< Back Rep. Meghan Lukens: Getting to work for the Western Slope Jan 17, 2025 See more This story was originally published in the Craig Press here . As we begin the 2025 legislative session, I am honored to continue serving as your voice at the State Capitol, where my colleagues and I will spend the next 120 days tackling issues facing Coloradans. I am thrilled to share that the Speaker of the House, Julie McCluskie, appointed me as Chair of the House Education Committee, which holds special significance for me as both a teacher and legislator. I believe every Colorado student deserves the opportunity to thrive in safe, well-resourced schools. Additionally, I am excited to serve on the House Agriculture, Natural Resources & Water Committee, where I will ensure rural Colorado’s voice is heard. After spending months meeting with community members, leaders, and organizations, I am introducing several bills that address key challenges facing our communities. Building on last session’s achievements — which increased total education funding for K-12 schools by over $560 million and modernized our School Finance Act — my legislative priorities focus on education, rural healthcare, housing and making Colorado more affordable. Upcoming Legislation I am introducing several bills this legislative session, one of which was included in the first 10 House bills. The idea behind HB25-1006 came directly from the Eagle County School District and will help maximize resources by removing the current 10-year lease limitation on district properties when used for solar gardens or affordable housing. It is a win-win for meeting our climate goals and creating more housing in the high country. Across House District 26, I heard time and again concerns from educators regarding student cell phone use in schools. In my classroom, I have experienced how smartphones can impact student learning and mental health. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all approach, I am championing legislation this session that would empower school districts to establish their own policies to help with student achievement and address mental health needs. Another bill I am working on will streamline the Division of Water Resources processes to improve water management across Colorado. The goal with this bill is to cut red tape while properly utilizing our valuable water resources. I am also working to strengthen protections for survivors of sexual assault by expanding the Civil Rape Shield Law which prevents unrelated details about a victim’s past to be included in civil court proceedings. Our Focus for 2025 From housing to child care, we have made important progress at the State Capitol to lower costs for working families. As we dive into this session, our focus remains clear — we are building upon our progress to make Colorado more affordable and safer while protecting your rights and freedoms, our investments in public education, and access to quality healthcare. With a tight budget year ahead, I’m committed to protecting our most vulnerable community members while maintaining crucial investments in education, healthcare and public safety. These priorities directly align with what I have heard from community members across House District 26, and I am excited to work alongside my colleagues to deliver results for our rural communities while ensuring Colorado remains a place where everyone can not only get by, but thrive. Please Reach Out As we dive into this legislative session, I remain committed to bringing our community’s pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach to the State Capitol. The next four months will be filled with important decisions that impact our Western Slope communities. Your voice matters in this process, and I want to hear from you. Please reach out to my office at meghan.lukens.house@coleg.gov with your thoughts, concerns, or ideas, or join me at one of my upcoming town halls. Together, we can continue making our Western Slope communities even stronger. Rep. Meghan Lukens represents District 26, which includes Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Eagle counties, in the Colorado House. Previous Next

< Back Bob Marshall Bob Marshall was elected in the 2022 election to serve as the Colorado state representative from Highlands Ranch. He serves on both the Finance and Business Affairs & Labor committees. Born and raised in Colorado, Bob attended Georgetown University and then joined the Marine Corps. After six years on active duty, the Marine Corps sent Bob to Cornell Law School where he graduated with a J.D. and LL.M. in International Law. Following service overseas as a Senior Defense Counsel and SJA, Bob left the Corps to clerk for the Honorable Judge Siler on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and returned to Colorado to practice law. The Marine Corps mobilized Bob for duty in Iraq as a Police Transition Team leader and for service in Afghanistan. After Afghanistan, Bob served at Wounded Warrior Battalion, practicing disability law for service-members while earning a Tax LL.M. from the University of San Diego. He then began working for the tax litigation division of the IRS. When the COVID pandemic began, Bob returned to Colorado and became increasingly involved in the community, ultimately leading to his election as the first Democratic Representative from Douglas County since 1966. Bob’s wife of 29 years works at an Alzheimer’s facility while his daughter continues the multi-generational family tradition of military service as a nuclear submarine officer.

