House Republicans walk out in final days of session over HB 1311

The Colorado General Assembly wrapped up its 2023 work on Monday, May 8, after 120 days of what’s been called one of the most contentious sessions in recent memory.

The last day was capped by a walk-out by House Republicans over the rush by Democratic lawmakers to pass two bills introduced in the session’s final days and tied to escalating property tax hikes.

Senate Bill 303 would take a portion of TABOR refunds for the next 10 years to pay for property tax relief. The bill creates a ballot measure in November, Proposition HH, that would ask voters for permission to raise the state’s TABOR limit as well as divert those TABOR refunds. 

Among those hit hardest by SB 303: renters, who would lose part of their TABOR refunds, which would then go to homeowners and commercial building owners. 

To address that issue, Democrats pushed through House Bill 1311 in the session’s final three days, the minimum amount of time it takes to get a bill through the General Assembly.

Under the measure, the TABOR refund would be equalized to about $661 per taxpayer or $1,322 for joint filers. In 2024 only, that would replace the state’s six-tiered sales tax refund mechanism, which provides TABOR refunds based on a sliding scale, with high-income earners getting the largest refunds and low-income earners with the smallest.

The equalized refunds from HB 1311 go into effect only if voters approve Proposition HH.

Monday, House Democrats imposed rules to limit debate on SB 303, which was up for its final vote late in the day. Democrats asked and received permission to make substantive changes in the bill. Republicans asked for permission to offer their own amendments, which was denied.

That resulted in the walk-out by House Republicans, who left the chamber and did not return for the rest of the evening.

The GOP caucus gathered on the west side of the Capitol after the walkout. House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, told reporters “Our votes don’t matter.”

He called SB 303 a “scheme that the governor waited until the last minutes of session to pull this sort of big legislation … We're just done with how they have jammed this agenda through. They have two thirds of the majority and they've used more rules than they've ever used before in the history of this state," he said. "We don't know what we can do to get the voices of our people heard. We're sad for the people of Colorado that are about to get the biggest tax increase in their life."

Both measures passed with all Republicans opposed. SB 303 passed in the House with 39 Democrats in favor, seven opposed, and 19 Republicans all marked as absent. In the Senate, the measure passed on a party-line 23-12 vote.

HB 1311 passed on that same 23-12 vote in the Senate and a party-line 44-17 vote in the House. Both measures now head to the Governor for signing.

Governor Jared Polis has until June 7 to sign all bills passed in the session, but one that’s believed to be a sure veto is Senate Bill 256, which is intended to help the state as it plans to reintroduce gray wolves on the Western Slope. 

The wolf reintroduction is the result of 2020’s Proposition 114, which passed on a narrow 51-49 margin, largely due to support in Front Range communities. The wolves are slated to be reintroduced in five Western Slope counties by the end of the year.

One of the issues around reintroduction is a pending ruling by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, known as 10(j).

The USFWS is expected to issue the 10(j) ruling by mid-December. It would classify wolves as a “nonessential experimental population” instead of its status as an endangered species. Under 10(j), the population would be managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the CPW plan approved by the CPW commission a week ago would allow for “lethal takes.” That would allow ranchers to kill wolves that are attacking their livestock. Currently, when a wolf is attacking livestock, which has happened several times in Jackson County in the past 18 months, killing a wolf to defend that livestock is a felony offense.

While Polis has said he supports the 10(j) ruling, he didn’t support SB 256 because it mandates the rule be in place before wolves can be reintroduced, raising concerns the reintroduction could be delayed.

Should the ruling not be issued, wolves could be reintroduced in those five Western Slope counties (four of the five voted against the ballot measure), and would be classified as endangered species, with management handled by the Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Those who supported SB 256 said the agency doesn’t have the resources or the personnel to do that work.

Polis’ biggest agenda item of the session — a bill to mandate state control of local zoning to address the shortage of affordable housing — died on the session’s final day, after all-day negotiations failed to reach a compromise.

Senate Bill 213 ran into trouble in the state Senate with at least six Democrats willing to vote it down, enough votes, combined with the chamber’s 12 Republicans, to kill the bill once the House version arrived in the Senate in the session’s final days. 

The Senate sent the House a version that did not include state control of zoning. The House restored much of the bill’s original language, including state control, which opponents said is unconstitutional and as a result was unacceptable to many Senate Democrats.

SB 213 was not brought up for a final vote Monday night, with its sponsor allowing it to die on the calendar.

The bill’s failure marks Polis’ biggest defeat since he became Governor in 2019. 

In a May 9 press conference, Polis reiterated his support for the House version, with a pledge to continue working on the issue next year. The Governor and his allies said they held about 150 meetings on the bill prior to its introduction in late March, but opponents, including the Colorado Municipal League, said that while they were in those meetings, the bill’s backers never listened to them.

The municipal league did propose an amendment during the process that they said would create a “win-win” situation, without relying on state control, but it was rejected at least twice.

A study of the Republican River is now awaiting Polis’ signature, after it won final passage in the Senate on the final day.

House Bill 1220 is sponsored by Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron and in the Senate by Sens. Byron and Rod Pelton.

The measure was introduced in late February and took more than two months to get out of the House. Holtorf said the delay was an effort to punish him for some of his comments during the session. 

However, that House delay ended on May 3 and the bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. 

HB 1220 tasks the Colorado Water Center at Colorado State University with completing an economic analysis of the Republican River Basin based on water usage. The analysis would look at the river’s impact in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. The report is due Jan. 1, 2026.