A Republican state senator and a Democratic state representative presented a grim picture of Colorado’s budget in Dolores Saturday morning.
Sen. Cleave Simpson, who represents Colorado’s sixth Senate district, and Rep. Katie Stewart of the 59th House district spoke amicably before a crowd of 50 at the library.
But the discussion included a heated exchange between two audience members on the subject of immigrants.
Simpson said that last year the state had a $1.2 billion deficit in its budget of $36 billion. The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee was tasked with closing that gap, and when the legislative session ended last May, there appeared to be a balanced budget, though there is disagreement on that.
However, June’s quarterly forecast said the state was short $700 million to $800 million dollars, which led to a special session in which the legislature tried to close loopholes.
Simpson said the state has done conflicting things such as establishing 176 new programs and offices at a time when it was $1 billion short in K-12 education funding.
He said the federal government issues unfunded mandates for the states and then the states issue unfunded mandates for counties and other local governments.
Stewart said she shares many of Stewart’s concerns and it appears Colorado is headed into another fiscal year with a deficit of more than $1 billion.
“I got an update from the JBC and it’s very bleak, she said. “The hope is to have K-12 held harmless without a reduction in funding, but I don’t know what is going to happen with Medicaid.”
Stewart said a large portion of the state budget is spent on Medicaid.
“It’s not sustainable, but there’s not a whole lot the state of Colorado can do to control the cost of health care,” she said.
Simpson said more than 35 percent of his constituents in his 14-county district are Medicaid-eligible.
Stewart said when people see their health-insurance premiums shoot up as a result of Congress letting the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire, “You’re going to see folks choosing not to have health insurance and what that means is an uptick in uncompensated care for our rural hospitals.”
She spoke about Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, calling its executives “amazing” for keeping the hospital on solid financial footing “because they are so integral to Montezuma County.”
Earlier this year, Southwest Memorial was on a list of hospitals likely to close after the passage of HR 1, the “big beautiful bill,” in Congress. Adding more uncompensated care for people who come in for emergency services without insurance will put an even greater strain on the hospital, she said.
“So there are a lot of problems that Cleave has to solve!” Stewart said, laughing.
She said she doesn’t necessarily disagree with Simpson about the proliferation of small offices and programs, “but they do have an impact on populations we tend to forget.”
As an example, she cited Colorado’s disability office.
“Folks think the disabled need all these extra things, but they aren’t even extras, they’re equity, like the ramp in front [of the Dolores library],” she said.
“The budget’s a moral document. It’s a reflection of our values as a state,” Stewart said.
She said she and Simpson disagree on many things but are able to work together.
“At the end of the day, our values aren’t that far apart,” she said.
“I know he cares deeply about his district and his community. We don’t want people to go hungry, we don’t want people to go bankrupt because they’re paying for health care.”
During the question-and-answer session, a man in the audience said it seems like the highest priority for Colorado voters is to not pay taxes.
Simpson said there is a general distrust of government as well as a conflicting mix of concerns and desires regarding taxes.
“We don’t take care of our roads very well in this state,” he said. “We don’t fully fund K-12, but people want to limit the growth of government, but they have high expectations about what government delivers.”
He said he is “not having fun at the capital.”
Stewart said there are times people don’t have a full understanding of the impact of proposed tax measures because those are complex, and people are often too busy to delve into the measures in detail.
The two also touched on the topic of term limits. State senators are limited to two four-year terms, while state representatives are limited to four two-year terms.
Stewart said term limits can be good, but they mean that institutional knowledge is in the hands of staff or lobbyists and people have to go to them for help understanding legislation.
Simpson said he supports term limits, but they are too short, with legislators limited to a total of eight years in Colorado’s House or Senate. Learning the ropes takes a long time, he said.
“It’s a giant learning curve, especially if you have never worked in politics before.”
But Simpson said he personally isn’t seeking an extension so he can have another term. “I don’t want another one.”
At the end of the meeting, Enrique Orozco-Perez, co-executive director of Compañeros, a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering immigrants, spoke about the October altercation with federal agents in Durango.
“Our side is not violent,” he said, to audience applause. “There are recordings of us saying, ‘We are not here to fight ICE.’ … it’s the federal government that is attacking us.”
He said ICE is now kidnapping children, citing the fact that the Durango incident started when ICE detained a man and his two children, one 12, one 15. The three are reportedly now being held in Texas although they weren’t the people that ICE was originally seeking.
“A 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy just had their childhood ripped away,” Orozco-Perez said.
Audience member Mike Sawyer then said federal agents did not kidnap children. “That’s a lie,” he said. He also said immigrants are having children or adopting them in order to collect money and that some of the children being taken aren’t truly the immigrants’ children.
At that point, a woman in the row in front of him who was later identified as Mirna Sinombre rose and faced him.
“I’m an immigrant,” she said. “I work in this country. I pay my taxes.”
She said at one point she was homeless, but she worked two jobs in order to get by and improve conditions for herself and her children.
“I would not even get food stamps, so don’t you say I’m coming here just to be a freeloader,” she said to loud applause.
“Now everybody that comes to this country is [believed to be] criminals,” she continued.
She said one of her sons fought and died in Afghanistan. “He didn’t get to see his baby born,” she said.
Sawyer said he was sorry for her loss and tried to argue with her about immigration, but she kept speaking.
“Maybe tomorrow I get picked up in the City Market because I’m brown and I have an accent,” she said. “You don’t understand those things. . . . Don’t put immigrants down. . . We do something for this country. We give something to this country. We sacrifice too, sir.”
The League of Women Voters of Montezuma County had put on the presentation by Simpson and Stewart. As the meeting ended, a clearly emotional League chairperson Karen Sheek said it’s true that people are often treated differently because of the color of their skin.
“The biggest thing we have in common is we are all human beings,” she said.