< Back Rep Cutter: It’s time to invest in our most valuable asset — Colorado kids Sep 18, 2022 See more Rep. Lisa Cutter, Sen. Tammy Story, Sen. Jessie Danielson President John F. Kennedy Jr. once said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future” and we couldn’t agree more. If we want to build a brighter future for all of us, then we have to invest in our most valuable asset: our kids. We’ve raised our families here in Jeffco, sending them to our public schools and watching them flourish in our community – we have navigated or are navigating the same school system you are, and we want to make sure all of our children get the high quality education they deserve. We can’t think of anything more important than ensuring young Coloradans have the tools they need to grow, succeed and thrive. After all, our kids are our future leaders – and one day, we’re going to pass the torch on to them and we need to give them the tools and training they need right now to be prepared. As mothers ourselves, we want to give our children the best future possible, and that future starts with a quality education. That’s why we prioritized passing policies this year to prepare students for success so every Colorado kid – no matter where they live – has an equal shot at success. First, we sought to give our youngest Coloradans a leg up by implementing universal pre-K and providing high-quality early childhood education opportunities for every child. Decades of research has shown that greater access to early childhood education leads to better outcomes for children all the way into adulthood, but far too many parents across Colorado simply can’t afford it. Providing up to 10 hours a week of free universal preschool for families means more kids will have access to the nurturing early education programs they need to grow, it will be easier for parents to get back to work and we will save families money. This is a win for families with young children, and a win for our economy. We also made a historic investment in K-12 education through the 2022 Public School Finance Act. The new law increases per pupil funding to a historic high of $545 per student, which school districts can use to reduce classroom sizes, increase teacher pay, and help provide more individualized support to help students learn. We know high quality teachers and educators are an integral part of our kids’ educational success – the law also breaks down financial barriers to entering the teaching profession through loan forgiveness and stipends for teachers, so we can attract higher quality teachers to the profession and better support our kids. Finally, we wanted to make sure our students are equipped with the tools necessary to attain a higher education degree and be successful in the workforce. Higher ed is the key to a bright future for many Colorado students, but too many folks are finding it hard to afford the cost of a degree. That’s why we fought to keep the cost of tuition down, while creating more pathways for students to get the skills and training they need to land a job in their field of choice. Colorado students entering the workforce need efficient and effective pathways to gain the experience and training they need to earn a degree and, ultimately, a good-paying job. We passed legislation to expand credential pathways to help Coloradans seeking to further their education or get the training they need to land jobs in high-demand industries, a measure that will accelerate our economic recovery and help businesses fill critical gaps in the workforce. As our students head back to school, we’re reflecting on all of the things we accomplished this year to make sure our kids are on the best path forward to achieve their dreams. Through the measures we passed, we will not only prepare our students for success – we will also help develop our workforce and power our economy as we continue to move Colorado forward. But the work doesn’t stop here – our kids will always be our priority. We look forward to continuing to pass meaningful policies that will help ensure Colorado learners frompreschool through high school, and beyond are adequately prepared for life beyond the classroom – because when our students succeed, we all succeed. Previous Next

