DENVER – After discovering that one Colorado legislator was making big money working for a nonprofit generating significant donations from state-funded grants, another lawmaker has vowed to put an end to that.
Sen. Byron Pelton (R-Sterling) has pulled a bill title for the 2027 legislative session titled “Prohibition on Legislators Compensation from State Funded Nonprofits.”
Pelton said the bill is in direct response to Rep. Lorena Garcia (D-Westminster), who he recently learned was taking a hefty salary as director of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC), a nonprofit that has received much of its funding — nearly $2 million — from taxpayers over the past few years.
“We should not be having the opportunities to vote to fund non-profits that benefit us,” Pelton said. “People are not using the 17C like they should.”
Pelton was referring to a legislative procedure that allows a lawmaker to withhold voting on a bill because of potential conflict of interest. Sen. Julie Gonzales (D-Denver) used it last year on a separate Pelton issue – an amendment to a bill that now allows nonprofits to get advances on their state grants before presenting proof of spending.
Gonzales is the co-founder of the Colorado Latino Forum, a nonprofit that also receives Colorado grant funding. Pelton introduced an amendment that exempted non-profits from the new rules if a legislator served on the board or as director of the organization. Gonzales participated in voting on the bill, but only took took the 17C recusal on Pelton’s amendment, which ultimately passed after a roll call vote.
“Obviously we need to do something more to make it transparent that people are part of these nonprofits and benefiting from them with votes in the House and Senate,” he said. “We need to stop that, and it needs to be more transparent.”
Barring compensation with tax money
Pelton’s bill would bar any legislator who is the director or serves on the board of a nonprofit from using tax dollars for their salary or benefits.
When asked how the source of salary funds would be determined, he said they are working on those details, but at minimum a non-profit would need to show it received an equal or greater amount of private funding to cover the salary, benefits and expenses of the legislator, without use of tax-funded grant dollars.
In Garcia’s case, Pelton said, it was obvious state money is funding her salary.
According to the nonprofit’s tax form 990, CSPC’s revenues when Garcia took the helm in 2018 were about $517,000. In the years after she took over that number grew nearly five times to $2.7 million in 2023, with her salary nearly tripling from $57,000 to $133,000.
As previously reported by Complete Colorado, CSPC is also a major donor to the campaign pushing a progressive state income tax ballot measure for the November election.
According to the Transparency Online Project (TOPS), CSPC has raised nearly $2 million in Colorado tax-funded grants and other programs since Garcia became director, with more than 99 percent of those tax dollars rolling in since Garcia was appointed to the legislature.
“You cannot get paid. You cannot do any of that stuff,” Pelton said. “And the penalties are going to be either you step down from your position on the nonprofit, or you get removed from your position as a legislator because you have violated an ethical policy.”
Complete Colorado will follow the bill through its process.
