The emergence of the #MeToo movement also appears to have brought the parties together in an effort to change the prevailing culture in the legislature. The most publicized controversy of the legislative session was the emotionally charged debate surrounding the expulsion of a Democratic legislator following multiple sexual harassment allegations. Representative Steve Lebsock was the subject of multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Three formal complaints were made against him, including one from fellow Representative Faith Winter . Following an independent investigation, which found credible evidence that he had engaged in harassment and retaliation, and a full day of emotional speeches on the House floor, the chamber voted 52 to 9 to expel Lebsock from the legislature. The outcome was far from certain prior to the historic vote, as the expulsion resolution required a two-thirds majority vote in order to remove the incumbent representative. Many who supported removing Lebsock cited a need to change the culture in the state legislature. As a result of the vote, Lebsock became the first state representative to be expelled in more than 100 years. In a strange twist, Lebsock submitted the paperwork to change his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican minutes before the expulsion vote. According to state law, this handed the House vacancy to the state’s Republican Party to fill instead of the Democrats who previously held the seat. This act was clearly intended to spite fellow Democrats who abandoned their support of Lebsock once the extent of his harassing behavior became apparent. A spokesperson for the Colorado GOP initially floated the idea of not filling the seat within 30 days, hydroponic nft system which would allow the Democratic governor the opportunity to appoint a successor.
However, the party ultimately decided to appoint a Republican to temporarily hold the seat, which many expected to be regained by the Democrats in the next election cycle. This did not alter the majority party in the chamber since Democrats hold an eight-seat majority after Lebsock’s expulsion. Lebsock was not the only state legislator rebuked for inappropriate behavior, as an independent investigation found credible evidence that Senator Randy Baumgardner sexually harassed a legislative aide in 2016. Senator Baumgardner resigned a key committee chair position while maintaining his innocence in advance of an expulsion vote in the Senate. While the vote to expel Lebsock was supported by representatives of both parties, the parties appeared more divided in the Senate with regard to the allegations against Baumgardner. Republican leadership ordered Baumgardner to undergo sensitivity training, while Democrats have called for more severe sanctions including expulsion. In early April, Baumgardner survived an expulsion vote with 17 voting in favor and 17 voting opposed. While this fell short of the two thirds majority necessary to remove a lawmaker, potential expulsions from the Senate threatened larger reverberations on policy and the budget as the Republicans held a narrow one-seat majority until Senator Cheri Jahn changed her party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated in December 2017. On the legislative front, the second session of the 71st General Assembly convened on January 10, 2018 after a special session called by Governor John Hickenlooper in October 2017 failed to produce any accomplishments. Hickenlooper previously called a special session in 2012 to debate a civil unions bill, which ultimately failed to pass. The 2017 special session similarly adjourned amid partisan gridlock. The governor called this special session to address what was described as a bill drafting error contained in a major reform that passed at the end of the General Assembly’s regular session in 2017. Senate Bill 17-267 imposed many substantial reforms .
Among the most notable of these was the repeal of the existing hospital provider fee structure and the creation of the Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Enterprise as a government enterprise fund to collect healthcare sustainability and affordability fees. Importantly, this change made it so hospital provider fees do not count as state revenue for the purposes of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights . The bill drafting error concerned a modification to the taxes levied on recreational marijuana sales. When Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 to legalize recreational marijuana use in 2012, the amendment included the following language governing the General Assembly’s authority to levy taxes on retail marijuana sales, “The General Assembly shall enact an excise tax to be levied upon marijuana sold or otherwise transferred by a marijuana cultivation facility to a marijuana product manufacturing facility or to a retail marijuana store at a rate not to exceed fifteen percent prior to January 1, 2017 and at a rate to be determined by the General Assembly thereafter, and shall direct the department to establish procedures for the collection of all taxes levied.” Senate Bill 17-267 collapsed the existing 2.9 percent sales tax on retail marijuana sales and the 10 percent special tax into a single 15 percent state tax. The drafting error occurred because legislators intended to only remove the statewide sales tax, while an exemption allowed municipal governments to impose their own sales taxes on marijuana sales where permitted. The bill, however, failed to include a similar exemption for special districts such as the Denver metro area’s Regional Transportation District and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District , among several others. This omission meant that these districts could no longer continue collecting tax revenue on marijuana sales as they had before Senate Bill 17-267 went into effect. While the SCFD supports scores of organizations and programs including the Denver Zoo, Denver Art Museum, and Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the funding losses incurred by RTD were arguably more likely to affect Colorado residents.
