe State Controller must set the FY 2024-25 over-refund amount before 16 November 2026.
January 2027FACTThe Joint Budget Committee takes up requests to change this year's budget, called supplementals.
Date not confirmedPENDINGThe day early in January 2027 that supplemental requests and budget amendments are due.
Date not confirmedPENDINGThe day late in January 2027 that the new Governor's budget changes are due.
March 2027FACTLCS's March 2027 forecast is the test. If it puts the State Education Fund below $200 million on 30 June 2027, the school funding formula changes from FY 2027-28.
Part 2 of 4
Where it goes
What the state has enacted, year by year, how its mix compares to all states, the State Education Fund, and behavioral health.
Exactly $49,560,763,693 · the grand total the FY 2026-27 Long Bill prints for itself
Operating budget, FY 2026-27, Long Bill plus other bills FACT
$49.7B
Exactly $49,694,444,712 · the total the JBC staff’s FY 2026-27 Appropriations Report prints
Two totals, two bases. An appropriation is money the legislature authorized to be spent, not money spent. For FY 2026-27, the Long Bill alone appropriates $49,560,763,693 FACT. The Appropriations Report from the Joint Budget Committee staff adds the other bills of the session: $49,694,444,712 FACT.
The General Fund is $17,351,445,407 FACT in the Long Bill alone and $17,461,279,123 FACT in the report. Both are correct, and we never add them. See both totals, with their sources.
Colorado’s operating budget as enacted, by fiscal year
Total of all departments and all funds, as enacted in each year’s Long Bill, FY 2016-17 to FY 2026-27. Not adjusted for inflation.
Each bar is the grand total, operating budgets, that year’s own Long Bill printed. Later bills amend each year’s appropriations, so a bar is what the legislature enacted, not what the year finally was. The total counts every fund the Long Bill appropriates: the General Fund, cash funds, reappropriated funds and federal funds. Dollars are the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation, and no growth rate is shown.
View the 11 years as a table
The operating budget as enacted for each fiscal year, with its label.
FY 2025-26, restated after the 2026 session: 21 departments moved
The report’s FY 2025-26 edition printed the year as the 2025 session passed it. Its FY 2026-27 edition prints the year again, after the 2026 session’s supplemental bills. The later edition speaks for the year. We keep the first figure too. These are the report’s totals: the Long Bill plus other bills. A restatement by the publisher is a revision, not a correction.
Operating appropriations for FY 2025-26 by department, in the FY 2025-26 edition as first printed and in the FY 2026-27 edition as restated.
Department
Total, FY 2025-26 edition
Total, FY 2026-27 edition
General Fund, FY 2025-26 edition
General Fund, FY 2026-27 edition
All departments
$46,703,647,026
$47,668,766,385
$16,941,722,229
$17,176,443,745
Agriculture
$78,293,462
$78,202,660
$20,564,403
$20,389,589
Corrections
$1,190,256,447
$1,209,738,833
$1,086,028,946
$1,121,409,566
Early Childhood
$802,741,580
$803,424,934
$318,425,707
$309,734,489
Education
$7,689,403,789
$7,616,692,930
$4,669,994,198
$4,669,716,019
Governor
$552,931,124
$539,175,891
$53,113,284
$53,327,927
Health Care Policy and Financing
$18,217,290,946
$19,235,436,850
$5,554,316,022
$5,752,056,762
Higher Education
$6,424,880,933
$6,394,241,774
$1,684,348,869
$1,672,939,536
Human Services
$2,672,891,460
$2,697,469,445
$1,322,641,611
$1,333,221,320
Judicial
$1,151,752,648
$1,166,630,211
$878,946,616
$891,784,092
Labor and Employment
$496,020,269
$495,775,860
$35,040,149
$34,703,020
Law
$152,427,568
$151,902,969
$28,849,741
$28,687,723
Local Affairs
$568,650,554
$568,252,997
$61,995,634
$61,968,232
Military and Veterans Affairs
$154,888,789
$154,868,202
$18,015,198
$18,146,948
Natural Resources
$535,978,343
$532,761,991
$57,345,170
$56,275,838
Personnel
$302,573,999
$301,468,382
$35,163,407
$34,305,753
Public Health and Environment
$868,769,339
$869,350,826
$140,042,593
$138,790,726
Public Safety
$788,416,482
$790,557,236
$272,537,258
$273,599,432
Regulatory Agencies
$138,645,306
$139,063,404
$3,114,582
$3,753,059
Revenue
$557,149,866
$557,690,118
$154,779,762
$155,243,686
State
$48,963,071
$48,966,072
$4,254
$4,254
Treasury
$957,192,955
$963,566,704
$468,270,969
$468,201,918
The chart and its table read the Long Bill of each year. The second tile and the restated table read the Appropriations Report. The Long Bill record and the report record give each year’s method note and source.
