A daunting task awaits the Colorado legislature. Whenever it resumes its session — the tentative plan is to come back May 18 — the General Assembly must, per its constitutional obligation, pass a balanced state budget. And they’ll be doing so with dramatically less money than they’d counted on even one month ago, before the extent of the pandemic’s started to become clear. Members of the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, which writes and then refers the budget to the broader legislature, are now planning for a shortfall of up to about $3 billion. “I’ve seen anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion,” said state Sen.