Updated with statement from the governor on Prop 130’s death benefit for law enforcement.

Colorado lawmakers are scrambling to figure out exactly how to carry out voters’ approval of a ballot measure that directs the General Assembly to put $350 million into a fund to help recruit, train, and retain local law enforcement.

The measure did not specify a timeline for when the money must be allocated or whether it’s a yearly allocation.

Lawmakers are grappling with those questions as the state’s budget crafters are seeking money anywhere, given that the state faces a $1 billion shortfall.

Five legislative leaders offered differing opinions on how the voter-approved funding mandate would work during a legislative preview breakfast hosted by AARP and Colorado Politics on Dec. 4.

When asked if the $350 million would be allocated in the next session, Senate President-elect James Coleman of Denver said it could be included in the upcoming year’s budget.

Senate Assistant Minority Leader Cleave Simpson of Alamosa noted that the ballot measure does not say how it’s supposed to be spent and that there are other priorities, such as Medicaid and K-12 education. He also noted that the legislature just finished paying off a 12-year obligation to fund K-12 education, which meant that, for the first time in years, the state is fully funding it.

He’s “sensitive to not taking a step backward,” he said, adding policymakers might need to let the rest of their priorities fall into place.

House Speaker Julie McCluskie of Dillon suggested the $350 million should come from the state’s 15% statutory reserve.

“This may be the moment” to do that, she said.

But she also said she heard from law enforcement that if the legislature gave them $350 million in a single year, they wouldn’t be able to spend it all, as that expenditure must still ramp up and the infrastructure to recruit that many new police officers also need to be in place.   

The state reserve already covers part of the hole in the state budget, putting more pressure on the rainy-day fund.

House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge pointed to the voters’ will and added that lawmakers will have to figure out how to raise that money over a five-to-10 year period. While lawmakers need to think strategically about how to do that, it is ultimately the job of the Joint Budget Committee to come up with a plan, she said. 

House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs agreed with Duran.

She recognized the problem, pointing out that there were layoffs in law enforcement when she was a Mesa County commissioner. She said she values the will of the people who have decided this is a funding priority but also added this the Joint Budget Committee ultimately needs to figure it out.

With the approval of 52.08% of voters, Proposition 130 creates a new Peace Officer Training and Support Fund to pay for recruitment and retention and provide a $1 million death benefit for surviving spouses and children of law enforcement officers who die in the line of duty.

The Joint Budget Committee has yet to discuss the issue with the Department of Public Safety, which would manage those funds. The ballot measure wasn’t specific about when or how those funds would be spent.

The legislature’s “Blue Book,” which gives the pros and cons of each ballot measure, pointed out that the measure did not specify a timeline for when the money must be spent. It also did not say whether the $350 million is an annual appropriation or whether it could be spread over time.

While the Blue Book said the money would be spent over multiple years, it also said it would be used to increase the annual pay for law enforcement officers.

Kristi Burton Brown, the executive vice president of Advance Colorado, the group behind Proposition 130, told Colorado Politics the proponents originally intended to ask voters to approve a $350 million annual allocation.

The state’s Title Board — which approves title language on ballot measures — turned them down, she said, based on the concept that prohibits legislation that would tie the hands of future lawmakers. That can be changed by passing a statute, which has happened multiple times over the decades.

Burton Brown said the timeline to spend the money would take multiple years — but that it should start right away. Their conversations with the governor’s office also support that timeline, although it would not be the entire $350 million expended in the first year.

“I don’t think waiting to start it will be acceptable,” she added.

That would also apply to the death benefit. Burton Brown noted the governor put out a statement in support of that death benefit going to the widow of Golden Police Officer Evan Dunn, who was killed in the line of duty the day after the election. 

A spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis told Colorado Politics “Governor Polis was heartbroken by the passing of Officer Evan Dunn and lowered flags across the state in his honor. Governor Polis offers the Dunn family and the Golden Police Department his deepest condolences. The Governor encourages the General Assembly and Joint Budget Committee to implement the proposition as quickly as possible and in a way that ensures the family receives the death benefit that the voters just passed. Officer Dunn’s tragic death underscores the need for all parties to move responsibly once the ballot measure becomes law, and he supports it applying in this tragic instance.”

As for the state’s tight budget, Burton Brown said, “It was also made fairly clear to voters throughout the election cycle that the legislature would’ve cut state funding in some way. And yet voters still passed this.”

“So, I think when you see voters say, ‘OK, of all the things you have to allocate and cut, we want you to increase funding to law enforcement,’ I think that makes the will of voters pretty clear,” she said.

JBC Vice-Chair Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, told Colorado Politics she favors supporting the will of the voters, who, she said, made it clear they value public safety. She said she would work to honor the voters’ intent.

But the big question is how and when to pay for it. Bird did not have an answer to that.

Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Weld County, said she is discussing with the governor’s office an “appropriate funding mechanism” to pay for the measure.

She said she has been working with public safety officials, police chiefs, sheriffs, counties, cities and the measure’s proponents to determine the best course of action to fulfill the voters’ wishes and improve public safety in their communities.

“The voters have spoken,” Kirkmeyer added, pushing back on the “defund the police” policies coming out of the state Capitol in recent years. “It is my intent through legislation to ensure the state meets its obligation to fund retention, recruiting and training for local law enforcement, she said.