Call them the ballot measures Democrats in the legislature and Gov. Jared Polis couldn’t — or at least chose not to try to — stop.
Initiatives 283 and 284 are backed by the rental car industry and seek, respectively, to require voter approval for all new fees and that fees assessed to raise money for mass transportation be approved by voters. Both changes would be made in the constitution, though Initiative 283 would go a step further and place fees under the umbrella of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
While it would take millions of dollars to collect enough signatures to get even one of the two initiatives on the November ballot — it’s unlikely the industry would pursue both — Democrats are now taking them seriously as they pass bills imposing new fees on oil and gas (Senate Bill 230) and rental cars (Senate Bill 184) to raise money for transit projects.
“We think it would be reckless and devastating for our state if those (ballot) measures passed,” Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, told The Unaffiliated. “We don’t want to allow a special interest group to use their opposition to our policy to bankrupt the state.”
Democrats and the governor’s office added an insurance policy in Senate Bill 230 in the form of a clause that seeks to define “mass transportation” in statute to derail the effects of the initiatives.
The definition would explicitly not include “roads, highways, bridges and any other surface transportation infrastructure on which motor vehicles operate, including infrastructure on which motor vehicles operate that has mass transportation components or benefits mass transportation ridership, including dedicated bus lanes that operate on highways, rail lines that operate within a highway right-of-way, and parking structures within a highway right-of-way that serve mass transit riders.”
The proponents of the bill say the clause will protect the new fees on rental cars and on oil and gas produced in Colorado, as well as the transportation fees enacted through Democrats’ passage of Senate Bill 260 in 2021.
Senate Bill 230 passed the House on Monday and was sent to the governor’s desk to become law.
What the rental car industry has to say: “We have taken this step simply because the elected officials of Colorado, in the legislature and in the governor’s mansion, simply have ignored what we consider to be the very strong arguments ACRA has put forward against the current rental fee that’s being proposed,” said Gregory Scott, a spokesperson for the American Car Rental Association, told Colorado Public radio.
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Lawmakers want more rental car fees. The industry could wreck state finances in return.
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THE BALLOT MEASURES DEMS, POLIS NEUTRALIZED
Democrats have been able to head off pretty much every other major November ballot fight that was looming. The highlights:
Then there are Initiatives 50 and 108, which, respectively, would cap the annual statewide increase in property tax revenue at 4% and take a chainsaw to the state’s property tax assessment rates.
Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit, is behind the measures. It has the support of Colorado Concern, a nonprofit representing CEOs in the state.
Colorado Concern was negotiating with the governor’s office and Democrats and Republicans in the legislature on a deal to pull their support in exchange for a bill offering property tax relief. Colorado Concern appeared to be on board with the legislation — then on Monday suddenly wasn’t.
Discussions remain ongoing — and so do Initiatives 50 and 108 in the meantime.
STORY: Colorado lawmakers reach last-minute bipartisan property tax deal that averts cuts to K-12 funding
A HAPPY GOVERNOR
The governor’s office is celebrating the agreements, even though nothing will be finalized until all of the relevant measures pass and the clock strikes midnight Wednesday.
“You get a deal. You get a deal. You get a deal,” Alec Garnett, the governor’s chief of staff, joked with a reporter after the news conference Monday during which the property tax measure was announced.
WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK
DON’T MISS: Join The Sun on May 15 at the University of Denver for a free, in-person event recapping the 2024 legislative session. Gov. Jared Polis will be interviewed live, followed by state lawmakers. Find details and RSVP here. Thank you to our sponsor, Aponte and Busam Public Affairs Consultants.
GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK
There were 705 bills introduced in Colorado’s legislature this year, including one on Monday, the last possible day for introduction.
That’s 91 more bills than were debated at the Capitol last year, and it’s the second highest number of bills introduced in a legislative session since 2013.
In 2018, 721 bills were introduced.
House members introduced 472 bills debated in the legislature this year, although many of them dealt with the budget.
As of Monday morning, 236 bills were still pending. On the other hand, 470 bills had made their way through the lawmaking process, including 111 that died. Gov. Jared Polis had signed 185 bills into law through midday Monday.
THE BIG STORY
As Colorado lawmakers tout tax cuts, a future budget pinch looms
Late last year, when the Joint Budget Committee got its first look at Gov. Jared Polis’ budget proposal, lawmakers in both parties denounced the plan as fiscally irresponsible, saying it relied too much on one-time money to cover ongoing operational expenses.
“They’re leading us into a structural deficit,” Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican who sits on the JBC, complained at one meeting in December.
But in March, the JBC caved. Facing revenue forecasts that showed a $170 million shortfall, the budget-writing panel adopted many of the governor’s balancing proposals they had previously criticized to avoid deeper cuts to their top priorities: health care, K-12 and higher education.
