The sheet goes back 11 years, a third of Erin’s life. There are holes in the narrative: Her daughter is schizophrenic bipolar, Vassis said, and she’s moved around different parts of the country. Still, even incomplete, Vassis’ growing tracker provides a glimpse at the revolving doors that Erin and hundreds of other Coloradans are stuck in every year.

From April 2021 to April 2022, for instance, Erin spent 106 days bouncing between emergency rooms, detox facilities, hospital beds, homeless shelters and crisis centers. During that time, she never spent more than two weeks at a time in one hospital, Vassis said. Instead, she repeatedly was discharged within a fortnight, still unstable, thanks to a decades-old Medicaid rule that often forces the early discharge of low-income, mentally ill patients.

Vassis looks at the spreadsheet again. After one hospital stay in 2021, Erin was dropped at a bus stop. It was January, and other than a dog blanket that a passing stranger had given her, she was wearing only hospital scrubs.

“They just spit you out like you’re a throwaway human being,” Vassis said. “And that’s really tragic.”

Erin is one of 300 to 400 low-income Coloradans with severe mental illnesses who need longer hospital stays but don’t get them because Medicaid caps inpatient treatment at many psychiatric hospitals to 15 days per month, a requirement that advocates say is harming vulnerable patients and straining the broader public safety net. The patients, many of whom are homeless and are discharged before they’re fully stabilized, are left to tumble through jails and psychiatric evaluations, shelters and city streets, emergency rooms and nonprofit groups.

The details are maddening, providers and advocates said: If a patient stays at one facility for 10 days and another for six, neither hospital gets paid. Because the 15-day limit is based on a monthly clock, a patient’s length of stay is partially determined by when they are admitted. A patient admitted on Dec. 8 is likely to be out before Christmas, for instance. But a patient hospitalized on Dec. 18 can stay the rest of the month and then remain in the hospital when the countdown restarts on Jan. 1.

As the state broadly re-assesses its mental health system, a group of legislators, mental health advocates and parents are working to change the Medicaid mental health rule and provide 30 days of inpatient treatment to patients who need it. That requires a waiver from the federal government, plus $7.2 million in annual funding, according to projections provided to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing earlier this year. Nineteen other states have secured or are awaiting a final answer on similar waiver applications, according to KFF, a health policy think-tank.

With state Medicaid officials on board, Gov. Jared Polis allocated $2.5 million in his recent budget proposal to ensure hospitals are paid for 15 days, even if a patient stays a bit longer. Now, legislators and advocates are calling on the legislature to find the remaining $5 million to extend the program to a full month.

“That just seems like money well-spent,” said Rep. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat involved in the discussions. “That seems very inexpensive to me.”

The rule, advocates and lawmakers say, was well-intentioned: When Medicaid was established nearly 60 years ago, its architects didn’t want large mental hospitals to permanently warehouse vulnerable patients.

But as the decades have worn on, patients are increasingly bouncing between a series of institutions, like jails and emergency rooms, that were never intended to serve as regular pieces of the mental health puzzle. Psychiatric hospitals end up absorbing costs for longer patient stays, and some are cutting back on the number of beds they have available for the service because it isn’t economically viable, said Dr. Roderick O’Brien, the director of intensive treatment at Centennial Peaks Hospital in Louisville.

For patients who need more care, shorter stays exacerbate their illness. If they’re not fully stabilized, they may not understand the full breadth of their condition or the need to take medications, said Dr. Chelsea Wolf, the medical director for Denver Health’s inpatient psychiatric unit. Mental illnesses are “chronic, debilitating illnesses,” she said, and they will worsen over time if they’re not treated correctly and consistently.

Most patients don’t need lengthy inpatient treatment stays. But providers said it’s a vital option for those who do, especially if they’re unhoused or aren’t being treated elsewhere. O’Brien estimated that two-thirds of his patients with mental illnesses who decompensate — meaning their condition has worsened — need inpatient care for longer than two weeks.

“So the concern is that people’s health is not getting better,” said Vincent Atchity, the CEO and president of Mental Health Colorado. “They get discharged before they’re better and then, in short order, decompensate yet again and become vulnerable to other unfortunate outcomes, like prolonged periods of homelessness or harmful substance use or engagement in the criminal justice system.”

Those are the revolving doors that patients like Erin have been caught up in. The short stays then strain whichever institution next encounters the patient. Wolf, the Denver Health provider, said her hospital’s emergency room is “very, very, very frequently” filled with patients “who need ongoing psychiatric care and aren’t getting it.”

Others end up in jail. In one 12-month period several years ago, Vassis said, Erin was hospitalized nine times. In six of those cases, she was arrested within three days of being discharged. Erin was arrested again last year for breaking into her mother’s house. She is now waiting for a judge to determine if she’s competent to stand trial.

The state has a broader problem with delays within its competency system, through which people awaiting trial are psychiatrically evaluated. But that crisis overlaps with the Medicaid rule: Patients who were discharged early have ended up arrested and waiting in essentially the same hospital bed they’d been released from before, Amabile said. The difference is they were now caught up in the criminal justice system.

There are positive signs that legislators will set aside the needed money to give patients longer stays. Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat and the chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, said there was “great interest” in the idea. At a legislative meeting Thursday, she questioned the basic morality of discharging patients who need more care.

“Keeping people in the hospital for the time they need to get the care they need, instead of sending them out before they’re ready to go, only to recycle them and bring them right back when they relapse or something else happened… it seems like a good thing for us to do,” she said in an interview.

State Medicaid officials are on board with a change, too. They had discussed the problem before but didn’t pursue it because of the relatively small number of patients impacted by the rule — several hundred per year, though Amabile suspects it’s much higher.

But mounting frustration from advocates and hospitals, including from facilities with overwhelmed emergency rooms, prompted state regulators to throw their support behind expanding the rule. The health care policy and financing department can apply for a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this spring, depending on how much money is available. The approval process will take months.

“The reason we’re changing this policy is that we are concerned that the payment policy is driving clinical decisions,” Cristen Bates, the deputy Medicaid director here, said.

