Newsletter for March 1

If this is your first newsletter welcome, we were finally able to include the people who had signed up to the House District 37 email list.

Highlights of My Week at the Capitol

This week marked a significant milestone in advancing the legislative agenda I am championing this session, introducing two new bills:

HB24-1328(Sunset Continue Money Transmitter Regulation): The Sunset bill is a routine "Department" Bill that I was asked to sponsor as part of committee work, and deals with how we regulate services like Paypal, Venmo, Zelle, etc., and HB24-1324 (Attorney General Restrictive Employment Agreements): I called this the TRAP Bill (Training Repayment Agreements that become "traps" for workers in certain industries). Many industries use training repayment agreements and offer certain educational courses paid for by an employer, with some agreement to repay (either through working a period of time or paying over time) and with agreements for how to pay if you leave an employer. By and large, these are accepted practices for businesses, however, we have started seeing similar agreements used in industries where they may not be useful for anything other than forcing an employee to remain employed with their current employer unless you are willing to "pay up" when you leave. For example, if a pet store trains an employee to groom animals, pays the employee minimum wage, sets their hours, etc., and that employee leaves - should it cost that employee $5,000 for a "dog grooming academy" - and collect this by reporting the employee to the credit bureaus as a bad debt? After researching the expansive use of these agreements, I was able to find a number of areas where this type of agreement is predatory. This bill directs the Attorney General's office to monitor and regulate how these agreements are used, and gives them the power to go after employers who use these agreements in bad faith.

The House sent to the Governor SB24-051 transfers the authority to establish minimum graduation requirements for a high school diploma from community colleges and local district colleges to the state board of community colleges and occupational education and local district college boards of trustees. Additionally, it allows the Department of Education to carry forward unspent funds allocated for the adult education and literacy grant program from the 2023-24 and 2024-25 state fiscal years until the 2028-29 fiscal year, after which any remaining funds revert to the general fund. 

In the Business Affairs & Labor committee, I heard testimony and voted to pass HB24-1157. This bill aims to formalize the Employee Ownership Office to assist small businesses transitioning to employee ownership. The legislation aims to reduce barriers and support our local economy. It would offer tax credits for qualifying costs, encouraging businesses to remain locally owned. This tax credit would cover 50 percent of qualifying costs, granting up to $50,000 a year in savings. We are continuing to build on previous efforts to promote employee ownership in Colorado.

Let's Talk about Housing

In order to address affordable housing in HD37, we must first understand inventory; over the next few newsletters, I will address nuances of many variations of "housing units" that range from single-family homes and neighborhoods to high-rise apartment buildings as we see in several areas of our district. I'll talk about the importance of each of these as a part of comprehensive housing plans and how they impact pricing. What you'll see me focus most intently on will be dense housing such as condos and apartments.

HD37 is a popular area - My talking points around the Capitol have been “If we build it…they will come,” the idea is that if we increase inventory, prices will go down - I don't believe this at all. What this fails to address is that our district is unique in that current demand overshadows the number of housing units we could possibly build in the next 10 years. To tackle these issues head-on, my efforts are concentrated on initiatives that set the stage for aspects of high-density housing regulation that favors “for sale” housing units being built in our district. By prioritizing solutions for these challenges, we aim to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable and equitable housing market that serves the need of our area. This is why you'll hear me everywhere I go talk about the importance of how we manage this growth. I am firmly committed that filling up our available land with rentable housing (apartments) will not create affordable options and will permanently impact our current situation where we have no affordable home options for “new” buyers or housing for people wishing to downsize.

This is not just a concern for how our communities will change. We will see more population growth, and it's not likely that we will be able to just "direct" those people further north or south - the writing on the wall is that we will see an increase in housing density.

We need a plan for how to manage inevitable growth, we needed one years ago apparently. Now, we are going to have to adjust rather quickly to todays reality. Next week in my newsletter I will outline my legislative housing priorities for the next three years.

Bills That I Have Nonstop Attention On

HOUSING - This week I spent a lot of time reaching out to HOAs and Civic Associations about housing bills coming through this session. Housing is my priority this session but it is not something that can be solved overnight, so I am working on a multiyear plan to address legislation that supports long term, responsible growth. I am working with leaders of our community so that I can make sure to represent the best interests of Centennial, Greenwood Village, and Arapahoe County while also introducing the option of a starter home in our community.

AIRPORTS - Rep. Kyle Brown and I are working together to address issues related to noise and environmental concerns. HB24-1235 is scheduled to be heard by the Transportation, Housing, and Local Government Committee on March 6. This bill aims to protect our community from lead in aviation fuel airports develop a strategy to phase out the utilization of leaded fuel while also increasing financial support for infrastructure aimed at facilitating the availability of unleaded fuel. We are also aiming to increase communication between public health and aviation leaders by working with the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) expanding the resources to educate and support airports throughout their transition to unleaded aviation gasoline.