State-driven tax cuts have wildly different impacts on Colorado communities, so let’s leave it to local governments to make adjustments < Back Rep. deGruy Kennedy: After Colorado legislature’s latest special session is finished, we must restore local control over property taxes Aug 20, 2024 See more This story was originally published in the Colorado Sun here . Over my eight years representing Jefferson County in the state House, I’ve learned that good policy is about thoughtful stakeholding, delicate balancing, and, ultimately, hard choices. As the state embarks on yet another special legislative session on property taxes, those shaping this round of policy solutions should keep in mind the lessons we’ve already learned. Those are: All voices — including those not in the room — need to be considered, not just those with the resources to make their voices the loudest. Despite posturing to the contrary, proponents of the extreme, badly crafted measures are seeing the writing on the wall and are eager for a deal. And, state-driven policy on issues that are inherently local is fraught with problems. It needs to stop. Let’s start with the consensus-driven process that created Senate Bill 233 , the bipartisan property tax legislation we passed this year that will lower property taxes by $1 billion. Even as I struggled with some of the sacrifices we had to make to maintain strong support from across the aisle, the bill provides meaningful property tax cuts and a cap on future growth without undermining K-12 funding, which is still well below the national average. And it delivers more property tax relief to regular folks and small businesses without giving exorbitant tax breaks to the wealthiest homeowners and largest corporations. Importantly, it was the result of countless hours of public discussion. Fairness and inclusion should continue to be the guideposts for any new policy emerging from the special session. Lawmakers should not feel as though they need to put the interests of everyday Coloradans on the back burner in order to kowtow to whomever is bankrolling Initiatives 50 and 108 , the chaotic conservative measures that would create a fiscal trainwreck at the state and local levels. While it’s understandable that many stakeholders are afraid of the possibility that these measures might pass in November, polling shows they are headed toward defeat. I think proponents of 50 and 108 know that too. Otherwise, why would they express an openness to relatively small cuts in exchange for pulling down their ballot measures? I’ve always thought that the classic negotiation strategy of staking out an extreme position and wiggling back toward a middle ground was silly. Shouldn’t grown-ups just be able to sit down, put their cards on table, discuss their differences, and let the democratically elected representatives cast their votes? But that’s never what happens, because that’s not what serves the special interests. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a corporate lobbyist bluff their way through a negotiation. They come in hot, suggesting they have the upper hand and convincing legislators that the only way to get the votes for a bill is to cut a deal. Are the proponents of 50 and 108 bluffing? I don’t know. Maybe they’re willing to bankrupt state and local governments to prove a point. But I think they very much want a deal so they can claim victory for cutting taxes without having to spend millions of dollars on a campaign that may or may not succeed. The third lesson we should take from the thoughtful deliberations that went into crafting Senate Bill 233 centers on local control. What we need is stable state policy, restoring true local control to our duly-elected city councilors, county commissioners and district board members. They have the tools to engage with their voters and balance the impact of taxes with the needs of public services. And these communities are all different. Some have more residential while some have more commercial properties. Many rural counties didn’t see significant home value growth, and the property tax cuts hurt their ability to provide services when their constituents did not experience the same property tax increases seen elsewhere. Many local governments had passed voter-approved revenue changes in previous years. But many other local governments had never passed revenue increases, meaning their constituents were paying lower taxes to begin with. The 2023 value increases finally caught them up with their neighbors and allowed for investments that had been deferred for years, if not decades. Additional state-driven property tax cuts will have wildly different impacts across our state, and they will be permanent. That means that economic downturns could have serious consequences in communities. Our local leaders, on the other hand, have the tools to temporarily lower their mill levies in times like these. And they have the ability to focus on the needs of their own communities, allowing them to find the sweet spot between additional tax relief and funding their unmet needs. So, if the state is going to have one last hurrah in property tax policy, then fine. We’re well positioned to get a good deal that prioritizes regular folks and carefully balances statewide priorities like K-12 and higher education funding. But this should be the very last time. After that, we must restore local control over property taxes. Chris deGruy Kennedy of Lakewood was one of the prime sponsors of Senate Bill 233 and outgoing Colorado House Speaker Pro Tem; he is now the president and CEO of the Bell Policy Center. Previous Next

Colorado Democrats delivered results to reduce property taxes, support hardworking families and prevent evictions. With urgent property tax cuts, more rental assistance, and tax relief for working families, Colorado Democrats delivered results during the 2023 Extraordinary Session of the 74th General Assembly to make Colorado more affordable for all. DOWNLOAD IN ENGLISH & ESPAÑOL

