Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joined in studio by DJ Summers, who's director of Communications
and Research Operations at the Common Sense Institute, where I
have the privilege of being this year's Mike A. Loprino
Free Enterprise Fellow. Quite a privilege for me.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Dj. It's good to see you in studio here. Thanks
for being here.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey, it's a privilege to be here, and it's a
privilege to have you working with us. So the light
on both ends, you know what, Let's do one thing
very quickly and then we'll do the big topic. Just
mention briefly what you've got going on this afternoon in Aurora.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh, this afternoon is going to be quite an event.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We are holding a press conference to release the findings
of our.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Most recent homelessness reports.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
This is with our Homelessness fellow, Dustin Zevonik, and Mayor
Mike Kaufman from Aurora. We're going to be holding that
at the site of the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus up
on fortieth Avenue in Aurora. That starts at three point thirty.
It's going to be a very good event. We're going
to go over the findings of our most recent study.
(00:58):
Dust and Mayor Kaufman are going to say a few
words should be a good turnout.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Give us if you can one highlight one finding from
the study, one.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Finding from the study. Well, if I can preview this
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
For it, just briefly, because we're only gonna have about
five more minutes to talk about this other thing.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Between twenty twenty and twenty twenty four, Colorado's homelessness rate
grew at one of the fastest in the nation. And
there's a lot of smaller items in there about municipal
and localities and how they've grown. And there's a lot
of difference between some of them here in the Denver
(01:36):
metro and her there's South. There's a lot of difference
in approach and how those approaches have worked.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
All right, so over at common Sense Institute US dot org.
And this is all, by the way, it's all up
on my blog. So you can just go to Rosskominsky
dot com and find this all in my guest section
in case you don't remember any of the links.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You just published a report.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The budget forecast one point two billion dollars could very
well be the tip of the iceberg. That one point
two billion relates to what we were told over and
over that the budgets for the state needed to find
in terms of savings in order to balance the budget.
And then I've heard anecdotally and then this is what
you're going to get into here that next year could
(02:17):
be a lot more than that next year.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Could be a lot more than that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Honestly, what we're looking at here is maybe too rosy
of a picture that got painted by the Joint Budget Committee.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know, they make these they make these.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Predictions based on a certain set of scenarios. When my
economists look into it, they actually found that it might
not be the case. We might be going through a
little bit worse economic scenarios than originally planned by that
Joint Budget Committee. You take some of that into consideration.
We're looking at orders of magnitude greater budget gaps down
(02:54):
the line.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
If if the revenue to the state is limited by Tabor,
and if we reach the limit then and why wouldn't
they have known what the maximum was that they were
allowed to spend or they say in there, we're not
going to reach the Tabor limit this year.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How does the math work?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
The math works there because TABOR has some flexibility, you know,
they're able to generate fees in excess of the Tabor limits.
You know, that's some previous research that we came out with.
There's a lot of money that the state is able
to generate through Tabor exempt fees, and those don't need
(03:33):
to go to the ballots as per Tabor restrictions.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
TABER requires that any new tax goes to the ballot
that voters approve it, not.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So with fees.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So the state is able to generate more revenue in
excess of that Taber cap.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I see in the summary of your report here, and
this is what really just galls me, not about your report,
but about our government. Over the period twenty ten to
twenty twenty five, populate in Colorado, population is up nineteen percent,
consumer inflation over that period is up forty eight percent,
(04:13):
but general fund spending is up one hundred and thirty
four percent.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, we don't have a revenue problem.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's a real feature of this
report that we've come out to a lot of people
want to paint this as a revenue issue. They want
to paint it as we just don't have enough money
coming in. Taber is you know, in this narrative, a
big part of that rationale. That's a big part of
the reasoning there. That taber just gets in the way
(04:39):
of getting new money in the door. But there's as
there's a serious money outflow issue that has gone on
as well. Like you said, your general fund spending has
more than doubled since twenty ten. It's more than doubled,
and that isn't consistent with what's happened with inflation and
with population. You look into certain subcategories of that spending
(05:03):
and it has tripled, even quadrupled. Are big three spending
areas healthcare, higher ed, They far outpaced population and inflation.
