A for-rent sign hangs in the foyer of an apartment building in Denver’s Alamo Placita neighborhood on Dec. 6. (Eric Lubbers, The Colorado Sun)
The state’s mad dash to spend American Rescue Plan Act dollars before the end of the year has reignited a fight over $8 million in rental assistance funds the Polis administration never spent.
The General Assembly approved the rental assistance money in 2023, with the stipulation that it be spent this budget year, which ends June 30. But in November, Gov. Jared Polis proposed redirecting the federal funds to a migrant support program — drawing a rebuke from the Joint Budget Committee.
In budget amendments offered this month, the administration changed course, offering to use the money for rental assistance — but still not in the way lawmakers intended.
Under the administration’s proposal, the $8 million would be used to pay for part of the $30 million in rental assistance funding lawmakers approved during the 2023 special legislative session. That would leave the state spending $30 million total this budget year, rather than the $38 million lawmakers approved to help renters facing eviction.
“To just choose not to spend the money that this legislature has said over and over in multiple bills should be going out to help renters — to just say we’re not going to do it is extraordinarily disappointing and upsetting,” state Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village said last week at a JBC meeting.
The back-and-forth over $8 million in rental assistance represents a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.5 billion in ARPA money lawmakers must spend soon or return to the U.S. Treasury. But it has left budget writers wary of how the administration plans to handle an upcoming rewrite of the state’s remaining ARPA budget.
As we first reported in Friday’s newsletter, nonpartisan budget staff last week briefed the JBC on a wide-ranging proposal from the administration to swap out the funding sources for over 36 state programs in order to meet new federal guidelines on ARPA spending.
There’s broad agreement between budget writers and the administration on the basics. To commit $1.5 billion in federal funding ahead of a 2024 deadline, the state would use ARPA funding for general government expenses like payroll. The state tax dollars saved would then be redirected to the ARPA-funded programs that lawmakers previously approved.
So far, Polis has proposed nearly $400 million worth of changes to ARPA spending, according to a JBC briefing, with more in the works.
But not all of the ARPA spending would be restored with state funding under Polis’ plan. Instead, the administration has proposed cutting more than $50 million from programs the legislature previously approved, including the $8 million in rental assistance payments.
The rental assistance spat has left budget writers feeling “impotent,” said Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat on the JBC. And they’re looking for legal options to force the administration to spend money as directed.
“We spent three sessions deciding how to spend all of this money,” Sirota said at last week’s briefing. “There was a tremendous amount of work put in by all of our colleagues and communities to figure out how to spend this money.”
Generally, lawmakers set the budget and appropriate funding, but the dollar amounts they set are considered the ceiling that the state can spend, not the floor.
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CORRECTION: An item in Friday’s edition misreported how many proposed ballot measures that would overhaul the state’s election system would be considered by the state’s Title Board and when. The 19 measures went before the board Thursday. The panel advanced 12. The Title Board also amended a measure it had previously advanced. See a chart of the status and features of each proposal.
MORE: Department of Local Affairs officials in December told The Colorado Sun there was a good reason they never spent the $8 million: They didn’t need it.
After the bill setting aside the money was signed into law in March 2023, the federal government unexpectedly gave Colorado $26 million more to help renters facing eviction, according to a department spokesperson.
“The $8 million was intended to provide gap coverage for the Department of Local Affairs,” Chynna Cowart, the DOLA spokesperson, wrote in an email. “The Emergency Rental Assistance Program can continue operating under the present criteria until July 2024 thanks to reallocations from local jurisdictions and the U.S. Treasury.”
Lawmakers, though, insist there’s plenty of unmet demand for help at a time of record evictions. But DOLA’s rental assistance portal has been closed to new applicants for over a year.
When asked Monday why the portal was not accepting new applicants, Cowart did not answer directly.
“DOLA is utilizing additional federal funding for rental assistance,” she wrote in a statement. “The Emergency Rental Assistance program was designed to be a pandemic relief program, and though winding down, currently serves eligible households.”
DOLA’s website says it expects to begin accepting applications for the new $30 million rental assistance program in February.