Spending mix by function, Colorado vs. the 50-state average.
This is a different measure from the $100 receipt above, on purpose — self-reported expenditures for fiscal 2025 (estimated), not Colorado's own enacted FY 2026-27 appropriation. Read entirely from one publisher on both sides, so nothing here compares two different bases. NASBO 2025 State Expenditure Report↗, Table 4.
Where Colorado's mix differs most
One bar per function: Colorado's share of its own spending minus the 50-state average share, in percentage points. Right of the line is a bigger share of the budget than the average state spends; left is a smaller one. CALC Each bar is the two shares printed beside it subtracted; nothing here is a figure the table below does not also print.
Colorado vs all states−8 ptssame as the average+8 pts
Medicaid
Medicaid, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
34%
vs
Medicaid, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
30.7%
+3.3 pts
K-12 education
K-12 education, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
17%
vs
K-12 education, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
18.2%
−1.2 pts
Higher education
Higher education, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
15.9%
vs
Higher education, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
8.8%
+7.1 pts
Transportation
Transportation, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
4.5%
vs
Transportation, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
7.8%
−3.3 pts
Corrections
Corrections, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
2.7%
vs
Corrections, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
2.5%
+0.2 pts
All other
All other, Colorado (NASBO basis) FACT
26%
vs
All other, all states (NASBO basis) FACT
31.9%
−5.9 pts
Colorado's spending mix against the 50-state average by function, fiscal 2025 NASBO estimate, with the difference in percentage points.
Function
Colorado
All states
Difference
Medicaid
34%
30.7%
+3.3 pts
K-12 education
17%
18.2%
−1.2 pts
Higher education
15.9%
8.8%
+7.1 pts
Transportation
4.5%
7.8%
−3.3 pts
Corrections
2.7%
2.5%
+0.2 pts
All other
26%
31.9%
−5.9 pts
"All other" is a bigger, coarser bucket than the receipt's. NASBO has no Human Services or Courts category of its own; both fall in here nationally.
Earlier years
Each card is one function’s share of Colorado’s own spending. The chart under it adds the four years before it and the average state, read from the same publisher’s earlier State Expenditure Reports. FACT Every bar is a figure NASBO prints; nothing is estimated here, and the table inside each chart names the report each year comes from.
Why the rule between fiscal 2022 and 2023. Fiscal 2021 and 2022 are as NASBO’s 2023 report printed them. Fiscal 2023 onward are as its 2025 report prints them. NASBO restates earlier years, and for the same year the two reports give Colorado different shares; the 2025 report does not say why. The bars are not joined across the rule, because a line through it would draw a reprint as a change. The “All other” card has a second reason: the 2025 report folds public assistance into it, and the 2023 report kept public assistance apart.
The State Education Fund helps pay for K-12 schools. LCS projects how much will be left in it at the end of each year. The answer depends on how fast the state's General Fund share of school funding grows, so LCS shows four cases. Each card names the growth it assumes.
Balance at the end of each year, by LCS case. LCS, September 2026 forecast (published 2026-09-18)Every figure here: FACT
Scenario 1
Constant General Fund increase, $150 million a year
The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The $200 million test in March 2027
A 2025 law, HB25-1320, sets a test on LCS's March 2027 forecast. If that forecast projects the fund below $200MFACT on 30 June 2027, the school funding formula changes from FY 2027-28. The law's own wordsFACT say what changes. The September 2026 forecast above is not that test.
