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Want to get state lawmakers’ attention? All you need is a few million dollars and an idea big enough to shake up Colorado’s policy landscape.
The special legislative session on property taxes that ended Thursday was the product of two wealthy groups that shelled out large sums to collect enough voter signatures to get a pair of measures on the statewide ballot. Initiative 108 would have cut property taxes by an estimated $2.4 billion starting in the 2025 tax year, while Initiative 50 would have amended the state constitution to impose a 4% cap on future property tax revenue.
The threat of the measures’ possible effect on state and local finances — particularly K-12 schools and fire districts — was enough to force Gov. Jared Polis and the legislature to the negotiating table. Even though it was widely accepted that both initiatives faced unlikely odds of passing, Democrats weren’t willing to risk the long-shot chance they might succeed. The special session, and $255 million in tax cuts, ensured the measures would be removed from the ballot.
Ballot measures backed by wealthy interests prompted the governor and lawmakers to cut deals time and again this year. There were also big compromises reached on medical malpractice lawsuits and oil and gas policy to avoid costly ballot fights.
The Democratic majority in the legislature has had enough.
“I am a firm supporter of every citizen’s desire to bring forward an initiative,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, said Monday as the special session got underway. “I think we want to protect that right. But we have now seen, several times, where wealthy interest groups have been able to put something on the ballot for consideration that is then weaponized against the legislature. That has to end. We need to find a different approach.”
Some Democrats at the Capitol tried to find that new approach during the special session, by asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment strengthening local control over property taxes.
House Concurrent Resolution 1001, which passed the House 44-19, could have de-fanged future statewide ballot measures to limit or reduce property taxes by giving local voters a chance to veto them in their own jurisdictions. But Democrats abandoned the effort when it became clear it wouldn’t meet the two-thirds majority threshold needed to pass in the state Senate.
Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the measure, said it was “very appropriate to ask ourselves the long-term question” of whether local voters should be in control of their own property taxes. Under the measure, if a statewide ballot measure on property taxes passed, local voters would have had to approve it in their own jurisdictions for its provisions to take effect.
“I believe that’s the right question to put in front of the voters,” Hansen said, before asking the Senate Finance Committee to postpone the measure indefinitely. “However, it’s fairly clear that we don’t have a path forward in the Senate.”
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ARE LAWMAKERS INCENTIVIZING THIS STUFF?
Some Democrats at the Capitol argued that the wealthy groups and people influencing policy at the Capitol only have power because lawmakers have given it to them.
“We’re here doing this special session because a decision was made to negotiate with oligarchs,” Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat, said in a speech on the House floor.
State Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, argued that the governor’s office was forcing the deal on the legislature after negotiating with Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern, the two conservative nonprofits behind Initiatives 50 and 108.
“This floor needs to be respected,” she said, referring to the second level of the Capitol where the House and Senate chambers are located. The governor’s office is on the first floor. “We only work for the people. We may work with others, but we only work for the people. I don’t work for somebody who’s not on this floor — or even dare I say behind the glass. It is our job to make law.”
Polis rejected the idea that the legislature was incentivizing groups to use ballot measures as a tool of influence.
“They don’t need encouragement,” he told The Sun in an interview. “We have a robust citizen initiative process in our state.”
He said it’s a good thing when the legislature can avoid ballot measure fights and provide policy stability. Polis also rejected the idea that he was forcing a deal on the legislature.
“This effort was led by really strong legislative leaders,” he said.
Mark Ferrandino, a former state lawmaker who is the governor’s budget chief, called ballot measures a “tried and true method” of influencing the legislature. In 2006, when he was a state representative, that’s what happened during a debate over immigration.
Then-Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, called a special session after the Colorado Supreme Court rejected a citizen ballot initiative seeking to amend the state constitution to bar people in the country illegally from accessing government assistance programs. Owens wanted the legislature to refer the measure to the ballot and demanded that lawmakers either do that, or come up with a statutory alternative. The legislature went with the statutory option.
“This is not the first and it probably won’t be the last,” Ferrandino told lawmakers this week.
Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, defended the special session and said Democrats only agreed to it because the deal to get Initiatives 50 and 108 off the ballot was palatable.
“We would not be here if we felt that what we were given in return was irresponsible,” he said. “The citizen initiative process is there for a reason. It’s there to be a check and balance on the legislature. It’s there to bring up issues that may be popular but not politically expedient for us to be taking on and for people to tell us what they want to do in state law.”
