Mar 5, 2020
We need your help to advocate for Senior Property Tax Exemption unspent funds to stay in the aging network!
The Senior Homestead Exemption unspent funds that are designated by law to the Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to provide community-based services to older adults and their families and caregivers are in jeopardy! The Governor and Joint Budget Committee are being pressured to take all or part for other state needs not related to aging.
Remember, the Senior Homestead Exemption funds are transferred to the Older Coloradans Cash Fund for the purpose of providing direct services to older Coloradans through the state’s network of 16 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). We are concerned that this law is now at risk.
With the rapid aging of the population, now more than ever, the state needs to invest in the statewide network of AAAs to respond to this dramatic demographic change. The AAAs are critical partners in communities throughout the state but are feeling the pressures of the growing older population. These funds need to be made available to expand services and to explore innovative programs and service models.
Some of these funds also could be used to support important work like Lifelong Colorado (a program in the Department of Local Affairs to help Colorado communities become more age-friendly), increasing the number of geriatric trained medical providers, and implementing the recommendations of the Governor’s Strategic Action Planning Group on Aging, whose recommendations the governor has said will form the roadmap for his administration on aging issues.
Please contact the governor and members of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) now!
Tell the governor and the JBC to let them know you strongly support allocating the full amount of the unspent Senior Homestead funds in the Older Coloradans Cash fund (designated in the Colorado Department of Human Services budget request as R33) for aging services and programs, especially those provided by AAAs and community providers.
JBC Members:
Representative Daneya Esgar | 303-866-2968 (Chair)
Senator Dominick Moreno | 303-866-4857 (Vice-Chair)
Representative Julie McCluskie | 303-866-2952
Senator Bob Rankin | 303-866-5292
Representative Kim Ransom | 303-866-2933
Senator Rachel Zenzinger | 303-866-4840
Gov. Polis Office:
Constituent Services Help Line | 303-866-2885
Governor's Office, Front Desk | 303-866-2471
