The state of Colorado expects to spend close to $90 million this year to hire contract nurses and other health professionals as it scrambles to address dire worker shortages, according to legislative budget staff.
And it still hasn’t been enough to ensure adequate staffing in state mental health facilities and prisons.
Contract workers hired through staffing companies can cost the state upward of twice as much as a permanent employee. So to reduce the state’s reliance on them, the Joint Budget Committee this month gave preliminary approval to another round of signing bonuses to lure nurses, social workers and other health professionals into the public workforce.
This time, they plan to offer incentives of $25,000 spread out over 12 months, up from the $14,000 the state provided this budget year.
But even as they approved the bonuses — at a cost of $9.6 million in the next budget year, which starts July 1 — lawmakers acknowledged it won’t solve the long-term problem.
“It feels like it’s a Band-Aid. It’s a Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound,” said Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat who chairs the JBC. “We have so many problems cascading because we don’t pay people enough money.”
Today, the state is about 400 medical workers short of what it needs to fully staff the most affected divisions within the Department of Corrections and Department of Human Services, according to JBC documents. That represents a vacancy rate of more than 43%.
Some positions have proved even harder to fill: More than 60% of health technician jobs at DHS are vacant, while the DOC has had similar problems hiring social workers.
The shortages have hamstrung the state’s ability to treat the mentally ill at a time when such diagnoses are on the rise and more and more patients are being placed under the state’s care through the criminal justice system.
“This is the department that handles the sickest of all of them,” Leora Joseph, the director of the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health, told the JBC at a hearing in December.
The Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo, for instance, had 100 fewer direct care workers, including nurses, in 2023 than in 2018, Joseph said. But court orders to treat the mentally ill more than doubled in that time, rising from 1,054 in 2018 to 2,737 last year.
Colorado now has the third worst waitlist in the nation for people waiting in jail for forensic psychiatric beds, which are used to treat people found incompetent to face criminal charges. The state owes $12 million in fines this budget year under a consent decree in which state officials agreed to reduce the time people spend waiting in jail for treatment.
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MORE: Recent efforts to increase salaries and offer bonuses have helped, state officials insist. It just hasn’t come close to solving the problem.
When the $14,000 bonuses were first instituted in 2023 using federal stimulus funding, the department was able to hire 40 nurses — but 25 who were already on staff left for other jobs in the same period, according to JBC documents.
“It hasn’t been particularly effective — you got 15 more people, whoopee,” said Rep. Rick Taggart, R-Grand Junction, who serves on the JBC.
That’s left lawmakers wondering how much in salary and benefits it would take to persuade nurses to work for the state long term over contract work.
DHS nurses make around $50 an hour on average, but the state pays contract agencies more than double that — $109 an hour per nurse, according to JBC documents. Trouble is, they don’t know how much the contract nurses receive in pay after the contract agency’s cut, which could be as high as 40% in some cases, JBC staff said.
As a result, lawmakers are hesitant to approve higher salaries until they have a better idea of what a competitive wage would cost. The budget committee voted unanimously in favor of the bonuses, but pledged to revisit pay raises after the legislative session.
“This is a case where we see very similar challenges in the private sector,” Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat who sits on the JBC, said before the vote. “Nursing staffing is just a mess at public hospitals, private hospitals, anywhere you go, it’s a mess. … How much of this is us trying to do all the same things we’ve seen not work in the private sector, when really we’ve just got to increase pay?”
The JBC meets throughout next week to finalize the 2024-25 budget proposal, known as the long bill, which is scheduled to be introduced in the House by March 25.
THE NARRATIVE
Elisabeth Epps launches last-minute signature gathering campaign in signal she’s worried about making primary ballot
State Rep. Elisabeth Epps this week launched a signature-gathering campaign to try to make it onto the June 25 primary ballot, a last-minute push that signals the Denver lawmaker is worried she won’t get enough delegate support at the House District 6 Democratic assembly on Saturday to qualify.
Epps needs 30% of the delegate vote Saturday to make the ballot. If she fails to reach that threshold, she will have to collect 1,000 Democratic voter signatures in House District 6 by Tuesday to advance to the primary.
(She’ll need the support of at least 10% of the assembly delegates in addition to her signatures, but that shouldn’t be a problem.)
SIgnature gathering is tough business. It usually takes state legislative candidates weeks and the help of volunteers or paid circulators to gather theirs. Because Epps waited so long to launch a signature-gathering campaign, she’ll have only eight days. The snowstorm blanketing the state will make things harder.
Epps sent an email to supporters Wednesday asking for help gathering signatures and imploring them to sign.
“To win re-election, we must get my name back on the ballot,” she wrote.
An indication of how rushed Epps’ signature-gathering effort is: She asked supporters to gather Sunday evening at a location to be named later to pick up petition packets, get signatures they collected notarized or sign one of her petitions themselves.
Epps’ primary opponent is Denver lawyer and Air Force veteran Sean Camacho. He turned in his petition signatures last week (they are still being reviewed by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office) and is also going through the assembly. He’s expected to win a sizable share of the delegate support. Democratic insiders say he may have just enough to block Epps from reaching 30%.
