Author Archives: Colorado Pols

Walker Stapleton.

We wrote earlier today about the controversy over poorly-explained delays by Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s staff in issuing certificates of participation, bond-like instruments to provide funding for roads and other capital construction projects that were supposed to be issued on July 1 to allow those projects to proceed. Stapleton’s deputy in the treasurer’s office blasted Democrats for a “poorly orchestrated and ill-informed political attack,” while simultaneously admitting that the concern over the delay was legitimate–even to the point of explaining that a lawyer who had argued for the delay based on a pro-TABOR lawsuit by conservative activists had been fired. As The Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reported today:

[T]he treasurer’s office acknowledged that the lawyer who counseled Stapleton to delay financing had been fired and that the staff member who told the project committee that financing would have to be delayed “didn’t have the current information.” [Pols emphasis]

Based on this update, Rep. Daneya Esgar of the Capital Development Committee said she was “pleased” that the funding would be able to at least get moving by the Treasurer’s office’s revised September deadline–based on the belief that the objections inside Stapleton’s office had been resolved.

But as Westword’s Nora Alabi reports in a new Friday story, apparently nobody told this to Walker Stapleton!

At a press conference July 19 at the Colorado Farm Bureau headquarters in Centennial, where Stapleton was discussing the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Colorado’s agricultural exports after a private roundtable, reporters asked the state treasurer about the letter and capital construction delays. Stapleton called Democratic accusations that his delay issuing bonds was ideologically motivated a “fabricated political stunt” and a “perfect example of why people lose faith in government.” Stapleton says the delay is justified because of pending litigation that could determine the fate of the capital construction funds. Not only is the outcome of the lawsuit unknown, it has made investors in the bond markets antsy, he adds. [Pols emphasis]

“My paramount concern as the treasurer of Colorado is to make sure we’re not issuing bonds when there is economic uncertainty. Anybody in the capital markets can tell you that from an investment standpoint, when you’re issuing bonds and those bonds are being impacted by pending litigation, which we had nothing to do with, it makes investors skiddish,” Stapleton says. “I’m not going to issue bonds when it could negatively impact the credit of Colorado based on hair around the deal resulting from the lawsuit. It would be fiscally irresponsible for me to do so…”

“The statute calls for the bonds to be issued within the fiscal year. We’re going to issue those bonds in September, which is well ahead of schedule,” Stapleton says. The lawsuit he cites as reason for the delay, however, does not to go trial until late October.

Westword reports that these certificates of participation are not the only financial instruments apparently stymied by the TABOR lawsuit, with bonds to add an additional lane to I-25 between Castle Rock and Monument also delayed for the same stated reason–a lawsuit that Stapleton’s deputy says doesn’t matter.

So folks, which is it? Is the delay justified or isn’t it? Is the TABOR lawsuit the reason for the delay issuing these certificates and bonds…or isn’t it? All of these questions begin and end inside Stapleton’s office. Stapleton is the only one who can explain what’s really going on, and in the last 24 hours the treasurer and his deputy treasurer have said two directly contradictory things that no one has even tried to clarify. The situation is almost, well, Trumpian.

The one thing we do know is it’s absolutely absurd for Stapleton, either in his official capacity as treasurer or as a gubernatorial candidate, to lay this confusion at the feet of Democrats. Until Stapleton and his staff can get on the same page as to what is happening here and why, they’re making colossal fools only of themselves.

Walker Stapleton.

We reported yesterday on a letter from Democrats on the legislative Capital Development Committee, calling out Republican Treasurer Walker Stapleton over delays in issuing certificates of participation (COPs) for construction projects across the state–unnecessary delays that could cost real money, not to mention time as important road and other capital construction projects wait for their funding.

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports today, Stapleton’s over-the-top reaction to this perfectly reasonable inquiry reflects a pattern we’ve seen establishing itself strikingly since Stapleton’s campaign for governor began: incompetence, finger-pointing, and then attempting to bury the underlying very real problem.

Pueblo Rep. Daneya Esgar, co-chairman of the capital project committee, sent a letter to Stapleton on Wednesday that said any delay in financing the long list of authorized state projects will mean higher costs and delays…

“In order to make the best use of public funds and get these critical projects started rapidly, the (financing) should be issued as soon as possible,” the letter says. It was co-signed by Rep. Chris Hansen, D-Denver.

