Because there's no more money to be wasted....

Colorado voters went on a 2-1 margin against Proposition 103 which would have 'temporarily' (the quotes are because generally tax increases are forever, only cuts are temporary) increased both the state income tax as well as the state sales tax to 'make up' for funds received under Stimulus II--Doubling Down on Stupidity (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009).  The state of Colorado received more than $622 million in funds for higher education and in this article from April of 2011, was already projecting a $625 million shortfall.  Apparently they didn't realize that the funds were meant to be one-time and not in perpetuity. 

So then the whining began and the holding out of hands for even more money which the voters of Colorado promptly slapped down.  Most of the universities in the state used their money for things like building their library collections, avoiding layoffs, etc. but there was one exception, Metropolitan State College of Denver.  They eliminated 100 positions and used campus input for strategic use of the funds to streamline processes and in general use the money in the spirit in which it was meant--to give a boost to long-term strategies.  Colorado State University, on the other hand, seemed to have spent the money like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

As Neal McClusky at the CATO Institute posits:

No matter how you slice it, the burden of funding the Ivory Tower has grown ever heavier on the backs of taxpaying citizens. Whether one examines taxpayer dollars in total, per enrollee, per degree, or per tax-paying citizen, real spending has gone up.

And the taxpayers of Colorado are no longer willing to foot the bill for increasing higher ed costs.