It’s unclear how the two candidates fared at House District 6 precinct caucuses last week, where delegates to the district assembly were elected. Denver Democratic Chairman James Reyes told The Unaffiliated the county party didn’t gather information on any straw polls that were conducted.
The background: Epps’ first term in the House has been tumultuous, from clashing with fellow lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans alike — to some high-profile policy defeats. This year, Epps participated only remotely for the first 29 days of House floor action, showing up in person for debate the first time Feb. 23, a day after the Colorado Sun questioned her about it. She’s been participating in person ever since — with some limited exceptions.
MORE: In early February, Epps shared on social media an email she’d received the year before from state Rep. Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, that she said were “the first of near-daily racist sexist msgs from him/others.” In a subsequent post, she implied that the media wouldn’t cover the issue.
The Sun submitted an open records request to Epps on Feb. 16 for “all email or other digital communication sent to you from other state lawmakers since Jan. 9, 2023, that you consider racist or sexist.”
The response from Legislative Legal Services? “The preliminary estimate for retrieving and reviewing the records that may be responsive to your request is 242.52 hours beyond the first hour, which results in an administrative search and retrieval fee deposit of $8,143.82.”
EVEN MORE: The Sun also requested correspondence between Epps and House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, for the week of Feb. 12. Responses from both lawmakers said that “all documents related to any inquiry or complaint under either the Workplace Harassment or the Workplace Expectations Policy are confidential and are not subject to public inspection under CORA.”
Previous CORA responses we received from McCluskie for earlier correspondence with Epps didn’t contain the same disclosure.
YOU HEARD IT HERE
The us-versus-them tension between progressive and moderate Democrats at the Colorado Capitol seems to be less pronounced this year than it was in 2023. But this fundraising email provides a glimpse at how the two sides view each other.
It’s almost as if there are three parties in the legislature.
“Despite our majority in both statehouse chambers, Democrats failed to pass many crucial pieces of legislation this past session that would’ve improved the lives of thousands of working-class Coloradans — rent control, land-use reform and agriculture workers rights, just to name a few,” Garcia wrote.
She added in the email that Lindstrom is “a fiercely progressive Democrat who’s unafraid to fight for what’s right.”
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
ELECTION 2024: Former President Donald Trump endorsed Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams in his 5th Congressional District bid this week. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed Williams’ biggest opponent in the race, conservative commentator Jeff Crank.
TV ADS: U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is spending about $40,000 to run TV ads in the 4th Congressional District starting Monday. The Windsor Republican appears to be the first candidate to run ads in the race. The ad buy was first reported by AdImpact Politics.
STORY: Colorado rental car fee hike would raise money for Front Range and mountain passenger rail systems
9NEWS: Colorado’s governor has a power that gets little attention, but can affect big state decisions
NPR: A Denver garden center saw backlash after offering jobs to migrants with work permits
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: There’s a bipartisan plan to repay teachers for costly school supplies. Here’s why it could fail for a sixth time
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Colorado legislative aides at odds with Capitol leadership over wage increase
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Some city and county governments in Colorado are tired of debate about international issues in local meetings
THE DENVER POST: Gov. Jared Polis signs bill exempting lawmakers from parts of open-meetings law
THE DENVER POST: Colorado senators propose new fee on alcohol producers to fund addiction treatment and recovery programs
KDVR: Aurora passes tougher penalties on retail theft
THE VAIL DAILY: Colorado ranchers may face a new hurdle in getting compensated when their livestock is killed by wolves
COLORADO POLITICS
The Colorado Democrats who attended Kamala Harris’ event in Denver
Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Denver on Tuesday brought out plenty of Colorado Democratic celebrities past and present.
Among them:
Also seen in the crowd: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who was talking with state Rep. Tim Hernández, D-Denver.
The Sun asked Hernández, a Democratic Socialist, for his views on Harris and whether he’d joined pro-Palestinian protesters who gathered outside of her Denver event. He declined to comment.
MORE: Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis spoke to pro-Palestinian protesters outside of Harris’ event.
“If there was any opportunity that I had to talk to the VP and to say what I hear from communities all the time about a ceasefire, I would absolutely have grit my teeth and gone inside,” she said. “However, because that’s not the case, I’m going to stand out here with y’all.”
Lewis said she thinks a ceasefire resolution, which was rejected by the council, will eventually pass.
ADDENDUM: Before Harris’ main event at ReelWorks in Denver’s River North Arts District, she surprised those sipping beers at nearby Ratio Beerworks — although they’d been screened by Secret Service.
“Oh my goodness,” exclaimed one young man, who later had his photo taken with the vice president.
We didn’t get his name or a chance to talk to him because the small media pack with the vice president was kept at a distance from Harris, then whisked away to her speaking engagement.
ADDENDUM NO. 2: We reported in Tuesday’s edition that Harris was going to fundraise while she was in Denver. And she did. But she did not hold a fundraiser benefiting U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, as we were told might happen.
STORY: Kamala Harris woos Latino voters while attacking Donald Trump at brief Denver stop
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Corrections & Clarifications
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