“‘He’s a known commodity as a leader — and that’s really really important.”
— State Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, on why he voted to retain House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, R-Wellington
Soper was one of the nine House Republicans — including Lynch — who voted to keep Lynch as the 19-member caucus’s leader after it was revealed last week that he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in 2022.
A vote of no confidence, in which Lynch would have been ousted as leader, failed on a 9-9 tie, with Rep. Stephanie Luck, R-Penrose, absent because she recently had a baby. The vote was taken by secret ballot against the wishes of some in the caucus. Soper disclosed his vote to The Sun when asked.
Soper said his decision to back Lynch was also grounded in his criminal justice reform work.
“He has paid his debt to society from his DWAI,” he said, referencing Lynch’s guilty plea to the charge of driving while ability impaired. “I actually see him as being a far better leader right now than when we used to occasionally have a whiskey during his first term. He’s focused. He’s someone who has the best interest of the caucus.”
STORY: “Keep the press out of this”: Police release footage of Colorado Republican leader’s 2022 DUI arrest
Governor kicks his designee off State Board of Equalization following its Douglas County property tax decision
Bernie Buescher, left, speaks at a news conference in December 2008 during which then-Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter named him as the new Colorado secretary of state. (AP Photo/Rocky Mountain News, Dennis Schroeder)
Jared Polis last week removed and replaced his designee to the State Board of Equalization, which last month, to the governor’s frustration, unanimously rejected Douglas County’s creative attempt to offer a $28 million property tax break to homeowners by making an across-the-board reduction in previously determined home values.
The governor removed former Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, a Democrat, from the board and replaced him with Richard Sokol, an Englewood Republican, who sits on the board for South Metro Fire Rescue.
Polis’ swap sends a clear message about his dislike for the board’s ruling — and could have a chilling effect on his other appointees — but it also hands Republicans a 3-2 majority on the panel, which reviews local property tax decisions.
In a written statement, Shelby Wieman, a spokeswoman for the governor, said “Polis thanks Mr. Buescher for his service to Colorado and is grateful to Mr. Sokol for stepping into the role.”
Buescher, in an interview with The Sun, said Polis informed him that he was being taken off the committee in a recent phone call.
“He did not give me what I would call a specific reason for kicking me off the commission,” Buescher said.
But the longtime Democrat said he was “sure” his vote to block Douglas County’s property tax relief plan had something to do with it.
Polis said in a written statement to The Denver Post that he was “very disappointed” in the State Board of Equalization’s move. “While Douglas County’s approach isn’t a long-term solution, it did provide relief this year,” the governor told the newspaper.
Polis appointed two others on the five-person board: former Adams County Commissioner Marty Flaum of Westminster and former Mesa County Assessor Barbara Brewer of Grand Junction. They are both Republicans who were appointed on Sept. 3, 2021, for terms ending Sept. 2, 2025, and their appointments were confirmed by the Colorado Senate.
Wieman said the governor hasn’t considered replacing Flaum and Brewer, noting their set terms on the board.
Buescher, as Polis’ designee on the board, wasn’t confirmed by the Senate to his role. He was serving at the governor’s pleasure, with no set term. Sokol, as a result, is now serving on the board indefinitely.
The two other members of the board are state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who is serving as the designee of Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder. House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, is the fifth member of the board after recently removing state Rep. Bob Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch, as her designee.
Buescher, a former state lawmaker who is recently retired from working as a lawyer in private practice, doesn’t seem all that miffed about being removed from the commission.
“I’ve got four other nonprofit boards that I’m on,” he said. “I’ve got plenty to do for an old retired guy.”
Buescher added that he thinks the State Board of Equalization acted within the bounds of the law and state constitution in blocking Douglas County’s property tax relief plan. The county is suing to try to overturn the ruling.
The State Board of Equalization is next scheduled to meet remotely on Friday. You can view its agenda here.