The Long Bill (HB26-1410) is the state's main budget act. It funds behavioral health in three places, in two departments. No office prints one total for all three. So we add the three totals the act prints and label the sum CALC.
Behavioral health in the FY 2026-27 Long Bill, as enacted
Department and division
Amount
Health Care Policy and Financing(3) Behavioral Health Community Programs
How the total is worked out: Health Care Policy and Financing (3) $1,814,527,095 + Human Services (5) $306,543,350 + Human Services (6) $357,174,200 = $2,478,244,645.
Appropriated is not spent. This counts only these three divisions of the Long Bill. It leaves out behavioral health money in other departments and in the session's other bills.
Part 3 of 4
What’s owed
What the state has borrowed and owes back, the pension shortfall, and this year’s pressure points.
Colorado is about to appropriate tens of billions of dollars. Whether that is prudent turns on three facts, and this page puts them first. The first is what the state has borrowed. The second is what it holds back for a bad year, which this page shows year by year under Right now. The third is how much of this year’s revenue it already owes back to taxpayers. Every figure below comes from the state’s own records, and each one names the quantity it is.
What these figures are as of. These figures are not all from one moment. The refund is a projection. It rests on the March 2026 forecast by the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting. The Joint Budget Committee staff print it in their Long Bill narrative of 7 April 2026. The debt is audited, and it is a year older. It is the state’s position at 30 June 2025, from the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
The reserve — Is the state keeping anything back?
This page shows the reserve once, under Right now. There you can read it year by year, beside the reserve the law requires, with the source of each year. Go to the reserve
The debt — Has the state borrowed, and what does it owe?
Exactly $11,467,378,000 · every dollar of principal still owed at 30 June 2025 — notes, revenue bonds and Certificates of Participation, plus leases and subscription arrangements — across the whole state government · FY 2024-25
Principal outstanding reached $11.5B in FY 2024-25, the highest of the 10 audited years drawn. Subscription arrangements, a small part of it, appear in the state’s table only from FY 2022-23.
Exactly $10,824,644,000 · outstanding principal on notes, revenue bonds and Certificates of Participation alone, leaving out the leases and subscriptions the headline includes · FY 2024-25
Interest still to pay, over thirty-five years FACT
$5.30B
Exactly $5,304,274,000 · interest owed across the entire remaining life of the borrowing that already exists, scheduled out thirty-five years — a lifetime figure, never an annual one, and never added to the principal · FY 2024-25
Exactly $470,100,000 · interest the state recorded as a cost during the year ended 30 June 2025 — interest only, so it is less than the state paid out, because it leaves out principal repaid · FY 2024-25
Colorado publishes no statewide annual debt service. Its annual report schedules next year’s principal and interest in four separate tables and never adds them, so any single figure here would be our arithmetic under the state’s name.
Colorado cannot borrow the way most governments can. Its constitution allows general obligation debt in only three cases. One is buildings for state use. One is defending the state or the country in time of war. The third is an unforeseen revenue shortfall. So none of what follows is backed by the power to tax.
The certificates are secured by buildings and vehicles, and the revenue bonds by pledges of future revenue. The report says the state’s other forms of borrowing are small beside those two. About $6.6 billion of the principal sits in the state’s business-type activities rather than with the agencies this budget funds. Most of those revenue bonds are the higher-education institutions’, and the report says so.
Note which number is which. The headline includes leases and subscription arrangements. Accounting rules put those on the balance sheet, and nobody would call them borrowing.
Money owed back to taxpayers — How much of this money does the state have to give back?
Exactly $463,700,000 · the FY 2026-27 refund as Legislative Council Staff forecast it in September 2026, the newest of the three official forecasts on this card and five months after the budget document behind the other two — a projected $826.8 million surplus less $87.9 million under House Bill 26-1419 and $275.1 million of over-refunds from earlier surpluses. The forecast rounds each part to the nearest $100,000, so the parts come to $100,000 more than its printed total · FY 2026-27
Refunds were owed for 14 of the 32 counted years from FY 1993-94. The largest, $3.73B, was for FY 2021-22.
