Every day on average, 25 people move to Douglas County. The increased demand for water has put an unsustainable burden on existing water resources, which face rapid depletion.
For the sake of our quality of life, agriculture, recreation, and the environment, we must do more to conserve our precious water resources. It is essential that we implement an array of solutions -- many outlined in the Colorado Water Plan -- to promote reuse, conservation, and efficiency. State legislation can incentivize such initiatives for businesses, municipalities and private citizens alike.
Many of us know someone who has suffered heart-wrenching loss from wildfire, such as the Marshall Fire that struck Boulder County in December 2021 and was the 10th costliest fire in U.S. history. That same month, the Chatridge 3 fire, which ended up burning 24 acres in Douglas County, necessitated local evacuations but fortunately did not cause injury or significant property damage. Two years before I moved to Castle Pines, the Cherokee Ranch fire burned 1,200 acres and spurred the evacuation of over 10,000 residents.
Out of a total state population of 5.7 million, about 3 million of us live in what’s called the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where buildings and fire-prone wild areas meet. In Douglas County, 82 percent of us live in areas of at least some wildfire risk and 22 percent in areas of high risk of negative impact.
The 2022 session of the General Assembly passed several bills to promote wildfire mitigation and recovery. Significantly, a bill that would have implemented building codes to reduce fire risk did not get a vote. Several other measures -- including a bill to support local fire departments in investigating the cause of wildland fires and another to install remote cameras to monitor wildlands and catch fires early -- did not reach enactment. I support efforts to revisit this legislation early next session.
K-12 education in Colorado is woefully underfunded. We are ranked 50th among the states in teacher wage competitiveness and 40th in per-pupil spending. In Douglas County we spend $10,833, which corresponds with the state that is 33rd in spending, Georgia. For over a decade Colorado has failed to keep its commitment to fund schools to match population growth and inflation. We must do better.
I had been excited at the prospects for Initiative 63. This measure would have authorized the state to retain one-third of one percent of income tax revenue and spend those proceeds – about $900 million per year – to meet the costs of attracting, retaining, and compensating high quality teachers and paraprofessionals. Unfortunately, Initiative 63 did not make it to this November’s ballot.
I pledge that as the representative of House District 39, I will introduce or co-sponsor legislation to refer a measure like Initiative 63 for the 2024 ballot. Our students and our educators need and deserve this support.
Last year, Mental Health America assessed Colorado to be the worst state for adult mental health care and Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency for youth mental health. Also last year, the General Assembly enacted the Behavioral Health Recovery Act (SB21-137), legislation that provides crucial funding for an array of behavioral health uses and lifts sunset provisions under prior law for a set of important behavioral health programs. The fiscal note put total state appropriations under this bill for fiscal year 2021-22 at $114,130,227 ($100 million of which comes from federal American Recovery Plan Act funds) and for fiscal year 2022-23 at $14,267,858.
This is an important investment.
Other initiatives I would support include:
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