ALERT: Gov. Jared Polis today will expected to sign House Bill 1098, which will limit how and when landlords can block their tenants from renewing their leases.
Read more about the measure here: How the “for-cause eviction” bill passed by the Colorado legislature would affect renters and landlords
Gov. Jared Polis and top Democratic lawmakers began this year’s legislative session promising to address one of the state’s most intractable issues — housing affordability — through upward of a dozen different bills.
But in the first 100 days of the session, only one such bill has been signed into law — House Bill 1007, which prohibits local governments from enacting occupancy limits for reasons other than health and safety. That measure is aimed primarily at boosting affordability in college towns like Boulder and Fort Collins, where local officials have limited how many roommates people can have if they are unrelated to one another.
Polis’ top priority, a land-use bill aimed at increasing housing density near transit stops, has passed the House but hasn’t made it through committee yet in the Senate — the more politically moderate chamber that torpedoed last year’s more expansive effort.
One sticking point that’s dividing House Bill 1313’s Democratic supporters involves whether to withhold state highway funding from local governments that don’t take steps to meet the administration’s housing goals.
“There’s still some tension with local governments. I anticipate that continues,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, told reporters this week. Nonetheless, she says she doesn’t envision a repeat of last year when negotiations fell apart at the end of the session.
“I think all of the land use bills are moving smoothly,” McCluskie said. “I don’t see us running into loggerheads this year.”
A competing land-use measure brought by Sens. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, and Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, remains alive as well. Senate Bill 174, which would encourage local governments to conduct housing needs assessments passed a preliminary vote Thursday in the Senate.
Other major housing bills still in limbo include:
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MORE: Lawmakers also have a lot of work to do on tax policy. A special legislative session in November ended with a pledge of future cuts and broader systemic reforms aimed at preventing a repeat of the large jump in property taxes Coloradans experienced this year.
Trouble is, there’s no money set aside in the budget to pay for what — at minimum — could result in huge cuts to K-12 schools, which the state is required to fund under the constitution.
Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, said the legislature may choose not to act.
“I think everybody, for the most part, acknowledges that we need to do something,” he said. “The question is: Is it going to be short-term again? Or are we going to try to broker some sort of deal that really does address the long-term issues underlying the property tax problem.”
Doing nothing presents other problems. If lawmakers don’t act, property taxes would go up Jan. 1, 2025, when the temporary tax cuts approved last year expire. In that scenario, voters may be more likely to approve deep property tax cuts placed on the November ballot by conservatives.
That’s not all. Lawmakers still must decide which of more than 200 bills will get funded this year using the dwindling pot of General Fund money remaining for legislation.
There are also major decisions to make about the state’s projected $2 billion revenue surplus under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Democrats want the state to tap the surplus to expand tax breaks for low-income families, seniors and renters. They’re also likely to look to the TABOR surplus to reimburse local governments and schools for property tax cuts.
Polis, meanwhile, has insisted on an income tax cut as the starting point for any negotiations on the TABOR surplus — an idea supported by Republicans, but opposed by many in his party, who view such a cut as providing unneeded tax relief to higher earners.
YOU HEARD IT HERE
Duran was responding to a question about her biggest concerns heading into the final weeks of the session. (There are 19 days left as of this morning — keep track using our handy countdown clock — and hundreds of bills still pending.)
The majority leader said she can’t control what happens in House committees, but once a measure makes it to the chamber floor it’s her responsibility to make sure the limited time is managed properly.
The House is expected to work Saturday, possibly Sunday, too.
Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, said he’s worried about the number of big-ticket items that remain unresolved, namely measures that would lower property taxes, are meant to boost affordable housing, and that would tighten regulations around ozone and air quality.
MORE: Fenberg said proposed ballot measures are complicating the end-of-session policy negotiations.
He said measures filed with the state’s Title Board “are increasingly used as a tool to influence the legislature.”
