What Is This Update?
The Rocky Mountain Partnership has identified four collective work areas so far this year to make our vision and mission a reality.

Our work moving forward is to drive policy related to each of these four areas.

For the remainder of the 2022 state legislative session, we also have a set of annual policy priorities that we're continuing to monitor that impact overall economic and social mobility. Below, learn more about policy updates that impact each of these four work areas, as well as the policy priorities established for 2022.
2022 Policy Priority Updates
New Bills We're Keeping an Eye On

Below are a few new bills the Policy & Legislative Action Network is monitoring. Click on the bills below to learn more about them.
Updates on Bills the Network is Supporting/Monitoring

We're here to keep you up to date on the legislation being monitored or supported by the Partnership! Below you'll find some updates on where bills are at in the process. Please note that several of these bills impact more than one of the four collective work areas.

SUPPORTING:

  • HB22-1005 Health-care Preceptors Tax Credit: In House Appropriations committee, hearing not yet calendared.
  • HB22-1010 Early Childhood Educator Income Tax Credit: In House Appropriations committee, hearing not yet calendared.

MONITORING:
  • In Committee:
  • HB22-1002 Fifth Year High School Concurrent Enrollment
  • HB22-1003 Youth Delinquency Prevention And Intervention Grants (passed in the House, currently in the Senate)
  • HB22-1006 Child Care Center Property Tax Exemption
  • HB22-1009 Continue Workforce Diploma Pilot Program
  • HB22-1055 Sales Tax Exemption Essential Hygiene Products (passed in the House, currently in the Senate)
  • HB22-1056 Emergency Temporary Care For Children
  • HB22-1326 Fentanyl Accountability & Prevention
  • SB22-087 Healthy Meals For All Public School Students
  • SB22-099 Sealing Criminal Records
  • Passed & Awaiting the Governor's Signature
  • SB22-003 Community College Nursing Bachelor Degree Eligibility
Critical News Impacting 'Clear Pathways to Top Jobs'
Below you'll find critical news related to Clear Pathways to Top Jobs, a collective work area of the Partnership. Learn more about this work HERE.
Better jobs in less time: Colorado plan aims to connect higher ed, workforce

Colorado lawmakers hope to open up clear pathways to degrees and credentials that lead to good-paying jobs for thousands more people. A package of bills unveiled Tuesday and backed by Gov. Jared Polis lays out how the state will spend roughly $95 million in federal relief money to improve access to higher education and connect education to in-demand jobs.
Critical News Impacting 'Improved Hiring, Retention, & Employee Advancement Practices'
Below you'll find critical news related to Improved Hiring, Retention, & Employee Advancement Practices, a collective work area of the Partnership.
Learn more about this work HERE.
Student teachers are rarely paid. Colorado lawmakers, school leaders want to ensure they’re compensated.

As Colorado school districts struggle to fill classrooms with certified educators, lawmakers aim to relieve some of the financial burdens with a proposed stipend program to provide student teachers help with living expenses. House Bill 1220, introduced in February, would also help students pay for expensive licensure exams and direct state departments to establish another way of licensing educators.

Proponents of the measure are optimistic that by tackling some of the major financial hurdles for teachers in training and expanding the ways a teacher candidate can become licensed, Colorado can recruit more educators and diversify its K-12 workforce, which has long run short of teachers of color.
Critical News Impacting 'Housing Outcomes Move Education (H.O.M.E.)'
Below you'll find critical news related to Housing Outcomes Move Education (H.O.M.E.), a collective work area of the Partnership. Learn more about this work HERE.
Demand easing as mortgage rates rise, boosting supply of homes for sale in metro Denver

Like large raindrops kicking up the dust as they hit parched and barren soil, metro Denver recorded an 81% jump in the number of residential properties available for sale last month, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

That inventory surge, which outstrips the 6.4% gain averaged between February and March, was driven in part by a 43.6% increase in new listings last month.

That huge percentage gain, however, comes off an extremely low number of listings available for sale in February. Even with the big increase, there were only 2,221 active condo and single-family homes for sale in metro Denver at the end of March, a fraction of the 13,917 averaged between 1985 and 2021.
Critical News Impacting 'Addressing the Opioid Crisis'
Below you'll find critical news related to Addressing the Opioid Crisis, a collective work area of the Partnership.
Here’s what experts say can lower fentanyl use and overdose deaths — and what policies don’t work

Colorado lawmakers want to stop the overdose deaths: the toddler who ingested fentanyl, the five friends who thought they were using other drugs, the teen who overdosed in her high school classroom.

As the drug overdose crisis reaches its worst point in years, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced a bill March 25 that attempts to address fentanyl’s exponentially rising death toll. But what do experts and drug research tell us are the most effective ways to stop this crisis?
Content was provided by:
Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy, RMP Team
With ongoing input from:
Matthew La Crue, Managing Director, Dentons
Policy & Advocacy Co-Champion
Ryan McCoy, Executive Director, Front Range Community College Foundation
Policy & Advocacy Co-Champion
We've gotta say it: This information is subject to change. In addition, some updates may be sourced from organizations that have read limits or limits on how many articles you can access in a given time period.
Rocky Mountain Partnership | rmpartnership.org