$3.73B
FY 1993-94FY 2028-29
Refund of the year’s surplusHatched: a projection or forecast, not an audited count
Colorado TABOR refund owed for each fiscal year surplus
Colorado TABOR refund owed for each fiscal year surplus
Exactly $711,100,000 · the FY 2026-27 TABOR refund obligation on the March 2026 forecast, before the bills in the budget package that reduce it — stated identically in two separate tables of the same document · FY 2026-27
Exactly $417,800,000 · what the Joint Budget Committee projects will still be refunded once the budget-package bills take effect, paid out in the following year — quoted as the total its table prints, not summed from the lines above it · FY 2026-27
Exactly $110,700,000 · the reduction in the FY 2026-27 refund obligation the narrative attributes to the budget-package bills, published as the estimate it calls itself · FY 2026-27
Under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, revenue above a constitutional cap is refunded rather than spent. An appropriation is money the legislature sets aside to spend. A refund obligation is the opposite of one, and it is never added to one on this site.
Read the three forecasts as three moments, not as one answer. In March the state forecast a refund before this budget’s bills. In April the Joint Budget Committee projected what would remain after them. In September, Legislative Council Staff forecast the year again, and its figure falls between the other two. All three are official and none of them is wrong. A forecast is a claim about a year that has not happened yet.
A fiscal year’s surplus is refunded in the year after. So whatever this figure settles at reaches taxpayers in FY 2027-28. The last year with an audited, certified refund is FY 2024-25.
Colorado PERA runs the pension for state, school, and local government workers. Both figures below are on PERA's funding basis, valued at 31 December each year.
This is not the yearly PERA payment. The state also sends PERA a fixed sum every year, listed under “Already spoken for” above. That payment is money leaving this year's budget. The figures here are the whole gap behind it, built up over decades. Adding the two together would count one promise twice.
PERA adds five separate trust funds to reach these numbers, and says so itself. Its report calls the combined figure “for informational purposes.” Each fund's assets, it says, “cannot be used by another fund.” The School Division is 66.1% funded and the Judicial Division is 90.3%, on the same date. So 69.1% describes none of the five.
What shaped this budget, as the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) states it in its own narrative.
Medicaid: medical forecast caseload & cost, all funds+$1.86B
Medicaid: provider rates the 2.0% cut is $222.0M of it−$289.0M
Medicaid: prior supplementals not carried forward−$305.5M
Year-end reserve, against the 15% rule it replaced$340.1M
K-12: Kids Matter Account the narrative's own estimate+$213.3M
TABOR refund obligation, reduced by package bills$110.7M
The first three are changes inside Health Care Policy & Financing, measured against its adjusted FY 2025-26 appropriation. That is the money that department was given for last year, after the mid-year changes the legislature made to it. They are not statewide figures, and are never added to the budget above. Budget Package & Long Bill Narrative, April 7, 2026↗
Part 4 of 4
What a day costs
What the state pays to hold one person for one day, at the rates printed in the Long Bill.
Per-person daily rates, printed in the bill itself.
Community corrections (residential)$71.48
Local jails & Bent/Crowley prisons$77.16
Other in-state private prisons$115.74
A halfway-house bed costs less than a jail bed on the state's own printed rates. Residents "may be charged a daily subsistence fee up to $20.00."
Earlier yearsPENDING Each year’s Long Bill prints these rates. Earlier bills are not yet read for them, so this card shows one year rather than earlier rates typed in by hand.
Where each number comes from
Every number above links here. Each record names the document, the page, the table and the line, and the figure as the publisher printed it. Forecast figures also name the forecast they come from.
The reserve rate from FY 2027-28 on: 15% of each year's General Fund appropriations, less what the law takes out.
The record for Reserve rate, FY 2027-28 on, field by field.
On this page
15%
As printed
FIFTEEN
The words
(XXVIII) FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2027-28, AND EACH OF THE FISCAL YEARS THEREAFTER, FIFTEEN PERCENT OF THE AMOUNT APPROPRIATED FOR EXPENDITURE FROM THE GENERAL FUND FOR THAT FISCAL YEAR MINUS
The rule for what the Governor must do when revenue falls short of the reserve (C.R.S. 24-75-201.5).
Why it is blank. The state puts its statutes online only through a legal research service, not as a document we can cite. The rule stays blank until we can quote it from a public copy.