“If you look at the number of measures filed, it feels to me at least like it’s a bit excessive,” he said. “Individual people have filed a lot. Like Michael Fields has filed so many measures that run the gamut on different issues. The election reform effort led by Kent Thiry — I think they’re up to maybe 100 titles now.”
Fields leads the conservative political nonprofit Advance Colorado, which is behind a measure on the November ballot that would cap the annual growth of statewide property tax revenue. Thiry is the former CEO of the Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita.
Fenberg added that the wave of measures has “made things a little confusing in this final stretch of what we should be trying to solve, what we should be trying to find compromises on, or what we should be just saying, ‘well, that’s going to be up to the voters.’”
THE NARRATIVE
Dave Williams, Jeff Crank clash in their first CD5 forum
COLORADO SPRINGS — Jeff Crank and Dave Williams questioned each other’s Donald Trump bonafides and staked out public policy stances Thursday night as they faced off in their first forum in the Republican primary to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
The forum at the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center in Colorado Springs was focused mostly on defense and veteran’s issues. The 5th District, which is limited to El Paso County, includes about 80,000 veterans, making up 15% of the district’s population. It is also home to several military installations, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, Fort Carson and Buckley Air Force Base.
Wiliams is chairman of the Colorado GOP, and Crank is a conservative radio host and regional vice president for the national conservative political nonprofit Americans for Prosperity.
Crank touted his endorsements from House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers of Alabama, while Williams repeatedly highlighted his endorsement from Trump and his support of the former president’s reelection effort.
“If we want to help the military, the best thing we can do is reelect Donald Trump,” Williams said, calling himself “the America First candidate trusted by Donald Trump.”
Crank, however, said he, too, is a Trump supporter. “I’ve endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, in 2020 and I supported him and endorsed him and voted for him in 2024.”
In response to a question about Williams rejecting calls to resign as party chair while running for Congress, Crank said “it’s a conflict of interest.”
“What would Donald Trump do if he walked into a courtroom and the judge and the prosecutor were the same person?” he said. “The system’s rigged.”
Williams said calls for his resignation come from Americans for Prosperity and “weak Republicans that are bellyaching.” Americans for Prosperity’s super PAC spent about $173,000 through April 15 to support Crank in the 5th District primary, much of it on canvassing.
“In the weeks to come you’re gonna see a barrage of nasty campaign ads that are designed to try to trick you,” Williams predicted. “What you should be concerned about is who Donald Trump thinks is best equipped to help you succeed.”
The two differed when asked about working across the aisle to solve problems.
“I’m happy to work with them,” Williams said, with the caveat that he wants to work with Democrats who support Trump’s agenda. “What we need to do is start throwing the bums out of Congress that are working for outsider groups or dark money groups.”
Crank said he’d work with Democrats to achieve common goals, such as keeping the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado. Trump signed off moving the command to Alabama after losing the 2020 election, a move reversed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
“I look forward to working with every member of this delegation, whether they’re Democrat or Republican,” Crank said.
MORE: The 5th District is heavily Republican, and the winner of the June 25 Republican primary will be favored to win the general election. But two Democratic candidates — physics graduate student River Gassen and Army veteran Joe Reagan — along with unaffiliated candidate Katrina Nguyen and American Constitution Party candidate Christopher Mitchell also participated in the town hall Thursday.
KOAA-TV reporter Alasyn Zimmerman moderated the forum.
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
ABORTION: Abortion rights groups delivered more than 232,000 voter signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday morning to try to get a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion access in the state constitution. Abortion opponents, meanwhile, didn’t collect enough signatures to get Initiative 81, which would have outlawed abortion in the state, on the November ballot. The Colorado Life Initiative said volunteers collected “tens of thousands” of signatures but missed the deadline Thursday to turn in the roughly 125,000 signatures needed to get their measure on the ballot. Signatures for measures that would change the state constitution must include at least 2% of voters in each of Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts.
