Small businesses

The biggest ticket item in the upcoming special session is likely to be stimulus aid to restaurants, hit hardest by capacity limitations and restricted hours.

Possibly up to $100 million would be put into a three-part stimulus to help those small businesses survive the pandemic and the winter ahead. Those three parts: Restaurants would keep u to $2,000 per month through the 2.9% state sales tax they already collect, for an undetermined amount of time. Direct aid and waiver of certin licensing feeds is also proposed.

Restaurants have faced a hodgepodge of restrictions on capacity and “last call for alcohol” hours almost from the beginning of the pandemic. On March 25, Gov. Jared Polis ordered the state into lockdown, known as the “stay at home” order, which lasted until April 26. During that time, all restaurants and bars shut down. On April 26, under the “safer at home” order, restaurants and bars that serve food could reopen, but only for takeout or delivery. Capacity limitations for restaurants fell under a May 25 executive order that amended the “safer at home” order.

The last-call order came out July 11, ending alcohol sales a restaurants at 10 p.m. The state claimed people were more likely to abandon social distancing and other COVID-19 protocols if they were intoxicated.

The Colorado Restaurant Association recently warned that another shutdown could result in 75% of Colorado restaurants shuttering for good. The state has not been deaf to those concerns. On Oct. 14, Polis announced a grant program to help restaurants build capacity through the winter through winterizing patio space.

Landlords and tenants

Another big-ticket item is rental and mortgage assistance. It could be accomplished relatively easily, through programs put into place during the 2020 legislative session. The governor’s executive order seeks rental and housing assistance, as well as direct cash aid through four programs: two run by the state, and two others managed by nonprofits.

One of the mechanisms for disbursing that aid is House Bill 20-1410, which puts $19.6 million into a housing development grant fund in the Division of Housing at the Department of Local Affairs. Those funds came from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and are supposed to be spent by Dec. 30, in accordance with federal requirements.

The funds were to be used for residential rental and mortgage assistance, including allowing landlords to apply for assistance on behalf of tenants who can’t pay their rent.

Gov. Jared Polis, through an Aug. 26 executive order, set up a special housing eviction task force that worked throughout the summer and fall. The task force issued its final report in October, noting that fewer than expected Coloradans had struggled to pay rent during the pandemic. But some of the programs and policies designed to keep people from being homeless are running out on Dec. 31.

In their final report, the task force said that “due to the ever-changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic – and the varied and new programs and policies created in response – the precise level of need remains unclear.”

Data indicated 95% of renters have been able to keep up with rent, a 2% drop from pre-pandemic times.

But the task force did identify gaps. One is for people who rely on Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8, who during the pandemic have needed additional subsidies, and that’s strained public housing authority budgets. In the Denver area, the report said, low-income renters in older units who don’t get housing assistance also have had the highest rate of delinquencies.

Child care providers

While child care was not among the needs funded by pandemic relief in the General Assembly’s regular session in June, long-established state and county programs will be tapped during the upcoming special session to provide that assistance.

The Colorado Department of Human Services has been referring those with COVID-19 related child care needs to the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which provides access to reduced cost child care at licensed facilities or qualified (but unlicensed) providers.

What’s being proposed for the special session legislation is aid for the child care providers, to keep their doors open, especially for low-income essential workers.

“The child care sector is hanging on by a thread,” according to a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Human Services’ Office of Early Childhood. Since March, approximately 10% of child care providers have closed. Without financial assistance, an additional 20% of child care providers say they’re also at risk for closing, the spokesperson said.

The stimulus proposals would cover sustainability grants for existing licensed child care providers to help them stay open. Another tranche of funding would provide start-up and expansion grants for “new and existing licensed providers to help meet families’ needs, especially in child care deserts.”

According to a September 2020 study by Early Milestones Colorado and the Bell Policy Center, 51% of Coloradans live in a child care desert, where there are three children for every available slot.

Students

With the pandemic forcing more and more schools to move to hybrid or remote learning, the need for Internet access has never been greater.

As students head to class at the kitchen table, the need for connectivity is especially great for low-income and rural students.

Legislation in the upcoming special session is expected to address K-12 education with a $20 million package tied to an existing program within the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) that launched just two months ago.

In September, Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser announced a settlement with T-Mobile that will provide Internet access and 100 gigs of data to 34,000 low-income student households. The project is known as Project 10Million and is under the Department of Education’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund Connecting Colorado Students Grant program. Qualifying households – those with income levels that qualify for free and reduced lunch – will have access to Internet-ready devices, such as tablets or computers, at a significant discount.

Applications for the Connecting Colorado Students program closed on Nov. 6. Seventeen out of the 27 applications came from rural school districts and students, according to CDE. The grant could be worth up to $15,000 for individual student and teacher connectivity and up to $150,000 for projects to expand or create access for a geographical area to help support the development of broadband infrastructure to connect students and teachers.

Lack of internet access affects about 65,000 students in Colorado, Polis said.

Three other areas targeted for funding in the special session, amounts yet to be determined, include food assistance through the Department of Human Services, help with utility bills through Energy Outreach Colorado, and more funding for the state’s Disaster Emergency Fund to help pay for continuing state costs for managing the pandemic.