The record for The reserve shortfall rule, field by field.
How far FY 2025-26 revenue fell below the Referendum C cap, as the State Controller certified it.
Why it is blank. The State Controller's TABOR page lists no certification after FY 2023. The State Auditor's latest TABOR report covers FY 2025. LCS prints a figure, which points to the record but is not the record.
The record for Certified TABOR result, FY 2025-26, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Waiting for
the State Controller's FY 2025-26 TABOR certification, as OSC publishes it or as the State Auditor's FY 2026 Schedule of TABOR Revenue prints it
LCS reports that on 15 September 2026 the State Auditor said the evidence was not enough to finish an audit of the FY 2025-26 certification.
The record for LCS on the State Auditor's notice, field by field.
On this page
A statement
The words
On September 15, the State Auditor notified the Governor and legislative leadership that evidentiary documentation was insufficient to complete an audit of the State Controller’s FY 2025-26 TABOR revenue certification. … the incomplete audit suggests that year-end accounting changes could be more significant than usual … On September 15, 2026, the State Auditor provided summary results of her audit of the TABOR certification. The summary explains that certain values in the report could not be verified due to insufficient documentary evidence from the Controller.
HB26-1419 applies only if the State Controller certified in September 2026 that FY 2025-26 revenue was not above the limit.
The record for When HB26-1419 applies, field by field.
On this page
A statement
The words
(4.5) IF IN SEPTEMBER 2026 THE CONTROLLER CERTIFIES PURSUANT TO SECTION 24-77-106.5 (1) THAT STATE FISCAL YEAR 2025-26 STATE REVENUES DID NOT … EXCEED THE LIMITATION ON STATE FISCAL YEAR SPENDING IMPOSED BY SECTION 20 (7)(a) OF ARTICLE X OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION FOR STATE FISCAL YEAR 2025-26:
The amount may lower refunds from FY 2026-27 on, by no more than half of it in any one year.
The record for The HB26-1419 yearly limit, field by field.
On this page
one-half
As printed
ONE-HALF
The words
SHALL ONLY BE USED FOR FISCAL YEARS COMMENCING ON OR AFTER JULY 1, 2026, AND SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE-HALF OF THE AMOUNT CALCULATED IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUBSECTION (4.5)(a) OF THIS SECTION FOR ANY FISCAL YEAR
The FY 2024-25 over-refund amount the State Controller sets under HB26-1419.
Why it is blank. The law gives the Controller until 16 November 2026. It stays blank until the Controller publishes it. A forecast's guess at it is not the amount.
The record for The HB26-1419 amount, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Waiting for
the State Controller's determination under C.R.S. 24-77-103.7 (4.5)(a), as the Controller publishes it
LCS's March 2027 forecast is the test. If it puts the State Education Fund below $200 million on 30 June 2027, the school funding formula changes from FY 2027-28.
The record for The $200 million test, field by field.
On this page
A statement
The words
IF THE STATE EDUCATION FUND BALANCE IS PROJECTED TO BE LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS AS OF JUNE 30, 2027, BASED ON INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE MARCH 2027 REVENUE FORECAST PREPARED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL STAFF, THEN FOR THE 2027-28 BUDGET YEAR AND EACH BUDGET YEAR THEREAFTER, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SHALL IMPLEMENT A SMOOTHING FACTOR OR THE FUNDED PUPIL COUNT … (B) THE AVERAGE OF THE DISTRICT'S PUPIL ENROLLMENT FOR THE APPLICABLE BUDGET YEAR AND THE DISTRICT'S PUPIL ENROLLMENT FOR THE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING BUDGET YEAR
LCS's March 2027 forecast is the test. If it puts the State Education Fund below $200 million on 30 June 2027, the school funding formula changes from FY 2027-28.
The record for The $200 million test, field by field.
