February 24, 2025
Gary Advocacy’s 2025 Legislative Session Priorities
Helping more Coloradans build financial resilience
By Reilly Pharo Carter
Our team at Gary is increasingly focused on pursuing opportunities to transform systems so that they can better serve kids and families while simultaneously pursuing strategies that will provide families with more opportunities to build wealth.
Colorado is unaffordable for far too many families. This was something we knew to be true before last November. But last year’s election cycle crystallized the message. Up and down the ballot, voters delivered messages clearly indicating that rising prices and stagnating wages are two of the biggest things keeping them up at night. Our team at Gary Advocacy took that message to heart as we prepared for the 2025 legislative session.
With those reflections in mind, we saw a great opportunity to activate our policy arm, Gary Advocacy, to pursue three specific policies during this legislative session that we believe will help Colorado families build deeper wells of financial resilience.
Our priority bills focus on 1) housing, 2) maximizing public education investments, and 3) employee ownership.
Below is a rundown of the three local bills we’re prioritizing this legislative session as well as a few additional bills our team is tracking and supporting.
Interested in joining us in the work outlined below? Let us know here.
House Bill 1169
Yes in God’s Backyard (YIGBY)
Allowing schools & churches to address the need for more housing
Background:
In Metro Denver, faith organizations own 5,000 acres of underdeveloped land and school districts are one of the largest landowners in most counties. These institutions are also community fixtures, having made long-term commitments to serving their neighbors, and many would like to use their land to create desperately needed housing.
HB 1169 will:
Create a predictable and efficient review process that enables residential use on faith and educational land while also limiting how a local government may deny the right to build residential properties, increasing the speed at which Colorado can add much needed residential units. It also will allow building up to 45 feet and 3 stories or the height allowance of any adjacent property, whichever is higher. We believe this bill will help bring more housing online faster and reduce the cost of these projects, which are savings that are frequently passed along to tenants and homeowners.
We’re pleased to see the bill pass out of its first committee, and look forward to continuing to support its journey throughout the legislative process.
Senate Bill 167
Smarter State Investments
Helping the Public School Permanent Fund & Unclaimed Property Trust Fund better support kids, families & educators
Background:
When Colorado became a state in 1876, the Public School Permanent Fund (PSPF) was written into our Constitution. The fund is dedicated to support public education and collects annual revenue from the School Trust Lands in Colorado. The fund has approximately $1.6 billion in it, but current investments yield little impact to students and educators.
SB 167 will:
Create a Community Investing Portfolio within the PSPF, allocating 20% of its assets to directly support Colorado kids, families, and communities. Additionally, this Community Investing Portfolio will invest $200M to make housing more affordable for educators. Smarter investments will enable overall fund growth, increase the fund’s investments in Colorado communities, and make homeownership a reality for at least 2,500 educators. This bill will also serve as the largest housing-focused investment for public school employees in state history.
House Bill 1021
Employee Ownership (EO) Tax Credit
Incentivizing more EO conversions
Background:
Colorado has consistently led the way in EO incentives, yet little progress has been made in driving more businesses to convert to EO models. Within the next several years, a large percentage of the wealth in the U.S. will change hands as local business owners retire without exit plans. Employee owned businesses are more resilient in economic hardship and provide a meaningful path towards wealth building by allowing employees to benefit from the profits of their labor.
HB 1021 will:
Significantly increase incentives for businesses to complete EO conversions by going beyond just helping businesses cover a portion of the cost of conversion. The bill creates the Colorado Capital Gains Tax Exemption for employee-owned business conversion, which allows newly converted EO businesses to deduct 100% of their capital gains income from their state taxes in the year in which they convert.
The bill passed with bipartisan support out of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and is headed to House Finance.
Beyond our priority bills listed above, Gary actively tracks and engages in a range of legislation relating to school readiness, youth success & family economic mobility. Below are two bills we are actively supporting as of mid-February.
SB-002: Regional Building Codes for Factory-Built Structures
The bill mandates the development of regional building codes tailored to local climatic and geographic conditions for the construction and installation of both residential and nonresidential factory-built structures in Colorado.
SB-006: Investment Authority of State Treasurer for Affordable Housing
The bill authorizes the Colorado State Treasurer to invest up to $50 million in bonds issued by quasi-governmental entities, even if these bonds offer below-market interest rates, provided the proceeds are used to create affordable for-sale housing that wouldn’t otherwise be developed without such investment.