Senate Advances FY25-26 Supplemental Budget Package on Preliminary Vote
Supplemental package implements cuts necessitated by H.R. 1
DENVER, CO – The Senate today advanced the FY 2025-2026 supplemental budget package on a preliminary vote. The bills, HB26-1150 through HB26-1179, are sponsored by Joint Budget Committee (JBC) members including Vice Chair Jeff Bridges, D-Arapahoe County, and Judy Amabile, D-Boulder. The package will be heard on third reading in the Senate tomorrow.
“Today’s supplemental budget cuts come in response to Trump’s Big Whatever Bill, which caused a massive reduction in revenue resulting in cuts to Medicaid, higher education, and housing,” said Bridges. “Today’s bills take a responsible approach to the difficult task of balancing our budget, preserving core services while making hard choices caused by Trump’s cuts and TABOR’s cap.”
“H.R. 1 funded tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of working families, and now it’s up to us to re-balance our budget,” said Amabile. “Though painful, the cuts in this package put Colorado on a more sustainable path to preserve funding for core priorities in future years while protecting funding for Medicaid eligibility. I remain focused on mitigating harm, protecting the critical services that Colorado families rely on, and finding solutions to responsibly manage our budget.”
In July 2025, Congressional Republicans passed H.R. 1, which gave tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations. Because Colorado’s tax code mirrors the federal tax code, the cuts in H.R. 1 impacted state revenue by roughly $1.2 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year. During August’s special session, Colorado Democrats spearheaded a responsible plan to close corporate tax loopholes, authorize the Governor to reduce some spending, and modestly dip into Colorado’s reserves to put our budget back in balance.
This supplemental budget package implements spending reductions proposed by Governor Jared Polis to balance the 2025-2026 budget. As a result, the supplemental package contains significant reductions as compared to a typical year, totaling approximately $140 million in general fund cuts across state departments, even as Medicaid utilization and caseload costs grew by approximately $220 million from the general fund.