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Craig — Colorado Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, said the best way to describe the state budget's freefall is to compare it to a Shakespearean tragedy in three acts.

White appeared at the Moffat County Commission meeting Tuesday to address local officials and residents.

The state government first cut about $800 million from the 2008-09 budget - which White called Act I.

Now that the state is in what White termed the second act of this tragedy, government officials have cut about $720 million from the 2009-10 budget and may cut more if the Sept. 21 revenue forecast predicts more dire days ahead.

That's not the worst of it, though, White said.

Act III is when Hamlet "gets it in the gizzard," he said, and the coming 2010-11 fiscal year is the state's third act.

Officials predict the Legislature may have to cut another $550 million from the state general fund in the 2010-11 budget, White said. That budget may include the scariest cuts of all, including trims to K-12 public education.

Not that cuts already approved haven't been hard, the senator said.

The state already has cut important programs, White said, such as senior property tax exemptions that allow elderly residents on fixed incomes to afford their homes.

In the latest wave of cuts - $320 million proposed by Gov. Bill Ritter - the state made large cuts to mental health facilities, took community grant money away from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and canceled a program called "aid to the needy disabled."

White said the latter is particularly troubling, because that program pays a $200 a month stipend to disabled people who applied for Social Security benefits but haven't received them yet.

"They have no other money," White said, referring to the stipend. "I don't know what they're going to do."

Cuts to DOLA also are significant to local communities, the senator added.

Local politicians in the audience agreed, including Craig City Councilor Ray Beck, who said the state is going to hurt Craig and Moffat County if DOLA cancels its grant cycles through April 2010, as has been suggested.

Moffat County commissioners have been vocal in the past about how important DOLA grants are to local services. It's possible, they have said, that some paved county roads will revert back to gravel if DOLA can't provide funds to pay for maintenance.

White said the state has taken $7 million from DOLA so far, but has a hold on an additional $25 million that it can take at a later date.

Commissioner Tom Mathers said his biggest concern is the state's cuts will end up increasing the financial burden on local communities. Cuts to DOLA mean communities can't afford certain capital projects, and cuts to mental health services mean local groups like Horizons Specialized Services have to take on extra clients, he said.

"We're on the bottom of the pole here," Mathers said. "It just shifts the cost to us, and we have to be the bad guy and say, 'We can't afford to take care of you.'"

Budget cuts for the next fiscal year in 2010011 will be equally painful, if not more so, White said.

He listed conservation easement tax credits for agricultural land, enterprise zone tax credits for businesses and school district funding as pots of money that could be sacrificed to balance the state budget.

All of those items are important to his constituents, White said, but he and other legislators may have no choice.

"I can't just say I'm going to work on a budget that doesn't hurt my district," he said. "There's pain, and it has to be shared equally."