Healthcare spending more than quadrupled. Yeah, general fund spending since
since twenty ten, A lot of that's just Medicaid cost
higher education increased two hundred eighty eight percent from general funds,
(05:29):
more than doubled from all sources. So, you know, when
we talk about this as being just a revenue problem
and also kind of fails to address that we've been
just spending more and more and more.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I think it's not a revenue problem at all. It's
just a spending problem. When Obamacare happened, a bunch of
states took advantage of that to massively expand Medicaid, and
now those.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Chickens are coming home to roost.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You have education fellows, you have experts at Common Sense
insitut who can understand the cost drivers for the blow
up up in higher ed costs you know, around the country.
One of the reasons for that is that so many
colleges and universities have just massively bloated their bureaucracies. And
you've got the vice dean of this and the associate
(06:12):
provost of that, and you've got this bureaucracy a number
of staffers that it's you know, like maybe the number
of them would double, will the number of students goes
up five percent and the number of professors goes up
five percent.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I mean, you even see that in Colorado at the
K through twelve level. In previous reports, we have narrowed
that trend down. We really nailed that trend down here
in most districts. You can see that declining enrollment has
been ongoing in the state of Colorado over the last
you know, five ten years. But in that they are
(06:46):
developing more administrative positions, and a lot of those positions
are expensive. They are spending more on education at the
K through twelve level, but it's not really making its
way into the classroom, especially with declining and ros. I mean,
just in the last couple of months, there's been some
closures due to declining enrollment at DPS in Aurora, in
(07:08):
Douglas County, all over the place, but the administrative roles
in those schools are in those districts anyway, has continued
to climb. So you see that same echo from higher
ed in K through twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Folks, I want you to go read this report.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It's linked on my blog if you go to Rosskominski
dot com, or you can just search on your favorite
search engine for Common Sense Institute Colorado and you can
find the report.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a very important report.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This is one of the most important things going on
in the state actually is our state budget. And as
much as you heard them complaining about having to quote
unquote cut one point two billion dollars, even though the
budget was actually six hundred and fifty or so million
dollars more than last year, next year is going to
be a lot harder and Democrats may in fact be
forced to really cut things they don't want to cut,
like medicaid. But we will see what the politics of
(08:01):
it are going to be absolutely fascinating. DJ Summers is
Director of Communications and Research Operations.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
At the Commons Sens Institute. Thanks for coming in, good
to see Ross. I was delighted. Thank you for having
me
Joined in studio by DJ Summers, who's director of Communications
and Research Operations at the Common Sense Institute, where I
have the privilege of being this year's Mike A. Loprino
Free Enterprise Fellow. Quite a privilege for me.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Dj. It's good to see you in studio here. Thanks
for being here.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey, it's a privilege to be here, and it's a
privilege to have you working with us. So the light
on both ends, you know what, Let's do one thing
very quickly and then we'll do the big topic. Just
mention briefly what you've got going on this afternoon in Aurora.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh, this afternoon is going to be quite an event.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We are holding a press conference to release the findings
of our.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Most recent homelessness reports.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
This is with our Homelessness fellow, Dustin Zevonik, and Mayor
Mike Kaufman from Aurora. We're going to be holding that
at the site of the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus up
on fortieth Avenue in Aurora. That starts at three point thirty.
It's going to be a very good event. We're going
to go over the findings of our most recent study.
(00:58):
Dust and Mayor Kaufman are going to say a few
words should be a good turnout.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Give us if you can one highlight one finding from
the study, one.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Finding from the study. Well, if I can preview this
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
For it, just briefly, because we're only gonna have about
five more minutes to talk about this other thing.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Between twenty twenty and twenty twenty four, Colorado's homelessness rate
grew at one of the fastest in the nation. And
there's a lot of smaller items in there about municipal
and localities and how they've grown. And there's a lot
of difference between some of them here in the Denver
(01:36):
metro and her there's South. There's a lot of difference
in approach and how those approaches have worked.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
All right, so over at common Sense Institute US dot org.
And this is all, by the way, it's all up
on my blog. So you can just go to Rosskominsky
dot com and find this all in my guest section
in case you don't remember any of the links.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You just published a report.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The budget forecast one point two billion dollars could very
well be the tip of the iceberg. That one point
two billion relates to what we were told over and
over that the budgets for the state needed to find
in terms of savings in order to balance the budget.
And then I've heard anecdotally and then this is what
you're going to get into here that next year could
(02:17):
be a lot more than that next year.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Could be a lot more than that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Honestly, what we're looking at here is maybe too rosy
of a picture that got painted by the Joint Budget Committee.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know, they make these they make these.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Predictions based on a certain set of scenarios. When my
economists look into it, they actually found that it might
not be the case. We might be going through a
little bit worse economic scenarios than originally planned by that
Joint Budget Committee. You take some of that into consideration.
