August 11 - Ritter Plans for Smarter State Budgets

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter pledged today to establish a state budgeting process that will serve as a national model of efficiency, accountability and prudence. Ritter outlined a five-point budget proposal titled, "A Smarter State Budget."

Denver's former District Attorney from 1993 to 2005, Ritter said he will undertake a top-to-bottom budgeting audit that probes beneath individual line items to find systemic inefficiencies. "This is a fiscally conservative approach to managing the state's budget and the taxpayers' dollars," Ritter said. "We here in Colorado must balance our budgets. In Washington, Congressman Beauprez has been party to colossal increases in federal spending, Congressional pay hikes, and a federal deficit that is now nearly $9 trillion. He can't even call himself a fiscal conservative anymore."

"I will ensure that the state budget reflects a shared vision for Colorado," said Ritter, who gained a national reputation for his innovative funding programs as Denver's top law officer. "The budget will be a tool to deliver on promises made to voters. It will be accountable, prudent, and wise. And it will reflect the best policy and business practices of any state in the nation."

Ritter's five-point plan calls for:

1. Establishing a new budgeting culture that aligns spending with priorities and loosens the grip of bureaucratic obstacles that create waste.
2. Earning the best value for every dollar spent by becoming more efficient and effective rather than over-emphasizing line-item cuts.
3. Instituting a total state government performance review. Similar reviews are savings states billions of dollars. An initial analysis estimates that Colorado can save as much as 2% of its general fund spending by implementing several common-sense proposals, Ritter said, including:
   • Pooling pharmaceutical purchases across all state agencies.
   • Entering multi-state purchasing compacts for goods and services.
   • Attacking Medicaid fraud.
   • Converting state government telecommunications to Voice over Internet Protocol.
   • Aggressively implementing energy-efficiency programs.
   • Creating a 1-800 hotline directly to the Governor's Office to report waste and fraud, and take suggestions on how the state can be more efficient.
   • Allowing residents to renew driver's licenses online, as 10 other states do.
4. Maximizing federal funding and grant money.
5. Making investments that will save us even more in the long run, such as:
   • Reducing prison recidivism.
   • Reducing the need for college-level remediation instruction.
   • Providing more children with access to health insurance and immunizing more children.

Ritter's plan won high praise from one of the state's top fiscal planners, state Rep. Bernie Buescher, who chairs the legislature's bi-partisan Joint Budget Committee. "Bill Ritter has turned his attention to the critical aspect of governing Colorado," Buescher said. "This document shows that Bill understands the importance that every dollar of taxpayer money is spent effectively. Having extensively studied the budget, I find the Ritter plan refreshing. This is the type of budgetary leadership we need to protect the public's money and ensure that Colorado gets the best value from its state government."

"My vision for Colorado's budget will help us fulfill the Colorado promise," Ritter said. "It represents Colorado values. It employs modern, 21st century business practices. And it puts people first. We will achieve savings, not by making government do less of what we want, but by making government smarter and more effective."