Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village and Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, R-Watkins, are two of the four new members of the Joint Budget Committee, the all-powerful panel that is already busily at work on the 2023-24 state budget.

Bockenfeld, who heads into his third term in January, says JBC has been on his radar for years, given his background in finance. Bridges, on the other hand, is finding the JBC among the biggest challenges he’s ever dealt with as a lawmaker. He’s up for re-election in 2024.

Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, R-Watkins

Fast Facts – Rod Bockenfeld

Born: Quincy, Illinois

Education: Bachelor of Science degree in law enforcement administration from Western Illinois University, diploma from the University of Colorado at Boulder Graduate School of Banking

Previous experience: Arapahoe County Commissioner from 2004-2016; 17 years in consumer and small business banking and another nine years as a small business owner.

Bockenfeld came to Colorado right after college, hired as a fraud investigator trainee in the banking industry.

Family: Wife of 37 years, Susan; four children and eight grandchildren, with number nine on the way

What he does to chill: “I don’t chill. We’re in a cultural war in this country and my constituents elected me to fight for the God, family and country. That’s their perspective on government and, and life. And there’s plenty of times to chill once I’m term-limited.

My wife gets frustrated because I kind of work 24/7, mentally at least, and what I’m doing down at the capital is somewhat of a hobby for me.”

He does, however, love to listen to his wife play the harp. “I do kind of chill and mellow out a bit and listen to that.”

Colorado Politics: Why JBC and why now?

Rod Bockenfeld: JBC is my wheelhouse. My background is in budgeting and finance. I have a long history of being involved in finance. So it’s an area that I followed as a member of the House. I initially followed the JBC so I could have a better understanding of the finances of Colorado state

In government you really can’t get things done unless you explain how you’re gonna pay for it. So that’s why my interest is and as you see in our caucus, we have a lot of new members coming in. It’s kind of tough for a new member to come in and jump on something like JBC, it’s a pretty complicated area. I was encouraged by a number of my colleagues to go ahead and run for the position. 

CP: What kind of perspective are you going to bring to JBC other than your personal background as a conservative Republican?

RB: I represent the caucus more than anything else. Generally as a conservative caucus,  we have  a perspective that government should only be doing things for people that they can’t do for themselves. Budgeting a lot of time boils down to priorities. And c conservatives are very sensitive about protecting the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

One of my goals is to establish why TABOR is a good thing for Colorado and how it’s put constraints, on government spending from the state perspective. I read “Unsustainable” the article about how fast government’s grown, and I can tell you why that happened. It  would’ve grown even faster if those constraints weren’t there from TABOR.

CP: From the governor’s budget, we’re about to see another some big growth in state employees. As a member of the minority both on JBC and in the House, what could you do about that? How do you work with that?

RB: I’ve got to work through the process and have discussions with my colleagues about the feasibility of what we’re trying to accomplish here with the budget. And I have to blend my caucus interest with the priorities of the majority.

The colleagues that I have on JBC, I’m really impressed. They’re good level-headed people that you can have a conversation with. We may disagree on certain philosophies but I think we can work together and focus on what we perceive are the right priorities of getting this budget balanced. The fact of the matter is the governor was re-elected,  he does set the initial budget and basically by reelecting Governor Polis, we have been given the signal that we should try to work as much as we we can to accomplish what we can as a legislative body to work with his agenda, since the majority of the people supported to his agenda.

Now that doesn’t mean I won’t be controversial. It’s kind of my nature.

But my goal is to fight for TABOR. 

(Pointing to a Colorado Politics Q&A with Reps. Shannon Bird and Emily Sirota) We’re all on the same page. We’re concerned about education and transportation.

I feel like education and transportation is purposely starved, because we talked about how budgets are setting the right priorities, and I think they on purpose starved transportation and education because that’s a hot button issue with our constituents.

