Colorado Legislative Strategies Updates 5.8.22

COLORADO LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES NEWSLETTER
 
May 8, 2022

​There are now only three days left in the 2022 legislative session! Monday will be the 118th legislative day and Wednesday will be the 120th and last day. Your baby legislative session is almost all grown up.
 
Remember back in January when there were only SMART Act hearings going on and committees hardly even held hearings on bills. Then in February, March, and April when there were long nights here and there but generally the legislature worked on normal-ish hours. And then we got to May when the legislature worked late into the night every night to get all their work done right at the end. In that way, the General Assembly is like the high school or college student who procrastinated all semester on their big project. 
 
However, with constant threats of staying all night and working on the weekend, and some dealmaking to move the process along, the legislature appears to be on track to get through all of the bills from this session before adjourning. With the caveat that legislative leaders can still introduce new bills, technically a bill only needs three days to pass through all of the required steps, but the last new bills of the session might have been introduced this past Thursday. 

​It’s not quite like being the last pick in the NFL draft, but the distinction of the last bills of the session might go to House Bill 1418 about extending certain unused tax credits and Senate Bill 239 about buildings in the Capitol Complex. Those numbers tell you there have been 418 bills introduced in the House and 239 bills introduced in the Senate, for a grand total 657 bills introduced this legislative session. That’s a lot of bills, but it’s about average for how many get introduced every session. 
 
657 bills – 657 little ideas with a hope and a dream of becoming law. 657 sets of supporters and 657 sets of opponents. 657 paths through multiple committee hearings with untold numbers of people sharing their stories. 657 bills making countless impacts across Colorado like ripples in a pond cascading out far and wide. 
 
Of course, you probably didn’t like some of those 657 bills. Some of those policies could have disastrous consequences if enacted. And hopefully all of those little bills were snuffed out in their infancy, or at least amended to not be as damaging. 
 
In the end, all 657 of those bills are subject to the same mathematical political reality. If a little idea wants to grow up to be a real life law then it needs to count to 33, 18, and 1. With the support of 33 members of the House, 18 members of the Senate, and the Governor anything can happen – good or bad. 
 
Turning to some of the news from this past week, property taxes dominated. On Monday, Senate Bill 238 addressing property taxes for the next two years was introduced and in just one week made it through the entire legislative process. However, the legislative gauntlet took a backseat to back-room negotiations over the bill and competing ballot initiatives for the upcoming election. 
 
Property values are skyrocketing in Colorado and property tax bills for homeowners and businesses are going up dramatically. That is creating fertile ground for conservative ballot measures that would reduce tax revenue for school and local governments by $1.3 billion annually. Plus, Democrats don’t necessarily want to be campaigning against ballot measures to lower property taxes, or against their tax-cut loving Governor. 
 
On Friday, a multi-sided deal was reached that will result in multiple ballot initiatives being pulled and the bill being signed into law. First, the deal resulted in all of the sides pulling various ballot initiatives: a conservative-backed initiative that would have capped property valuation increases at roughly 3% for taxation purposes, another conservative-backed initiative that would have capped property tax increases at 2% annually unless certain conditions are met, and a progressive-backed initiative that would have enacted a new property tax or fee on homes worth more than $2 million. Additionally, Democratic leaders in the legislature promised to shelve their attempt to block property tax changes on the statewide ballot.
 
So what’s the number that made all the sides back off? How much property tax relief will be enough for the conservatives to not go for more? How much property tax relief will progressives live with because they are afraid the voters will approve even more? And how much property tax relief can the state and counties afford? Apparently the answer is $700 million. 
 
The bill will provide $700 million in property tax relief and the cost will be split three ways: $200 million from the general fund in this year’s budget, $240 million taken from future TABOR refunds, and the rest from lost additional revenue to counties. On the residential side, assessment rates would change from 6.95% to 6.765% and the bill also reduces the taxable value of homes by $15,000. On the commercial side, assessment rates go from 29% to 27.9% and include a reduction of $30,000 in taxable valuation of a business property.
 
As a side note, property tax relief is great and all for owners of things and it’s good that schools and local governments won’t be deprived of even more money, but it should be noted that Colorado already has a low property tax burden relative to other states and the state still has a large debt owed to public schools called the budget stabilization factor because the state funds education below what is even constitutionally mandated. Watch out for a rude awakening in a couple years when this property tax relief is exhausted, conservatives are still trying to cut property taxes even more and progressives still want the government to fund even more, and the state doesn’t have federal money coming out of its ears to be able to fill in all gaps that are created by an ever increasing state share going to fund local schools. 
 
Future problems will surely be solved by future legislatures and many of the current legislators won’t be legislators anymore. We are now entering the final days for several Representatives and Senators. Feel free to think of the Graduation song by Vitamin C while you read about all the certain soon to be departing legislators.
 
Term-Limited in the House:

• Speaker Alec Garnett
• Majority Leader Deneya Esgar
• Representative Susan Lontine
• Representative Teri Carver
• Representative Kim Ransom

 
Term-Limited in the Senate:

• President Pro Tem Kerry Donovan
• Minority Leader Chis Holbert
• Senator Jerry Sonnenberg
• Senator Ray Scott
• Senator John Cooke

 
Decided not to run again:

• Representative Shane Sandridge 
• Representative Andres Pico
• Representative Tim Geitner
• Representative Kerry Tipper
• Representative Matt Gray
• Senator Pete Lee

 
Running for Congress:

• Representative Dave Williams
• Representative Yadira Caraveo
• Representative Ron Hanks
• Senator Don Coram
• Senator Brittany Pettersen
• Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer (will be back if loses primary)

 
Lost Primary Election:

• Representative Tanya Van Beber (did not make ballot)
• Potentially several more will be in this category after the June Primary 

 
For all intents and purposes, these legislative terms end on Wednesday night but they technically continue all the way to the beginning of next year. There could always be a Special Session called… 
 
This week, Senate Minority Leader Chris Hobert actually announced that he will be resigning at the end of May so as to not draw a salary while he’s looking for a new job in Florida. The vacancy committee game never ends; Representative Kevin Van Winkle is already running and likely to win the Senate District in November so if he gets the nod a little early then there will be a vacancy for his House District too. 
 
So the interim will be filled with some vacancies in addition to all the interim committees and task forces, and all the election activities as well. But before all of that we have to get through the next three days. Expect some more long nights as final deals get worked out, all the remaining bills move through committees and floor debates, and oh so many concurrences and repassing the final version of all the bills. 
 
Have a good weekend and Happy Mother’s Day.