Recent Opioid settlement will mean another $270 million for Coloradans

BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER

On June 9, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced a final agreement with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan, along with retailers CVS and Walgreens, for $17.3 billion to be paid out across the country for their share of the responsibility for the current opioid epidemic.

Of the total, “Colorado will receive approximately $270 million over 15 years, which is in addition to the approximately $400+ million Colorado has begun receiving from prior opioid settlements,” according to Weiser’s office.

“Holding the companies that created and fueled the opioid crisis responsible continues to be a top priority for me and my team,” Weiser said, continuing, “Just like with previous settlements secured by our department and other attorneys general across the country, this money will go directly towards supporting the people and commu- nities in Colorado who continue to battle the harms of drug addiction and misuse. Colorado’s framework for the investment of these funds, on a local and regional basis, is a national model and was recognized by the Johns Hopkins Public Health School as the top such system in the nation.” He was referring to the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (COAC).

The State Department of Law worked with local governments to create the COAC in 2022 to fairly distribute the funds from opioid settlements and ensure compliance with all rules set out in settlement agreements to which Colorado was a party and/or beneficiary. The COAC works with the 19 Regional Opioid Abatement Councils around the state to distribute opioid settlement funds,

The big property tax scheme

They fooled you once. Don’t let them fool you again!

In November you are going to see a ballot initiative called Proposition HH. It is nothing more than a scheme. A scheme designed to disguise your future Taxpayer Bill of Rights refund as government subsidized property tax relief.

Yes, Governor Polis and his swifty advisors are taking money out of one of your pockets and handing it back to you as property tax relief. Why not? It worked once before. Remember when he took your Taxpayer Bill of Rights refund, gave it to you early as inflation relief and called it Colorado Cash Back? It sounds like the government is giving you a gift doesn’t it? Nope, they took your money and handed it back to you. I’m sure he won votes with that scheme.

If you want to learn more about how the state govern- ment has been playing constituents as fools, I highly recommend that you go online to see the short videos from the Independence Institute’s property tax series by Ben Murrey. He lays everything out quite clearly.

In the meantime, I will briefly explain here:

In 2020 the legislature placed a measure on the ballot to eliminate the Gallagher which are largely required to be used for substance use disorder treatment, recovery, harm reduction, law enforcement, and prevention/education programs. The COAC consists of seven members appointed by the state and six members appointed by local governments. Current members of the COAC include attorneys general from Douglas, Larimer, Weld, Moffat, Archuleta, La Plata, and San Luis Counties, as well as commissioners from Jefferson, Mesa, Alamosa, and Yuma Counties, along with the physician director of outpatient substance use disorder treatment at Denver Health.

Opioid settlement funds are distributed:

• 10% directly to the state;

• 20% directly to participating local governments;

• 60% directly to regions; fmiklin.villager@gmail.com

• 10% to specific abatement infrastructure projects.

The state will also receive approximately $2.5 million of a nationwide $102.5 million settlement of 42 states with Indivior Inc., the manufacturer of Suboxone, Weiser’s office announced on June 2.

The suit that led up to that settlement arose from Indivior changing the form of Suboxone, used to treat opioid addiction to avoid or reduce withdrawal symptoms, from pill to film form. That change was viewed as anticompetitive.

Amendment. This amendment to our state constitution was the only thing that we had in place to protect homeowners from hyper-inflation. In order to entice you to vote for the measure, they had to manipulate the language. The ballot measure stated, "Without increasing your tax rate". To many, that meant without raising your taxes. Of course, the measure was passed by the voters. Property values rose and taxes were bound to increase. Proper language for the ballot measure was originally proposed by staff but was later modified by legislative leadership. As a current member of Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee, I saw early on that the big government legislators and the Governor were going to go after our Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Initially, they were going to tie their scheme to education. They know how strongly you feel about prop- erly funding education.

Then the hyper-inflated property tax bills came out. With emotions high, voila! the shift was made to create Proposition HH. The shift was made so quickly that they had to cram this bill through the legislative process in the last three days of the session.

Why does the Governor and the big government legislators want to destroy the Taxpayer Bill of Rights? Because they do not want you to get used to refunds. Both the Legislative Council economist and the Governor’s own economist are predicting refunds into the next couple of years and beyond.

For thirty years, the Taxpayer Bill of rights has served us well. It has not financially constrained government as many have claimed. As a matter of fact, the Governor is now running around bragging how Colorado carries such strong reserves.

Now, let's get to the fix. Instead of running another scheme, the Governor needs to call a special session of the legislature. One that deals with real property tax relief measures such as reducing the assessment rates. He knows that he and the big government legislators created this mess. Now they need to clean it up.

They fooled us once. Don't let them fool us again.

Call the Governor’s office now (303) 866-2471.

Rod Bockenfeld is a Republican. He serves as a legislator in the Colorado House of Representatives and his district includes eastern Arapahoe County. He is also a member of the state's Joint Budget and House Appropriations Committees. He previously served for 12 years as an Arapahoe County Commissioner.

Rod can be contacted at Rod@Bockenfeld.com.