Gov. Jared Polis intends to call the Colorado General Assembly back for a special session, according to a tweet from House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, a Castle Rock Republican.

Colorado Politics has verified that the governor intends to issue the call at a Tuesday press conference.

Just after 8 p.m., the governor and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate issued a joint statement, saying that “legislative leaders and the Governor’s office have been having productive conversations on how we can step up to help provide additional relief to Colorado businesses and hardworking families during these challenging times.

“Coloradans continue to wait for Congress to act, but we are committed to doing what we can as a state.”

Speaker of the House KC Becker of Boulder told Colorado Politics, “We’ve been talking to the governor’s office and Republicans about the best way to get relief to Coloradans as COVID-19 rages on. It’s clear we need to step forward and do something while Congress doesn’t.”

According to Capitol sources, a COVID-19 relief package was already being discussed for the 2021 session. However, the urgency of the financial struggles Coloradans are facing prompted a discussion of passing a package before the end-of-the-year holidays. 

In his 2021-22 budget proposal, Polis has suggested a $1.3 billion stimulus package to get Colorado’s economy back on track. That proposal includes $220 million in “shovel-ready public works and infrastructure projects,” mostly for the Department of Transportation and for state parks improvements. Another $160 million would go toward broadband investments, including telehealth and education; $78 million for wildfire response; $106 million for small businesses – mostly direct aid grants to restaurants and bars, hit hard by capacity restrictions imposed by the state and local governments; and $168 million for the $375 payment for low-and middle-income earners who lost jobs due to the pandemic.

Another $200 million is included for “one-time stimulus legislative priorities.”

Special session dates are still in flux but could be anywhere from two to four weeks from now.  

If the governor makes the call, it will be his first since taking office in 2019. The last special session was called by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper in October 2017; it was intended to resolve errors in the 2017 bill on sustainability of rural Colorado. The unintended error could have resulted in millions of dollars lost by special districts.

However, Republicans, then in the majority in the state Senate, blocked all efforts to make that correction. The session lasted three days without any legislation passed. The General Assembly resolved the problem when it convened in 2018.