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TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Former state Rep. Justin Everett has been named the Colorado state director for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. “Hiring Justin demonstrates that the Trump campaign understands the importance of the grassroots and ground game necessary to win in Colorado,” Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams wrote in an email announcing the hire. Everett was previously a prominent Trump foe. In 2016, Everett briefly walked off the floor of the Republican National Convention that year in an anti-Trump protest.
ELECTION 2024: Republican Bill Jack is running to represent Colorado House District 45 in Douglas County. It’s currently represented by Rep. Lisa Frizell, R-Castle Rock, who beat Jack in the 2022 GOP primary in the district. Jack describes himself as a “Biblical worldview trainer.” “He has spent his life raising his family, defending the faith and promoting a Christian worldview,” Jack says on his website. Jack faces Castle Rock Town Councilman Max Brooks in the Republican primary for the district.
STORY: Colorado considers allowing sales of raw milk in latest “food freedom” legislation
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: How Colorado voters are reacting to Lauren Boebert’s congressional district swap
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Maine’s top election official appeals ruling that delayed decision on Trump’s ballot status until Colorado case is resolved
KUNC: Colorado lawmakers’ legal defense of secret ballot system cost at least $54,000
COLORADO POLITICS: John Walsh raises $183K, Leora Joseph collects $88,000 in latest campaign finance period
Richard Holtorf clarifies the story about his college girlfriend’s abortion
State Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, speaks to reporters during a break from the first day of the 2023 legislative session in the Capitol on Jan. 9, 2023, in Denver. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
State Rep. Richard Holtorf, one of the many Republican candidates running this year to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, is denying that he paid for his college girlfriend’s abortion.
He also says he didn’t find out she had terminated her pregnancy until well after the fact.
The confusion started Friday when Holtorf, speaking on the House floor, shared the abortion story during debate on a Democratic resolution declaring Monday Roe v. Wade Anniversary Day in honor of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing a minimum level of abortion access across the country.
Holtorf disclosed that his college girlfriend had gotten an abortion and said that as part of that he “gave her money to help her through her important, critical time so she could live her best life.”
He added: “I’m Catholic so you know my position on life. But I had to respect her rights because she said she didn’t want to keep her baby.”
Many interpreted Holtorf’s remarks to mean that he, an abortion opponent, had paid for the abortion. But the Akron lawmaker told The Sun on Monday that he was referring to aid he provided her a month and a half after the pregnancy was terminated.
“She had used every resource to do what she did — unilaterally,” Holtorf told The Sun. “She asked me for help financially. What would a decent person do? What would you do? I did the right thing. I helped her financially.”
Holtorf, then in his early 20s and a student at Colorado State University, said that he learned his girlfriend was pregnant before he left for eight weeks of military training in Washington state and California.
“I said ‘wait until I get back from military training. We can figure this out. Don’t do anything irrational,’” Holtorf recounted to The Sun.
But Holtorf said when he returned to Colorado, he found out his girlfriend had gotten an abortion.
“I wasn’t even in the state, nor did I even know about it until I returned to college from completing my military training,” Holtorf said.
Holtorf also disclosed in his speech on the House floor that he later impregnated another girlfriend. The couple opted to give their daughter up for adoption through Catholic Charities.
“One of the hardest things I ever did was give that girl away,” Holtorf said in his speech. He said he has a relationship with that daughter, who is now 31 and has a 3-year-old son.
Holtorf, who has been married for more than three decades to another woman, has five daughters.He didn’t say whether that includes the daughter he gave up for adoption.
“We want to talk about lived experience? I have so much lived experience —you have no idea,” Holtorf said in his floor speech.
In case you’re wondering: Holtorf voted “no” on the Roe v. Wade Anniversary Day resolution.
Nikki Haley gets a Trump matchup, but now faces the Trump machine.— The New York Times In longshot challenge to Biden, Dean Phillips goes where few Democrats dare.
— The Wall Street Journal As Kentucky GOP defends Jan. 6 rioters, court records show Kentuckians’ violence and intent to stop Biden presidency.
— Louisville Public Media 182 complaints, 37 violations, 0 fines: Portland hasn’t penalized a single landlord since rent control took effect.
— The Portland Press Herald
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