For Vassis, 30 days would be a good start. She doesn’t think it’s enough for people like her daughter, but it’s better than the status quo. Erin is creative, a painter. She’s curious about the world around her. When her illness is under control, she’s held jobs, lived on her own, gone to school. She just needs help staying stable.

“She’s someone who’s so at risk for recidivism and homelessness, it’s not even funny,” Vassis said. “If they can’t get her in the real world, she doesn’t have a chance.”

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The “Roadmap to Colorado’s Future: 2026” lays out six broad objectives, largely targeted at increasing housing supply and affordability while seeking to dovetail those efforts with improved access to transit and the state’s climate goals. Polis unveiled the plan at an affordable apartment complex near a transit stop in Lakewood, highlighting the connection he’s made in developing more transit and more housing.

Though the governor repeatedly stressed the roadmap as a vision for the state to pursue, the 34-page document further cemented Polis’ broader desire to reform land use and zoning across Colorado, along with calls for more strategic growth to maximize resources, prepare for wildfires and protect the state’s outdoor areas.

Zoning reform and coordinated strategic planning are policy solutions that the governor and other Democrats see as a panacea to several of the state’s current and future ills, from climate change to housing and transit development to water limitations. The roadmap comes seven months after Polis’ marquee zoning proposal collapsed in the Capitol and four weeks before legislators return to Denver to debate the issue at length once again.

“We have too many obstructions that get in the way of building more homes, especially starter homes — homes in the 200 (thousand), 300 (thousand) range, multifamily and apartments,” Polis said in an interview. His office previously released similar roadmaps to address climate change. “What we’re really seeking to do is create a vision, a compelling vision, for Colorado’s future that’s more livable, more affordable, protects our water and our open space.”

The plan, which is pegged to the state’s 150th birthday as well as the end of Polis’ second term in 2026, details a list of worrying data points about Colorado’s present and future: The state, Polis’ office wrote, is the 12th most expensive for renters and sixth most expensive for homebuyers. Nearly three-quarters of renters making less than $75,000 spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Crop land is decreasing. Homelessness has increased.

What’s more, the report notes, the state is going to continue growing. Thirty-five thousand new households are expected to move here each year through the end of this decade.

“Unless we direct this growth in thoughtful ways, and build enough housing in existing communities and near job centers, this reality will drive up the cost of housing and put additional pressure on open space, our quality of life, affordability, and our environment,” Polis’ office wrote.

Collaboration with local governments

To hit the broader vision, the roadmap calls for eliminating exclusionary zoning practices and promoting a mix of housing types, a nod to the need for condos and multi-unit buildings, as opposed to single-family homes. Polis specifically called out making it easier for Coloradans to build accessory-dwelling units, also known as carriages houses or granny flats. ADUs are regulated differently across the state. Polis set aside money in his budget proposal to subsidize ADU construction, and a bill to allow for the building of more ADUs is expected to be introduced in the coming legislative session.

Other strategies include updating housing regulations and modernizing “regulatory and zoning policy”; supporting expedited local government permitting and housing construction; and focusing on more walkable neighborhoods and development near existing and future transit corridors.

While acknowledging that more renewable and electric energy will be a “major” part of the state’s climate change strategy, the roadmap argues that “the design of both buildings and transit systems over the coming years will have pollution, traffic and cost-of-living implications for decades, further emphasizing the importance of expanded transit and smart building design.”

In a way, the Lakewood development where Polis unveiled the plan Thursday is a perfect synthesis of land-use reformers’ ideals. The building charges $950 a month to rent a one-bedroom unit, and it’s available to people making 30% to 60% of the area’s median income. It’s near public transit and neighborhood schools. It also has baked-in requirements to keep it available for lower-income renters. Affordable housing advocates have repeatedly said they support land-use reforms, so long as they include affordability requirements.

Local governments, meanwhile, were strident critics earlier this year of the governor’s proposed land-use reforms, which would’ve legalized ADUs across the state and eased zoning restrictions in transit areas. They promise to be similarly opposed in 2024, arguing that zoning decisions are best made by local officials.

Polis said his plan doesn’t focus solely on zoning reform and noted that he was seeking to collaborate with local governments, including with millions of dollars in incentives to make reforms more palatable. His roadmap includes several examples of local governments’ own efforts to improve housing, and he and other speakers pitched the roadmap as a collaborative vision.

“Your skepticism is not just valid — it’s essential,” Peter LiFari, who runs Adams County’s housing authority, said of reform skeptics. “…How do we navigate growth without forsaking the essence of our Coloradan identity?”

Polis and other proponents of reform have argued that the housing crisis — and the broader climate and water challenges facing Colorado — don’t care about city or county boundaries and that coordination, including on a statewide level, is required to provide more housing and improve transit.

“Move as fast as possible”

Polis pitched his vision as a roadmap not just for the coming decades but for the rest of his term, though he said Thursday that there weren’t specific benchmarks to judge if his roadmap is coming to fruition.

Proponents acknowledge that land-use reforms take time to bear fruit. But there’s an urgent need in Colorado for renter relief now: Evictions are surging across the state and have already hit record levels in Denver. Polis’ roadmap encourages interventions to prevent and reduce homelessness, but it otherwise focuses on his preferred, supply-side solution to the housing crisis of development and strategic growth.

“We are going to partner with the legislature and with local government to implement this roadmap,” the governor said. “We believe that Colorado needs to move as fast as possible and, in a perfect world, we would have moved a couple of years ago on this route, but it’s not too late.”

Echoing what land-use reformers have long advocated, the roadmap argues that improved transit availability can cut down on car pollution and ease congestion. Polis’ office argues that the state “should be on the forefront of rail infrastructure in the United States,” and Polis touted the $500,000 in seed money that the state will receive from the federal government to bolster a Front Range passenger rail system.

The roadmap calls for increasing transit options; improving new and existing networks while planning for new ones; and promoting a complete and connected system.

“Zoning is a part of any discussion, but it’s a lot broader than zoning,” Polis said. “It’s about tax credits for placemaking, including art spaces. It’s about reforming and investing in transit. It’s about Front Range rail. It’s about the kind of Colorado that we want to live in. That saves people time and money, reduces traffic improves air quality, and it’s fundamentally more affordable.”

