The House Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee held an informational panel with representatives from four local government associations — Colorado Counties Inc., the Special District Association of Colorado, the Colorado Municipal League, and the Association of Governments in Northwest Colorado — who presented shared priorities around unfunded mandates, local control, and the state-local partnership. No legislation was introduced or voted on.
Rep. Chair Richardson suggested identifying costly unfunded mandates that don't really seem to have much benefit and potentially relieving them, framing it as a mutual opportunity given the state's budget gap. Katie First (CCI) responded that local governments did just go through a very similar exercise after lots of the property tax reforms of the last few years and have found a way to grapple with those and incorporate them into their budget. Rep. Richardson explicitly acknowledged her response, asking 'was that a very nice way of saying state, figure it out, leave us out of it?' Michael Valdez (SDA) reinforced First's point, stating 'we took our haircut a couple years ago. But thank you.'
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“Local government is where state policy oftentimes becomes real for people, where legislation turns into services, where rules meet reality and where residents experience the success, but also oftentimes the strain of our public systems.”
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Sign in to subscribeLocal government committee will come to order. Mr. Gravy, please call the roll. Representatives Basen. Ecker. Here. Brooks. President Jackson. Excused. Lindsay. Here. Wynn Valley. Here. Pascal. Here. Phillips. Yes. Richardson. Sukla. Here. Glasgow. Excused. Weinberg. Excused. Froelich. Excused. Madam Chair. Here. All right, folks, thanks for sticking around. We have our local government organizations panel here to present to us. So I think what I'll just do is allow you to introduce yourselves first, starting with Bev Stables and then on down the line so we know who's here. My full introduction or just my name? Just your name and who you represent. I know we've got slightly less people than we thought we were going to. Okay. Bev Stables of the Colorado Municipal League. Good afternoon. Michael Valdez, Special District association of Colorado. Katie First, Colorado Counties, Inc. Richard Orff, Associate of Governments in Northwest Colorado. Thank you all so much for being here. And Rep. Jackson is here as well. All right, it looks like we've got a presentation, starting with CCI. All right, go ahead and take it away, Ms. First. Thank you, madam Chair and members of the committee. It's a pleasure to be with…
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