The RTD special district encompasses 2,342 square miles across eight counties. The district includes nearly three million residents in its service area. Ridership statistics from the past three years show that annual ridership on RTD commuter rail, light rail, and bus services exceeded 100 million trips . Analysts projected that the bill drafting error would cost RTD nearly $600,000 per month. SCFD monthly losses were estimated at about $56,000. The special session to correct the bill drafting error was opposed by many Republicans. Some argued that modifying the existing tax structure would require a vote of state residents consistent with TABOR’s requirements. The session ended after two measures to correct the error were rejected in the Senate after passage in the House with mostly Democratic support. Following an unsuccessful special session, Governor John Hickenlooper enters the final year of his second term as governor. Term limits prevent him from running again, although there are several indications that he is preparing to launch a bid for the presidency in 2020. A November 1 letter to the General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee provided details on the key aspects of the governor’s budget request. The budget proposal for the 2018–2019 fiscal year proposed a total funds budget of $30.5 billion, which is an increase of 3.7 percent from the prior year. The General Fund spending budget of $11.5 billion represents a 2.6 percent increase. After legislators considered nearly 200 amendments to the long bill, the state budget totals enacted into law were close to the numbers proposed by the governor. The state’s final General Fund budget was $11.42 billion with $30.63 billion in total fund spending . The letter to the JBC stated that the governor’s budget request “reflects the dynamic factors that are occurring in Colorado’s economy, nft channel constitutional and statutory requirements, and demand for services from State government” . It further noted that the “passage of S.B. 17-267 has materially and positively changed the State’s financial outlook compared with one year ago, when the request had to close a $500 million funding gap in the General Fund. We believe the request reflects the priorities that Colorado citizens expect and accordingly the request addresses important needs in K-12 and higher education as well as certain essential criminal justice system needs” . In percentage terms, spending on K-12 education represents the largest share of the general fund request at 36 percent, while the spending allotment for higher education budget is 9 percent. Nearly every state department was slated to receive increased funding relative to the prior fiscal year with just two exceptions. The budget approved by the General Assembly ultimately increased funding for every state department except for Labor and Employment. The three sections that follow discuss the state’s demographics, revenue, and spending. Colorado’s population growth continues to present both opportunities and challenges for policymakers. While a growing population provides a larger tax base, affordable housing and transportation problems have also accompanied this rapid population growth.
The 2017 update places the number of Colorado residents at slightly greater than 5.6 million . This figure represents an increase of 11.5 percent since 2010 and a 1.2 percent increase since 2016. Of the 223,260 individuals who moved to Colorado in 2016, the Census estimates that 14 percent immigrated from abroad. The size of this group is larger than the number of new residents who moved from any state in the union. Among current U.S. residents who moved to Colorado, the largest shares arrived from California , Texas , Florida , Arizona , Illinois , New York , Virginia , Missouri , Georgia , and North Carolina . The most popular destinations for Coloradoans moving out of state were California, Texas, Washington, Arizona, and Florida. Because most of these population gains have occurred along the Front Range and in the Denver metro area, the housing market in the state’s largest city remains one of the least affordable in the nation. Among U.S. metropolitan areas, the Denver housing market is the most expensive of any city not located in a coastal state. Median home prices in Denver exceeded the national average by more than $100,000 in 2017, and the average price of a single-family homes sold in Denver exceeded $500,000 for the first time in February 2018 . Many residents priced out of the home-buying market have also encountered affordability challenges in the rental market. According to one real estate research firm, apartment rental rates in Denver have increased by nearly 50 percent since 2010. This is the largest increase in rent for any city outside of the San Francisco Bay area. Increased demand for housing units has spurred development in the Denver metro area as evidenced by the construction of 23,000 new apartments between 2016 and 2017 . A growth in the number of available housing units has increased the vacancy rate in the metro area to 6.4 percent in 2018. This figure is the highest seen in Denver since the 2009 recession. It has also resulted in a modest reversal in the long-term trend of rent increases, as the median monthly rental price in Denver decreased to $1,353 from $1,370 at the end of the third quarter in 2017. Table 1 reports selected data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics for Denver County, Colorado, and the United States. As seen in Table 1, per capita and household income in Denver and Colorado remain above the national average. The OSBP projects personal income in Colorado to outpace the national average of 3.1 percent in 2017 with a 5.4 percent growth rate . The 2017 population estimate for Colorado is slightly greater than 5.6 million people. Colorado remains one of the fastest growing states in the nation, although population growth has slowed during the past year. After reaching nearly 2 percent in 2015, population growth fell to 1.4 percent in 2017. This figure remains twice the national growth rate of 0.7 percent. The state projects the number of residents to increase to 5.8 million by the 2020 Census. For most racial minority groups, the state is less diverse than the nation as a whole. Native Americans are one exception to this, as the share of those with American Indian heritage is slightly greater in Denver County and Colorado compared to their percentage nationally . The proportion of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino is also greater in Colorado and Denver County than in the entire country . The Census estimates that 13.2 percent of current U.S. residents were born abroad. Among all Coloradoans, the percentage of foreign-born residents is about 3 percentage points lower, while the percent foreign born residing in Denver County is nearly 3 percentage points greater.