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It’s unclear how many people were on the bus. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who was at the Capitol as the bus was unloading about 8:30 a.m., estimated the number of people onboard at 40 to 50. She directed them into the building to get warm while officials coordinated the next steps.

Gonzales said some of the migrants told her they’d come from Eagle Pass, a Texas town near the border with Mexico. Evan Dreyer, a deputy chief of staff to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, said he hadn’t received confirmation about the circumstances of the bus trip but that it matched a recent pattern of buses arriving from the border state.

“The state of Texas, the governor’s office, has contracted with two or three different bus companies to transport migrants out of Texas to various locations around the country, Denver being one of those locations,” Dreyer said. “That’s our understanding, and that’s how this has operated for several months. Denver has received more than 200 charter buses direct from Texas over the last six months.”

Spokespersons for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not return requests for comment Monday.

Gonzales said the migrants she spoke to told her they were from Venezuela. More than 29,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, have arrived in Denver since December 2022, after groups of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border began overwhelming Texas cities. Many of the migrants have fled widespread violence and economic instability in the South American country, often traveling through Central America on foot.

Dreyer said city officials repeatedly have requested that arriving buses take migrants to Union Station or a city intake center, but those requests have been ignored. Migrants have been dropped off near city and county buildings, though Dreyer said he believed Monday was the first time people have been left at the state Capitol.

The migrants were later directed to the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office a few blocks away, Dreyer said.

Gonzales praised city officials for their work in helping migrants in recent months.

But Dreyer criticized the decision to drop the migrants in Denver without coordination or cold-weather clothing. Temperatures in Denver were in the low to mid-40s Monday morning.

“These are folks who have come from the Texas border after long journeys, and they are not prepared for cold weather,” he said. “And to drop them off like that, just randomly, in the cold — in the freezing cold — is inhumane, dangerous and it puts their lives at risk. It’s shameful.”

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And all were from Pueblo or other parts of southern Colorado, driven up Interstate 25 by independent transportation contractors who suddenly had flooded the state’s Medicaid system.

As clinics scrambled to process the patients, they thought it was odd so many were coming from outside of metro Denver — especially while clinics were open and waiting in southern Colorado, some recalled later to The Denver Post. Providers at the methadone facilities, which are tightly regulated and highly stigmatized, made note of the vehicles dropping off these new patients: new SUVs with temporary tags, driven by men who often spoke accented English and who all had enrolled in a lucrative program that paid them to drive patients to the doctor.

The drivers billed Medicaid for every mile they drove, on a per-patient basis. The more-than-200-mile round trip between Pueblo and Denver, with a packed car, could net well over $10,000 a day.

State officials now believe the drivers were part of a coordinated Medicaid scheme that exploited the most vulnerable Coloradans and the medical system designed to keep them healthy. In a matter of months, officials say, scores of drivers are believed to have flouted Medicaid rules and the law, bilking a program that providers say is vital — and which auditors previously flagged as needing tighter scrutiny.

The Post’s reporting found that drivers appeared to share the opportunity by word of mouth and often registered new businesses using the same address. And recent changes to Medicaid, intended to bolster the program here and improve access to drug treatment, increased the money-making potential.

“The organized fraud scheme and the number of individuals that have come into this state in a coordinated fashion is unprecedented,” said Kim Bimestefer, the executive director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which oversees Colorado’s Medicaid program.

The total cost remains unclear as state officials review thousands of Medicaid claims, a process that’s expected to take weeks. The scheme was caught in a matter of months, but in that short time, Bimestefer said, it likely cost the state millions of dollars.

The alleged fraud went beyond taking advantage of permissive rules, officials said, potentially violating both state and federal law.

Bimestefer said she contacted the FBI and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office after learning about the scheme. Both agencies declined to confirm to The Post if they were investigating.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also was alerted, Bimestefer said. On Oct. 1, the agency accepted Colorado officials’ request to block any more drivers from enrolling in the transportation program. The state is now working to tighten its enrollment requirements.

Long-distance patients — many of whom, providers said, were being manipulated and weren’t yet ready to start treatment of their own volition — have since stopped coming to metro Denver clinics.

The Post interviewed more than 20 treatment providers, Medicaid officials, drivers and harm-reduction advocates who described the scheme. Though methadone clinics were an attractive target because patients initially needed to visit daily, state officials said the alleged fraud covered a broad array of the health care system — including routine doctor’s visits and hospital discharges.

One man who uses fentanyl and is unhoused said he was picked up from an encampment in Pueblo every morning before the sun rose. The Post was connected to him by a harm-reduction advocate in the city who also was familiar with the transportation scheme. The man asked not to be identified because of his substance use.

The man said he was paid $100 a day to ride in a vehicle to a methadone clinic in Aurora, packed in with as many as nine other people. This went on six days a week for five months. Pueblo patients could be paid between $50 for riding to Colorado Springs and $200 for riding to metro Denver or beyond, he and others with knowledge of the incentives said.

Sometimes, he said, one of the other patients in the car would sell fentanyl pills to the riders.

“I started it because I wanted to get off the blues and get a job,” the man said, using the slang term for fentanyl pills. “I mean, $100 a day was nice, but that’s not going to pay the bills, you know? It was barely buying lunch and dinner.”

The man has since been dropped by his driver and is no longer receiving treatment.

Floodgates opened in the spring

Several drivers and health care officials described similar incentives paid to the passengers.

Providers who noticed the unusual carpools soon began asking questions, with some saying they found the drivers argumentative. Denise Vincioni, the regional director for Denver Recovery Group, which operates methadone clinics across the Front Range, said patients often had a rotating set of explanations about why they’d come so far for treatment. New patients began arriving in groups in July at the company’s Colfax and Littleton locations.

“So it was plausible — kind of, sort of believable,” she said. “It didn’t dawn on us that this was something else,” at least initially. But Vincioni said her clinic quickly stopped accepting the new patients and reported her concerns to Medicaid.

State authorities had been alerted to the scheme as early as May by a Denver homeless services nonprofit.

Cathy Alderman, the spokeswoman and chief public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said the organization told the state about its concerns after vanloads of patients with similar stories arrived at the coalition’s Stout Street Health Center, which offers drug treatment.

