The Bell Policy Center, which consistently does an exemplary job of de-mystifying Colorado’s complex fiscal and budgetary landscape, has issued a new report that looks ahead at state revenues and expenditures through 2013.

A joint project with the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute and the Colorado Children’s’ Campaign, the report -- “Looking Forward: Colorado’s fiscal prospects after Ref C” -- analyzes the impact of the state referendum that brought a five-year timeout from Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) and examines the fiscal picture once Ref C phases out.

The Bell’s conclusion: “Referendum C stopped the bleeding and stabilized the patient, but could do little else.” Though the timeout allowed Colorado to keep more than $1 billion in revenues that otherwise would have been lost, many state programs have yet to return to service levels that existed before the economic downturn of 2001-3. And revenues in the near future won’t allow for new or expanded state services.