Despite $1 billion budget shortfall, Colorado keeps Planned Parenthood in the Medicaid mix

Colorado’s fiscal picture darkened sharply in late July when analysts in the governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting revealed the damage inflicted by a sweeping federal Republican tax-and-spending bill. 

“Colorado will take an estimated $1.2 billion tax revenue hit in the current fiscal year,” Colorado Newsline warned. 

According to the outlet, Mark Ferrandino, the office’s executive director, didn’t mince words. “This is more money in lost revenue in the current year than we lost for the first year of the Great Recession,” he said. “Every day that we wait to take action, to make decisions, we are making it harder to solve the problem.” 

What’s causing the pain? A mix of corporate tax cuts, changes to taxpayer deductions, and the temporary elimination of taxes on tips and overtime – all encoded in the new federal law President Donald Trump signed July 4. 

A Colorado Newsline followup broke down the $1.2 billion hit: Roughly $326 million lost to individual income tax breaks and about $825 million tied to corporate tax cuts. 

With the general fund budget only recently passed and set at $44 billion, the new gap forced the Colorado legislature, where Democrats have a super majority, to choose between draconian cuts, tapping reserves, or calling a special session, which they did.

On Aug. 24, during the special session aimed at raising revenue to buffer the budget blow, the House passed Senate Bill 25B-2 in a party-line 43-19 vote. It would use state funds to reimburse Medicaid services delivered by reproductive healthcare providers, particularly Planned Parenthood, who were cut off from federal Medicaid reimbursements under the new law. 

According to a another article at Colorado Newsline, the Senate Bill would cost a maximum of $4.4 million this fiscal year. But the figure drew opposition. Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Littleton Republican, pushed back sharply. Amid arguments around abortion services, she warned it was unfair to direct funds to Planned Parenthood given the state’s budget nose‑dive.

In a statement published in April by the Colorado Catholic Conference, the state’s Bishops argued that “the allocation of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to subsidize the deliberate ending of innocent life and harm of women is a tragedy for Colorado.” 

“Rather than using state resources to support life-affirming alternatives, SB25-183 prioritizes public funding of abortion at the expense of the lives of preborn children, the health of their mothers and the conscience rights of millions of Colorado taxpayers who morally object to abortion,” the Bishops stated.

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