(DENVER) – Building a better Colorado through common-sense reforms in education, criminal justice, and fiscal policy is the aim of the 2024 Advance Colorado Policy Agenda released this morning.  
 
The multi-pronged Moving Colorado Forward agenda includes measures to protect TABOR, provide substantial property tax relief, address the rising rates of crime and illegal drug use, improve mental health services, and empower parents with more control over their children’s education.  
 
“Coloradans know that the status quo has our state on the wrong track,” said Michael Fields, Advance Colorado President.  “We need a positive agenda that will protect taxpayers, empower parents, and make communities safer.”
 
The multi-pronged agenda includes the following priorities:

• Fiscal Policy – Protecting taxpayers by:
  • Rolling back property tax increases
  • Placing a permanent cap on future local revenue increases to prevent future tax spikes
  • Safeguarding TABOR refunds
  • Ending home equity theft where government can take far more than it is owed in back taxes in the event of a foreclosure

• Crime – Making communities safer by: 
  • Keeping violent criminals off the streets through a “Truth in Sentencing” law, ending personal recognizance (PR) bonds for violent offenders and toughening sentences for distribution and sale of illegal drugs. 
  • Providing state funding for the salaries and training of School Resource Officers (SROs)

• Mental Health – Providing state funding to help support Community Response Teams to pair mental health professionals with law enforcement to assist individuals, particularly the homeless, experiencing a mental health crisis.  

• Education – Empowering parents and students by:
  • Placing Colorado’s successful school choice laws into the state constitution
  • Providing Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) to parents of special needs children to choose the best program for their kids
  • Creating school transparency laws to guarantee access to curricula, surveys and book lists
  • Making Colorado a Purple Star state, protecting the school choice rights of military families when they are transferred into a new community after local school district choice deadlines expire.

Creating innovative trade education options and providing credit for practical, hands-on experience to open career paths and build a stronger workforce.

“When parents and students are empowered, schools become more accountable, and outcomes improve,” said Kristi Burton Brown, Advance Colorado Executive Vice President.  “More choices, more access to information, and increased safety are priorities that we believe can unite Coloradans across the political spectrum around the cause of improving education across our state.”  
 
Fields said several legislators are expected to introduce items from the Advance Colorado Agenda in bill form when the legislative session opens. Other items may appear on the 2024 ballot as citizen initiatives, with the property tax cap already having been certified for the ballot.