The state budget shortfall is a serious issue and should be taken seriously. 

Two state senators responsible for SB 005, Dylan Roberts (D-08) and Marc Catlin (R-05), were not taking this issue seriously. Instead, they were using this crisis as an opportunity to advance their grievances with wolf restoration efforts through a bill that they are introducing during a budget emergency. It was a petty attack and an affront to the voters of Colorado who voted to put this program into place, a program that remains popular outside of a small group of livestock business owners. 

Roberts’ bad-faith bill was an attack on the direct will of Colorado voters, which gives voters a direct path to legislation that politicians might otherwise oppose. 

Roberts and Catlin were claiming that this is not an attack on the wolf program but their proposed bill is functionally the same as the petition to delay new wolf introductions submitted to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. 

Since they can’t win through democracy, they were choosing to attempt another sneaky attack on the program. Their claims that this bill would “save money” were nonsense. 

If these two want to save the state money regarding wolves, they should instead look to the abuses of the wolf compensation program and encourage their constituents to take advantage of all the resources that have been made available to them.

Our legislators should have been taking this budget crisis seriously. Personal grievance bills make a mockery of the scale of this weaponized attack on our state’s budget. It’s time for Roberts and Catlin to acknowledge the will of the voters and accept the results of the 2020 ballot measure and the extensive work and money that has been dedicated to making wolf restoration into law.