I was doing what I do most mornings for The Scott Sheet: reading stories, making notes, preparing comments, and trying not to throw a coffee mug at the wall before 8 a.m.
Then I came across another story about Governor Gaslight, also known as Jared Polis when the cameras are rolling, signing Colorado’s “balanced” budget.
Balanced. That is one of those government words that sounds responsible until you ask what it means.
Colorado’s new state budget is about $46.87 billion. That’s fully $4 billion more than last year. CPR reported Polis signed the budget after months of hard choices, cuts, and warnings about Colorado’s financial future. The governor’s office called it a balanced budget that protects education and public safety.
Technically, sure. It is balanced on the day he signs it.
That is the trick. Colorado cannot pass a budget that says, “We are broke and winging it.” The state has to pass a balanced budget. So lawmakers move money around, cut here, backfill there, transfer this, delay that, blame Washington, and then everyone stands in front of a camera like fiscal responsibility just wandered into the room wearing a bolo tie.
That is not balance. That is one-day math.
It is like saying your household budget is balanced because your paycheck hit the account this morning, and the mortgage payment does not clear until Friday.
Congratulations. For the next 72 hours, you are a financial genius.
Then I read the Georgia story.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a $36.6 billion state budget. Not $46.8 billion. Not $46.87 billion. Not “please stop asking about Medicaid overruns” billion.
According to CBS Atlanta, Kemp trimmed about $300 million from planned spending to keep the budget balanced after recent tax cuts lowered projected revenue by almost $1 billion.
That is the contrast. Colorado signs a bigger budget and blames Trump. Georgia signs a smaller budget and cuts spending.
Both states are operating under the same federal environment. Both have to deal with H.R. 1. Both have revenue pressures. Both have Medicaid. Both have roads, schools, prisons, universities, bureaucrats, consultants, children, old people, and all the other living, breathing, lobbying pieces of state government.
But they do not have the same governing philosophy.
Georgia is run by Republicans.
Colorado is run by Democrats.
And before anyone in Denver starts fanning themselves with a compostable cocktail napkin, no, that does not mean Georgia is perfect. Government is government. It will waste money if you leave it alone near a copier and a grant application.
Some of Kemp’s cuts hit real programs. CBS reported reductions involving services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, medical residency slots, Pre-K leave, and foster children’s clothes and supplies. Those are real choices. They are not painless.
But Kemp’s explanation was revealing. He talked about preserving existing services while aligning spending with projected revenue. That is grown-up talk.
It may be popular. It may be unpopular. It may be right in every detail or wrong in some details. But at least it admits the basic fact every normal person already understands: when revenue drops, you do not pretend gravity was invented by Donald Trump.
Colorado Democrats, meanwhile, are working very hard to explain that Colorado’s budget problem is not really Colorado’s fault.
Their sermon has three familiar verses: H.R. 1, TABOR, and Medicaid.
Some of that is true as far as it goes.
It just does not go very far.
Colorado did not wake up one morning and discover Medicaid. Colorado did not accidentally build a state government that wants more money every year. Democrats have controlled this place long enough that blaming the architecture is a little rich when they have been holding the blueprints, the nail gun, and the zoning board.
Here is the part that should make every Colorado taxpayer stare quietly at the ceiling for a minute.
Georgia has about 11.3 million people. Colorado has about 6 million.
That means Georgia is about 88 percent larger than Colorado by population. And yet Colorado’s budget is larger.
Using the reported budget figures, Colorado’s $46.87 billion budget is about 28 percent larger than Georgia’s $36.6 billion budget.
Per person, it gets worse.
Colorado’s budget works out to roughly $7,795 per resident.
Georgia’s works out to roughly $3,238 per resident.
That means Colorado is spending about 141 percent more per person than Georgia. Georgia has nearly twice the people, yet Colorado has the bigger budget.
At some point, maybe the problem is not Trump. Maybe the problem is not TABOR. Maybe the problem is not that Coloradans are insufficiently generous toward the permanent administrative class.
Maybe the problem is that Colorado Democrats have built a government that costs too much to operate and then act shocked when the bill arrives.
This is where the two stories belong together.
In Colorado, the political class signs a giant budget, calls it balanced, and immediately starts explaining why the next crisis was caused by somebody else.
In Georgia, the governor signs a smaller budget for a much larger state and says, in effect, the money coming in matters.
Colorado’s governing class treats restraint like a medical condition. Georgia’s, at least in this case, treats it like part of the job.
That does not mean every Georgia cut was wise. It does not mean every Colorado expenditure is waste. It does not mean Republicans are saints and Democrats are villains. Let’s not be ridiculous. I have met politicians from both parties. A halo would interfere with their fundraising headset.
But philosophy matters.
One party looks at lower revenue and says: we need to trim planned spending.
The other looks at a structural deficit and says: we need a villain, a ballot measure, and preferably a new revenue stream with a name that sounds like it was written by a kindergarten teacher and a tax attorney trapped in an elevator.
That is the great Colorado budget trick.
Every expansion is compassion. Every shortfall is someone else’s fault. Every tax increase is investment. Every cut is cruel.
Every “balanced” budget is proof of leadership, right up until the next one needs more money.
Meanwhile, Georgia is not living in a libertarian treehouse. It is spending $36.6 billion. That is real money. But it is doing so in a state with 88 percent more people than Colorado and a budget 28 percent smaller.
That should be embarrassing.
Not mildly awkward. Not “let’s appoint a task force” embarrassing.
Really embarrassing.
The kind where you clear your throat, shuffle some papers, and hope nobody in Weld County owns a calculator.
Colorado’s political class wants applause for balancing a budget that only balances because the constitution forces them to make it balance. Then they want sympathy because math was mean to them.
No.
A balanced budget is not a trophy if you balanced it by draining reserves, cutting around the edges, preserving the machine, and blaming Washington for a fire you helped fuel.
It is not fiscal discipline to spend more than a much larger state and then complain that your government still feels underfunded.
That is not a revenue problem.
That is an appetite problem.
And Colorado’s appetite is wearing a blue jersey.
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