No school cuts, but no refunds either in Colorado budget

Colorado won’t see deep education cuts next year, but it won’t see taxpayer refunds, either.

A $27 billion budget up for debate Thursday in the state House includes a slight per-pupil increase for K-12 schools. That’s something budget writers didn’t expect to see a few months ago, when it looked like tax collections would trigger some $150 million worth of mandatory tax rebates under Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

The proposal also spares state colleges and doctors who treat the poor from budget cuts. However, it does slash $73 million from hospitals, part of a complicated arrangement to avoid even deeper cuts later.

Lawmakers will likely wrangle over only small slivers of the overall budget, especially a plan to further reduce carbon emissions from power plants.