On this page
$200M
As printed
TWO HUNDRED MILLION
The words
IF THE STATE EDUCATION FUND BALANCE IS PROJECTED TO BE LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS AS OF JUNE 30, 2027, BASED ON INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE MARCH 2027 REVENUE FORECAST PREPARED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL STAFF, THEN FOR THE 2027-28 BUDGET YEAR AND EACH BUDGET YEAR THEREAFTER, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SHALL IMPLEMENT A SMOOTHING FACTOR OR THE FUNDED PUPIL COUNT … (B) THE AVERAGE OF THE DISTRICT'S PUPIL ENROLLMENT FOR THE APPLICABLE BUDGET YEAR AND THE DISTRICT'S PUPIL ENROLLMENT FOR THE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING BUDGET YEAR
The Joint Budget Committee takes up requests to change this year's budget, called supplementals.
The record for Supplementals in January, field by field.
On this page
A statement
The words
In January, the Committee considers department requests for adjustments to appropriations for the current fiscal year; these requests are called "supplementals".
Behavioral health, three divisions added, FY 2026-27 CALC
The three division totals the Long Bill prints, added. No publisher prints this sum.
How it is worked out. Each of the three is a total the Long Bill prints. We add them. The sum leaves out behavioral health money in other departments and other bills. Appropriated is not spent.
The record for Behavioral health, three divisions added, FY 2026-27, field by field.
On this page
$2.48B
Exact
$2,478,244,645
Formula
Health Care Policy and Financing (3) $1,814,527,095 + Human Services (5) $306,543,350 + Human Services (6) $357,174,200 = $2,478,244,645
Method
calc.program_family_v1
Method note
The sum of 3 divisions of HB26-1410, the 2026-27 Long Bill, as enacted, across 2 departments. No publisher prints this total; each member is the division total the act prints (FACT), and the family is their sum (CALC, calc.program_family_v1). Each member's fund split is the sum of the fund cells the act prints on its lines, because the act prints a division's total in one column only. Reappropriated funds are money the act appropriates once in one place and again here. The family counts each member as the act prints it. HCPF's member prints no reappropriated funds, so nothing in the family is HCPF's member counted a second time. This view does not test where each Human Services reappropriated amount comes from. Long Bill basis only: the act alone, without the session's other bills. Appropriated is not spent. It does not include behavioral-health money appropriated in other divisions, in other departments (for example Corrections or Public Safety), or in other bills of the session. It is the three printed divisions and nothing else.
Behavioral health, General Fund part, FY 2026-27 CALC
The General Fund part of the three divisions, added.
How it is worked out. The Long Bill prints a division's total in one column only. So each division's General Fund is the sum of the General Fund cells on its lines. We then add the three. Appropriated is not spent.
The record for Behavioral health, General Fund part, FY 2026-27, field by field.
On this page
$878.1M
Exact
$878,114,065
Formula
Health Care Policy and Financing (3) $409,229,630 + Human Services (5) $147,146,188 + Human Services (6) $321,738,247 = $878,114,065
TABOR refunds by type: property tax exemptions, the sales tax refund and the income tax rate cut, for each year.
Why it is blank. Legislative Council Staff shows refunds by type only in a chart (September 2026, Figure 4). Its parts carry no labels on every bar, and they do not add to the totals it prints. We do not read a number off a chart by its position. This stays blank until a publisher prints the figures in a table.
The record for TABOR refunds by type, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Last found blank
OSPB's forecast of the General Fund reserve PENDING
OSPB's forecast of the General Fund reserve.
Why it is blank. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The record for OSPB's forecast of the General Fund reserve, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Last found blank
OSPB's own account of what changed since its last forecast PENDING
OSPB's own account of what changed since its last forecast.
Why it is blank. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The record for OSPB's own account of what changed since its last forecast, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Last found blank
OSPB's forecast of TABOR revenue above the cap and refunds PENDING
OSPB's forecast of TABOR revenue above the cap and refunds.
Why it is blank. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The record for OSPB's forecast of TABOR revenue above the cap and refunds, field by field.
On this page
Blank
Last found blank
OSPB's assumption for the State Education Fund PENDING
OSPB's assumption for the State Education Fund.
Why it is blank. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) asks that its website not be read by automated tools. So OSPB's forecasts reach this site only through the Colorado State Publications Library, which keeps a copy of each one (series gov318). On 16 October 2026, the library had no copy of OSPB's June or September 2026 forecast. This stays blank until it does.
The record for OSPB's assumption for the State Education Fund, field by field.