Agroup of Western Slope lawmakers Thursday abandoned their attempt to pause wolf reintroduction in Colorado. But they reached a deal with Gov. Jared Polis that will redirect about $250,000 set aside to bring more gray wolves into the state this year into a fund aimed at driving down health care costs.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife will have to find the funding elsewhere to continue its reintroduction plans, which doesn’t appear to be a problem for the agency.
The next batch of wolves is scheduled to be released in western Colorado around December. The state is already sourcing animals for that release.
State Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, said the alternative to the compromise was the bill being killed by the legislature during the special lawmaking term that began Thursday or being vetoed by the governor. He said he reluctantly agreed to the deal.
“At least taxpayer dollars won’t be spent on new wolves and will go to health insurance assistance,” he told The Colorado Sun.
Roberts brought the measure with Sen. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose and Reps. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, and Matthew Martinez, D-Monte Vista. They argued that the state shouldn’t be spending money on wolf reintroduction as it tries to close a roughly $750 million hole in the budget caused by tax policy changes in the Republican federal tax and spending plan. Colorado’s tax code is matched to the federal tax code, which is why the deficit exists.
The state budget deficit is why lawmakers were called back to the Capitol this week for a special legislative session.
The bill, as introduced, would have paused wolf reintroduction for a year and sent the money earmarked for that work, $264,000, toward an effort to drive down a major increase in health insurance prices also caused by congressional Republicans’ measure, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Tackling the price increase is expected to cost upward of $100 million.
Polis blasted the wolf measure, Senate Bill 5, from the moment it was unveiled.
“We have real, major fiscal issues and we need the attention of the legislature on solving those and not other things that they are welcome to discuss in the (regular legislative) session,” Polis told The Sun in an interview Wednesday.
Polis’ office argued the bill was nothing more than a backdoor effort to interrupt wolf reintroduction.
The wolf bill — which wouldn’t affect funding for managing wolves already reintroduced in Colorado — was amended Thursday during its first committee hearing after several hours of testimony.
Sen. Matt Ball, a Denver Democrat who brought the amendment rewriting the measure, said he was told by the governor’s office that CPW has already lined up another funding source — likely a state cash fund — to cover the cost of this year’s wolf reintroduction.
State Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, was the lone “no” vote in committee on the bill. He complained that the measure did nothing and was purely political.
“Other than listening to people from the ag community talk about the wolf problem for three hours, I don’t know where we are,” he told his colleagues.
