The deal to drive Colorado’s budget into 2018 without massive cuts to hospitals, roads and schools is unbelievably complicated — there are parts we don’t like about it — but when the jalopy starts falling apart you don’t turn down duct tape to hold it together.

Colorado lawmakers came into the 2017 General Assembly with a lemon of a car, needing massive repairs, and if Senate Bill 267 passes, the coming years will drive a little smoother. The fundamental problem is that we have one of the strongest economies in the nation, and yet arbitrary caps on spending, formulas limiting property taxes and mandatory increases in education spending squeezed other priorities, making next year’s budget feel like recessionary budgeting.

Republicans and Democrats have spent the last 116 days negotiating a deal to avoid a nearly half-billion dollar cut in state and federal aid to hospitals for care to low-income patients. The compromise required hardliner fiscal conservatives to admit the state needs more money than it is currently allowed to spend — effectively giving the budget room to grow by $350 million in coming years. Democrats left $200 million in potential spending growth on the table, prioritized transportation funding over even more K-12 funding, and agreed to some minor increases in co-pays for certain Medicaid patients.

Read more at The Denver Post.