bills related to disaster relief in the wake of flooding and wildfires. The bills funded grants to remove flood debris from watersheds and to repair flood-damaged schools and damaged wastewater and drinking water systems. They also exempted people who lost homes from having to pay property taxes and out-of-state disaster workers from having to pay Colorado state income tax. Drug policy In 2005, Denver voted to legalize possession of small amounts of cannabis, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so. Hickenlooper opposed the initiative as mayor, calling marijuana a gateway drug and saying that the initiative would not prevent enforcement of state law prohibiting cannabis. As governor in 2012, he opposed Amendment 64, which made Colorado the first state along with Washington to allow the sale and recreational use of cannabis. Hickenlooper said the initiative "sends the wrong message to kids that drugs are OK" and that "federal authorities have been clear they will not turn a blind eye toward states attempting to trump those laws". Despite his opposition, he worked with the state legislature to implement the initiative after it passed, and a federal crackdown on sale of the drug never materialized. As Colorado's new laws were implemented and the results became clearer, Hickenlooper's views evolved. In 2016, he said that Colorado's approach to cannabis legalization was "beginning to look like it might work". In 2019, he said that "the things that I feared six years ago have not come to pass" and that he would be happy to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level if he became president. He also said that the federal government should not stop states from decriminalizing illicit drugs beyond marijuana, as well as allowing for safe, supervised injection sites. In 2022 he introduced the PREPARE Act, to direct the attorney general to develop a regulatory framework for cannabis similar to alcohol, in preparation for federal legalization of the drug. Economic policy In March 2014, Hickenlooper signed House Bill 1241, which funded the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI). In 2016, Hickenlooper launched a program called Skillful, with the help of LinkedIn and the Markle Foundation. The program uses online tools and on-the-ground advisors to help businesses create job descriptions to tap into a wider job pool and help job seekers fill high-need jobs and connect them with job training. Twenty other states are now following. In 2017, Skillful added the Governors Coaching