The clinic was among the first in the state to be targeted, Alderman said, citing discussions with other health clinics. But soon, carloads arrived at methadone clinics elsewhere in Denver, in Littleton and in Aurora, providers at those facilities said.

Some methadone clinics in Denver became overwhelmed or stopped accepting patients from Pueblo because they suspected fraud. Drivers would then switch to another clinic, the providers said.

It’s unclear how many patients were transported as part of the scheme.

Angela Bonaguidi, who works for the University of Colorado’s Addiction Research and Treatment Services program and leads the state’s opioid treatment trade group, said she estimated 500 to 600 patients were involved. At Denver Health’s methadone clinic, program supervisor Shannon Unger said the facility saw dozens of new patients in August.

Bonaguidi said drivers directly solicited patients, often recruiting one patient who then would recruit others.

“You’re talking about individuals that are unhoused, that are in the throes of their addiction, and I think waving a couple hundred dollars in front of a person who is actively using is a large incentive,” she said.

Adam Weldemeskel, who had driven for a larger established transportation provider in Denver, said he launched his own business after hearing how much money drivers could make working in southern Colorado. Rumors had spread about drivers making $100,000 a week, he said.

But Medicaid rejected his and other drivers’ recent applications, those drivers told the Post, because of fraud concerns within the program.

“What (drivers) say is like, one guy figured out he could do things like this … and they told their friends — and it essentially got out of control,” said Weldemeskel. He said he never engaged in fraudulent activity.

In nine central Colorado counties, Medicaid transport is overseen by one company, IntelliRide. In all other counties, independent companies — sometimes staffed by just one driver — enroll with Medicaid and then strike out on their own.

They advertise to potential clients and to hospitals and medical clinics.

Among the requirements they must satisfy is passing an on-site inspection handled by a third-party contractor. Weldemeskel said his inspection consisted of a video call in which he pointed the camera into his car, at his name on the building directory for the limited space he was renting, and at a lockable filing cabinet that he said he was required to have.

Dozens of drivers registered their businesses to the same address in Colorado Springs, a shared office space that charged $150 a month for a desk, according to Weldemeskel and Dejene Mekonnen, another prospective driver who spoke to The Post.

Leslie Stevens, the landlord for the Colorado Springs building, also described the video call inspection process. She said she’d tried to work with Medicaid to ensure that the drivers, who were proving to be consistent tenants, complied with the rules and could stay in business.

“These people all live in the same community. Most are family. They all know each other. They communicate,” Stevens said. “Word (of the opportunity) spreads like wildfire, so we provided the office space.”

Many of the drivers believed to be involved in the scheme spoke a language common in Ethiopia, Bimestefer said, and they used similar bank information.

But the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing declined to provide names or information about drivers suspected of fraud, citing the ongoing investigations.

Alleged fraud exploited Medicaid changes

The scheme took advantage of multiple recent changes to the transportation program.

Colorado lawmakers repeatedly have increased Medicaid reimbursement rates since the pandemic began, in a bid to boost the health care system that treats vulnerable Coloradans. Medicaid officials had expected that bump to draw in more providers, but they took notice when scores signed up in a matter of months this year.

And in early 2023, the state agreed to ease a geographic limitation, allowing patients to travel farther to seek drug treatment, Bonaguidi and Vincioni said.

After the fraud was discovered, the providers said, the state reinstituted a 25-mile cap on travel.

State and federal auditors previously have raised concerns about the program’s vulnerabilities. Federal regulators examined programs in several states last year and determined that varying proportions of transportation claims failed to comply with federal requirements — ranging from a low of 14% in one state to a high of 86% in another one.

A Colorado audit, released in 2021, found the state had paid out more than $5 million for claims that may not have been compliant — roughly 15% of the $33 million paid during a seven-month period.

Bimestefer, the head of the health policy and finance department, said the scheme in Colorado was related in some way to fraud detected earlier this year in Arizona and New Mexico. In those cases, low-income patients were targeted and driven to fake drug treatment facilities in Phoenix.

But she suspected Colorado detected its scam early. Medicaid officials say roughly 130 drivers are believed to have participated.

The state’s investigation and pause on enrollment of drivers “allowed us to stop 632 more providers who had the same demographics from coming into our network,” Bimestefer said.

“That’s why we’re saying this is unprecedented,” she added.

Providers said the scheme put patients’ health at risk, including the drug users. Even if they benefited from treatment, receiving it 100 miles from home wasn’t a recipe for long-term recovery.

“This was the most vulnerable population, and so it makes them an easy target,” said Bonaguidi, the University of Colorado provider. “This situation increases stigma for opioid treatment programs specifically, and patients receiving medications for opioid-use disorder and treatment for opioid-use disorder.”

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The money, passed by lawmakers during a special session last week, will nearly double the $35 million already available in the current fiscal year for state rental aid. It bolsters the state’s ability to keep people in rental housing after the hundreds of millions of dollars received by the state in federal pandemic-era aid funds has run dry.

“The state’s investment in emergency rental aid will help nearly 6,000 households avoid eviction,” estimated Zach Neumann, the co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project, which distributes rental aid for at-risk tenants. “It’s a meaningful commitment to keeping our neighbors housed.”

Under the legislation, the state must spend the money by June 30, when the fiscal year ends.

The $30 million approved by lawmakers and Polis will provide $10 million more than the state would have spent under Proposition HH, the property tax relief ballot measure rejected by Colorado voters in the Nov. 7 election. The state’s new investment comes as Denver, facing a record-breaking eviction wave, has budgeted nearly $30 million next year to help local tenants through a city rental assistance program.

The new state money will be sent to the state’s Department of Local Affairs. It will contract with nonprofit groups across the state to distribute money to landlords who have low-income tenants facing eviction.

“While we continue to work on long term solutions to lower housing costs and reduce evictions, this is a critical way we can get immediate relief directly to the families that need it most,” Sen. Janet Buckner, an Aurora Democrat, said in a statement. She co-sponsored the bill with fellow Democratic Sen. Julie Gonzales and Reps. Leslie Herod and Mandy Lindsay.

