My Legislation
My four years in the statehouse has been a humbling and exciting experience. Much of my time was spent learning the ins and outs of the lawmaking process, and working with constituents and stakeholders to pass legislation that would make a positive difference in the lives of Coloradans. My legislation has focused on increasing affordability for families and small businesses, protecting our precious environment, and helping Coloradans recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, I sponsored a bill (SB22-146) that expands critical middle-income housing so that more Coloradans have access to affordable housing. Additionally, I sponsored SB22-006, which allows small businesses to keep a higher percent of sales tax revenue to support businesses in their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. I also passed a bill with Rep. Meg Froelich (HB22-1323) ensuring that Colorado’s tree nursery will be up to combating the increasing challenges caused by climate change and wildfire through reforestation efforts.
My other bills range in topics from working to incentivize banks to give loans to those impacted by the pandemic, to the creation of a grant program to build community resilience regarding electric grid disruptions through the development of microgrids.
In my next term as state representative, I hope to continue my work making Colorado more affordable, increasing our protection against wildfires, and increasing public safety. I have enjoyed my time serving you in the Colorado House of Representatives, and I look forward to continuing to do so!
Highlights of the 2022 Session
healthcare access and affordability
This session we passed legislation to increase access and affordability to crucial healthcare services in Colorado. We passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act (HB22-1279), ensuring that all Coloradans have access to reproductive health care. We also passed a number of initiatives that will increase access to health care in Colorado’s rural communities by incentivizing doctors to stay and work in rural communities, and providing telehealth for more and more services than ever before.
We addressed the rising health care costs by ensuring finding ways to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, implementing crucial fertility coverage for parents, and providing fee relieve to our nurses, who have worked tirelessly over the past 2 years.
environmental protection
Coloradans are concerned about the impacts of climate change on our economy and environment. This session we were able to pass reasonable, science-based legislation to improve our air quality (SB22-193) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (SB22-051).
With record wildfires throughout the state, we passed a number of important bills to both prevent future wildfires, and provide resources to those most impacted by the fires that devastated our state this year. We provided more resources to firefighters across the state (SB22-002 and HB22-1194). Additionally, two of my own bills worked to incentivize wildfire mitigation efforts by both individuals and local governments (HB22-1011 and SB22-007).
Education
This year the legislature passed bills to fund Early Childhood Education and Universal Pre-K for Colorado’s youngest learners, invest in skills for Colorado’s emerging workforce, attract and retain early childhood and rural educators, and increase funding for special education within schools by $500 per student to ensure that every student receives the education they deserve, regardless of ability.
We also added an additional $182 million to buy-down the budget stabilization factor and better invest in our K-12 schools, increasing funding by $252 per student. With regards to higher education, we passed a number of bills making higher education more accessible for students with disabilities, including incentivizing institutions of higher learning to expand or create programs to serve those with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Saving Coloradans money
Between the COVID-19 pandemic, and rising rates of inflation, Coloradan’s are facing higher prices and more economic vulnerability than ever before. This year, we worked hard to come up with policies that will save Coloradans money and help our economy recover from the pandemic.
Throughout Colorado, communities are facing a serious affordable housing crisis. We invested a historic $428 million in an Affordable Housing Package, incentivizing developers and working to provide affordable housing to people across our state.
We provided property tax relief and sales tax relief to families and businesses to help them keep more money in their pockets.
As cost of living increases, it is imperative to ensure that we do everything we can to make our state more affordable. We created the Economic Mobility Program, which works to make Colorado more affordable and helps low-income families find the programs that they need.