The 120-day legislative session of the Colorado General Assembly is off to a busy start with over 300 bills already introduced. The 2022 legislative session began January 12th and will keep meeting until May 11th. This is just the beginning of the many bills we will see this year, as a typical legislative session may consider well over 600 pieces of legislation.
The Colorado Senate Leadership has also changed due to Senate President Leroy Garcia moving to the Biden administration in the Defense Department. As a result, new leaders were elected by their caucus this week, including Senate President Stephen Fenberg (D-Boulder), Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno (D-Commerce City), and Senator Rachel Zenzinger (D-Arvada) who is moving from her role as Education Committee Chair to the Joint Budget Committee.
The CLLC Advocacy Committee and Board of Directors have been meeting regularly as your volunteer leaders, working through the bills identified by our professional lobbyist, William Mutch with Mutch Government Relations, and we have already been at the table on legislation of interest this session.
One of these bills is HB 22-1082, which establishes a new Fair Housing Enforcement Division within the Colorado Attorney General’s office. Through our lobbying efforts, we were immediately at the table for a presentation on the bill (before it was introduced), and our input influenced two committee amendments, narrowing the scope of the legislation. Both amendments were adopted by the Judiciary Committee this week. Even with these amendments, we are concerned about the broad enforcement powers given to the Attorney General in this legislation and are working on additional recommendations we will be delivering to the Attorney General’s office and other legislators who agree this legislation is overly broad. While the stated focus is to only pursue complaints generated against those with a systemic history as “bad actors” in the landlord and property management space, we are concerned about creating overly vague enforcement powers that could generate frivolous investigations.
Just this week, the CLLC was also included in an early stakeholder meeting around approximately 50 pages of proposed bill language (in draft form and yet to be introduced) focused on mobile home parks and providers. While mobile homes are not our primary area of concern, the mobile home association is an effective housing ally at the statehouse, and onerous statutes for one type of provider can set the precedent and eventually become the industry-wide standard. One very concerning section would bring rent controls into the mobile home statutes, and we will be engaging to oppose this and other sections of this legislation as they are introduced.
We expect a package of at least four bills spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal COVID-19 relief on affordable housing programs ranging from grants and local governments to financial incentives for affordable housing projects and developments. We also expect legislation addressing “short-term rentals” with commercial property tax parity as one of the most discussed concerns. The Affordable Housing Task Force that met over the summer and fall also identified short-term rentals as a major concern for affordable housing availability, and there may be efforts to limit their proliferation as a rental option.
On the proactive side, the CLLC is supporting HB 22-1102 around fair housing protections for members of our military and veterans and was also included in the drafting review of SB 22-019 involving eviction records and has taken a neutral stand on this legislation.
As the legislature concludes its business with a mid-May adjournment, things will not slow down much this year, as one-half of the Colorado State Senate and every seat in the Colorado House of Representatives—as well as the Attorney General, State Treasurer, Secretary of State, and the Governor—will all be up for election. We will be shifting gears to track elections and candidates, and we thank you for your support of the CLLC and our essential advocacy programs.
Thank you again for your involvement and support!
William Mutch
Colorado Landlord Legislative Coalition Lobbyist
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