In addition to the $13.6 billion in General Fund spending, the governor also proposed a one-time economic stimulus of $1.3 billion. Upon taking office in 2019, Governor Polis highlighted four key areas of investment: 1) tax reform and economic development, 2) energy and renewables, 3) health, and 4) education and workforce. He described his budget request as “fundamentally a statement of values” that proposed continued emphasis on many programs and spending in these areas. The letter to the JBC stated that the governor’s budget request furthered policy objectives in each of these areas with an emphasis on economic recovery; K-12 and higher education; environmental initiatives related to climate change, air quality, wildfire prevention and management; and health care including public health measures related to the fighting COVID as well as behavioral and mental health. The overall narrative from the governor’s budget request argued that it would allow the state to effectively respond to the many crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor claimed it would do so by restoring many of the cuts made to education, social services, tall plastic pots and health care imposed by last year’s budget when the General Assembly had to make substantial cuts due to drastic reductions in state revenue.The budget signed into law by Governor Polis on May 17 authorized a General Fund budget of $13.1 billion and $34.1 billion in total fund spending.
The final column of Table 3 lists the appropriation levels approved for each department along with the percent change from the prior fiscal year. Every state department ultimately received a greater appropriation amount relative to last year. The largest spending categories in this year’s budget are health care, K-12 education, higher education, human services, and corrections. Health care spending represents about one quarter of the General Fund budget, with another one-third appropriated to K-12 education. Higher education and human services each account for about 10 percent of the budget. The proposed and enacted funding levels for state departments and changes from the prior year’s budget are reported in Table 3. The enacted budget imposes substantial funding increases for both K-12 and Higher Education. Returning Higher Education spending to its pre-pandemic level was especially critical. Although the state routed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to higher education institutions, colleges and universities experienced substantial funding cuts in the prior year’s budget as the legislature sought to address a budget shortfall of $3.5 billion following substantial revenue losses brought on by the pandemic. The Higher Education budget was ultimately cut by $494 million. This 58 percent reduction from the prior year was largely restored as the 101 percent increase for Higher Education was the largest of any state department. Other substantial funding restorations from pandemic cuts included Personnel, Public Health and Environment, and Regulatory Departments. Another policy critical to the well-being of the state is the investment in wildfire prevention and mitigation efforts. Three of the largest wildfires in Colorado history occurred in 2020, which had lasting destructive effects on people, property, and animals across the state.
After an extraordinary wildfire season, Governor Polis argued that greater financial investments in wildfire relief, mitigation, prevention, and recovery “will build the state’s capacity to respond to wildfires quickly and effectively, invest in mitigation activities to reduce the risk from future fires, and dedicate resources to recovering from this historic fire season” . Wildfire funds were slated to procure additional aircraft to fight wildfires in addition to creating fire prevention and related recreation job opportunities, particularly in rural areas. Severe drought conditions that exist in Colorado and across the Western United States make this an especially important investment in the state’s ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic wildfires. A notable aspect of the state’s budgetary situation during the COVID pandemic was the unprecedented federal economic assistance to state and local governments. Former President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act into law in March 2020 . The massive $2.2 trillion economic stimulus initiative included direct financial aid to U.S. taxpayers, increased unemployment benefits, and assistance to state and local governments, in addition to creating the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided much needed loans to small businesses across the nation. The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act provided further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program bringing federal support for small businesses through this program to $669 billion . Shortly after taking office, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021 as another colossal $1.9 trillion economic stimulus measure. State and local governments across the nation were all beneficiaries of these federal stimulus funds.Colorado received an estimated $37 billion in federal economic assistance from the stimulus laws enacted in 2020, including $17.6 billion for business loans and grants, $6.2 billion in unemployment benefits, $5.0 billion in aid to local governments, $4.6 billion in economic impact payment checks, and $3.6 billion in health care assistance . To help Colorado businesses survive the economic effects of the pandemic, the federal government allocated $14.0 billion toward Paycheck Protection Program loans. The state is further slated to receive an additional $6 billion from the 2021 American Rescue Plan, which includes an estimated $4billion for the state government, $1.1 billion for county governments, and $0.8 billion for local governments .
