Battling unfunded mandates at the legislature. Planning for the coming “senior tsunami.” Struggling with overflowing jails. And implementing policies over which they have no control.
All of these are realities for the Metro Area County Commissioners, an organization formed in March 2003 that brings together commissioners from Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties.
Arapahoe County Commissioner Susan Beckman, who chaired the organization last year, says it is modeled after the Metro Mayors Caucus and provides a way for commissioners to become educated about common issues, share information and take action on common priorities. For example, the counties have jointly developed public service announcements to advertise the need for foster care homes, have jointly studied best practices in managing county fairs and fairgrounds, and have worked with cities in a “Fight the Bite” campaign against disease-carrying mosquitoes.
The MACC is also a way for counties to seek increased clout at the legislature. Counties are the “administrative arm” of the state, implementing programs mandated by the state and federal governments. Beckman says counties are given little to no flexibility in how programs are implemented, and too often the costs of administering them are not fully covered – or administrative funds are diverted for other purposes.
An example is child-support enforcement. The counties, required to collect child-support funds from non-custodial parents, collected $280 million in 2005. Then federal monies that flowed to Colorado to fund the program were cut, and now the legislature is asking counties to share the program’s administrative costs.
Another example involves transportation. Counties rely on getting a “shareback” of gasoline taxes to build and maintain county streets and roads, but sometimes the legislature diverts part of the funding. Over the next 25 years, Beckman says, counties across Colorado face a $25 billion transportation shortfall, partly because when state budgets were tight, the legislature diverted some of their share of the gas tax. Although funds were eventually restored, maintenance fell behind, and the cost of repairs increased.
Beckman points out that in Colorado, counties are at a disadvantage compared with cities. Under the state constitution, most Colorado municipalities are “home-rule cities,” and thus have constitutionally protected powers. Counties, however, have no such powers to protect against state or municipal actions.
A sore spot for counties involves tax-increment financing (TIF). To spur economic development, cities can provide property tax cuts for businesses, cuts that apply to counties’ property taxes as well. School districts’ property taxes are also impacted when cities establish TIFs, but the legislature “backfills” their losses. Counties want the legislature to give them the ability to negotiate “reasonable” TIF agreements with cities, or to have their losses backfilled by the state.
Another priority for the MACC has to do with overcrowded county jails. Because state prisons are full, prisoners are being transferred to county jails. The result is overcrowding, including triple-bunking, in some county facilities. In addition, the counties complain, the state doesn’t reimburse them enough to cover the actual cost of housing its prisoners.
Looking ahead, a major concern of the MACC is what Beckman calls “Colorado’s looming senior tsunami.” In 2006, 12 percent of Colorado’s population was over 60. That figure is expected to double by year 2020. Worse yet, one in four seniors in 2006 was poor, or nearly poor, and the percentage of older people in poverty is also expected to increase. The counties’ goal is to keep seniors in their homes as long as possible, but without additional funding, that is an increasing challenge.
But the MACC’s No. 1 priority is cleaning up the state’s troubled Colorado Benefits Management System. The $200 million-plus computer system has caused confusion and delays in determining eligibility for welfare benefits, and has caused what Beckman calls “endless headaches” for the counties, which have to administer the program. The state needs to fix the system and fix it fast, the commissioners believe.
The issues facing all levels of government in Colorado are complex, and require that people of good will sit down together to explore solutions. Metro-area county residents should congratulate their commissioners for joining together to cooperate, share best practices and ensure that services to citizens are provided in the most streamlined and cost-effective manner possible.
Susan Thornton (smthornton@aol.com) served 16 years on the Littleton City Council, including eight as mayor.
