Mauro: Colorado Democrats achieve ‘breakthrough’ legislative session
During the 2024 legislative session, we secured breakthrough victories on the issues that matter most to Colorado families including saving you money on housing, increasing education funding to historic levels and boosting transit options for everyone. We even celebrated the inaugural Pueblo Flag Day in March at the state capitol to recognize our city’s significant impact on Colorado’s culture and economy.
Let’s dive deeper into some of the bigger accomplishments.
Lasting property tax relief
This year’s session was met with bipartisan efforts to save Coloradans money on their property taxes – SB24-233 will provide relief to homeowners and businesses while protecting funding for public schools. This monumental effort ensures that Colorado homeowners won’t see an increase in their property taxes for 2024 and reduce statewide local taxes by more than $1 billion.
This bill also cuts taxes for property owners to give our small businesses a break and boost our local economy. Specifically, under this law, the commercial property assessment rate will drop to 25% by 2027, down from 29%.
Cutting taxes to make Colorado more affordable for all
We worked hard this session to make our state more affordable for everyone – including families and seniors. To support older Coloradans living on fixed incomes, we passed a few important bills including the creation of a more expanded homestead property tax exemption for seniors as well as reinstating a refundable tax credit for seniors and making it available to senior renters. We also passed more tax cuts for seniors by reducing income tax for those on social security.
We know the cost of living has been tough on our families, which is why we passed targeted legislation to boost tax credits for hardworking people and families with children. We also passed a string of bills aimed at making child care more affordable and accessible in the neighborhoods that Coloradans call home, especially our rural and underserved communities.
Protecting Colorado’s ecosystem and agriculture
From our mountain vistas to our sweeping plains, Colorado’s natural beauty cannot be understated. This session, I had the unique honor of working on a bill that would responsibly and effectively reintroduce wolverines into our mountains. This reintroduction effort is years in the making with Colorado Parks and Wildlife leaders, including my dad, John Singletary, working to ensure the wolverine reintroduction would be science-based and support a healthy ecosystem.
Many of our farmers and ranchers already practice good stewardship to keep our land viable for years to come, including water conservation and improving soil health. This year we passed legislation to reward farmers and ranchers who go the extra mile – a new tax credit will save our farmers and ranchers money and fosters diverse ecosystems.
Rail safety, transportation and predatory towing
Whether it’s by car, train, or bus, how we move around our great state is important. During the session, I championed key legislation to improve rail safety and prevent dangerous derailment through the creation of an Office of Rail Safety. Our goal is to oversee more rail operations in our state while improving our reporting, emergency response times and clean-up safety protocols.
Another new law I sponsored aims to protect Coloradans from predatory towing, also known as parking lot patrolling. This law creates new statewide rules that will help ensure Coloradans’ cars aren’t towed away through no fault of their own.
Improving public safety
At the legislature, we passed a handful of bills designed to keep our neighborhoods safer and hold criminals accountable. A bipartisan bill we passed this session will allow survivors of human trafficking to hold their trafficker accountable in the criminal justice system by removing certain barriers for survivors. Another bill championed by Republicans and Democrats alike strengthens protections for survivors and omits things like what the survivor was wearing as proof of consent.
Record-breaking education and workforce investments
Our investment in education this legislative session is worth talking about. From increasing per-pupil funding to the highest it's ever been to fully paying off the budget stabilization factor – we invested in our student success. Another robust bipartisan legislative effort came in the form of a new school finance formula, which works to drive funding to the students who need it the most, including our at-risk, English Language Learners and students living with disabilities. Once this new formula is implemented, Pueblo School District 70 will receive almost $9 million more and Pueblo School District 60 will receive almost $6 million more per year. In addition to K-12 education, we also passed a bill to make community college or two years of a four-year college free for families making less than $90,000.
Together, Colorado Democrats worked hard to champion thoughtful, impactful legislation that
prioritizes our hardworking families. With the 2024 legislative session in our rearview, I’m beyond proud of our efforts to make our state more affordable.
Representative Tisha Mauro represents House District 46 which spans the majority of Pueblo County, including Avondale, Beulah, Colorado City and Rye.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Mauro: Colorado Democrats achieve ‘breakthrough’ legislative session