TRAP- The bill on Training Repayment Agreement Programs has been introduced in the house and assigned to the Business Affairs and Labor Committee. HB24-1324 has received the title of Attorney General Restrictive Employment Agreements. These agreements in question are typically used for higher-skilled professions; medical careers, lawyers, engineers, pilots, etc., and typically involve a payment plan or period of time to work with an employer to satisfy repayment for training that is paid for by an employer. Existing legislation permits employers to recoup the costs associated with educating and training employees, provided the training differs from standard on-the-job instruction. The proposed bill standardizes the process for recovering these expenses, treating them similarly to other forms of consumer and student debt.
 

State Employee Deductions Bill -This week saw significant progress on this bill. We have put together our fact sheet for this bill, marking an important first step in getting this bill seen in front of the Committee. I am looking to expand the available options for state employees to receive non-healthcare-related deductions.

This week most of our time was focused on the bills above, and we continue to have good conversations. We are making progress on all of our bills and for those of you who did not read last week's letter please read what was said on the following two bills.

DOLA- Moving forward with our bill that works to create a resource for Coloradans to go to with questions or advice on ADA requirements. We did a lot of work According to the CDC 20% of Coloradans live with a disability.  Coloradans with disabilities represent a large portion of Colorado's economy and spending power. Right now there is no resource for businesses to go to with questions or advice on ADA requirements.  This bill would allow the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to act as a resource to collect and share information with all businesses looking to increase their accessibility to customers with disabilities.

JYACAP- For youths who are tried and convicted as adults in our state, the path to freedom is notoriously difficult.  This bill hopes to reduce a very serious bottleneck in our system by removing the need for the governor's signature from parole board decisions. This measure was originally put in place when there were doubts about how Juvenile Parole would function and is no longer necessary - the change streamlines the process. Even the Governor thinks that Juvenile Parole can be managed without his personal oversight.

Reflections on Housing from Last Week

If you didn't see last week's newsletter here is a really important piece on my ideas of housing. If you did read last week's feel free to skip to the next section.

Due to the unique housing issues that face our district, ie. terms like transportation corridor, protecting the make-up of our communities, and dealing with our inability to have dense, purchasable housing built in house District 37 - I am primarily focused on a multi-year approach for how to bring back a condominium marketplace. Housing is a complex issue statewide, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will work for our district and satisfy some intentions from our region. I am engaged with Arapahoe County, and the municipal governments of Centennial and Greenwood Village to balance, identify, and address legislative priorities as well as educate all parties about our unique concerns.

What the region needs: dense affordable housing. The region is eying "the transportation corridor" (the area around I-25 and the light rail station) as an opportunity to build dense housing. There are inherently a number of problems with this plan, the largest of which completely changes the face of our communities by building thousands of apartment units and not addressing the need for purchasable housing. In the Capitol, almost anyone you talk to has their own idea about housing and there are a number of bills that seek to make changes about how we house people, many of which are tone-deaf to the fundamental need for purchasable housing in our area or our communities wishes for what housing should be built and where.

Any progressive housing policy that we pass will ultimately be ineffective if we don't deal with purchasable inventory. The problem is, due to unintended consequences of legislation passed in 2001 and 2010, there is no building marketplace or competitive insurance available for the development of high-density purchasable housing such as condos. There is no magic wand, one-year legislative fix to this problem. To address this, we must take a multi-year engaging focus addressing several areas of legislation. This year for me, step one is dealing with how we resolve construction defects.

Town Halls

Community Engagement

For years our public schools have been underfunded because of the Budget Stabilization Factor, which has hit our underserved & low-income communities the hardest. This year, we’re eliminating the BS Factor & supporting our schools!

(Hey, look! We funded education to the 1989 standard!)

The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) brought in unique experiences and vibrant celebrations as they visited the Capitol. On Wednesday we got a visit from some wild creatures! My legislative aide Chris almost got eaten whole by a T-Rex. The SCFD is an amazing group that we have in the Denver area, their one aim is to enrich our lives with great experiences.

In the News

Take a look at some curated news clippings from this week

Denver 7 // 2.20.24 Colorado accepting applications for first round of temporary rental assistance

Colorado Newsline (Opinion) // 2.19.24 Let Colorado work to lower drug prices and help patients, including those with rare diseases

CBS // 2.23.24 Dozens gather at state Capitol in support of legislation focused on supporting LGBTQ+ community

Denver 7 // 2.22.24 Colorado lawmakers introduce new set of air quality bills

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