As the 2021 legislative session was coming up, our Alliance’s committees were preparing to support three hefty bills, each very different in topic. Generally, while our legislative committee tracks and takes positions on numerous bills, we identify just one or two on which to prioritize our efforts throughout the session. This year, as the realization dawned on us that we would have at least three priority bills, we strapped in and prepared for a sleepless session. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Local Food & Ag team, our Clean Energy team, our Legislative team, and members like you who have taken actions with each email we’ve sent — ALL THREE OF THOSE BILLS HAVE PASSED THE LEGISLATURE AND ARE SLATED TO BECOME LAW.

HB21-1119: Suicide Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention

Several years ago, a few students stood up among a sea of adults during a regularly scheduled school board meeting in School District 51, and they took the mic. The school board was discussing concern regarding the high rates of youth suicide in the valley and across the West Slope, and were asking what could be done, and how the school district could contribute. When these students took the mic, they said something profound: “Include students in these conversations, lean on us to help us support our peers, and ask us what we do to cope and what helps keep us alive.” The term “postvention” is almost unheard of as a necessary tool for use in suicide prevention efforts. But as a result of these students, West Slope Youth Vote students who came after them, and a legislative committee member who showed up week after week to drive the importance of this work into the narrative, Colorado has just stepped up as a leader across the nation by recognizing postvention work as an imperative for suicide prevention across Colorado. The sum of this work finally came to a head yesterday as Governor Polis signed HB21-1119 into law with several of our students and committee members watching history be made. We want to express a huge thanks to Representative Janice Rich who championed this bill with us, along with Senator Kerry Donovan, Senator Don Coram, and Representative Lindsey Daugherty.

HB21-1131, the Cooperative Electric Associations Governance Requirements, and SB21-079, the Animal Shares Act, also passed the legislature and were sent to the Governor earlier this week. The former will tackle a number of Tri-State and REC (Rural Electric Co-op) reform priorities, including ending Tri-State’s practice of requiring board members to vote exclusively in Tri-State’s best interests instead of the best interests of their own communities. Among a variety of other things, this bill would also enable co-ops to conduct electronic voting for board of director elections, to make the democratic process of REC’s more accessible to voters on the West Slope and around Colorado. Thanks to the four bills sponsors who carried this bill including West Slope Representative Marc Catlin and Senator Don Coram. SB21-079 is a win for local ranchers and local meat consumers and will open up local meat sales from ranchers in our community directly to consumers. So if you like to buy your produce locally through a CSA and are excited for opportunities to do the same thing with your meat, you now have that opportunity. For our ranchers, this means better market access to consumers looking for select cuts of meat, higher compensation for their product, and shorter wait times for processing. These are all issues which have been highlighted during the pandemic and which have strained our local ranching community.

We’ve still got a ways to go in the session, and on several big bills that have risen to the top of our list, but at least for this weekend, we want to kick up our feet and appreciate these cool wins. Thanks to all of you who helped us communicate with legislators. Give yourself a pat on the back and hang in there with us as we move forward to tackle some more great bills!