Many governments, businesses, and residents across the state were in dire need of economic assistance to endure the pandemic’s many hardships, yet Colorado frequently ranked below the national median in terms of per capita federal assistance in many categories. An analysis by the Denver Post reports that Colorado ranked 30th overall in federal COVID assistance funding, including among the lowest in economic impact payment checks , aid to state and local governments , and health care assistance . The state ranked closer to the national median in federal unemployment benefits and business loans and grants .On the final day of April 2021, the House passed the conference report for the 2021–2022 budget by a 39-24 margin. Just one House Democrat voted against the bill, and one House Republican voted in favor, resulting in a final passage margin identical to the party division in the chamber . The Senate agreed to the conference report with 25 votes in favor and nine no votes. All nine no votes were cast by Republican Senators. Six Republican Senators joined all voting Democrats to support the passage of the final budget report. Journalists attributed this year’s broadly bipartisan budget in part to a commonly held belief that the state needed to restore many of the budget cuts from the prior year. The ability to increase funding across all departments was made possible by an “unexpectedly swift bounce-back for the state economy that briefly plunged in the early pandemic” . Partisan disagreement before the bill’s final passage included Republican criticism that more funding for police body cameras was not agreed to following the defeat of an amendment to allocate $6 million for police cameras. Final passage of the budget was characteristic of many laws passed during this legislative session. An analysis conducted by the Colorado Sun found that 94 percent of the 504 bills enacted into law had at least some Republican support . Notably, especially given vocal Republican opposition to many elements of the Democratic majority’s progressive agenda, large plastic pots including gun control, taxes, and climate change initiatives, 13 of 24 House Republicans voted in favor of more than 50 percent of enacted laws, as did all 15 Senate Republicans. These voting patterns suggest greater levels of bipartisanship in the Colorado General Assembly— particularly in the Senate—than one might expect, given that the legislature is among the most ideologically polarized in the West . However, Republican support on the state’s budget appears less robust than other measures adopted into law. The final passage votes for nearly 300 laws enacted during the session received at least 20 Republican yes votes, which the budget failed to reach. Republican opposition to the final budget included objections about the overall size of the spending package, which equaled $34.1 billion in total funds spending and surpassed last year’s spending by greater than $4 billion. However, in some areas like transportation, some Republicans advocated for increased appropriations for designated infrastructure projects and fewer funds set aside for social programs or future reserves. The final General Fund budget of $13.1 billion sought to balance many competing priorities, many related to the pandemic, while also preparing for the future. The 2021–2022 fiscal year budget included spending increases across all state departments while still setting aside a substantial investment of $1.5 billion into the state’s reserve fund. State employees welcomed 3 percent raises included in this year’s budget, which also included an additional $800 million for COVID stimulus measures, including state infrastructure projects. The ability to spend more than expected in this fiscal year is attributable to substantial cuts made by the legislature to last year’s budget coupled with improved economic conditions despite the ongoing pandemic. According to the governor, a key theme in this year’s budget cycle was “restoring major reductions made to key areas in FY20-21 and ensuring essential services across government” .
Higher education was a primary beneficiary of this, with most colleges and universities foregoing tuition increases or using Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds to offset small tuition hikes. Restoring budget cuts from the prior year also allowed for investments in areas beyond education. The COVID pandemic exacted a great toll on the Colorado economy. Despite economic improvements over the past year, the pandemic continues to create financial uncertainties for policymakers. Fluctuating tax revenue projections made initial work on the 2021–2022 budget challenging for both the governor and the Joint Budget Committee. Better than expected revenue growth ultimately permitted the state to restore many of the sizeable cuts imposed during the prior fiscal year. Economic stimulus dollars from the federal government likewise helped to bolster the state’s precarious economic condition alongside a one-time COVID stimulus measure of $800 million in state funds. While not out of the woods, current economic trends and forecasts regarding employment and revenue provide cause for optimism as the state’s economy continues an uneven but upward trajectory in recovery from the pandemic’s great upheaval.It has been long recognized that the quality of wines is closely associated with the accumulation of secondary metabolites, specifically flavonoids and volatile organic compounds that have a direct effect on wine color, taste and aroma . Flavonoids in wine include anthocyanins, flavonols and flavan-3-ols. Wine color, particularly its hue and intensity, are strongly determined by anthocyanin methylation, acetylation, hydroxylation of the anthocyanin B-ring, and copigmentation with cofactors such as flavonols . Partial solar radiation exclusion was shown to effect anthocyanin hydroxylation. Tarara et al. demonstrated increased dihydroxylation of anthocyanins in grape berries exposed to direct solar radiation compared to shaded fruit. Likewise, Martınez-Lüscher et al. monitored anthocyanin hydroxylation under colored photoselective shade nets and found that by reducing solar radiation by 40% with black polyethylene shade nets, the ratio of tri- to dihydroxylated anthocyanins was increased compared to uncovered control fruit. Such shifts in anthocyanin hydroxylation can impact anthocyanin hue and wine antioxidant capacity . Wine aroma in both red and white wines is a matrix formed by a variety of volatile compounds. However, the composition of the matrix can be impacted by grape cultivar, vineyard conditions and fermentation conditions. The most abundant class of volatile compounds found in the wine matrix are higher alcohols . These by-products of yeast nitrogen metabolism are usually described by unpleasant “solvent” or “fusel” aromas when present in concentrations greater than 400 mg/L . The more pleasant “fruity” aromas described in wine are associated with esters. Esters are often in highest concentrations in young red wines and decrease in concentration with aging . C13-norisoprenoids and terpenes are key aromas compounds found in both red and white wines, contributing fruity and floral aromas at low olfactory concentrations . C13-norisopenoids are understood to be derivatives of enzymatic or photochemical degradation of carotenoid pigments in the grape berry . In plants, carotenoids have photo-protectant and antioxidant properties, making these pigments responsive to solar radiation in grape berries.