Kids don’t play kick the can anymore, but our legislators do. They’ve created or added responsibilities to numerous task forces on a slew of issues. This is their game of kick the can.

Sometimes a task force is created as a placeholder because bill sponsors and the governor can’t agree on how to move forward on an issue. The Colorado River Drought Task Force, SB23-195, is a great example. Everyone knows the river is drying up. That’s the “can.” What to do about it is the “kick.” HB23-1010, another water task force bill, was killed. Its concept was to explore high-altitude water storage. Apparently that can wasn’t worth a kick.

Another task force category occurs when there should be an action bill but there aren’t enough votes to pass it, so legislators create a task force to study the proposed action. HB23-1308, Access to Government by Persons with Disabilities, would have amped up the means by which disabled individuals could petition and observe government. The methods included video-conferencing, recordings, creating disability-friendly political processes for initiative petitions and party caucuses, and accessibility to the Capitol. That bill failed. The solution: HB23-1296, Create Task Force Study Rights Persons Disabilities. In this instance, persons with disabilities are the can; their rights are what get kicked.

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No legislative session would be a real event without the ultimate can-kick: education policy. Three task forces in three bills take up the game. SB23-094 sets up a school transportation task force to modernize systems in our post-COVID environment. Not enough bus drivers and too many children needing alternative transportation create numerous challenges for school districts. This study will become politically charged as district-hired drivers for suburban and urban districts will have to argue for their role as their jobs get chipped away by non-district, private companies. Other conflicts will concern to what degree state dollars should contribute to charter school transportation.

Two other task forces, one on the state’s K-12 accountability system (HB23-1241) and the other on Public School Finance (SB23-287), take on the biggest cans in the education policy world. A state accountability audit determined that the state’s K-12 assessment and accountability system works as it’s designed, but that doesn’t mean it works as it should. The K-12 accountability task force will no doubt recommend changes to the current system. The question in the can is what will change.

Previous accountability task force members were selected based on their bias toward testing as the principle means of determining school effectiveness. So now we have standardized testing up the wazoo. That narrow focus has shrunk education to reading, writing and arithmetic rather than expanding learning. It causes a diminution of art, music, physical education and other studies that engage students or make school fun and interesting. This task force can bring fresh eyes and experience from other states. Will it? That will be decided by Gov. Jared Polis and the General Assembly’s leadership related to whom they appoint to serve. Eyes are on these appointments to make sure the game is played fair and square.

Similarly, public school finance has been examined by numerous task forces. This year, the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) and legislators decided to extend the current formula system because they couldn’t decide on anything different. In other words, they kicked the can. The JBC also pushed the negative factor, otherwise known as the budget stabilization factor, out another year, even as it proclaimed triumph in reducing the deficit. That’s a cheater’s can-kick. A non-end to public school finance can-kicking on the part of Colorado’s legislatures with every form of majority-minority composition over 15 years cannot be called a success. Enough already!

This issue feeds into the Governor’s most prized bill, SB23-303, Reduced Property-Tax and Voter-Approved Revenue Change. The bill will reduce residential property tax bills that, for many, will soar into Colorado’s ozone-filled stratosphere. In this instance, the people need to create a task force of disinterested advanced math professionals to let us know if this is a good deal. It’s supposed to reduce property taxes, and with another bill, smooth TABOR refunds, while “backfilling” (does that sound like a negative factor in the making) money for schools and common good needs like firefighting and sewer districts.

Polis and his sponsor henchmen dropped this huge package and its corollary bills on us on May 1 when the session ended on May 8. Why did he and Senate leadership kick this can to the late introduction date? So they could control the game and, perhaps, throw some other bills they didn’t like, such as HB23-1209 on a task force to study a publicly-financed, privately-delivered health care system, under the school buses studied in SB23-094.

To be fair, not all policy task forces are played as kick the can. HB23-1258, Drug Crime Cost Task Force, will study a contentious issue: how much does drug crime cost the state? Is the cost getting results? Are there better methods of managing drug crime than our current catch them, try them, jail them, release them system? Let’s hope the task force is unbiased, open-minded and evidence-oriented.

Another bill, HB23-1253, Task Force to Study Corporate Housing Ownership, will examine the degree to which corporations have invaded the residential home ownership market and affected increasing rents as well as the price of home purchases. This is a more recent problem that plays into the state’s overall housing challenges.

It’s generally useful for legislators to use task forces to develop solid, comprehensive information when making policy. But when such research is used as a delaying tactic or designed to come to a pre-determined decision, it’s a game. The game’s name: kick the can.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.