GUNS: House Bill 1292, which would ban the purchase, sale and transfer of a broad swath of semiautomatic firearms, defined in the measure as assault weapons, has been assigned to the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. The panel has a 3-2 Democratic majority, but one of those Democrats is state Sen. Tom Sullivan of Centennial, a fierce gun-regulation advocate but a skeptic of a so-called assault weapons ban in Colorado. “Banning? That doesn’t end well for us,” Sullivan, whose son was murdered in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, told The Washington Post last year. “And I’m speaking as the father of a son who was murdered by an assault weapon.”
COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: Michael Whitehorn, chief of staff for Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, is leaving his role after three and a half years. “It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve Secretary Jena Marie Griswold and to work alongside the amazing humans who do this work every day,” he posted on LinkedIn. “I have learned so much from my colleagues and friends in the agency, and the connections I’ve made outside the agency, and I am truly in awe of all of you.” Whitehorn said he’ll be announcing in a few weeks where he’s headed. In a statement, Griswold said Whitehorn “has done a great job and … I am excited to see his continued positive impact on Colorado.” The office is hiring for his replacement.
COLORADO GOP: The Colorado GOP’s monthly luncheon in April will feature several Republican candidates but not their primary opponents: Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, running in the 5th Congressional District; U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, running in the 4th District; former state Rep. Ron Hanks, running in the 3rd District; as well as Dagny Van Der Jagt, running to be the district attorney in the new 23rd Judicial District. All four are considered the most right-wing candidates in their respective Republican primaries June 25, and all three made the primary ballot through party nominating assemblies unlike most of their opponents, who petitioned onto the ballot. The luncheon’s lineup is the latest example of the state party picking favorites in the primaries.
LAUREN BOEBERT: Donald Trump Jr. will appear at a Colorado fundraiser Thursday benefiting U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Tickets for the event in Windsor, at a property owned by developer and Boebert supporter Martin Lind, begin at $250. Lind is the registered agent of an LLC that owns a Windsor office building from which then-U.S. Rep. Ken Buck said last year that he was being evicted because he refused to support Ohio Republican Jim Jordan’s bid to become House speaker.
STORY: U.S. House passes largest-ever package supporting outdoor recreation. One Colorado lawmaker was key.
THE DENVER POST: Gov. Jared Polis signs bill eliminating most occupancy limits in housing
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Former legislative aides lay out workplace concerns against state Senator
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Polis-backed plan to fix RTD’s “long list of broken promises” would dramatically change November election
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Colorado House members ready to vote on foreign aid for allies – including Israel and Ukraine
9NEWS: First Lady Jill Biden coming to Colorado this weekend
ELECTION 2024
More Republican candidates qualify for the 3rd Congressional District primary ballot
The list of candidates on the Republican primary ballot in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District continues to expand as the Secretary of State’s Office verifies more campaigns’ petition signatures.
Carbondale investor Russ Andrews and Durango’s Lew Webb, a retired businessman and hunting enthusiast, qualified for the ballot this week. Fruita resident Joe Granado is the final Republican candidate in the district waiting to hear if the signatures his campaign gathered were sufficient to make the ballot.
At least six Republicans will be on the 3rd District primary ballot in a race that determines who will face Democrat Adam Frisch (and the $5.8 million his campaign has in the bank) in November. Also on the ballot are Colorado Board of Education member Stephen Varela and former state Rep. Ron Hanks, who made the ballot via the district’s GOP nominating assembly. Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd and Delta County business owner Curtis McCrackin made the ballot by collecting petition signatures.
MORE: Three Republican candidates in the 4th Congressional District are awaiting word on whether the signatures they collected were sufficient: former congressional staffer Chris Phelen and businessmen Peter Yu and Floyd Trujillo.
You can find a list of candidates who are petitioning onto the ballot and the status of the review of their signatures here.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Corrections & Clarifications
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