After Proposition HH failed and Polis announced a mid-November special session, progressive lawmakers and their allies had prioritized a boost in rental aid as part of a broader effort to deliver relief to lower-income earners. Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, told fellow Democrats before the special session that an “overarching theme” from Proposition HH’s failure, in her view, was a “need to address support for renters.”

Other legislators and housing advocates pointed out that policymakers had rushed to insulate property owners from the same cost increases that renters have weathered for years.

In Denver, city officials expect eviction filings to surpass 12,000 this year, the most since at least 2008, which is as far back as the city keeps records. Statewide, evictions are higher than before the pandemic.

The rental aid bill was one of seven approved during the special session. As the four-day session ended Nov. 20, Polis signed four bills, including the marquee measure aimed at blunting the impact of expected property tax increases coming early next year by changing residential deductions and assessment rates. Others will provide uniform refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which will increase the returns for most taxpayers; will expand the Earned Income Tax Credit; and will increase staffing to support a tax deferral program.

On Tuesday, Polis signed the rental measure and two other bills: one signing the state up for a federal program that will provide summer meals for children and another that will create a task force to study long-term property tax solutions.

“This special session was about delivering relief for hardworking Coloradans,” Polis said in a news release.

Polis and legislative leaders say the task force, which is set to include several county commissioners, will begin meeting in December and will report its recommendations to lawmakers by March 15.

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Two bills are already headed to Gov. Jared Polis to sign into law, while another five — including Democrats’ short-term property tax fix — are awaiting critical votes in the House and Senate in the next 24 hours. All are Democrat-led and represent an attempt to turn Proposition HH’s failure into a broader balm to housing and cost issues plaguing homeowners and renters alike.

“We don’t have to choose,” Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, said on the Senate floor Sunday afternoon. “We have a chance to do both. We can help homeowners who are struggling with a dramatic increase in property taxes, and we can help renters who are struggling with a dramatic increase in the rent they’re paying.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have roundly criticized their Democratic peers for not advancing enough property tax relief, for dismissing Republican-backed bills and for leveraging the looming property tax hikes to pull a broader array of economic levers.

“The voters have asked us to come and do simple and clean property tax relief, and instead we’re passing rental assistance bills and food bills and all these different bills,” Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Littleton Republican, said Sunday morning as the chamber debated a measure to set aside $30 million in rental aid.

Polis is expected to sign the two bills that have passed both chambers. One would expand staffing within the state’s Treasury Department for a property tax deferral program, and the other would double the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit program. That would direct $182.5 million toward lower-income workers, particularly those with children, next year. A handful of other measures, including one to send equal refund checks distributed under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to all taxpayers, are expected to pass Monday.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ primary tax relief bill, which would decrease a home’s value for the purposes of taxation while cutting the assessment rate, cleared the Senate after a technical amendment and began its final advance through the House. The measure would blunt property tax increases, though taxes are still set to go up compared to what homeowners paid last year.

After passing a pair of initial House committees, the bill hit the House floor Sunday night. Republicans lined up to criticize it for not providing enough relief, while Democrats countered that the measure was a compromise and a starting point. Lawmakers are also working on a bill to form a task force focused on a long-term property tax solution.

Minority Leader Mike Lynch, the top Republican in the House, said he was encouraged that the House was finally discussing property tax relief. But he said he was “disappointed” that the bill didn’t do more, particularly for commercial property owners.

“I think we can do better,” added Assistant Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican. “I think we can give more property tax relief.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie said there wasn’t enough funding available to extend relief to commercial properties, too, and House Democrats — called by Republicans to expand the relief — repeatedly pressed Republicans to explain how they proposed to pay for it.

“We’re going to keep debating wholly unserious proposals for the rest of the evening,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat. “And I just want to ask the question: How much does it cost? Where is the money coming from?”

Paying for the property tax cuts has been a delicate balance. Democrats have refused to touch their rainy day fund, citing the need to stay prepared for any future economic downturns. Republicans, meanwhile, have said the relief shouldn’t come from the state’s TABOR surplus (as Proposition HH largely proposed to do) because of voters’ rejection of the ballot measure.

The result, Democratic legislators say, is the current plan: just shy of $200 million in general fund money. Still, Republicans have repeatedly sought to suggest the money will come from the state’s TABOR surplus.

It’s true that $240 million in property tax relief, passed in a different bill with broad bipartisan support in 2022, is pulled from the surplus. But the relief contemplated now does not come from TABOR, according to a nonpartisan analysis by legislative staff.

“We are here to deliver significant tax relief and our colleagues across the aisle are about to vote no,” said Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, before a Senate floor vote. “We are significantly expanding the tax relief to the lowest-income households in the state with this bill within the means that we have.”

The House had not fully voted on the property tax bill by press time Sunday night, though the measure is almost certain to clear the chamber. The session is expected to conclude Monday, four days after it began. The House was set to work late Sunday night to tee up final votes on the handful of lingering measures.

Those remaining bills — all of which are expected to make it to Polis’ desk — include a proposal to direct $30 million in rental aid in the first six months of 2024. That funding would go to nonprofit organizations and, in turn, to landlords to prevent at-risk tenants from being evicted. Rental aid has been a priority for progressive lawmakers, who have routinely noted that renters have faced regular cost increases in recent years.

“I just have to add my frustration with this again as a renting Coloradan, how quickly we will jump for property owners,” Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat who voted in support of the property tax bill, said.

While Republicans have opposed the rental assistance bill, Democrats argued that, with at least 34% of Coloradans being renters and evictions surging, the money is needed.

“And since we’re already here, working for the people, listening to what their needs are, we should pass the piece of legislation while we are here,” Democratic Sen. Janet Buckner of Aurora said. “A couple of months from now may not be soon enough for some people.”

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The House’s Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee advanced the measure on a 9-4 party-line vote. The vote was a forgone conclusion, given Democrats’ control of the committee, but the debate continued an ongoing messaging war between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans have argued that the state is using TABOR dollars to pay for property tax relief. That’s technically true, but not because of anything Democrats are proposing now. The legislature passed a property tax relief bill 18 months ago, with robust bipartisan support, that dipped into the TABOR surplus to pay for it.