The letter points to two events — a statement in June by the treasurer’s staff that the financing would be delayed beyond July 1 and legal advice to Stapleton’s office that funding might have to wait because of a pending lawsuit against the state by the Tabor Foundation, a group that first filed suit in 2015 against lawmakers. [Pols emphasis]

As Ed Sealover at the Denver Business Journal reports, Stapleton’s deputy Ryan Parsell practically hissed out the Treasurer’s office’s response–a response that would have required almost no revision to come from Stapleton’s gubernatorial campaign:

Stapleton’s office, however, characterized the criticisms as partisan attacks that are being made and publicized because he is the Republican gubernatorial nominee and is running for the open seat against Democratic Congressman Jared Polis. No transportation projects’ construction will be delayed because of the planned September issuance of the COPs, they said.

“There is no delay. The office is on track to issue these COPs in September,” deputy treasurer Ryan Parsell said. “The faked outrage from Democrats is nothing more than a poorly orchestrated and ill-informed political attack because Walker also happens to be running for governor.”

As Roper reported above, in the press release from House Democrats yesterday, the specifics of the problem that resulted in their letter to Stapleton were not ambiguous:

At a meeting of the CDC last month, nonpartisan staff notified the committee that the Certificates of Participation (COPs) that will launch hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for capital construction and transportation would not to be issued at the start of the fiscal year as originally planned, but would be delayed until a date uncertain.

In short, it was Stapleton’s own staff who told the committee that the paperwork wouldn’t be ready by July 1, and was also apparently being delayed by a legal opinion that a right-wing lawsuit based on the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) might interfere with the issuance of these bond-like certificates of participation.

In other words, the Democrats didn’t make this up. And that’s where it all takes a turn for the stupid:

[T]he treasurer’s office acknowledged that the lawyer who counseled Stapleton to delay financing had been fired and that the staff member who told the project committee that financing would have to be delayed “didn’t have the current information.” [Pols emphasis]

Got that, Colorado? Stapleton fired the lawyer who opined he had to delay the issuance of these certificates, and says now under scrutiny that Stapleton’s own staffer who told Democrats there would be a delay was wrong–and yet it’s Democrats who launched a “poorly orchestrated and ill-informed political attack?” Once you understand all the events along the way to this story, it’s painfully obvious that Stapleton once again is trying to cover for his own incompetence with a pre-emptive volley of bellicose finger-pointing.

Like we said above, this tactic of firing off an acrimonious press release in response to every legitimate point of inquiry or criticism, then being forced to concede that the issue was actually quite valid via their own attempt to quietly remediate, is becoming a distinct pattern for Stapleton and his communications team. When Stapleton attacked his Democratic opponent for selecting a running mate one day before the deadline to do so as a “rushed announcement,” the subsequent uproar over Stapleton’s failure to announce his own selection by the deadline made that attack look totally ridiculous. Now we have Stapleton laying into Democrats with election-year partisan rhetoric via his official proxy, while quietly conceding their point.

It’s a theater of the absurd, folks. Watch for it to keep happening.

Walker Stapleton.

A press release from Colorado House Democrats calls out Treasurer Walker Stapleton for delays in funding approved construction projects, with potential negative consequences both economic and on the health and safety of Colorado residents:

Today, the Democratic members of the Capital Development Committee (CDC) sent a letter to Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton expressing serious concerns about his office’s delay in launching funding for capital construction needs under SB 17-267 and the impact that the delays would have on health and safety across the state.

At a meeting of the CDC last month, nonpartisan staff notified the committee that the Certificates of Participation (COPs) that will launch hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for capital construction and transportation would not to be issued at the start of the fiscal year as originally planned, but would be delayed until a date uncertain.

The letter highlights the impact of these delays on pressing needs around the state, including likely safety risks and significant escalation in costs to the taxpayers, and reiterates a call on Treasurer Stapleton to come before the CDC at the next meeting to respond to questions in person. The full committee had previously sent a letter requesting Treasurer Stapleton’s presence, but the committee agenda released yesterday showed that he did not plan to attend himself and would instead be represented by the Deputy Treasurer.

Here’s the full letter from Democrats on the Capital Development Committee to Stapleton. There’s been no real explanation for this delay offered that we’ve seen, but the most obvious explanation is that Stapleton is too busy running for governor to address these tasks related his current job as Treasurer. It’s the same assumption one could reasonably make for Stapleton’s mismanagement of the Great Colorado Payback program or his absentee oversight of the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA).

Which leads to the next logical question–why Stapleton would deserve a promotion when his current job is, you know, such a hardship.