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Teller County commissioners warn state bills could shift wildfire mitigation money and raise local costs
Summary
Commissioners said multiple state bills threaten local control and could divert strategic wildfire mitigation funds (CoSwap) into homeowner grants, and highlighted potential shifts of courthouse costs and new fees that would affect county budgets and property owners.
Commissioner Dan Williams and Chairman Eric Stone used their regular reports to warn residents that recent state legislation could have direct budgetary and program impacts on Teller County. Williams said House Bill 13 10 "sounds really good" on the surface but warned the source of homeowner mitigation grants would be taken "out of CoSwap," reducing funds for community-scale mitigation. "They didn't tell you is that the pot of money is coming out of co swap," he said.
Stone echoed concerns about funding shifts and described how state-level definition changes can impose new county costs: "Every time you add a new judge, you're adding new staff...it's additional space that you need," he said, criticizing a Joint Budget Committee decision that he said reassigns courthouse furnishing and other expenses to counties. The chair said counties should watch proposals that change property-tax assessment and other definitions, and noted the legislature's fiscal pressures: "we have record high revenues with...record high deficits," he said.
Why it matters: County leaders said repurposing landscape-scale mitigation dollars would make it harder for local governments and nonprofit partners to carry out projects that protect whole communities. Stone and Williams both urged residents to contact state representatives and to monitor bills that would redirect funds or create unfunded mandates.
Local context and reactions: Commissioners described the Colorado Strategic Wildfire Program (CoSwap) as designed for landscape-scale mitigation across communities and said shifting up to 80% of funds to homeowner grants would "rob Peter to pay Paul." Williams also flagged hunting-related bills (House Bill 13 23) and other proposals he said originated from out-of-state activists and not CPW professionals. He noted the Department of Natural Resources director Dan Gibbs had opposed some of those measures in agency rulemaking.
What’s next: Commissioners said they will continue to engage through CCI (Colorado Counties, Inc.), lobbyists and direct outreach to local legislators to try to preserve locally-critical funding and to push back on definition changes that could shift county responsibilities or costs.
