On June 28, the Denver Post broke the news: the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is cutting 11 jobs this summer after its one-time federal COVID relief funding dried up. (Side note: I realize I am a local government underling, but even a redneck from Weld County knows you don’t create permanent programs and hire permanent employees with temporary grant money!! But that’s just me…) Predictably, the government-employees union is up in arms, warning that slashing even a dozen positions will cripple our public-health system.
But here’s the thing: CDPHE has been feasting on federal grants and state dollars for years, ballooning its workforce by a staggering 33 percent since 2019 (Guv Polis’s first year – IMAGINE him growing government and centralizing control)—growing from around 900 to over 1,200 full-time employees today. So let’s stop the crocodile tears and ask why unions are playing Chicken Little over 11 layoffs when they helped fill the nest so lavishly in the first place (Side note: Why are government employees – paid by your taxpayer dollars – allowed to unionize so they can soak you of more of your taxpayer dollars?!).
A little history: back in fiscal year 2018–19, CDPHE’s mission-critical divisions—disease control, environmental health, emergency preparedness—tallied about 900 full-time staff. Fast-forward to FY 24–25, and that headcount has swelled past 1,200 FTEs, thanks in large part to temporary COVID grants (temp money, permanent employees), new “equity” initiatives, and rapidly expanding bureaucratic layers. In the meantime, Colorado families juggle rising property taxes and small-business owners groan under worker-mandate costs—all while these office-bound regulators keep hiring.
Here’s where the union narrative falls apart. They cast these 11 cuts as a dire threat to community health. Really? Eleven jobs out of a 1,200-strong department represent less than one percent of the workforce. We’ve seen the same folks pivot from “fifteen days to flatten the curve” to “five years later, many are still ‘working’ from home.” It’s time for an independent audit of CDPHE’s bloated programs, because if they can’t live within the means of predictable, ongoing revenue—rather than chasing every shiny federal grant—why should taxpayers keep footing the bill?
My humble suggestions:
- Audit and Right-Size: Identify redundant “pilot” projects and silos that outlasted their grants. Freeze hiring in non-essential roles until headcounts align with sustainable funding.
- Mission-Focused Funding: Link permanent positions to core public-health duties—food inspections, outbreak response, air-quality monitoring—not to ephemeral mandates like emergency equity consultants.
- Local Empowerment: Shift more funding and authority back to county health departments that know their communities. If Weld, Mesa, or Larimer can run clinics without a phalanx of state bureaucrats, let us.
- Cap Administrative Overhead: Any federal grant should legally limit administrative take-home to no more than 10 percent; surplus dollars should flow back to local treasuries or the state general fund—where they belong.
My Bottom line:
If Colorado WINS union bosses (again, why are government employees allowed to unionize?) truly cared about public health, they’d hold the department accountable for years of headcount bloat instead of clutching pearls over 11 layoffs. The same folks who cheered “free money” from Washington are now weeping over the sunset of one-off funding. Colorado needs to begin draining the Polis-induced swamp. Reduce waste, empower local health districts, and remind state agencies that sustainable budgets, not grant-hunting, should drive staffing. Only then will our public-health system serve Coloradans instead of soaking them.
