After facing pushback from Republican lawmakers and some local elected officials for how he distributed the first round of federal COVID relief money last spring, Gov. Jared Polis is taking a different approach for this latest federal package.
On Monday Polis and lawmakers from both political parties announced a statewide listening tour to get feedback from a broad section of Coloradans on how to spend the nearly $4 billion Colorado is expecting from the federal government.
"We don’t want to pre-judge anything,” said Polis while announcing the tour at a press conference at the state capitol. “We want to hear people’s ideas."
The listening tour will hold both in-person and virtual stops in several different regions of the state, kicking off in southern Colorado. It will include local elected officials as well as leaders from the Black and Latino communities and various industries, from tourism to hospitality.
“Colorado is one of the most regionally diverse states in the country and making sure that we take the time to hear from our local leaders on where these dollars should go is time well spent,” said Democratic Speaker of the House Alec Garnett.
The American Rescue Plan will provide a huge influx of dollars to the state and local governments and lawmakers said they are well aware of what a unique opportunity this is.
In addition to this federal money, Colorado has money left over from last year’s budget which lawmakers want to use for a $700 million state stimulus package. And because high-income earners in Colorado have been largely unaffected by the pandemic, this year’s budget is doing better than expected and lawmakers may have billions extra to decide what to do with.
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March 23, 2021 at 11:16AM
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Colorado Leaders Want Your Opinion On How To Spend The Billions Coming From The American Rescue Plan - Colorado Public Radio
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