Each year state decision-makers are tasked with balancing constitutional, statutory, and federal requirements with a host of other considerations, such as competing policy priorities, caseload growth, and the health of the state’s economy to create a budget.  Although the budget is funded with a variety of revenue sources, state taxes provide a significant portion of the revenue Colorado uses to fund its operations.

Legislative Council Staff is responsible for analyzing the fiscal impact at the school district level of the school finance bill that is introduced during each legislative session.

Legislative Council Staff publishes forecasts of the Colorado and U.S. economies and state revenue each March, June, September, and December.  The General assembly uses these forecasts to develop the state budget, monitor state spending in relation to revenue, and determine and report the amount of excess state revenue under TABOR.

The Legislative Council Staff prepares memoranda, issue briefs, resource books, and reports addressing topics of interest to members of the Colorado General Assembly and the public.  The LCS Staff also has developed several interactive tools for exploring the state economy, tax policy, and the budget.

Legislative Council Staff publications may be accessed by publication type or by subject area below.

SUMMARY OF POSITION

Applying the Rules of Professional Conduct, together with historical practices, the Office of Legislative Legal Services takes the position that the legislative lawyer maintains an attorney-client relationship with the legislature, as an organization, and not with each legislator.