Those who spend out there that want to continue to grow government and raise taxes, but they really don’t wanna fully fund two programs. I’m not asking for a lot of expansion of transportation, but  if you’ve taken a look at our roads and, and what they’ve done with the maintenance perspective, I don’t care if you’re coming into Burlington, which is in my district, or if you’re coming into Trinidad, the roads are in horrible condition and it’s an eyesore for the people that come out here to spend their money on tourism. And they come from Kansas and Utah and New Mexico and even Wyoming, and they hit Colorado and they immediately know they hit Colorado because of the poor maintenance on our roads. I’m hearing it from constituents.

There’s no excuse for it. We can manage, I know that transportation game from being chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments (aka DRCOG) , but there’s also nothing in the budget that says general fund can’t help bring up the maintenance in our roads. They’ve allowed it deteriorate to a point where you’re probably going have to have some general funds support, like a transportation bond that at least brings roads back up  conditions that are not an embarrassment.

I believe both of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle mentioned education and transportation as priorities and areas of interest and concern. And that’s really a major plus for me because we may dispute on how we get there, but we all have the same interest. We want to make improvements in that area.

Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village

Fast Facts – Jeff Bridges

Born: Colorado, son of Rutt and Barbara Bridges. Rutt Bridges founded the Bighorn Center and was a member of the “Gang of Four,” along with Jared Polis, Pat Stryker and Tim Gill, which funded Democratic political action committees for the 2004 election and helped Democrats take control of the Colorado House and Senate, the first time Democrats had control of both.

Education: Attended Littleton public schools, graduated from Arapahoe High School. BA in political science from Kenyon College in Ohio, Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

Experience: Worked as a legislative aide to U.S Senator Ken Salazar. Also worked as the associate vice president of public affairs of the Union Theological Seminary in New York. First elected to the state House in 2016; was selected by a vacancy committee to replace Sen. Daniel Kagan, D-Englewood, in January 2019. 

Family: Married to AnnMarie, they will celebrate 10 years of marriage in 2023. They met at Harvard; she noticed his cowboy boots from across the room, came over and said “Nice boots.”

“Feeling out of place and thinking she had just insulted me, I shot back, ‘Look, I’m from Colorado, so I can wear cowboy boots.’ Without missing a beat, AnnMarie replied, ‘Yeah, I’m from Colorado too, and I like your boots.'”

They were married at The Kitchen, one of several local restaurants owned by Kimbal Musk. She also holds a masters in divinity from Harvard and a doctoral degree.

Colorado Politics: Why JBC and why now?

Jeff Bridges: I think I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into when I ran for the position and it turns out I had no idea: the amount of time, the amount of reading, the prep work, the complexity and enormity of the task. It is such a tremendous opportunity and responsibility that I think is going to be one of the most challenging, difficult, and rewarding things that I’ve done in my life.

Government is where we do together what we can’t do alone. But the dollars aren’t infinite, especially with our TABOR cap fixed to the Consumer Price Index instead of something reasonable like median wage. That means even with our economy bouncing back, we either have to get a bigger bang for our buck or cut spending on education, healthcare, and public safety. That’s a huge challenge, and one I’m looking forward to tackling in partnership with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. JBC is the most bipartisan committee, and that’s a great fit for how I believe government ought to work.

CP: What perspective will you bring to JBC?

JB: In the caucus election for JBC, I ran on looking at the budget as a moral document. As the only member of the Senate with a Master of Divinity degree, ensuring the budget reflects our Colorado values is an obligation I take seriously.

CP: Who do you look up to on the committee, past or present?

JB: Sen. Pat Steadman and the enigmatic Dominick Moreno.

CP: Who will you rely on for advice?

JB: Sen. Rachel Zenzinger. I’m incredibly grateful to have her as chair and as my mentor on JBC.

CP: What’s the best advice your parents ever gave you?

JB: What good is anything else we do as a state if kids can’t read? From my mom: Life is an adventure.