Lawmakers look to pass funding for first responders in final days of regular session

Yahoo

03-05-2025

DENVER (KDVR) — The clock is ticking at the Colorado Capitol as state lawmakers look to close loose ends before the regular session ends on Wednesday. Before they leave, they are trying to make sure first responders get some funding.
State lawmakers are moving forward with two measures they have been working to fund since the start of the session.
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'While I'm really happy about this piece, and I'm excited to be sponsoring this bill, I know there is still a lot of work to do,' said State Senator Lisa Cutter, relieved lawmakers were able to reach a compromise on a bill that initially was slated to help boost the state's wildfire workforce amid uncertainty surrounding cuts from the federal government and a loss of revenue for districts following property tax reform at the state level last year.
'When we knew this other bill wasn't going to make it, we were able to pivot and include this. We wanted to do some other things, quite frankly, this year to address the funding. An enterprise and some other things were kicked around, and it just didn't come to fruition. We didn't have enough time to really fully build those out. So this was a great solution so again, I'm really grateful we were able to do this, and we'll bring more,' Cutter said.
The compromise will ultimately allow fire districts to apply for a revolving, interest-free loan fund from the State Treasurer's Office. $50 million worth of funding will be available for districts that apply for it. Lawmakers also had to find some funding for law enforcement.
'Proposition 130 was on last year's ballot and it passed. Basically, it set aside $350 million for recruitment, training, retention for local law enforcement officers was part of it. Another part of it was a million-dollar death benefit if someone is killed in the line fo duty, which we thought was a big part of passing it,' said Michael Fields of Advance Colorado.
Lawmakers will not be allocating that $350 million all at once. Instead, the state will phase it in at around $35 million per year over 10 years through a bill that implements the passed proposition.
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'This implementation bill does take too long. It can take 10 years for this money to get out. But voters did vote for it, legislators are coming in and implementing policy to make sure that it does get out the door. I know there's complaints about not only this year's budget, but future budgets coming up. But it's important when people vote for something, when they expect something to happen- that it happens,' Fields said.
Both of these bills still need to complete the legislative process by next Wednesday in order to make it to the governor's desk. Lawmakers will be working long and odd hours to get it all done.
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