< Back Michael Carter Rep. Michael Carter is proud to call Aurora home. His wife has taught in the community for over two decades, his three children attend Aurora Public Schools, and he practices law in Aurora to protect the community’s most vulnerable. Becoming a state representative is not his first experience in public service. Rep. Carter is a third-generation Army Veteran and he served as the Vice President of the Aurora Public School Board of Education. After receiving his law degree from the University of Denver, he worked as a public defender and a private criminal defense attorney. From safer schools for our students to affordable housing for working families, Rep. Carter is committed to developing policy solutions that work for all Coloradans and move our state forward. He will utilize his experience in the criminal justice system and K-12 public education to improve public schools and uphold the values of justice. Rep. Michael Carter is the representative for House District 36 serving Adams and Arapahoe counties and he serves as the Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the State, Civic, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee.

< Back Rep. Amabile: We propose to outlaw encouraging someone to commit suicide Oct 1, 2023 See more This story was published in the Colorado Sun on Oct 1, 2023. Nearly 50,000 Americans completed suicide during 2022 – a stunning number, reflecting a continued rise in the suicide rate of some 35 percent over the last two decades. Numerical tolls provide a blunt gauge for societal problems, but numbers alone can make a problem feel remote and impersonal. People who lose a loved one to suicide experience shock and hurt that is both tender and omnipresent despite the passage of time. A healing instinct motivates us to want to prevent this pain from repeatedly occurring in our community. We have heard from fellow Coloradans reaching out to us as their elected representatives and asking, “what else can be done?” We are answering their call with action that honors the memory of lost loved ones and prevents more families in our state from experiencing this devastating tragedy. Unfortunately, online encouragement and easy access to life-ending materials can lead to unnecessary death by suicide. Last November, a Clear Creek County family’s 17-year-old son was struggling with chronic physical issues and common anxiety when he found a supportive community online that encouraged suicide. From there, he was directed to an online retailer who sold pure sodium nitrite, a substance which has few household uses but has become an increasingly popular suicide method. The price he paid to an online retailer who knew the pure sodium nitrite was being used for suicides was $13.99, shipped by two-day mail. Ingesting the compound, he died shortly afterwards. Sadly, this young man, a constituent of ours, was one of at least 222 people nationwide using this particular poison to complete suicide during 2022. Shockingly, there is an ecosystem online for people who want to complete suicide, outside and distinct from the legal path of medically-assisted suicide; there are deadly materials available online, shipped right to young people. For people feeling intense hurt, depression, or trauma, going online to find a way to heal is common. A web search for relief from a physical ailment generally leads to sites that recommend medication or a physician visit. But people struggling with suicidal ideation who seek help online can easily wind up in a web-based wasteland that offers advice on “how to” take one’s own life. And many heed that sick advice. We plan to introduce two bills in the upcoming General Assembly that could save lives and spare families from the enduring pain of suicide caused by this online reality. The first would explicitly prohibit encouraging an individual to complete suicide, not just by restricting the means as current law does, but by prohibiting advice and encouragement. The First Amendment cannot simply be tossed aside, of course, but we believe the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the validity of restricting speech that is “integral to a criminal act.” The power of words directed at someone who is struggling to maintain mental equilibrium can be just as impactful as handing someone a loaded gun and our statutes should reflect that. Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act permits qualified medical professionals to assist terminally ill adults to end their lives. But in “non-medical” situations, assisting with suicide is a criminal offense – manslaughter — in Colorado and most other states. However, due to vague language, prosecutors used the suicide manslaughter statute only four times in the last five years. This pales in comparison to the frequency of suicides completed after people receive instruction and encouragement to take their own lives. While difficult to document, with 1,287 people completing suicide in Colorado in 2022, numbers compel us to act. Our second bill would ban the sale of pure sodium nitrite to consumers and require any pure sodium nitrite product sold to carry explicit warnings of harm. Experts know that this type of suicide prevention, often referred to as “means restriction,” can be an effective method to reduce death. The Colorado Department of Health and Environment recently released, to health care providers throughout the state, an advisory on sodium nitrite, noting “an increase in suicide by ingestion of sodium nitrite in Colorado and across the United States.” We commend the Department for taking this important step and look forward to bolstering their efforts with legislation. We have just concluded September, which is Suicide Prevention month. September is not merely about remembering the harm suffered by so many Coloradans or about lending support to families impacted by limitless grief, but is also about taking tangible measures to interrupt the cycle of suicide, and we are ready to get to work. If you or a loved one is experiencing emotional distress, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 988 or Colorado Crisis Services at text TALK to 38255, or access chat via coloradocrisisservices.org , where help and hope are available at any hour, any day. Previous Next

