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“Uncertainty” colors Colorado economic forecast as lawmakers begin to finalize budget

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“Uncertainty” colors Colorado economic forecast as lawmakers begin to finalize budget


State economists confirmed Colorado’s brutal budgetary situation Monday, kicking off lawmakers’ mad dash to fill a $1.2 billion hole in the budget. 

The March economic forecasts from the governor’s office and legislative staff solidify the numbers lawmakers will use to set the final state budget. Lawmakers had been aware — and raising alarms — about the massive hole since last year, and have already set in motion some cuts to fill it.

How close lawmakers are to filling the hole should become clearer Tuesday during a planned hearing on how cuts proposed so far square with the forecasts. They will then need to finalize the budget — including any additional cuts — before the budget is heard by the entire Senate next week.

It needs to be approved by the legislature in the next month and will dictate state spending for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

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“We have worked so hard to find ways to have the least possible impact on Coloradans,” Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Democrat and chair of the Joint Budget Committee, said following the forecasts.

He added that he’s optimistic “that those really painful, difficult decisions have led to a place where we are very close to closing this budget in a way that creates the least amount of pain possible for the people of Colorado.”

Lawmakers have grappled with how to pay for — or cut — services like Medicaid, child care for the poorest Coloradans, and school meals, as well as core functions like education. Rocketing Medicaid costs in particular have blown open the state budget, while lawmakers are also trying to find ways to pay for Proposition 130, the voter-approved measure forcing the state to pay $350 million to bolster law enforcement.

Lawmakers from both parties agree the state faces a structural spending problem, but disagree on the blame.

Bridges faults the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, for forcing “rationing” because it limits state spending, regardless of economic conditions or needs. Republicans, including budget committee member Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, blame state spending that they say outpaces the voter-approved constitutional amendment. She points to charts from 2021 showing general fund spending on a trajectory to outpace the TABOR cap.

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“We’re still in a structural deficit,” Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said. “We cannot just expect to sweep cash funds and not reduce, not stop our spending of ongoing general funders and think we’re going to be OK the following year.”

She was less optimistic than Bridges on how close the budget committee was to filling the gap. She estimated they still needed to find about $500 million in cuts, while Bridges predicted the committee was closer by “several hundred million” dollars.

Despite the cuts hanging over lawmakers’ heads, economists still predict state tax collections will outpace the cap set by TABOR — though refunds will be far from the recent windfalls taxpayers have received in recent years. This upcoming year’s TABOR surplus may be particularly slim, nonpartisan legislative economists predicted.

That expected $108 million surplus, versus the $1.3 billion surplus from last year, may even force lawmakers next year to dip into the general fund to pay for recently passed property tax cuts.

Economists for lawmakers and from Gov. Jared Polis’ office both pointed to uncertain national policy as rippling through their forecasts. Both camps, independent of each other, predicted a higher risk of recession as the Trump administration’s tariff and tax policies materialize.

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“I think the word of the day is uncertainty,” said Mark Ferrandino, Polis’ budget director.

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Two-alarm fire damages hotel in Estes Park, 1 person taken to a Colorado hospital

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Two-alarm fire damages hotel in Estes Park, 1 person taken to a Colorado hospital



A two-alarm fire damaged a hotel in Estes Park on Friday night. It happened at Expedition Lodge Estes Park just north of Lake Estes.

The lodge, located at 1701 North Lake Avenue on the east side of the Colorado mountain town, was evacuated after 8:30 p.m. and the fire chief said by 10 p.m. the fire was under control.

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One person was hurt and taken to a hospital.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. So far it’s not clear how much damage it caused.

A total of 25 firefighters fought the blaze.

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Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains

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Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains


Arapahoe Basin Ski Area recorded 8.5 inches of snow through Friday morning.
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area

Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.

Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.

Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.



Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.

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Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:



Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches

Snowmass: 0.5 inches

Copper Mountain: 10 inches

Winter Park: 9 inches

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Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches

Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches

Keystone Resort: 8 inches

Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches

Vail Mountain: 7 inches

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Steamboat Resort: 6 inches

Beaver Creek: 6 inches

Irwin: 4.5 inches

Cooper Mountain: 4 inches

Sunlight: 0.5 inches

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Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.





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Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

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Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild


The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.

It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.

Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.

“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”

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Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.

The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.

“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.

“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”

Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.

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That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.

Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.

Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.

“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.

“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”

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Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.

Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.



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