What Democrats are now proposing — and advancing — doesn’t use any TABOR money. It instead relies on less than $200 million from the legislature’s primary bank account, the general fund, rather than the surplus set to go back to taxpayers. Republicans’ assertions and Democrats’ repeated rebuttals have played prominently throughout the bill’s debate all weekend and are likely to do so again as the full House takes up the measure tonight.

Updated at 1:10 p.m.: The Senate passed the most contentious bill of the session on third reading with a technical amendment this afternoon.

SB23B-001 will increase the residential property value deduction for taxes to $55,000 for multifamily and single-family residential properties and decrease the residential assessment rate. It would also widen criteria for local taxing districts that would qualify for full reimbursement of lost property tax dollars because of state cuts to the formula.

The amendment that the Senate passed before the third reading vote was a technical one, at the request of the bill drafters. But that didn’t stop Republicans from voting against the amendment — and of course, the bill itself.

The bill will now work its way through the House before any final votes.

Updated at 11:30 a.m.: Two of the seven Democratic-backed priority bills are headed to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk after the state Senate voted to approve them Sunday morning. HB23B-1002 doubles the earned income tax credit for 2023, and HB23B-1008 appropriates money to the state Department of Treasury to staff the property tax deferral program.

The Senate passed the bills on a party-line vote after starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, with Republicans in opposition. The bills passed without changes or amendments, making the voice votes their final hurdle before getting Polis’ signature.

For more than an hour following those votes, the Senate has been in recess, discussing proposed changes to SB23B-001, the property tax relief bill. After that, the Senate will give the bill a third and final vote before sending it to the House committees and chamber for approval.

Updated at 11:05 a.m.: The Capitol is off and running this morning on what is likely the special session’s penultimate day. In the House, the Democratic majority comfortably passed a bill to send $30 million in rental aid to keep at-risk tenants housed. The money, which nearly doubles the state’s overall rental assistance fund, must be doled out to nonprofits (who will in turn direct it to landlords) by the end of June.

While Republicans criticized Proposition HH for not doing enough for renters (a frustration shared by their progressive opponents), House Republicans unanimously opposed the rental assistance bill. Democrats said it will help protect at-risk renters while making landlords whole.

Rep. Mandy Lindsay, an Aurora Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said she regularly sees unhoused Coloradans bedding down for the night in doorways and beneath bushes on her drive home at night.

“When I see that, I feel like a failure as a neighbor, as a community member … and as a legislator,” she said.

Original story: The Colorado legislature is convening this morning for the third day of its special session on property taxes and other forms of relief for Coloradans burdened by the rising cost of living.

With the House already meeting, the Senate was set to convene later this morning. They sit near the midpoint of the session, with the House already having passed several bills and sent them to the Senate — and the Senate set to take final votes today on two tax-related bills it originated, sending them to the House for immediate consideration.

If all goes as planned, after a hiccup in the Senate’s timing on Friday night, the legislature will finish the session on Monday.

The special session was called by Gov. Jared Polis in response to voters’ rejection of Proposition HH in the Nov. 7 election. The measure, championed by Polis and Democratic legislative leaders, had aimed to reduce the size of coming property tax increases that are driven by recent increases in property values across the state that average about 40% at the median.

Prop. HH also would have sent state money to school districts and local governments and special districts that rely on property tax revenue for their budgets.

The most contentious bill of the special session — the one that led the Republican minority in the Senate to attempt to slow the process Friday — passed a key voice vote in the chamber on Saturday that all but secured its passage. A final vote still needs to happen Sunday.

In one of the key proposed changes, Democratic sponsors on Saturday increased the amount of residential property value that can be deducted before the rest of the property tax formula is applied to determine a homeowner’s tax bill. Under the amendment, the deduction, which is currently $15,000, would rise to $55,000, rather than $50,000 as originally proposed in the bill.

The Denver Post looked at the state of other major legislation, along with the potential impact on homeowners, renters and lower-income taxpayers, in a story published Saturday night.

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But it wasn’t quiet. The House started Saturday with a group of pro-Palestine protesters interrupting the chamber’s morning work with calls for lawmakers to denounce Israel’s military campaign and urge a cease-fire. After the group was escorted out, Democratic leaders repeatedly tussled with Republicans who ignored those leaders’ directions to follow House rules. As a result, Democrats refused to recognize one Republican — Colorado Springs Rep. Scott Bottoms — for the rest of the day, meaning he wasn’t able to speak at the chamber’s mic.

Gov. Jared Polis called the special session in the aftermath of Proposition HH’s failure this month. The Democratic majority had hoped for a three-day gathering to hammer out some form of property tax relief as well as other proposals they argue will ease the rising cost of living in the state.

Republicans had led the charge against Proposition HH and cite its near 20 percentage-point loss as evidence voters don’t support Democratic priorities that echo proposals in that measure — and that they don’t want their tax refunds messed with.

Democratic leaders argued the proposition was too big and complicated to divine a single intent from voters, and that their new property tax proposal doesn’t tap into the refunds. And with majorities in both chambers, Democrats shot down Republican proposals and forged ahead with their own, including an increase to tax credits for low-income workers, more money for emergency rental assistance, and equal refunds, regardless of income level.

Here’s where those proposals stood as of early Saturday evening.

Immediate property tax rate reduction

The most contentious bill of the session – the one that led the Republican minority in the Senate to throw down a gauntlet on its first night – passed a key voice vote in the chamber that all but secured its passage. A formal vote still needs to happen Sunday, and then it needs to work through the House.

Democratic sponsors said they were able to stretch the $200 million previously set aside for property tax reduction a touch further than earlier projections. The amended proposal increases the value reduction for tax purposes from $50,000 to $55,000. It would save the owner of a $500,000 house, with an average mill levy rate, about $28 more a year, for a total of about $255 reduction in their annual property tax bill.

It also widens the criteria for local taxing districts that would qualify for full reimbursement of lost property tax dollars because of state cuts to the formula.

Republicans still fought the bill as much as they could from the minority position, arguing the state should instead dip into reserves to pay for property tax changes and past bills that used TABOR refunds to ease property taxes should be reworked.

