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Colorado Legislature 2024: Opportunities & Challenges
Each year, the Colorado Legislature comes with its own set of opportunities as well as unique challenges — and this year is no different.
A hundred legislators travel from across the state every year to convene for 120 days for Colorado’s General Session to pass new laws for the state of Colorado. Our legislators are divided into two bodies, the House and the Senate. Legislative 101 right? Well, in recent years, Democratic members of the House have been inching their way closer and closer to achieving supermajority, and this year is the closest they’ve been. Of the 65 members of the House, 49 Representatives are Democrats. This means they have achieved a supermajority, giving them the power to pass any bill without Republican support or participation.
Over in the Senate, with 35 total members, Democrats are only one seat shy of a supermajority, with 23 Democratic members.
With strong control of both chambers and a Democratic governor, one might assume that any bill the Democrats want to pass will be an easy success…right? Not quite.
Like its party members around the state, the blanket term “Democrat” in Colorado’s Legislature doesn’t quite encompass the dynamic body we have representing us this year. Within the Democratic caucus at the legislature, a few members sometimes identify as socialists, while many others hew to a pro-business moderate agenda.
This means that unlike in years past when Democrats were fighting Republicans to pass their political agenda, Democrats are challenging Democrats to get bills passed. Some say bills don’t go far enough, while others are concerned that some bills go too far.
With that, and a Governor who has a history of standing up to his own party, this year will require organizations like ours to cut through the noise to refocus our lawmakers on the strength of the good bills before them.
On the first day of session on January 10, lawmakers walked past crowds of people protesting the war in Gaza at the Capitol. This point of tension has not only continued outside the building but made its way inside the building as well. So much so that some legislators taking a position on the issue have found themselves in hot water when their actions were noted as going a step too far.
For example, during the Special Session at the end of last year, Representative Elisabeth Epps joined pro-Palestine protestors in the galley, shouting down at a fellow colleague as he discussed a potential amendment to a bill. Before returning to the Capitol for the General Session this year, House Speaker, and a Representative of Western Colorado, Rep. Julie McCluskie issued Rep. Epps a letter of reprimand, admonishing her for her conduct, with explicit expectations that the General Session move forward without similar interruption. A reminder that moments of tension like this can run high even for legislators when impassioned about an issue to which they feel deeply committed.
In addition to international conflict showing up at our legislature, looming before us is the 2024 Presidential Election, during which many of our state lawmakers will be up for re-election. This will undoubtedly lead to political posturing from both parties as they use the legislative session to make a statement of their values and priorities to their electorship back home.
Luckily, our legislators overall continue to exemplify that they serve with the mission to pass good legislation for all Coloradans. Our West Slope legislators are no exception, and much of the time, whether Democrat or Republican, our representatives work across the aisle to get things done.
At Western Colorado Alliance, we are feeling optimistic about the session, and are already faced with several opportunities to pass meaningful legislation. And this year, it will be our mission, as a non-partisan organization devoted to creating healthy, just, and self-reliant communities across Western Colorado, to help prioritize the bills that would have a lasting impact on our West Slope communities.
Let’s take a look at one of the bills we’re set to prioritize this year:
In late 2023, our Local Food and Agriculture committee and our Legislative team were approached and asked to support West Slope farmers and ranchers in passing the bill now designated as SB24-152. After in-depth discussion, we eagerly agreed and have been hard at work on it, both before and since it was introduced on February 7.
What will this bill do?
This bill would provide a tax incentive to Colorado food and beverage (F&B) businesses like restaurants and breweries, to purchase produce and animal products from local farms and ranches that are utilizing, or transitioning to, regenerative practices.
But what does this mean?
Right now, when confronted with purchasing decisions, most restaurant and beverage businesses must consider their bottom line before they can prioritize where their food is sourced from. This bill would help close the financial gap for businesses when deciding between purchasing from a corporate seller or a local producer by creating a tax incentive to offset the cost.
For our local producers, many of whom are already enrolled in programs that encourage regenerative agriculture practices, this could be huge. A tax incentive to stimulate demand from the F&B industry would help producers stabilize cash flow via systems like crop planning, which would increase profitability for existing producers and encourage new agrarians to enter the field.
So what is regenerative agriculture (RA)?
RA restores, retains, and creates Soil Organic Matter through methods such as holistic planned grazing, cover crops, low-to-no till, reducing/eliminating chemicals and synthetic fertilizers, and diversification. This in turn helps to boost Colorado’s resiliency and offsets the negative effects of climate change by sequestering carbon, retaining and building water resources, and creating more healthy local water cycles. As a result, Colorado’s vulnerability decreases in regard to wildfires, drought, erosion, and intense storms.
This bill incentivizes F&B businesses to shift their purchasing power towards local, regenerative food, and its passage would generate a ripple effect of positive benefits like:
- Supporting our local farmers and ranchers by creating a higher market demand and reliable income
- Providing better nutrition and health for Colorado residents who spend an average of 49% of their food budget eating and drinking out
- Building and protecting soil health, biodiversity, and the environment in Colorado
- Deepening community awareness and commitment around local food and creating strong business relationships within Colorado, both of which would keep more money in our home state
With all this in mind, it was a no-brainer to take on the bill to help make it a reality. But even with an exciting cohort of bipartisan sponsors, we stumbled into setback just a few days after the session began.
Senator Cleave Simpson (R) of Durango was set to introduce the bill, and we were well into our drafting phase when we became aware of a fairly new rule in the legislature that stipulates bills with a tax incentive must be introduced in the House, and not the Senate.
This was news not only to us but also to our Senate sponsors. Luckily, we already had a few House Representatives excited to carry this bill, and Representative Karen McCormick, Chair of the Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources committee took up the mantle.
This pivot means we’ll have to introduce the bill late after securing House Leadership permission to do so. Every year, each legislator is guaranteed five bills to introduce, and once their docket is full, permission is required to introduce any additional bills.
For us, this means we have a few extra hoops to jump through before the bill will be in front of the legislature. But by the time you are reading this, it’s possible the bill will already be introduced, and once it has made its way through the House, Senator Simpson and Senator Jeff Bridges (D) look forward to taking it across the finish line in the Senate.
While this is our biggest bill for the year (because it likely wouldn’t move forward without us), we’ve got our eye on plenty more bills that we look forward to supporting. Included in this list is a community solar co-op bill that will support net metering and allow folks to have larger arrays. Another bill would end tax exemptions on “stripper wells” (wells near the end of their useful life which produce very little oil or gas). This would have a large impact for residents in Garfield County since 70% of the county’s 12,000 wells are stripper wells. These bills, and others that focus on affordable housing, healthcare, water, public transportation, and more, are what we will be actively engaged on this year. And that makes our presence at the Capitol for the People’s Lobby Trip even more important.
This will be an exciting year. If you’ve been on the fence about joining in, this is a great year to do so. Reach out to me at jeriel@westerncoloradoalliance.org with any questions and to learn more about how to get involved!
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.