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Colorado’s crime problem is bigger than the laws on the books
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s crime problem is bigger than the laws on the books

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado’s crime problem isn’t just due to our laws As I've written before, our troubles with crime involve more than just the laws on the books.There are a few steps in the criminal justice process where someone has discretion. Discretion means the ability to be too hard, or too soft.District Attorneys decide on whether to charge and what charges to bring. Judges decide on bail, and the trial judge passes sentence.Each step a chance to be too harsh or too easy.The Complete Colorado article at bottom details a new effort by some lawmakers and talk radio host Jeff Hunt. Their website is linked below the story for convenience.I'll leave it to you to read either, but in brief, their effort is intended to bring publ...
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Open letter warns HB26-1065 expands unelected power and state control
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Open letter warns HB26-1065 expands unelected power and state control

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project An open email to the sponsors of HB26-1065 and the House Finance Committee Members In keeping with earlier posts, I have been watching affordable housing legislation this session. One of the bills that came up in an earlier post is HB26-1065. I link to that bill first below. Mild in the impact, especially compared with efforts that take away local control and further reinforce the NGO/nonprofit/government complex, this bill is still concerning in what it sets up. My open letter to the committee is copied below the link. If it’s helpful to you in advocating on this issue, please feel free to use any part or the whole. Before I get to my email (and testimony if I can make the hearing) howe...
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Transit Equity Day and the price of “equity”: Who pays when fares go to zero?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Transit Equity Day and the price of “equity”: Who pays when fares go to zero?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Did you forget to celebrate Transit Equity Day? A reader pointed out the recent RTD press release linked first below. It touts how RTD celebrated Transit Equity Day on the 4th by giving everyone a free ride.Transit Equity Day itself is observed in remembrance of Rosa Parks and her stand against segregation of city busses. Quoting the press release (with links intact):"Transit Equity Day is observed annually on Parks’ birthday in recognition of public transit as a civil right and a critical pathway to opportunity. On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, an act that helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement and launched the Montgomery Bus ...
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The camel’s nose under the tent: Why Colorado’s “captive customer” bill matters
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

The camel’s nose under the tent: Why Colorado’s “captive customer” bill matters

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Captive customer price controls--the camel’s nose under the tent? Colorado Democrats are tinkering in the market again, going after a variety to things including so-called "captive customers".Quoting the Complete Colorado article below (with links intact):"House Bill 26-1012 is part of a package of legislation majority Democrats have in mind to regulate consumer prices and limit what the bill sponsors claim is price gouging. “Consumer Protections to Promote Fair Market Pricing” is the only bill in the package introduced so far."There's more to the bill, but the part relevant to this post relates to what the sponsors define as captive customers. Quoting again:"The bill also requires all vendors selling to...
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Lawmakers admit the problem: One-time money built permanent government
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers admit the problem: One-time money built permanent government

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Reporters talk about shared reality, some want it to be their reality. Over and over I have heard and read journalists discussing our "shared reality"--the need to operate from a basis of fact.I don't disagree.The problem is that many of those same journalists want to substitute their take on reality, they want to be the arbiters of fact.This is not their role.I wrote an op ed on this dynamic using some statements and "reporting" by 9News' Zelinger and Clark as an example.More on the topic in the link below.https://completecolorado.com/2026/01/08/colorado-journalists-shared-reality-deciders/ Were it not for TABOR (weakened as it is) … I wanted to share the Sun article below, but per...
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Medicaid billing error cost Colorado tens of millions, officials acknowledge
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, Red State

Medicaid billing error cost Colorado tens of millions, officials acknowledge

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HCPF really did accidentally pay millions in Medicaid claims. In an earlier op ed about Colorado's Medicaid expansion (see the first link below) and how that puts our state at higher risk of fraud, waste, and/or abuse, I asked the Colorado Division of Healthcare Policy and Financing, HCPF, the state unit which adminsiters Medicaid, about what they do to prevent or stop such problems.Their spokesperson responded with:“We constantly look out for fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) across all services & programs, but some programs or services are more susceptible to FWA than others. We have various processes/procedures in place for ‘high risk’ services to prevent inappropriate payments from going out the door. Tho...
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Red flag law expansion questioned as data shows wrongful gun seizures in Colorado
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Red flag law expansion questioned as data shows wrongful gun seizures in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Expanding red flag laws without fixing current problems I wanted to share David Kopel’s written testimony against the proposed expansion--the second time in two years for those keeping count--of Colorado’s Red Flag Law (aka Extreme Risk Protection Order Law). It’s linked first below.As he has done in the past, Mr. Kopel does a wonderful job of dispassionately laying out arguments against the gun control we’ve seen, often striking at the underpinnings and foundations of the law as well as the arguments made by legislators/others for it.I will leave it to you to read the op ed, but I will share a couple things that made it especially noteworthy to me.Besides the unproven (and probably unprovable) narrative tha...
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How Medicaid growth is crowding Colorado’s budget priorities
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Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State, Top Stories

How Medicaid growth is crowding Colorado’s budget priorities

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Medicaid and Colorado’s Spending on Same I wanted to share Nash Herman’s op ed from Complete Colorado with you. I will leave it to you to read it in full, but there are a couple of pertinent things to share. The op ed does a good job of providing an overview of what will likely be a big issue this legislative session: Colorado’s Medicaid spending, a largely self-caused injury. In typical government fashion, the relevant state department, the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing, engaged a third party and paid them $600K to study the issue. The contractor came back and recommended that, quoting the op ed, “... the state should prioritize reductions in behavioral health, long-term...
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How PSPS coverage steers public blame
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How PSPS coverage steers public blame

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project How the media will drive coverage of PSPS I wrote a bit back about how the media polarize coverage of ICE and efforts to enforce immigration law. As part of that I pointed to being aware of media narratives, of the paradigms they have which guide their coverage and, in a feedback loop, how their readers see their reality. That newsletter is linked first below if you're wanting the context.I thought of that dynamic when I read a recent CPR article on businesses impacted by Xcel's Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). That article is second below, but the pertinent bit for me is the following quote (copied here with links intact):"Xcel’s “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” may become more common, as Colorado co...
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TABOR under pressure: How “think of the children” messaging is shaping Colorado’s education debate
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

TABOR under pressure: How “think of the children” messaging is shaping Colorado’s education debate

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Note the “won’t someone think of the children?!” framing I don’t think there are any specifics yet, but as of last week, there were plenty of rumors about the Democrats taking another stab at TABOR, this time in conjunction with their paymasters the teacher’s unions. If you read the Sun article linked first below, you’ll see one possible form this effort could take: some way or another, tying lifting the TABOR cap to directing money into education. Doing so would obviously enable supporters to frame opposition as being cold hearted: won’t someone please think of the children? I have discussed framing before, and the best way to counter it is to be aware of the framing, presenting counter...
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