< Back Jennifer Bacon Assistant Majority Leader Representative Jennifer Bacon is Assistant Majority Leader and represents House District 7, which includes the Denver International Airport and Denver’s far northeast neighborhoods. Assistant Majority Leader Bacon serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Education Committee. Lifelong advocate for youth, educational access and criminal justice reform, Assistant Majority Leader Bacon’s policy spanwide and prioritize making our state more equitable for all. During the 2023 legislative session, Assistant Majority Leader Bacon championed a law to extend Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) in Colorado to reduce gun violence. Other legislative highlights include extensive legislation to reduce air pollution, equal pay for equal work, improving workplace conditions, judicial reform, combating youth recidivism, and extended education programs to help all students succeed. Assistant Majority Leader Bacon is the Chair of the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus of Colorado.

< Back Lindsay Gilchrist Chair of the Health & Human Services Committee Rep. Lindsay Gilchrist has over a decade of experience in government and non-profit work in national and global public policy. In 2005, she traveled to then-Swaziland, Africa to volunteer with an organization working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Rep. Gilchrist went on to serve as a Special Assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy and as a Professional Staff Member for the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. While receiving her Masters in Public Policy, she worked for an international non-profit that works to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Rep. Gilchrist founded her own company in 2012 to work with organizations, foundations, and policy-makers to improve public policy in the United States and globally. Born and raised in Denver, Rep. Gilchrist has deep roots in House District 8, which encompasses central and northeast Denver, including the Park Hill and City Park neighborhoods. She is excited to bring her extensive policy background to the Colorado General Assembly to help tackle some of Colorado’s most pressing issues, including criminal justice reform, safeguarding LGBTQ+ rights, and passing effective gun violence prevention legislation. Rep. Gilchrist serves as the Chair of the House Health & Human Services Committee and a member of the House Education committee.

< Back Chad Clifford Rep. Chad Clifford represents House District 37, including Centennial, Greenwood Village, Foxfield, and areas of Unincorporated Arapahoe County. He serves as the Vice-Chair of the State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and a member of the Judiciary Committee. Rep. Clifford has experience as a police officer, business owner, Government Operations Lead for the American Red Cross, and volunteer in his community. He joined the legislature in 2024 and has passed legislation to create the Colorado Disability Opportunity Office, created workplace protections from egregious training repayment schemes, and removed record sealing fees to make it easier for people with a criminal record to move forward in life. His focus at the Capitol is to represent the people of House District 37 and advocate for the unique needs of the district.

