Massive cuts announced in Colorado. What now?

Here's a true or false question for you.  Do you think Colorado is a great place to live?  If you answered YES, then you can keep on reading this email.  If you answered NO, well, we need to talk.
 
I'm assuming most of you answered YES.  Colorado is a great place live.  It's great because of the mountains and the climate and the beauty all around us.  But it's also great because the people who came before us, invested in the things that make Colorado work:  schools, roads, parks, jobs.
 
Right now, Colorado is at a crossroads. Just a few minutes ago, the governor announced the latest round of truly devastating cuts to next year's budget. Hundreds of millions more will be cut from K-12 education. More cuts to our colleges. Closing state parks. The state legislature has to find $1.2 billion, yes that's BILLION with a B, in either more money or cuts to balance this year's budget alone. That's on top of the $5 billion we've had to cover over the previous 3 years. The future we're facing is unsustainable. We aren't raising enough money to pay for the things that make Colorado work.
 
All the easy cuts have been made. There's real pain in the cuts ahead.
 
We must find a balanced approach to dealing with this pain. The options are clear.  We can either continue to cut services or we can start to think about ways to raise revenue.  In Colorado, only the voters can choose this option. But we are going to have to make a decision.
 
We choose our path here in Colorado.  But backward is not the way forward.  Do we want a Colorado where we are forced to fire thousands of teachers from schools?  Where we abandon making college accessible to all Coloradans?  Where we ask seniors to pay more in property taxes?  Where we sacrifice basic health care services?
 
It's time we start having the conversation about how to solve these problems.  The decision we make will determine the kind of state we want Colorado to be, now and in the future.
 
If you answered YES to the question, "Do you think Colorado is a great place to live?" then I know you're going to want to join us in this conversation.
 
Click to here to sign up and join the conversation about Colorado's budget, and Colorado's future.
 
Past generations invested in Colorado to build the great state we live in today.  It's up to us to make the decisions about what Colorado will look like tomorrow.