Colorado Legislative Strategies Updates 4.30.22

COLORADO LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES NEWSLETTER
 
April 30, 2022

The penultimate full week of the 2022 legislative session is now in the books; well, the journals to be exact. Not even including all of the work that the House and Senate did on Friday (and there was a lot), the House Journal is up to 1446 pages and the Senate Journal is 1067 pages. So if you’re looking for some light reading for the beach this summer or just want to reminisce about all the fun from this legislative session in excruciating detail, remember you’ve always got the journals.

The journals will be filling up even more over the next week and a half because the General Assembly still has hundreds and hundreds of bills left to deal with. A longtime legislator and unofficial Capitol historian said this week that the House was further behind than he’s ever seen. To put it in perspective, there is nearly one bill left in the system for every hour there is between now and May 11, and while legislators often have to work late they can’t work 24/7 for that long. Plus some bills take far longer than one hour and all of this gets multiplied over committees and floor debate in two chambers. Then on top of all of that, new bills are still getting introduced!

​It’s crazy but it always happens this way. Although this year might be particularly bad due to some unique factors of Colorado and what’s been going on lately. First, Colorado has term-limits and that means that the people holding the top legislative posts – the people who control the bills and the calendar – have only been in those jobs for a relatively short period of time. And in the last couple of years have been abnormal in allowing the calendar to pause and stretch on for longer than usual. But that is not the case anymore and any bill that hasn’t cleared all of the legislative steps by midnight on May 11 will turn into the legislative equivalent of a pumpkin. 
 
Starting on Monday there are just eight working days left, 10 if the legislature works on Saturday and Sunday. This reality means we are getting into the delay and dealmaking time of the session. The Republicans will delay as much as they can for as long as they can because that means there simply won’t be enough time to pass all of the Democrats' bills. And the Democrats, if they want to pass all their priorities for this session, will have to make some deals in order to keep things moving. 
 
That’s exactly what happened on Friday with Senate Bill 230 about collective bargaining for county employees. One of the most anticipated bills of the session was just introduced at the beginning of this week and after going through two committee hearings it was up for debate on Friday. Republicans drafted over 270 amendments and were ready to grind things to a halt while they debated that bill for hours and possibly even days. That prospect brought about a 10-hour negotiation between caucus leaders. When the bill finally came up for debate, the first amendments offered by the sponsors were in response to what Republicans said they wanted. One expands the rights of a county when it’s discussing a collective bargaining agreement with workers and puts more guardrails on what can and can’t be bargained. Importantly for home-rule counties, the amendment also said that no agreement could restrict the authority granted to the county commissioners. 
 
Additional amendments also allow county management to respond to questions regarding employment and unions and deal with the definition, including size, of a bargaining unit. Another amendment also allows for consolidation of bargaining units at the request of the county. These significant changes to the bill as introduced brought down the heat on the debate and the bill ultimately passed on a preliminary voice vote with only around two hours of debate. The bill will be up for a final vote on Monday and then heads over to the House for consideration. 
 
In addition to negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, there are also negotiations (and sometimes tensions) between Democrats and the Governor. While that usually happens behind closed doors, it was on public display in the Senate on Friday morning. The Governor has been taking a harder line on the length of tax credit bills this session, including House Bill 1083 about homeless contribution tax credits. There are not usually amendments offered on third and final reading of the bill, but the sponsors offered an amendment to take one year of the bill and were very clear that it was at the request of the Governor and they didn’t like it. Senator Julie Gonzales opposed the change and said, "There's one person in this building that wants this amendment. That's fine. He gets a vote. Not today." A dozen Democrats then joined some Republicans in voting down the amendment. This led to a break on the floor and some frenzied lobbying from the Governor’s office, and eight Democrats ultimately switched their no vote to a yes on the amendment to add it to the bill. 
 
Other big news from this week included the introduction of the much-anticipated bill to replenish the state’s unemployment trust fund. Senate Bill 234 will use $600 million in pandemic relief funds to allow the state to pay back part of the federal loan it began tapping into in 2020. The $1.1 billion balance in the trust fund was drained in just the first few months of the pandemic and the state is now on the hook to pay back more than $1 billion in federal loans. This money from the state will lessen the surcharge on businesses that will go into effect next year. 
 
Staying on the topic of repaying things stemming from the pandemic, House bill 1029 about payments to the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) was finally acted on this week. The state decided to skip its required payment of $225 million to PERA in 2020 when the state budget was getting slashed by over $3 billion. That missed payment caused PERA to lose out on another nearly $80 million in expected investment returns. The bill, which makes up for the missed payment and lost interest, was introduced way back in January (the very first day actually) and just this week got its first committee hearing. After passing out of the House Finance Committee the bill is now pending in the House Appropriations Committee, and then it will still need to be debated in the House and go through all of the steps in the Senate, where several senators have said they do not favor repaying the full price with interest. 
 
A new bill introduced this week about the state making some other payments is sure to make some waves. As you’ll recall from the newsletters on the economic and revenue forecasts (the next one will be in June) the state is firmly in TABOR refund land. This year, the state will refund excess revenue from last fiscal year and those payments normally go out in spring. However, Senate Bill 233 will make some big changes to how this works, and some are calling it an election year stunt. Normally, the sales tax refund mechanism gives more money back to those who make more money. This bill, however, will give a flat $400 to every person. The checks will also arrive in the mailbox for every Coloradoan right before ballots begin arriving in those same mailboxes for the election. Tax cut loving Jared Polis, who is also a savvy political operator, is absolutely giddy about campaigning on putting more money in peoples’ pockets. 
 
Speaking of the election, right now there are many ballot initiatives that are working their way through the Title Board in an attempt to get certified to collect signatures and ultimately try to make it on the ballot. One big topic of conversation for ballot initiatives is one that would reduce the rate of growth in property taxes, which would be good for property owners but could spell trouble for schools and local governments. The Governor and Democratic leaders have been negotiating on a bill that could potentially result in the ballot initiative being pulled. The legislation could come in many different forms and lawmakers have set aside $200 million for property tax relief this session. It’s likely some kind of bill on this topic will be introduced next week. 
 
Finally, here’s some other quick hits of news from this week. Representative Matt Gray announced he will not seek re-election in November. A vacancy committee from the local Democratic Party in Broomfield will meet on Sunday to select a new candidate to fill the vacancy. Representative Mary Bradfield will appear on the primary ballot after a judge ordered the district assembly to be redone after irregularities in the voting were identified. Governor Polis held bill signing ceremonies for the state budget and his bill creating the new Department of Early Childhood and providing universal preschool. And if all the craziness and news from this week (and this whole session) wasn’t already enough, the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council met this week to approve a resolution on the starting date for the 2023 legislative session. 
 
The next legislative session will start on Monday, January 9, 2023. Thankfully, though, that will be after a much needed break!