But he said the process is “being exploited by special interests,” and that ballot measures are the worst way to make public policy because there is no negotiation or wiggle room for change.
“It is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on a set policy,” he said.
WHAT TO WATCH
4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Calvarese is out with a new campaign ad trolling Boebert over her ejection last year from a Denver performance of the musical “Beetlejuice.” In the 54-second spot, the Democrat needles the congresswoman to debate her on TV.
We haven’t seen Calvarese’s campaign buying TV air time, so the ad appears to be a viral play — that’s working. It marks a shift for Calvarese, who had mostly been talking about the issues.
Meanwhile, Calvarese and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet appear to have formed a joint fundraising committee. Bennet sent out a fundraising solicitation on their shared behalf.
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, has started buying TV ad time leading up to the November election, according to Federal Communications Commission reports. She will run ads on English- and Spanish-language channels. One of the ads she plans to run touts her bipartisanship.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Sheena Kadi, the former spokesperson for Colorado Treasurer Dave Young and former vice chair of public relations and marketing for the Colorado Democratic Party, formed “Fuck AIPAC,” a federal political action committee, earlier this month. AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
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THIS WEEK’S PODCAST: A bumpy special session on Colorado property taxes
THE NARRATIVE
What Eli Bremer has said about sports and transgender women
Eli Bremer, the former Olympian elected by opponents of Chairman Dave Williams to lead the Colorado GOP, has been an outspoken opponent of transgender people participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Democrats were swift to attack Bremer over his advocacy in that arena.
“At the end of the day, it simply doesn’t matter who the Colorado GOP chair is,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said. “Bremer and Williams are two sides of the same coin and both are 100% focused on dividing Coloradans with their unhealthy and strange anti-LGBTQ obsessions — not bringing people together.”
Bremer responded on social media, saying he simply supports “women’s rights in sports” and that Democrats should, too. He calls it a matter of fairness and upholding Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.
Here’s what Bremer has said and done on the topic:
Nevertheless, Bremer, in his appearance on 9News, said it was wrong for the Colorado GOP, under Williams leadership, to send a transphobic email about Republican state Sen. Cleave Simpson’s Democratic opponent, Vivian Smotherman, who is transgender. The email, derided by Simpson, repeatedly used male pronouns to refer to Smotherman and included a screenshot of a social media post from the far-right “Libs of TikTok” account saying Smotherman is “a man pretending to be a woman” and that “in Peru he would be considered mentally ill.”
“That communication never should have been sent,” Bremer said. “We will never send any communications into his district that are not fully coordinated and supported by him.”
Bremer said the email was wrong because of its contentand because Simpson wasn’t consulted before it was sent.
Keep in mind: LGBTQ groups and their allies say the conservative push to stop transgender people from participating in girls’ and women’s sports further ostracizes trans people and exacerbates stereotypes. And in addition to the Colorado GOP’s email about Smotherman, Williams has faced criticism for encouraging people to burn all Pride flags.
Analysis: While Bremer may be more moderate than Williams on LGBTQ issues, his stance on transgender people participating in girls’ and women’s sports will make it hard for him to distance himself from how the Colorado GOP has approached the topic.
A SATURDAY SHOWDOWN
Williams is not recognizing the election his opponents held last weekend to replace him with Bremer.
The Colorado GOP, under Williams, is holding a party central committee meeting of its own Saturday in Castle Rock. The agenda includes votes on bylaws amendments, as well as consideration of removal of the party’s elected officers, including Williams.
How that vote will go remains uncertain. Some of Williams’ opponents plan to skip the gathering because they feel showing up would validate it. It’s also Labor Day weekend and many members of the central committee likely have travel plans.
Williams said in an email to central committee members this week that he will be pursuing criminal charges for identity theft and fraud against whomever created a fake X post purporting to be from him and announcing his resignation.
“We wanted to warn you not to fall victim to these despicable agitators who will stoop so low and try to deceive you so they can advance their corrupt, never-Trump agenda,” Williams wrote.
Beyond the effort to remove him and Bremer’s claim that he’s the true leader of the Colorado GOP —a dispute likely headed to court or the Republican National Committee — Williams had a very busy week. He and his wife, Emily, welcomed their fourth child, a boy, into the world.
Analysis: Pay attention to the messaging from Williams and the Colorado GOP. He hasn’t been defending his tenure leading the party, but rather arguing that replacing him so close to the election would cause chaos. He may offer a more robust defense Saturday.
STORY: Republican opponents of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams vote to remove him, setting up showdown
THE BIGGER PICTURE
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