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State Rep. Elizabeth Velasco outlines Western Slope wins and priorities for housing, rail safety and emergency alerts
Summary
State Rep. Elizabeth Velasco told Aspen officials she prioritized affordable housing, wildfire resilience, a new railroad safety office and language access for emergency alerts, and warned that Medicaid eligibility changes could affect roughly 300,000 Coloradans.
State Representative Elizabeth Velasco, who represents a district covering Garfield, Pitkin and the Roaring Fork area, briefed the Aspen City Council on recent legislation and the priorities she plans to press in the next session. “Im State Representative Elizabeth Velasco,” she said, and reviewed her work on the Appropriations Committee and her vice chair role on the Energy and Environment Committee.
Velasco highlighted housing as her districts top problem and described a recently passed Regional Transportation Authority sales-and-use tax exemption intended to reduce construction costs for affordable housing. She noted the governor signed the bill in Glenwood Springs and said local officials attended the event. Velasco also said the state updated wildfire-resiliency codes and is encouraging prescribed burns and workforce development to reduce fire risk.
On transportation safety, Velasco described creation of a state railroad safety office with rules to be developed by the Public Utilities Commission and urged the office be operational before the Uinta Basin project proceeds. She warned of derailment risks on the I‑70/Glenwood Canyon corridor and the significant detour impacts that would follow a closure.
Velasco also pointed to language-access changes to emergency alerting after the Grizzly Creek fire, saying Spanish-language alerts were absent in a community that is roughly 30% Latino. Regarding health-care funding, she said possible changes could put “around 300,000 people in Colorado” at risk of losing Medicaid eligibility and could severely affect rural hospitals.
Velasco invited Aspen officials to coordinate with her staff in Denver on measures such as rent stabilization and the real‑estate transfer fee, and she urged continued local-state collaboration on wildfire and transportation issues.