The maneuvers balanced the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which starts July 1. But the JBC was right to be worried. The combination of short-term financial fixes and a steady expansion of public services have left the state in its most precarious financial position since the onset of the pandemic.
As it stands today, Colorado would face a $380 million budget deficit in the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to a JBC staff memo — and that’s without cutting taxes, as top lawmakers have proposed.
The last time the state faced a looming shortfall this soon after adopting a budget was in May 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the economy and lawmakers were bracing for a recession.
But outside a once-in-a-generation emergency? The state almost always has room to grow in the year after it budgets for.
A Sun review of JBC staff documents found that the state faced a second year deficit following the adoption of the budget only one other time in the past decade — March 2015, when JBC staff predicted a $125 million shortfall. In all other years, budget analysts anticipated lawmakers would be able to add anywhere from $200 million to $1 billion in spending in the following year.
There are a number of reasons for the budget crunch. But the bottom line is that lawmakers used $458 million in one-time funding to cover general fund expenses in the 2024-25 budget plan, much of it leftover federal stimulus dollars.
Trouble is, there’s only $50 million in one-time spending, the memo says; the rest of the money is being used for ongoing state operations that are slated to continue after the money runs out.
“The request from the executive branch, had really kind of gone into the couch cushions for a fair amount of one-time funding,” JBC Director Craig Harper told lawmakers last week. “This will have repercussions for 25-26.”
It’s not worth panicking just yet.
Revenue forecasts can fluctuate by hundreds of millions of dollars over just a few months — let alone an entire year, which is how long the JBC has to prepare its next budget legislation.
Spending forecasts change, too. The bulk of the state’s budget is spent on programs like K-12, Medicaid and Corrections, that rely on estimated guesses of how many people will enroll or be imprisoned in a given year.
The General Assembly could dig itself into an even deeper hole before the session’s over. A proposed property tax calls for dipping heavily into the State Education Fund and reducing the state’s reserves by $20 million — for now — leaving less money in the bank if the economy takes an unexpected downturn.
WHY “FOR NOW”?
While the property tax relief measure, Senate Bill 33, as introduced calls for about $20 million in local government reimbursements to come out of the reserve, lawmakers are committed to finding that money elsewhere.
Kirkmeyer, a lead sponsor of the measure, said she was working with Mark Ferrandino, director of the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, to find the money in the “couch cushions.”
“We’re going to go through everything to make this work,” she said at a news conference.
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
ELECTION 2024
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn endorsed conservative commentator Jeff Crank on Monday in the Republican primary in the 5th Congressional District. Crank is running against Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams in the June 25 contest. “The good people of El Paso County have put their trust in me for nearly two decades to represent them in our nation’s capital, and for that I’m grateful,” Lamborn said in a written statement. “I’ve been watching the campaign to succeed me in Congress. It’s clear that our community would be better served with Jeff in Congress.” Lamborn added that “it is vital that we elect a U.S. representative with credibility.” Lamborn beat Williams in the 2022 GOP primary in the 5th District. He also beat Crank in the Republican primaries in the district in 2006 and 2008.
COLORADO GOP
Former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, who is still influential in conservative circles, came out against the Colorado GOP’s plans to endorse candidates in primary contests, calling it “not a good idea.” He said a questionnaire being circulated by the party to help it make endorsements contains inappropriate questions geared toward helping Chairman Dave Williams in his congressional campaign. “This questionnaire is creating significant divisions and unrest within Colorado Republican activist ranks and the chairman of the party should not be using the state party organization to engage in such a thinly veiled swipe at his congressional primary opponent,” Lundberg wrote in his “Lundberg Report” newsletter. He said he’d reached out to Republican leaders but never heard back.
RINO WATCH
Conservative podcaster Julie Hayden and conservative activist Mark Hampton revealed themselves Friday as the operators of RINO Watch, the website bashing Republicans seen as not conservative enough. The announcement came on conservative commentator Mandy Connell’s KOA radio show. The conversation devolved into an argument between Connell and Hayden over the future of the Colorado GOP. “You guys have created a little cabal that you are deciding who’s Republican enough, and who’s not,” Connell said. Hayden said the website “is a collective of grassroots people who said ‘we don’t have a voice and we need a voice.’”
JOHNSON ENDORSES LOPEZ
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, last week endorsed former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez in the 4th Congressional District special election. “Greg Lopez is a veteran, small business owner, and a strong voice to represent Colorado’s 4th District,” Johnson said in a written statement. “I look forward to working with Greg Lopez in Congress, and I’m proud to give him my full and total endorsement.” Lopez, a Republican, faces Democrat Trisha Calvarese in the June 25 contest that will decide who serves out the rest of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term. Buck, R-Windsor, resigned March 22 and the 4th District hasn’t been represented in Congress since.
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Corrections & Clarifications
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