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Navigating the Capitol’s rapids
The Sneak Line.
For those of us who enjoy river sports, we know this term as the route you take on the river to avoid the turbulence of the rapids. For our legislative team at Western Colorado Alliance, this was the route we aimed for during the 2023 legislative season. Although it wasn’t without its bumps, our team was able to maneuver this session, and our legislative priorities, without an overboard. For Colorado politics in general, this wasn’t the case overall and the 2023 session ran with rapids all the way to the end.
In 2022, Democrats picked up more seats in both the state Senate and House. And with a Governor who mostly aligns with the majority party’s agenda, this means the Democrats had an easy path to push through their agenda for the most part.
Republicans were left with virtually no options to move their own party agenda forward, and few options to slow the Democrats. In protest, they utilized the filibuster throughout session, which allows lawmakers to debate a bill for as long as they can talk during the final vote on the chamber floor and prevents other bills from moving forward. This created a backlog of bills moving through the legislature, as all other voting processes were held up until each filibuster ended and final votes were cast.
The filibuster tactic was utilized often mid-session and focused on legislation around gun restriction and abortion protections. As a result, and in an even more unprecedented move, state Democrats invoked Rule 14 several times. That rule limits the length of time a bill can be debated. This turbulence in the legislature led to numerous late hours and long weekends — not uncommon, but far more prevalent this year than in the past.
Despite this, the year was successful in many ways for our Alliance’s goals. This year, our West Slope Youth Voice students traveled to the Capitol ahead of the rest of our members, with a focus on House Bill 23-1003: School Mental Health Assessment.
More Alliance members attended the Capitol a few weeks later with a focus on clean air and water, as well as affordable housing needs. And beyond our legislative committee and our lobby trips, members of our Alliance participated throughout the session by testifying on bills as they moved through committees.
Almost all of the bills we outlined as priorities this year passed, including HB23-1011: Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment, which will make it easier and more cost-effective for local farmers and ranchers to repair their farm equipment. SB23-006: Rural Opportunity Office also passed, which will help rural communities better access resources for economic transitions and growth and development opportunities. And HB23-1257: Mobile Home Park Quality, which increases state revenue to create multiple programs to address water quality needs in mobile home parks, was successful.
While it was certainly a focus at the legislature, not all affordable housing bills survived, including a bill to repeal the prohibition on local residential rent control, which Polis’s office opposed, and Gov Polis’s own flagship affordable housing bill, SB23-213: Land Use, which would have required local governments to adopt higher density codes and requirements in line with state. Affordable housing remains a clear need to address in the state legislature and will surely be back again in the next year, hopefully with more alignment in vision.
Where Western Colorado Alliance hit rapids was with the environmental bills at the forefront of our work this year. While none failed, serious concessions were made to push them through. SB23-016 the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Measures, HB23-1242: Water Conservation in Oil & Gas Operations, and HB23-1294: Pollution Protection Measures all passed. House Bill 23-1294 barely squeaked through and was a mere skeleton of the original intent of the bill. Originally, it would have tightened air-quality permitting procedures, but it was eventually pared down to form an interim legislative committee to study the issue, with restrictions that the committee couldn’t directly introduce legislation next session. While disappointing, our Oil & Gas committee members who worked on the bill agree that even though it’s just bones, the bones are good.
The fate of HB23-1294, along with several other bills our Alliance tracked this year, was undetermined up until the last hours of the 120-day session before lawmakers adjourned at 10 pm on May 8.
With hours to go, the turbulence of the session continued to the last moments as Republicans staged a walk-out in protest of SB23-303: Reduce Property Taxes & Voter Approved Revenue Change. With all Republicans missing from the House chambers during the vote, the bill still easily passed and will refer a
measure to the ballot in November that seeks to approve a plan that would reduce property taxes over ten years and allow the state to retain more tax revenue to pay for the plan.
Despite all House members being up for re-election in the fall, the Democratic majority is expected to hold, which begs the question: Will the waters of this session become the new status quo? With much work to do in between, we’ll find out next year.
So if at the end of this, you’re picturing a strong-boned skeleton rafting the sneak line on the river past
the capsizing boats on the rapids, then hopefully I’ve done my job of painting this year’s legislative sessions picture for you!
Jeriel joined the Western Colorado Alliance staff in February 2017 (back when we were still Western Colorado Congress), but you may remember her as our Canvass Director for the successful Minimum Wage ballot initiative in 2016! In her young career, Jeriel has worked with engaged citizens across Colorado on issues ranging from veterans' affairs, healthcare and women’s rights. Jeriel has called Grand Junction and the Western Slope home for 16 years, and enjoys running, hiking, biking and crafting with her daughter Emma.