(The Center Square) – Colorado is among the nation’s top states for using data to drive its budgetary decisions, according to a recent study by Pew Charitable Trusts. 

The study applauds the Centennial State for using a framework known as the “evidence continuum” that helps support the state's continuous improvement efforts. The continuum includes a rigorous review process that is guided by state law to ensure that government-ran programs and services deliver the most bang for their taxpayer-funded buck. 

“Colorado’s evidence continuum stands out as an example of step-by-step criteria that both enable agencies to adopt programs and services guided by rigorous research and help the executive budget office determine funding priorities it can recommend to the governor and the legislature,” the study said. 

Pew has partnered with Colorado since 2014 to help the state better evaluate its programs. In 2016, the governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB), which writes the state budget, began requiring departments to submit research validating their expected outcomes alongside their budget requests. 

However, progress under the new program was slow to materialize. The year after OSPB enacted its new rules, nearly 64% of state agencies did not turn over evidence supporting their projected outcomes, the study noted. 

In response, lawmakers assembled the Colorado Evidence-Based Policy Collaborative, a stakeholder group that developed the benchmarks that would later be set in law. 

Last year, a bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers enacted a pillar of the state’s evidence continuum: Senate Bill 21-284. The bill, which Gov. Jared Polis signed into law last summer, established a set of evidence-based definitions to use when regulators evaluate a program and metrics to hold agencies accountable if they fail to meet the definitions.

The pandemic proved the concept of the continuum in more ways than one, according to OSPB Director Lauren Larson.

Larson told Pew that the pandemic forced many agencies to reduce their budgets, and OSPB’s process helped them preserve or expand the most critical accounts.

“The evidence continuum brought a perspective on how to prioritize those cuts,” Larson said. “For example, the Colorado Office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) proposed reductions to programs that were rated lower on the evidence continuum while maintaining budgets for statutorily required services for child and family safety.”

The evidence continuum has also proven useful when lawmakers in the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) are asked to evaluate the governor’s budget requests. 

Sens. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, and Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, the two lawmakers who originally proposed the bill, said it has helped ensure that lawmakers have access to the same budgetary information that OSPB and the governor’s office uses. 

“We think that creates the right feedback loop to the executive branch when they’re proposing new programs or their spending changes,” Hansen said.