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Gaines: Phil Weiser spends your tax dollars suing Trump and backing gun control
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Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Gaines: Phil Weiser spends your tax dollars suing Trump and backing gun control

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project There but for the grace of God goes Colorado I was corresponding with someone recently and they mentioned something interesting. This person is a lawyer and said they were in a 10th circuit (Federal) courtroom recently and overheard an appellate case out of New Mexico about gun control. I am not sure if you remember, but New Mexico's governor made quite a splash a while back by declaring a public health emergency related to guns, trying essentially to use that to take away the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of that state. Those orders, and later iterations of same, have been working their way through the courts ever since. The first link below is to that case if you're curious. This person asked a neighbor...
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Gaines: Colorado Democrats blew the budget and now they want your TABOR refunds
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Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Gaines: Colorado Democrats blew the budget and now they want your TABOR refunds

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project Colorado Democrats made a hash of the state's finances, but they want YOU to pay to fix it. In this post I want to flesh out some of the many assaults on TABOR and fiscal responsibility the Democrats are cooking up for this legislative session. The previous two posts were all about financial problems in this state. Problems that arose from mismanagement of state rules and money. Problems that arose from out of control spending. Problems that arose from politicians not being willing to do what families are forced to do every single day: adjust their spending to their income and choose among priorities. In this final post of the series, I want to outline some of the ways in which Colorado Democrats--the party that has completely ru...
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Gaines: You paid about $24.5 million in tax dollars to Denver to address the city’s homelessness
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary

Gaines: You paid about $24.5 million in tax dollars to Denver to address the city’s homelessness

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project A CORA request came back recently (part of digging into a reader question) that illustrates the importance of paying attention to what your legislature is doing — in particular, paying attention to those seemingly-unimportant, unsexy bills. The reader had asked how much money Denver has spent on homelessness. I'm not even going to pretend that I can find or relate a full accounting to you. Not only are there different streams of money, how you do the counting matters. I've seen headlines that put the number at $155 million spent by Denver. Okay. Personal experience, making repeated requests to Denver officials for information on the topic have gone unanswered. Let's go with that number, though I wonder whether the lack o...
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Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary

Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other

By Cory Gaines | Guest Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Whether you run cattle on the Western Slope of Colorado or you grow forage on the Plains, there are precious few people in Colorado in Production Ag, while there seems a never-ending list of advocates — paid, volunteer, and sometimes from out of state — who are speaking up in support of things that either have the potential to harm producers or that will most assuredly harm them. Listen to any CPW commissioners meeting and you’ll have no trouble at all seeing what I mean. I have heard from people in the past that testifying is a challenge because of jobs, lack of technology, and lack of know how. I understand the constraints and so I made this quick guide to help ease some of those problems, to help you find ways t...
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Logan County TABOR issues highlight local concerns: Free State CO talks ranked choice voting
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Local

Logan County TABOR issues highlight local concerns: Free State CO talks ranked choice voting

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project The deadline to get local ballot issues on your local ballot passed recently.  As such I called the Logan County Clerk and Recorder's Office to see about anything on the ballot in Logan County. There is a measure in the City of Sterling, CO There is a measure in Merino, CO There is a measure in Crook, CO There is a measure in the Frenchman Re-3 District (Fleming, CO schools). Why call and ask?  The answer is simple.  You as a citizen have a right to provide a pro or con statement on any local ballot issues for the taxing district you reside in.  You should take advantage of this right because speaking up on local issues can have a huge effect, especially compared to statewide issues.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLO...
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