DENVER – The Colorado Republican Senate Leadership has issued the following comments concerning Governor Jared Polis’ FY 2024-2025 budget requests:

“After years of Republican demands that we fully fund students—instead of growing state government, we are glad to see Governor Polis chose to follow our leadership and prioritize funding for students and teachers,” Minority Leader Lundeen said. “It is critically important that the budget proposal acknowledges that charter school students are public school students and deserve equal funding support.”

“The Governor continues to prove he is all talk and no action,” Ranking Republican JBC member Kirkmeyer said. “For years Governor Polis has talked about providing tax relief for ALL Coloradans but has continuously failed to deliver. Earlier this year, the Governor said it was a priority of his to reduce income taxes, yet nowhere in his budget proposal is this relief provided. I hope to see the Governor join Republicans to save Coloradans money when we fight to cut taxes during a special session or during next year’s budget debate.”

“We are encouraged to see that the governor’s budget finally acknowledges support for public safety, but there is much more work that must be done to make this state safer,” Assistant Minority Leader Gardner said. “If the Governor is serious about reducing crime, he must work with Republicans to prioritize legislation that cracks down on criminals and creates a culture of law and order.” 

“Another important note,” Senator Lundeen added, “the budget proposal holds $2.3 billion in historically high budget reserves. We should tap some of those reserves to provide property tax relief to Coloradans in the event that HH is properly defeated.”

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