Hundreds of thousands of Coloradans will receive $375 each in one-time, direct payments that come out of untapped funds, Gov. Jared Polis announced Wednesday.
According to an executive order signed by Polis, eligibility for this money will be limited to those earning under $52,000 who have filed for unemployment at least once between March 15 and Oct. 24 of this year, and who met state eligibility requirements for a weekly benefit amount between $25 and $500 during that same period.
The Polis administration estimates that more than 400,000 Coloradans will receive payments, for a total of $168 million to be distributed statewide. Polis told The Denver Post the money would hit bank accounts by Dec. 1, and that people will not have to apply for the money.
Multiple members of a household can receive the payments.
About $149 million of the money, Polis budget director Lauren Larson said, will come from “some expected reversions to some over-budgeted lines for the Medicaid program. We’re seeing a slower uptake in case load.”
The rest will come from disaster relief funds.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment estimates as many as 435,000 people will qualify for the payments, which it will be dispersing. Every eligible person will receive a call or email from the labor department, officials said. People who have filed for unemployment this year are encouraged to log in to their accounts and make sure their addresses and preferred payment methods are up to date.
Coloradans who are not eligible for traditional state unemployment support but have collected federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program benefits this year also will qualify for the $375.
More than 750,000 people have filed for unemployment in Colorado since mid-March, according to the labor department. As of the week ending Oct. 10, nearly 218,000 people were collecting ongoing benefits.
“These direct payments are the best way to get hard-working folks through a very difficult period and get our economy back on track,” Polis told The Denver Post.
“It’s going to help some folks get through winter, and it will also be good for our economic recovery,” he added.
The governor collaborated with state lawmakers in finding the money, said state Rep. Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. The excess Medicaid money was a result of lower than expected caseloads and a higher than expected federal match, she said.
“This would have reverted to the general fund, but we are instead reallocating the resources back to hard-working Coloradans who need them,” Esgar said. “The governor has the authority to do this, and we were happy to work with him to provide this badly needed assistance.”
The governor said he considered making the move earlier in October but was waiting to see if there would be another round of federal coronavirus relief payments.
The announcement comes less than a week before Election Day. One of the Democratic lawmakers mentioned in the press release, state Sen. Dominick Moreno of Commerce City, said he doesn’t think Coloradans should “read too much into the timing.”
“The importance was getting the assistance to folks before the end of the year, considering that it looks like Congress isn’t really going to do anything,” said Moreno, vice chair of the budget committee.
The federal government has twice provided bonus payments to people collecting unemployment during the pandemic. First came the $600 per week program authorized under the CARES Act, which ended July 25. That was followed by the Lost Wages Assistance program, created through a presidential executive order in August. That program provided $300 in extra weekly benefits for people who were on unemployment between July 26 and Aug. 29, and the deadline for Coloradans to claim eligibility for that program was Monday.
The undocumented community has not been eligible for any of the coronavirus relief payments, and it is ineligible for the newly announced state money.
“The horrifying story of this whole thing is that while other folks have been able to secure assistance … the undocumented community has largely been left behind,” Moreno said, predicting that “there are going to be discussions about addressing that in the next legislative session.”
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