Patching the latest $286 million hole in Colorado’s finances, Gov. Bill Ritter presented another interim budget-balancing plan Wednesday, using federal stimulus funds to offset $190 million of the total.

“Just as families and businesses are making tough choices all across Colorado, so are we,” Ritter said as he presented his plan to the legislative Joint Budget Committee in Denver.

Ritter’s plan would cut $37.4 million from local programs funded by the state’s tax collections on gas and oil wells. Delaying Medicaid reimbursements will account for an additional $16.3 million, and the state will save an estimated $10.7 million by refinancing certificates of participation, the lease-back deals that take the place of bonds for a state government forbidden to carry bonded debt.

But $145 million, half of the overall cut, was to the state’s public colleges and universities, one of the few areas where the governor and the Legislature are not bound by constitutionally mandated spending formulas.

Money earmarked for state budget stabilization in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will take the place of the money cut from higher education. The plan dips into another ARRA reserve fund for an additional $45.1 million.

Spending the federal stimulus money now means less of it will be available for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which begins next July.

“We’re reaching the end of our Recovery Act funding, which will lead to the so-called cliff effect for higher ed in future years,” Ritter said.

Ritter’s budget director, Todd Saliman, said that to become eligible for federal matching funds, the state will have to restore more than $225 million in higher ed spending in 2010-11.

The recession continues to hammer the state’s revenues, causing $2.1 billion in shortfalls in the last year. Each scaled-back revenue estimate must be balanced by spending cuts or revenue increases.

“This isn’t a one-time hiccup or a temporary blip,” Ritter said. “This is a massive correction and a new economic reality.”

Only four months into the current fiscal year, the governor has had to whack the state budget twice. Higher ed took an $81 million hit in August, when the general fund was pared by $318 million.

Saliman said Medicare caseload increases will cost the state an additional $28 million, and $14.3 million was put back on the books when the governor scaled back his estimate of the number of prison inmates to be released under a furlough program.

On Tuesday, Ritter doubled state employees’ unpaid furlough days, to eight, saving $27.2 million.

“We’ll be asking state employees for additional sacrifices in 10-11, at a time when demand for services is skyrocketing,” Ritter told the JBC. “Medicaid caseloads are projected to be up 45 percent in 10-11 from three years prior. Unemployment caseloads are up more than 200 percent from a year ago.”

“Even in a downturn, we still need teachers in our schools, troopers on our highways, corrections officers in our prisons and snowplow drivers on our highways,” the governor said.

Ritter will formally present his 2010-11 budget proposal to the Legislature on Nov. 10.

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I love the snow keep it coming said Lakeside Cottages owner Lon Rust as he cleared snow from the sidewalk in front of his business. He drove up from Cascade and ran into a few slick spots on the way up. Residents of Green Mountain Falls were greeted this morning on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2009 to three to five inches and slick roads as a winter weather system parked over Colorado dumping snow throughout the region. The Gazette, Bryan Oller Photo by BRYAN OLLER, THE GAZETTE

BRYAN OLLER