State Lawmakers Fight Back After Oklahoma Tries To Lure National Western Stock Show Out Of Colorado

DENVER (CBS4) - State lawmakers are warning Oklahoma to back off after it made a play to steal the National Western Stock Show.

"If Oklahoma thinks they can take the stock show away from us, they've got another thing coming," said Speaker of the House Alec Garnett as Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law that puts $25 million toward the stock show.

After COVID-19 canceled the National Western last year for the first time in more than a century, Oklahoma and Nebraska announced their own stock shows and began trying to recruit breeders.

Meanwhile, the City of Denver is struggling to come up with money to finish new stockyards at the National Western Complex as part of a major overhaul that was to be funded with a tourism tax. But that tax all but dried up during the pandemic.

"Denver looked in all the couch cushions to see if they could pull the money together and they couldn't quite get there. That's when they came to that state and as a Denver legislator and fourth generation Coloradan I said 'It is my job, it is my duty to preserve the stock show' and that's what I'm going to do," said Garnett.

A Denver Democrat, he might seem an unlikely ally for rural Colorado, but Garnett says he grew up attending the stock show and knows what it would mean to lose it.

"It creates jobs, it gets young people excited about farming and ranching and contributes immensely to our economy," Garnett explained.

The National Western Stock Show is also a 115-year tradition in Colorado and the premier event for livestock sales nationwide every year.

Republican state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg -- a rancher -- had asked for $7 million for the stock show but was only able to get half that amount in a bill.

Garnett wasn't satisfied. After months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, he got $25 million signed into law to keep what he calls "The Crown Jewel of Agriculture" in Colorado.

"The stock show celebrates our Western identity and heritage and this shows that we are proud of it, even in our largest cities," he said.

Sonnenberg says the overhaul will make it the "Silicone Valley of Agriculture."

"What a great day for ag in Colorado," Sonnenberg exclaimed.

The new law also provides funding for the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo and other smaller agriculture events around the state.

Garnett says the legislature invested more money in agriculture this session than any other in recent memory. Lawmakers passed $2.5 million for the Colorado Proud program to expand markets for Colorado produce, $10 million for drought resiliency and soil health programs and $30 million in loans and grants to help farmers and ranchers who had trouble getting produce to the markets and beef processed during COVID-19. Lawmakers also put $20 million toward the Colorado Water Plan, which Garnett says is the biggest general fund investment in water ever.

"When you look at the rural-urban divide, I would say it's closer together than ever been before," Garnett said.

Oklahoma Governor Criticizes Denver

Earlier this year, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in his State of the State address: "The folks in Denver turned their back on the ag industry. They wouldn't let them have their major national cattle show because they insisted on keeping their state locked down. That put the stability of the U.S. beef industry in danger." 

Polis responded with a letter praising the ag industry and saying he is committed to keeping the National Western here.