Advocacy Report

State Legislature Concludes Special Session on August 27

AGC Scores Significant Wins

The CO state legislature concluded it’s Special Session on August 27. The legislature raised about $150M towards a total budget cut needed of $750M. The legislature is also using reserves (around $300M) and $250M in budget cuts by Gov Polis (via Executive Order). The $150M comes from the removal of 5 tax credits for businesses.

AGC’s goal during the special session was to protect several important construction budgets at the state level, including capital construction ($160M) and controlled maintenance ($166M) budgets, high school career technical education programs in the CO Dept of Education budget, and stormwater education funding at the CO Dept of Public Health & Environment. All of that funding was spared from budget cuts. The $166M in controlled maintenance projects had been put on pause after the federal HR1 bill was approved, until the session concluded, so getting those projects a green light was especially important. Controlled maintenance projects are an opportunity for AGC specialty contractor members to do prime work for the state.

 AGC lobbyists Michael Gifford and Amy Attwood were pleased to achieve such an important result for the construction industry at a time where developers have been pausing on private projects in the face of tariffs, continuing high interest rates and other headwinds.

 

AGC Meets with Denver Mayor Johnston on Vibrant Denver Bond Package and Construction Issues

AGC CEO Jeff Barratt and Advocacy Director Michael Gifford met with Denver Mayor Michael Johnston to review the Vibrant Denver Bond Package and discuss two important issues affecting the construction industry. The Vibrant Denver Bond package asks voters to approve a $950M bond to build 59 projects.

AGC told the Mayor that the requirement to ensure that 20% of construction employees on any city, DEN, National Western or Vibrant Denver construction project is nearly impossible to meet, and many companies will simply stop bidding or proposing on Denver work as a result. The reality is that it is too expensive for most trade employees to live in Denver and those employees reside in surrounding cities like Arvada, Aurora, Wheatridge, Lakewood, Littleton, Westminster, etc.

The second issue AGC advanced is the funding stuck in the city Building Permit Fee fund, a fund that AGC and HBA helped create to fund high school construction programs. AGC and HBA have similar funds established in Aurora and several cities in Southern Colorado.

The Mayor agreed to work with AGC to improve these two issues to provide more construction employees, and make it more attractive to bid or propose on city projects.

 

AGC Legislative Committee to Hold Member Reception on September 9 to Meet in Person and Recruit New Members to the Committee

The AGC Legislative Committee will hold a reception on Sept 9 from 4-6pm at West 29th Restaurant (outside patio) to allow committee members to meet in person (regular meetings are held by zoom). The committee is also welcoming new members to the committee - so if you have ever had an interest in joining the committee - this is a great time to engage before the 2026 state legislative session and 2026 state election seasons begin! There is no cost to attend the reception. To attend email or call Nicole at the AGC office at nicole@agccolorado.org or 303-388-2422.

 

AGC Meets with Attorney General Phil Weisser, Candidate for CO Governor

The primary election for Governor is in June, 2026 and the general election is in Nov 2026. This week GC CO Jeff Barratt and Advocacy Director Michael Gifford, along with Legislative Committee member David Arkell (Fenmore) met with Attorney General Phil Wessser who is running as a Democrat for CO Governor. The discussion focused on workforce development. Weisser wanted to meet with AGC because of our successful partnership with the CO Homebuilders Association to support the Careers in Construction high school construction program (now in 100 schools and 4,400 student participants statewide). AGC has started interviewing candidates for state House and Senate seats in the 2027 legislature. Candidates are always looking to the next election and AGC has an active Political Action Committee (PAC) that supports business friendly candidates.

 

AGC State Bill Tracker

For a complete list of AGC state bill positions see our handy dandy AGC Bill Tracker. For questions contact Michael Gifford at mgifford@agccolorado.org