Free summer meals for children of low-income families

While property taxes have dominated the conversation in the Capitol, the special session also is poised to allow Colorado to claim first-in-the-nation status for a $42 million summer meal program for children in low-income families. It would cost the state $6.7 million, and the program would begin next summer.

The federal program provides a $40-per-month food stipend for three summer months when children aren’t in school. The federal pool would pay for the stipend for up to 350,000 children. The state would need to establish criteria and an outreach program as part of the bill.

The bill also represents a moment of near-unanimity during what’s been a rancorous special session. The House still needs to consider it, although it’s not expected to raise temperatures there.

“This policy is an example of when two opposing parties can work together, how you can accomplish good things,” state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said. “It does stand a little apart from some of the noise down here, which is more exciting and gets more attention. For me, it’s a little bit of hope that we can still continue to function as the state government as opposed to the intractable mess that you see at the federal level.”

Rental assistance

As part of a broader commitment by Democrats to expand this special session’s relief beyond just property owners, the House green-lit a bill that would set aside $30 million in rental assistance to help keep at-risk renters from being evicted through the first six months of 2024.

Under the bill, renters below 80% of their area’s median income would qualify if they were at imminent risk of eviction or displacement. As the federal aid has dried up, evictions have shot up in Denver and across the state. Advocates have said those trends have led to increased homelessness.

If passed, that addition would be a big boost: It would nearly double the state’s rental aid budget, bumping it to $65 million. That’s still shy of the approximately $20 million the state was distributing every month in rental assistance during the pandemic, although that money largely came from federal pandemic stimulus.

The money from the bill would be distributed by nonprofit groups to landlords. The state would have to dole out the cash to those nonprofits before June 30, when the state’s fiscal year ends.

“People across the state live on the brink and are one job loss away, or one emergency away, from losing the roof over their head,” said Rep. Mandy Lindsay, an Aurora Democrat and the bill’s cosponsor.

“We can do something about it, right here, right now.”

Expanded tax credits

The bill passed by the House on Saturday expands the state’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. As it stands, working and lower-income Coloradans get a 25% match on their federal EITC. For next year only, Democrats are proposing to spend $185 million in TABOR surplus money on upping the state match to 50%.

To put it in simple numbers: If you get a $4,000 federal tax credit under the program, this bill would mean the state would add an additional $2,000. Currently, the match would be $1,000.

The increase would benefit more than 400,000 families in the state, according to one of the House sponsors, Rep. Mary Young. Eligibility depends on how much you earn, how many children you have and whether you’re filing your taxes alone or as a joint filer. But generally it applies to lower-income workers.

Equal tax refunds

Another plank in the Democrats’ spread-relief-around platform: flattening TABOR for all income levels next year. That would do away with the six-tier system temporarily, giving a boost to most taxpayers in the state.

Exact figures are up in the air because the tax credit measure would affect the size of the TABOR surplus and, thus, the size of the checks. But Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, one of the bill’s sponsors, said Friday that the refunds would be more than $800 per recipient. His cosponsor, Sen. Janice Marchman, said the increase would benefit nearly 90% of single taxpayers and more than 50% of joint-tax filers.

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The Senate was also nearing an end to its first blush of work, with the primary property tax bill set for a final vote Sunday. Senate committees are set to begin working the bills passed by the House heading into Saturday evening.

Updated at 12:26 p.m.: The Senate doesn’t get to have all the fun. The House, amid some increasing tension between the majority Democrats and minority Republicans, passed a bill to double the state’s match for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The program will primarily benefit low-income families and workers — as many as 400,000, Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat, said in a statement.

The bill still needs approval by the Senate.

“This special session is not exclusively about property owners,” Rep. Jenny Willford, the bill’s other sponsor, said. “It’s about bringing together a package of bills to provide necessary relief to our entire state.”

Updated at 11:40 a.m.: In a show that not everything at the Capitol is a political cage match, a bill to provide food to children in low-income households over the summer sailed through the Senate. The bill costs the state $6.7 million this fiscal year and $4.5 million in the next. In return, up to $42 million in federal benefits will help feed up to 350,000 children. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Rachel Zenzinger and Jeff Bridges, both Democrats, and won near-unanimous support. It now heads to the House of Representatives.

“This policy is an example of when two opposing parties can work together, how you can accomplish good things,” Zenzinger, of Aravada, said. “It does stand a little apart from some of the noise down here, which is more exciting and gets more attention. For me, it’s a little bit of hope that we can still continue to function as the state government as opposed to the intractable mess that you see at the federal level.”

Updated at 9:46 a.m.: A group of pro-Palestine protestors briefly interrupted the Colorado House of Representatives on Saturday morning, shouting from the balcony overlooking the House floor and calling for lawmakers to support a ceasefire in Gaza.

Lawmakers had just reconvened for the morning when a small group of protesters unfurled Palestinian flags and a banner calling for an end to Israel’s occupation while one man shouted for lawmakers to condemn Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Troopers from the Colorado State Patrol, who oversee security in the Capitol, shepherded the dozen or so protesters out of the balcony area. The group then began to chant from the building’s interior, watched by law enforcement.

A group of Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Iman Jodeh, Tim Hernandez, Jen Bacon and Javier Mabrey — spoke with the group, and one of the House’s sergeants — the chamber’s quasi-security force — told the protesters they could go down to a basement room to talk further with legislators.

Shortly after, the chanting restarted, including with a promise to return to protest again. The troopers then directed the group into a stairwell and out of the building.

The scene was similar to when a group of student protesters, urging lawmakers to take action on gun violence, shouted down from the House balcony last spring. Law enforcement and building security drew criticism in the wake of that incident after they physically carried one shouting student from the balcony.

The House remained in recess 45 minutes after, as tensions over the policy issue of the day — property taxes — flared up in the wake of the protests.

Original story: Colorado lawmakers are convening for the second day of a special session Saturday as they advance legislation that aims to provide property tax relief, flatten state tax refunds and provide more aid aimed at preventing evictions for renters.

Friday’s opening day featured quick work by committees to advance the majority Democrats’ bills — while also rejecting Republican-sponsored legislation. Tangling over the expedited three-day schedule erupted in a Senate floor dispute Friday night between Republicans and Democrats, resulting in contested rules votes and a delay that will likely extend the session into Monday.

