Roberts: One month in at the Capitol
Things are really starting to pick up at the Colorado General Assembly. We are one month into our 120-day legislative session and while bills are still being introduced, the year’s priorities are starting to take shape.
Personally, my legislation remains focused on our community’s biggest needs: expanding housing opportunities for locals, protecting our natural resources and rural Colorado, improving our economy, and saving you money. I have already introduced bipartisan legislation to encourage affordable housing, support small businesses and local farms, increase safety on our highways, prevent unnecessary water usage, and increase affordable insurance access on the Western Slope. Here’s a snapshot of my work and some of the session’s biggest topics so far.
Incentivizing affordable housing
All of Colorado continues to wrestle with an affordable housing crisis. I am proud of the work we’ve done in previous legislative sessions to create and sustain more affordable housing stock, but there are still thousands of Coloradans who struggle to find and afford a place to live. Our mountain towns face an even higher cost of living and a shortage of available rental housing for our workforce.
My first bill of the year, SB2 will allow local governments to establish targeted property tax incentive programs to address areas of specific local concern. For example, counties and municipalities will be able to offer tax incentives to homeowners who choose to rent long-term to a local employee, rather than listing their home on the short-term rental market.
By lowering the tax burden of long-term rentals for homeowners, we can create more places for our teachers, nurses, first responders, and small business employees to live. Further, SB2 will allow local communities to incentivize not just long-term housing but also needed community resources such as child care centers and mental health facilities.
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Conserving water
Outdoor watering of landscaping uses about half of all municipal water to support mostly non-native turf grass. My SB5 will promote water-wise landscaping by prohibiting the installation of nonfunctional turf, invasive plant species, and artificial turf in any new developments of commercial, institutional, industrial, and state property. In 2022, we created a successful turf replacement program as a key tool in our water conservation efforts. This bill is the natural next step, focusing on limiting its installation in the first place.
As the legislative session continues, we’ll be honing in on even more solutions to help us conserve water and strengthen Colorado’s water future for agriculture, outdoor recreation, and for all who call our state home.
Highway safety
All of us who live along the I-70 corridor or travel our mountain highways face regular closures and delays due to completely avoidable crashes, particularly in the winter. We can do better. That’s why I recently introduced SB100. This bill will require commercial vehicles to carry chains on mountain highways, keep commercial vehicles safely out of the left lane on I-70 between Morrison and Glenwood, unless they are passing a vehicle going under the speed limit, and provide enhanced speed limit enforcement through Glenwood Canyon.
What’s next?
As we head into February, the legislature’s pace will continue to accelerate. For the first time in 14 years, the legislature will fully fund K-12 education by eliminating the Budget Stabilization Factor. Eliminating the deficit will allow us to invest significantly more money into supporting our hard-working teachers, updating and improving school resources, and helping students recover from the lasting impacts of COVID on their learning.
We are also working to find a long-term property tax solution. Coloradans in Senate District 8 and across the state are struggling in the face of rising property values and the resulting increase in property taxes. I look forward to seeing recommendations from the Commission on Property Tax and supporting a bipartisan solution that sustainably lowers taxes.
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Progress is also being made on making passenger rail throughout the mountains a reality. With once-in-a-lifetime federal funding available, our mountain communities are uniquely prepared to take advantage of this moment and connect many of our communities. Proposed projects include rail lines from Craig to Steamboat, Grand County to Denver with stops in between, with future work on Eagle County and beyond. Mountain passenger rail will remove traffic from I-70, increase access to more affordable housing across our region, and support our manufacturing and tourism economies.
Work on these topics is moving forward, alongside bills that would deliver quality mental and physical health care, address climate change, improve public safety, and more. I welcome your feedback and ideas throughout the 2024 legislative session. I hope to see you at one of my upcoming town hall meetings and you can always contact me directly at SenatorDylanRoberts@gmail.com or 970-846-3054.
Dylan Roberts is the State Senator for Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit Counties