< Back Speaker Julie McCluskie: A breakthrough session for the Western Slope May 18, 2024 See more This story was originally published in The Mountain Mail, which can be found here . What a year it has been under the gold dome. Lawmakers secured bipartisan victories on the issues we care about on the Western Slope. I was proud to lead the way on bipartisan legislation that will protect our water, increase funding for rural schools and boost rural economies. By working together the “Western Slope Way,” we delivered real results for high country communities. This year, we made Colorado more affordable by cutting taxes and saving people money on housing. We reduced property taxes, increased the senior homestead exemption and made it portable, created tax credits for families with children and extended income tax relief for senior housing costs. We also passed my bill to allow local governments to help convert short-term rental units to long-term rental or workforce housing to create more options people can afford. One of my proudest accomplishments in my entire time serving in the legislature is the new school finance formula I sponsored and that we passed this year. Colorado’s school finance formula has not changed since the early 1990s. For far too long, rural schools in Colorado have not received the funding they have needed, and a generation of students in our communities has not seen the resources in their classrooms that they deserve. The new formula we passed will increase funding for districts that serve more children in poverty and provide an additional $230 million to rural schools. Park County schools will see an increase of over 20 percent when the new formula is fully implemented. Salida will see a nearly 17 percent increase; Lake will see an increase of over 14 percent; Summit, Buena Vista and Platte Canyon will see 12 percent increases; and East and West Grand will see 28 and 17 percent increases respectively. School districts in our communities will finally see the equitable funding we have long needed, and I was proud to work with the school finance task force, school leaders and lawmakers in both parties to secure this bipartisan victory for the Western Slope, our students and our future. We also focused deeply on water issues. For Western Slope communities, the health of our waters is deeply tied to our way of life. From outdoor recreation and agriculture to tourism and high country industries, protecting our water is essential for our communities to thrive. Last year, the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case left nearly 1 million acres of streams, wetlands and rivers in Colorado unprotected. I worked with Sen. Dylan Roberts, Rep. Karen McCormick, water advocates and industry partners to pass bipartisan legislation that will create certainty for communities by establishing state-level protections for our water. This new law will require permits for certain dredge and fill activities that pollute our waters while fully exempting agriculture and ranching. The legislature also passed bipartisan legislation I sponsored based on recommendations from the Colorado River Drought Task Force to enhance our water supply and protect Colorado water user interests, and we referred a measure to voters to invest an additional $7 million per year into the state water plan instead of returning that money to casinos. I’m proud of the steps we took at the legislature to bridge the rural-urban divide, protect our Colorado way of life and invest in rural economies. We extended tax incentives for businesses to hire workers in rural communities, invested in rural behavioral health care access and rural hospitals and fixed longstanding issues with conservation easement tax credits to continue these critical protections and justly compensate landowners. Finally, I sponsored legislation that created new tax credits to spur business development and new jobs in rail-connected communities with formerly coal-based economies. This will help keep up investment in the rail line that connects Northwest Colorado and Denver. Another bill I sponsored that we passed establishes a funding stream for a potential passenger Northwest Rail route to link Craig and Hayden to Steamboat and eventually Winter Park and Denver along those tracks. I’m proud of the bipartisan results we delivered for Colorado and Western Slope communities. The laws we passed this year will save people money, increase funding for our schools, protect our water, support our agriculture industry and boost our rural economies. We focused on the issues that matter for Coloradans, and we did our work the “Western Slope Way” by coming together, listening to the people of our districts and putting Coloradans first. Julie McCluskie represents House District 13, which includes Summit, Grand, Jackson, Park, Chaffee and Lake counties, and serves as speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. Previous Next

< Back Kyle Brown JBC Member Representative Kyle Brown serves as a member of the Joint Budget Committee and previously served as Chair of the Health & Human Services Committee. He represents House District 12, which includes Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Boulder, Gunbarrel, and Niwot. A Colorado native, Kyle has dedicated his career to improving the lives of Colorado families. He earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Georgetown University. His background in science and public policy informs his evidence-based approach to solving Colorado’s toughest challenges. Before joining the legislature, Kyle served on the Louisville City Council, where he championed affordable housing, climate action, and community recovery following the Marshall Fire and COVID-19 pandemic. As Deputy Commissioner for Affordability Programs at the Colorado Division of Insurance, he helped design and implement the Colorado Option, lowering costs and improving access to care statewide. He has also advised progressive U.S. Senators and Colorado governors on health care, education, and economic security. In the legislature, Kyle continues to lead efforts to lower health care costs, expand access to care, and strengthen mental health services. He is a strong advocate for reproductive rights, affordable prescriptions, and a fair, transparent insurance system. Kyle lives in Louisville with his wife and children.