{"id":46632,"date":"2021-05-24T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T18:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-dems-focus-on-jobs-housing-and-infrastructure-with-3-8b-in-federal-aid\/"},"modified":"2021-05-24T18:13:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T18:13:00","slug":"colorado-dems-focus-on-jobs-housing-and-infrastructure-with-3-8b-in-federal-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-dems-focus-on-jobs-housing-and-infrastructure-with-3-8b-in-federal-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Dems focus on jobs, housing and infrastructure with $3.8B in federal aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The gold-covered dome on the state Capitol. Colorado Democrats have announced how they plan to spend a majority of the $3.8 billion the state will receive in federal coronavirus stimulus money.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Colorado Democrats on Monday unveiled the broad strokes of how they plan to spend $3.8 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus money being sent to state government, prioritizing affordable housing, workforce development and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

The majority of the money \u2013 $2 billion \u2013 will be allocated before the 2021 legislative session ends by June 12.<\/p>\n

The bulk of that first allocation, $1.3 billion, is the amount in tax revenue state officials have determined was lost because of the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. While the rest of the money has more restrictions, the $1.3 billion is mostly unrestricted and can go toward transportation projects that would otherwise be prohibited under the American Rescue Plan, the federal bill that sent the money to Colorado.<\/p>\n

Of the $1.3 billion, Democrats plan to direct about $400 million to transportation, infrastructure, and parks and agriculture initiatives.<\/p>\n

Another $150 million will go in the coming weeks toward housing initiatives, while $100 million each will go to behavioral health and workforce development. The first chunk of spending will also include $80 million to \u201cinvest in existing programs to promote business development and create jobs,\u201d according to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The details of the spending plan, which weren\u2019t released on Monday during a news conference at the Capitol, will be critical. Gov. Jared Polis teamed up with lawmakers and Treasurer Dave Young on a statewide listening tour to determine where the money should go.<\/p>\n

Bills to distribute the money, which should provide specific information about where it is going, are imminent. The legislation comes as the Legislature is already racing to finalize more than 250 other bills.<\/p>\n

Republicans didn\u2019t join the news conference Monday, which also included the four Democrats in the state\u2019s U.S. House delegation. That\u2019s a big change from the bipartisan work that led to the still-pending $800 million state coronavirus stimulus package funded by better-than-expected tax revenues in the current fiscal year, which runs through June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans \u2013 we talked to about the plan,\u201d said House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver. \u201cDiscussions are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis was adamant that the GOP will eventually be involved. \u201cI expect that many pieces of this will likely be bipartisan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, said GOP lawmakers are concerned about how the money is being spent. They feel not enough is being directed toward transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pittance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The second round of spending \u2013 $1.8 billion \u2013 will be developed during the Legislature\u2019s interim period before next year\u2019s lawmaking term, when it will be finalized. The plan is for the second chunk of spending to supplement programs receiving money as part of the first tranche.<\/p>\n

Polis said there is still an openness to direct some of the money toward the $1 billion deficit in the state\u2019s unemployment insurance trust fund. Right now, businesses will be forced to make up the hole by paying additional fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing looming on that. That\u2019s a 2023 issue,\u201d Polis said. \u201cSo, I think that us and the Legislature are happy to look at considering that next session.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor said the money could come from a $700 million to $800 million pool being set aside for future budget years, indicating Democrats don\u2019t want to eliminate the deficit in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n

Garnett said lawmakers don\u2019t want to spend all the money at once because they believe they\u2019ll have more information later this year about where the money is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is that we allow economists and others to help give us the lay of the land,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money moving around the system now. Moving that aside until later I think is the prudent, responsible way of going about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, said lawmakers will set aside some of the money to prepay future state budget obligations. That will allow the Legislature to drive down the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights cap on government spending in future years and spend more on other priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we prepay state employee compensation, maybe we prepay controlled maintenance or other investments the state needs to make on an annual basis,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cEvery little bit that we do to prepay, when we eventually do reach that TABOR cap \u2013 which we will in the coming fiscal years \u2013 creates more room in the state budget to still protect things that we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Rescue Plan has five limitations on how the money can be spent. The money must be distributed:<\/p>\n

To backfill revenue loss.<\/div>\n
To support public health expenditures, by funding COVID-19 mitigation efforts and medical costs. The money can also be used to cover mental health and addiction treatment.<\/div>\n
To address negative economic impacts caused by the pandemic, including by rehiring public-sector workers, providing aid to households and offering small business assistance.<\/div>\n
To support an equitable recovery by addressing not only the immediate harms of the pandemic, but its exacerbation of long-standing public health, economic and educational disparities.<\/div>\n
To invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.<\/div>\n

Colorado is also receiving $1.9 billion that will be sent directly to city and county governments across the state. They have the same spending restrictions.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Majority of money \u2013 $2 billion \u2013 will be allocated before June 12<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,28,453,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-housing-and-urban-planning","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46632"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}