Enough is enough. That is the bipartisan message county commissioners across Southwest Colorado have been delivering to state lawmakers, and the Herald’s editorial board agrees.
State and federal laws that impose new responsibilities without providing funding are steadily eroding the ability of many, especially rural, counties to deliver basic services – from public safety to health care to road maintenance.
Fifty of Colorado’s 64 counties have now signed letters saying the same thing: stop. So many counties would not raise the same alarm unless the problem is systemic.
Recent mandates cited by La Plata County include the Wildland-Urban Interface Code, energy benchmarking and building performance standards, digital accessibility requirements, demographic reporting, and landfill methane regulations. For San Miguel County, which does not even have a landfill, such a mandate makes no sense. Others may be sensible individually, but taken together, they are unsustainable.
La Plata County commissioners formally raised those concerns in a September letter to Gov. Jared Polis and legislative leaders, warning that unfunded mandates were creating a fiscal burden. That message was reinforced Jan. 5, when county commissioners and administrators from across Southwest Colorado met in Pagosa Springs to press the issue directly with state lawmakers (Herald, Jan. 7).
Local officials have been clear that this is not an ideological fight. Many of the mandates cited – from wildfire mitigation codes to digital accessibility and energy benchmarking – were publicly supported by county commissioners, including those in La Plata County. The problem is not policy goals. It is the absence of funding and the lack of realistic implementation standards.
That disconnect was evident at the Jan. 5 meeting also attended by Sen. Cleave Simpson and Rep. Katie Stewart. The editorial board thanks both lawmakers for showing up, listening, and acknowledging the scale of the problem. Both agreed the urban-rural divide plays a significant role – a Legislature dominated by Front Range realities passing laws that ripple very differently through rural counties.
Rep. Stewart has illustrated how unfunded mandates cascade from federal to state to local governments. In her recent column (Herald, Jan. 11), she warned that new federal Medicaid work requirements, unsupported by federal funding, could cost Colorado $7 billion over seven years. Because Colorado is one of the few states that administers Medicaid at the county level, these administrative burdens fall squarely on counties already struggling with staffing and caseloads. She highlighted Georgia’s experience: soaring administrative costs, widespread errors, and thousands of eligible residents losing coverage – all without any increase in employment.
Local governments see the same pattern repeated across legislation. Fiscal notes are required, but they are almost exclusively focused on the state budget. While they may acknowledge a local government or school district impact, they often stop there.
Consider this language from a recent bill:
“Local Government – School District: The bill increases expenditures for any local government or school district that owns a building covered by the enterprise fee.”
That statement offers no dollar estimate, no range, no explanation of scale – only an acknowledgment that costs will rise. Counties are left to absorb unknown expenses while trying to maintain roads, public safety, and social services funded primarily through property taxes.
The fix is straightforward: fund the mandates, allow opt-outs where they make no sense, build flexibility into implementation, or tier requirements by population and capacity. Rural counties cannot continue to absorb unknown costs associated with policies designed for urban systems.
Counties are not asking for a veto pen. They are asking for honesty, transparency, and partnership – fiscal notes that spell out real local costs, and legislation that recognizes Colorado’s geographic and economic diversity.
Fifty counties are not crying wolf. They are raising the alarm. It’s time the Legislature listened – and acted.
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated the county faces an $8 million shortfall going into 2026. That shortfall was mostly eliminated when Ballot Measure 1A passed in November 2025. Prior to the passage of 1A, the county had estimated a $15 million shortfall.
