It is common for people to advocate with all the right intentions to the Colorado General Assembly in the same way that they might advocate to Congress, our federal legislature. Often times, that makes their advocacy ineffective. Why? Because over the past 144 years, the people of Colorado have amended our state constitution to make our state legislature a very different environment than that which exists in Washington, DC.

Over the past two months, Congress has authorized Paycheck Protection Programs for employers to pay employees, federal funding to counties and municipalities, and for “stimulus” checks to be sent to “We the People.” Congress can allocate more money than it collects because Congress can print and borrow money.

Meanwhile, back here in Colorado, the General Assembly cannot do those things because our state constitution requires that our state legislature pass a budget every year and that each annual budget must be balanced. Unlike Congress, the Colorado General Assembly doesn’t operate with an annual deficit each year because we cannot allocate or spend more dollars than we actually have. Thus, here in Colorado, a dollar actually means one dollar.

Our annual state budget is based on how many dollars our staff experts in the Office of Legislative Counsel estimate that the state will receive during the next fiscal year, which will begin July 1, 2020 and end June 30, 2021. As of today, they can estimate those dollar amounts. When the General Assembly convenes next January, both chambers will work to rebalance the 2020-21 budget based on actual revenues collected, along with estimates for revenues still to be collected through June 30, 2021.

What that means for the six-member Joint Budget Committee (“JBC”) is that an estimated three-to-four billion dollars must be cut from the budget that Governor Polis proposed last November. Many of the agenda items that the Governor discussed during his State of the State Address in January will not be part of the budget that passes in May or early June. Why? Because, here in Colorado, a dollar means a dollar and, our current estimates are that three-to-four billion fewer dollars will be paid into the state General Fund during the 2020-21 fiscal year than were estimated prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Thus, to the casual viewer, it might appear that the General Assembly will be harsh, while Congress might be seen as having been generous. For better or worse, our state legislature operates under very different constitutional requirements than does Congress where the number of tax dollars paid into the system has little bearing on how many dollars are allocated or spent by our federal government.

Thus, in order to be effective, advocacy to our state legislature should embrace the fact that dollars are a finite resource here. The 2020-21 state budget will likely be hard for any of our 100 part-time, citizen, state legislators to support. However, it must pass, and it must be balanced.

Sen. Chris Holbert of Parker represents Senate District 30 in the Colorado General Assembly and serves as Senate minority leader.