Conservative gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo today called on Governor Bill Ritter to call a special session of the Colorado General Assembly to deal with the state’s soaring budget deficit, and he challenged Governor-elect John Hickenlooper to join him in calling for the special session. In a statement, Tancredo said Colorado’s government must be restructured and that every budget item but the possibility of tax increases should be on the table. If elected governor, Tancredo said, he would direct his cabinet to identify 10% across the board budget cuts. Given the huge increases in state spending over the last six years by the Democrat-controlled legislature, it shouldn’t be hard to restructure the state’s laws and regulations and find savings of more than 20%. Statement follows:

Once again, Colorado is facing a budget shortfall nearly $200 million larger than we were told just a month ago.  At this rate we could be facing a $1.5 billion dollar budget hole before the new governor and legislature are sworn in.

I call on Governor Ritter to demand across-the-board reductions for this year and to call a special session of the legislature to begin making the necessary structural changes that government must make to get state spending back into line with available revenues.

These things have to be done soon and there is no reason to put off the inevitable. The people of Colorado expect and deserve fiscal responsibility from their elected officials; and they can’t afford higher taxes. The only solution is to cut spending.
On my first day as governor, I will direct my cabinet to identify 10 percent across-the-board cuts. Then I will call for a top-to-bottom review of state departments, agencies, boards, and commissions with everything on the table except the safety of our citizens and tax hikes. And again I call on John Hickenlooper to join me in making that commitment—or to stop calling himself a “fiscal conservative.”