Governor Polis Submits Supplemental and Budget Amendment Request that Protects Education and Public Safety Funding, Focuses on Medicaid Sustainability

DENVER - Today, Governor Polis submitted the 2025-26 supplemental and budget amendment requests that maintain a balanced budget proposal and protect funding for Colorado schools and public safety investments, while also focusing on Medicaid sustainability and reducing the harm from H.R.1.

"We are focused on protecting the issues that Coloradans care most about - education, access to health care and safety - while delivering a balanced budget for Colorado. In this difficult budget environment, we are doing everything we can to deliver the best possible results for Colorado and know that the Joint Budget Committee will have challenging decisions to make in the months ahead. We look forward to working with them and the rest of the General Assembly," said Governor Jared Polis.

Below are a few highlights from the Governor's budget proposal and supplemental requests:

Fiscal Responsibility: The Governor's budget proposal maintains the request for a 13% reserve, protecting Colorado from a heightened recession risk.

Protecting K-12 Education Funding: The Governor's budget proposal makes important investments in Colorado students and schools. This includes:

• $167 million in state funding for school finance, while continuing to move towards a more student-centered approach to total program funding
• Implements 30 percent of the new school finance formula in FY 2026-27 while moving to a three-year average enrollment method for the calculation of Total Program funding, as put in place by H.B. 25-1320
• Increases per pupil funding by $413 over FY 2025-26 to a total of $12,272. More than 50 percent higher funding per pupil compared to the beginning of the Polis administration
• Supports the State Education Fund by transferring any dollars remaining above the statutory reserve requirement in the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund (MTCF) at the end of each fiscal year to the State Education Fund

Addressing Competency and Improving Public Safety: This budget proposes more than $34 million over the next 18 months for resources, including funding for secure placements and opportunities for community-based supervision for individuals found incompetent to proceed, are available expeditiously. This includes upgrades to facilities. The Polis administration is focused on addressing the gap in care for those individuals at the intersection of competency and Colorado's criminal justice system. When individuals are found incompetent to proceed and pose a danger to themselves or others, they need services and supports to live in order to protect public safety.

Pinnacol Assurance: Disaffiliating Pinnacol from the state will also allow Colorado to continue to fund the senior Homestead Tax reduction and to extend the portable Homestead Property Tax reduction beyond its current expiration following tax year 2026. This portability provision allows older Coloradans to move and preserve their access to the Senior Homestead property tax reduction. Without revenues derived from a disaffiliation of Pinnacol, the state would likely be unable to maintain the Homestead exemption next fiscal year, when the state projects no TABOR surplus in the current fiscal year.

Slowing the Rate of Medicaid Growth to Protect Coverage: This budget proposes to reduce Medicaid spending growth while prioritizing the need to ensure that all eligible Coloradans continue to access Medicaid services. These proposals would still result in a 5.6 percent year-over-year increase in General Fund expenditures. The rate of growth in Medicaid spending over the last decade far outstrips the rate of growth in revenue and the TABOR cap, and this threatens the long-term sustainability of Medicaid, jeopardizes Colorado's ability to continue to fund all eligible Coloradans, threatens future funding for education and safety, and has serious consequences for the entire state budget.

Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak: $4.2 million to develop and implement a coordinated response to the outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetles particularly across densely populated Front Range counties, but impacting ponderosa forests across the state. This includes funding for the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Action Plan to do early mitigation work, support for the Colorado State Forest Service, resources to help the Division of Insurance to conduct a study of the impact of wildfire mitigation work on the home insurance market, and utilizing the Palisade Insectary's scientific expertise and capabilities to research, raise, and eventually release insects for biological pest control of mountain pine beetles.

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