We're looking at orders of magnitude greater budget gaps down
(02:54):
the line.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
If if the revenue to the state is limited by Tabor,
and if we reach the limit then and why wouldn't
they have known what the maximum was that they were
allowed to spend or they say in there, we're not
going to reach the Tabor limit this year.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
How does the math work?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
The math works there because TABOR has some flexibility, you know,
they're able to generate fees in excess of the Tabor limits.
You know, that's some previous research that we came out with.
There's a lot of money that the state is able
to generate through Tabor exempt fees, and those don't need
(03:33):
to go to the ballots as per Tabor restrictions.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
TABER requires that any new tax goes to the ballot
that voters approve it, not.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So with fees.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So the state is able to generate more revenue in
excess of that Taber cap.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I see in the summary of your report here, and
this is what really just galls me, not about your report,
but about our government. Over the period twenty ten to
twenty twenty five, populate in Colorado, population is up nineteen percent,
consumer inflation over that period is up forty eight percent,
(04:13):
but general fund spending is up one hundred and thirty
four percent.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, we don't have a revenue problem.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's a real feature of this
report that we've come out to a lot of people
want to paint this as a revenue issue. They want
to paint it as we just don't have enough money
coming in. Taber is you know, in this narrative, a
big part of that rationale. That's a big part of
the reasoning there. That taber just gets in the way
(04:39):
of getting new money in the door. But there's as
there's a serious money outflow issue that has gone on
as well. Like you said, your general fund spending has
more than doubled since twenty ten. It's more than doubled,
and that isn't consistent with what's happened with inflation and
with population. You look into certain subcategories of that spending
(05:03):
and it has tripled, even quadrupled. Are big three spending
areas healthcare, higher ed, They far outpaced population and inflation.
Healthcare spending more than quadrupled. Yeah, general fund spending since
since twenty ten, A lot of that's just Medicaid cost
higher education increased two hundred eighty eight percent from general funds,
(05:29):
more than doubled from all sources. So, you know, when
we talk about this as being just a revenue problem
and also kind of fails to address that we've been
just spending more and more and more.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I think it's not a revenue problem at all. It's
just a spending problem. When Obamacare happened, a bunch of
states took advantage of that to massively expand Medicaid, and
now those.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Chickens are coming home to roost.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
You have education fellows, you have experts at Common Sense
insitut who can understand the cost drivers for the blow
up up in higher ed costs you know, around the country.
One of the reasons for that is that so many
colleges and universities have just massively bloated their bureaucracies. And
you've got the vice dean of this and the associate
(06:12):
provost of that, and you've got this bureaucracy a number
of staffers that it's you know, like maybe the number
of them would double, will the number of students goes
up five percent and the number of professors goes up
five percent.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I mean, you even see that in Colorado at the
K through twelve level. In previous reports, we have narrowed
that trend down. We really nailed that trend down here
in most districts. You can see that declining enrollment has
been ongoing in the state of Colorado over the last
you know, five ten years. But in that they are
(06:46):
developing more administrative positions, and a lot of those positions
are expensive. They are spending more on education at the
K through twelve level, but it's not really making its
way into the classroom, especially with declining and ros. I mean,
just in the last couple of months, there's been some
closures due to declining enrollment at DPS in Aurora, in
(07:08):
Douglas County, all over the place, but the administrative roles
in those schools are in those districts anyway, has continued
to climb. So you see that same echo from higher
ed in K through twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Folks, I want you to go read this report.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It's linked on my blog if you go to Rosskominski
dot com, or you can just search on your favorite
search engine for Common Sense Institute Colorado and you can
find the report.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's a very important report.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This is one of the most important things going on
in the state actually is our state budget. And as
much as you heard them complaining about having to quote
unquote cut one point two billion dollars, even though the
budget was actually six hundred and fifty or so million
dollars more than last year, next year is going to
be a lot harder and Democrats may in fact be
forced to really cut things they don't want to cut,
like medicaid. But we will see what the politics of
(08:01):
it are going to be absolutely fascinating. DJ Summers is
Director of Communications and Research Operations.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
At the Commons Sens Institute. Thanks for coming in, good
to see Ross. I was delighted. Thank you for having
me
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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