On Saturday, the Senate plans to convene mid-morning and hold preliminary floor votes on legislation. The House aims to take final votes on bills introduced in that chamber, sending them to the Senate.

The special session that began Friday was called by Gov. Jared Polis in response to voters’ rejection of Proposition HH in the Nov. 7 election. The measure, championed by Polis and Democratic legislative leaders, had aimed to reduce the size of coming property tax increases that are driven by recent increases in property values across the state that average about 40% at the median.

Prop. HH also would have provided compensation to school districts and local governments and special districts that rely on property tax revenue for their budgets.

Now lawmakers are pursuing a similar strategy, though the changes would apply only for the coming year. The direct property tax relief provisions match those proposed in Prop. HH for residential properties, though the “backfill” provisions for local entities differ.

Disagreements around Prop. HH and the election results have played into this weekend’s legislative debates.

GOP lawmakers argue that the measure’s loss, by nearly 19 percentage points, shows voters don’t want legislators to divert money away from tax refunds due to them from the state’s surplus under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.

Democrats are eyeing the surplus, including to cover a boost in the Earned Income Tax Credit. But for direct property tax relief, they have proposed drawing from $200 million previously set aside by the legislature for help on property taxes.

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The beginning of the special session chugged along for most of the day, as Democrats, who hold wide majorities in the legislature, planned for a three-day sprint through Sunday to pass legislation aimed at softening historic property tax increases facing Coloradans early next year. The proposals include spending hundreds of millions of dollars to cut property tax rates and make up at least some of the resulting losses that local governments and school districts would feel from the cuts.

But Republicans forced Democrats to take an evening floor vote to allow for the fast-tracking they planned for legislation in that chamber, via a special order. Without it, the Senate’s normal rules that govern the time between hearings and votes would slow down the handling of bills, potentially extending work into Monday or Tuesday.

Democrats contended that the quicker movement was typical in past special sessions.

The 23-12 party-line vote failed by one vote to clear a needed two-thirds majority threshold. On a quick revote, Senate President Steve Fenberg pressed ahead with a voice vote rather than calling for a roll call — and then declared, over Republicans’ howls, that the motion had passed.

A Republican appeal failed in another floor vote.

In the fallout, the Senate adjourned for the night at 9:20 p.m. rather than taking preliminary floor votes on bills. The resulting delay leaves lawmakers facing a four-day session that will last at least through Monday.

The dispute about timing had been brewing for much of the day, but the action played out quickly late Friday.

“This isn’t about time. It’s about political theater — and it’s exhausting,” Fenberg said before the first rules vote. “If you think people want property tax cuts, then let’s give them property tax cuts and go home. It’s irresponsible (to delay), and I think it’s dishonest to the people of Colorado.”

Later, Sen. Mark Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, told Fenberg: “There’s an integrity issue here.”

“Yes,” Fenberg responded, holding his ground. “And it does have consequences.”

Fenberg and Minority Leader Paul Lundeen also tangled, with Fenberg insisting that “If you break the norms, the norms are broken.”

In seeking to slow down action, the Republicans invoked the three-day rush last session that put Proposition HH in front of voters. They said they were willing to push the special session into Thanksgiving week to give voters, who resoundingly rejected Proposition HH last week, a chance to digest the Democrats’ proposals.

The state House didn’t face as much uncertainty over its rules as the special session, the state’s first since the pandemic, began.

In committee hearings, the Democratic majorities in both chambers shot down every Republican proposal, broadly called the bills “fiscally irresponsible,” and shuttled through their own proposals to ease the cost of living in the wake of Proposition HH’s defeat. Some of those bills were likely to reach preliminary floor votes late Friday, with final votes beginning Saturday — and then an exchange of bills between the chambers, depending on any delays.

In addition to property taxes, the Democrats are seeking to provide more money for emergency rental assistance and increase tax credits for low-income Coloradans.

The day began with 14 introduced bills. By mid-afternoon, the number had been cut in half.

The major remaining proposals include:

• Property tax cuts that would be achieved by changes in the formula used to determine residential property taxes. The deduction from a property’s value for tax purposes would rise from $15,000 to $50,o00. The assessment rate, which is applied to determine the assessed value, or what’s taxable, would be reduced from 6.765% to 6.7%.
• Sending out equal tax refunds to all Colorado taxpayers, a temporary change — also implemented last year — from the normal income-based system in which higher-income Coloradans receive more money back. The amount each taxpayer will receive hasn’t been finalized, pending the outcome of other legislation, but co-sponsor Sen. Nick Hinrichsen’s early estimate Friday was $847.
• Doubling the state’s 25% matching credit provided to recipients of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The EITC sends money directly to workers who earn less than $59,187 under this year’s guidelines. The tax credit is scaling, with more going to families with children, and a sponsor has estimated the proposed change would mean anywhere from $300 to $3,700 more for those who are eligible. The bill would cut into the state’s TABOR surplus by roughly $185 million, according to sponsor Rep. Jenny Willford.
• Adding $30 million to the state’s emergency rental assistance program, which is currently budgeted at $35 million, to help renters who are at risk of eviction. The caveat is that it must be spent by June 30, when the state’s fiscal year ends.

Gov. Jared Polis called the special session in the aftermath of Proposition HH’s loss almost two weeks ago. He and Democratic legislators backed that multifaceted measure as a way to trim back the extent of coming property tax spikes due to rocketing property values, without shortchanging local governments that rely on property taxes.

Republicans argued that HH’s loss, by nearly 19 percentage points, showed voters don’t want the refunds due to them under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, tampered with at all, even if that surplus went toward tamping down property tax bills.

Broadly, Democrats argued that the result showed voters rejected that specific measure. However, the renewed property tax effort in the session isn’t aiming to tap into those refunds for the property tax relief. It instead relies on $200 million from the general fund that was already earmarked for property tax help.

“Those sides are pretty dug in, for better or worse,” said Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat and the architect of both HH and the new property tax proposal.

The House continued forward with its slate of bills late Friday. The chamber was set to advance the Earned Income Tax Credit bill, the rental assistance measure, and a bill to create a property tax task force to come up with a long-term solution to recurring property tax increases.

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