EDITORIAL: Gov. Polis budget splurges on 5-year-old children

The sucking sound of big state spending conjures visions of straws — the plastic kind politicians ban in California. Full Democratic command of Colorado, Republicans warn, makes us California East.

“Would you sign a bill banning plastic straws?” we asked Gov. Jared Polis during a phone conversation Tuesday. “Everyone is talking about it.”

“No one is talking about it,” the newly elected Democrat replied, chuckling at our expense, and declining to answer “yes” or “no.”

The businessman-turned-politician prefers small talk about that little matter of a $1.2 billion budget surplus generated by economic growth and the soaring housing market.

Because of rising home values, mill levies are generating more money for local schools and saving the state hundreds of millions that contribute to the surplus.

State law requires government return a percentage of surplus money directly to taxpayers, based on a boring formula involving population growth and inflation. Under that equation, the state will keep hundreds of millions this year.

It won’t build highways. Our new liberal governor — brace for it — would give these mega-millions to 5 year olds.

Seriously, it’s not an awful idea. Kindergarten-for-all would function like a major tax cut for tens of thousands of Colorado parents. Their children, Polis reminds us, comprise our economic future and tax base.

About 13,000 Colorado children skip kindergarten each year because their parents cannot afford tuition. Approximately 30,000 attend kindergarten at a cost to their parents of $400-$500 a month or more. Under Polis budget plan, all could attend and none would have to. It’s a decision for households to make, minus the economic obstacle.

Using surplus dollars, the governor’s budget includes $227 million to provide “full-day kindergarten to every child, instead of the half-day kindergarten the state currently funds.”

That means parents will have between $3,500 and $5,000 more to spend each year, or to save, on something other than kindergarten. Polis hopes they might invest it in other educational options for their kids, such as college tuition or business startups for themselves or their offspring.

Polis believes the $227 million will free up $100 million some school districts use to subsidize full-day kindergarten. They can redirect that money to increase teacher pay and reduce class sizes, he explains.

Bull markets don’t last forever, so Polis proposes putting $90 million of surplus cash in the general fund’s reserve account and $92 million in the state education fund’s savings account.

To begin delivering on health care, the Polis budget sets aside $1.3 million to design a program that would allow Colorado to import lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada. He proposes a Saving People Money on Healthcare Office through the lieutenant governor’s office, to help Coloradans buy insurance through the state. We will analyze the governor’s health care policies more in detail as they transpire.

We would prefer surplus money first go to upgrade deteriorating highways and bridges. But that’s not what Polis ran on. He promised kindergarten and health care, and won by a commanding 10.7 percent margin. Voters made their wishes clear by electing him, while trouncing two ballot measures to fund transportation — one with a tax increase; the other with debt and general fund revenues.

The governor wastes no time trying to deliver on his two most high-profile campaign items. He insists these measures will grow the economy and we hope he is right.

In addition to health care and kindergarten, then-candidate Polis promised pursuit of a 3 to 5 percent income-tax reduction. Given the tax-cutting goal, voters should balk if Polis, legislators or petitioners propose another tax to fix our roads.

Yet, our roads are dangerous, deadly and inefficient. Polis and the Legislature must find a way to fix them at a much faster pace, without new taxes, regardless of commitments to health care and education. That means making difficult decision and dedicating any additional growth in the surplus to transportation first. Lead the way to a transportation system appropriate for the 21st century.

Grow the surplus, not the tax rate, and make Colorado the shining example economic growth benefiting all. Make it the non California, with “California East” a strawman the past.