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Colorado House approves $40.6 billion budget with just one Republican vote
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Colorado House approves $40.6 billion budget with just one Republican vote

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The Colorado House on Monday approved the state's $40.6 billion budget for the next fiscal year on a more or less party-line vote.  The 48-16 vote reflected just one "yes" from Republicans — from the GOP caucus' Joint Budget Committee member, Rep. Rick Taggart of Grand Junction. Taggart helped to draft the next spending plan contained in House Bill 1430.   Another Republican representative was absent.  Taggart joined the Joint Budget Committee this year, replacing Rep. Rod Bockenfeld of Watkins, who is undergoing cancer treatment. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Modified Colorado bill bans firearms in state Capitol, including for lawmakers
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Modified Colorado bill bans firearms in state Capitol, including for lawmakers

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado lawmakers substantially modified a proposal that originally listed nearly 20 places where a person would be prohibited to carry a firearm — even with a concealed weapons permit — to only a handful of areas, notably including higher education institutions. In narrowing down that list, the legislators added a new place where guns would be banned — the state Capitol. And, under the modified bill, that ban would apply to legislators.   The amendments allowed Senate Bill 131 to secure the support of Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Summit County, and ultimately the approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-2 party-line vote.  READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Colorado lawmakers propose $2 billion budget hike
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Colorado lawmakers propose $2 billion budget hike

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado House lawmakers on Thursday spent their day wrestling with the state's 2024-25 budget, and there was plenty to fight about. Lawmakers have begun reviewing the state's spending plan for the next fiscal year in the face of tight revenues and a budget deficit — even as policymakers are pushing for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding requests.  All told, the draft budget for fiscal year 2024-25 expects to spend $40.6 billion — $2 billion more than last year, driven by bigger allocations for health care, a significant expansion in the state's workforce and more money for schools seeing increased enrollment of immigrant students.     The fight in the House started with some of the measures that accompanied...
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Colorado lawmakers push for funeral industry regulations after string of scandals
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Colorado lawmakers push for funeral industry regulations after string of scandals

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics As she spread her son David's ashes in Utah, Crystina Page was struck by the extraordinary beauty of the landscape. She was also struck by the memory of being there before — having done the same thing. The ashes she spread last time, however, belonged to a stranger, whom she sardonically calls "grandma Fido" — because she's not completely sure whether they belong to a human or an animal. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Colorado lawmakers adopt cuts, hard choices as state faces $170 million budget shortfall
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Colorado lawmakers adopt cuts, hard choices as state faces $170 million budget shortfall

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Between March 15 and March 21, the six members of the Joint Budget Committee — the group of lawmakers in charge of drafting Colorado's spending plan — found themselves with a problem. With just over a week before the introduction of the state's 2024-25 budget, new revenue forecasts showed they had a hole to plug, with estimates ranging from $160 million to $225 million, depending on which forecast was used. Unlike the federal government, Colorado's budget drafters must come up with a balanced budget. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Republican state chair Dave Williams wins top-line in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District primary
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Republican state chair Dave Williams wins top-line in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District primary

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Dave Williams, the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, won top-line designation Saturday in the GOP's 5th Congressional District primary amid complaints the former state lawmaker has used party resources to promote his campaign and bash a primary opponent. Williams will face at least one other candidate in the June 25 primary for the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Springs Republican who announced at the beginning of the year that he wouldn't seek a ninth term representing the heavily Republican district. Republican Jeff Crank, a podcaster and executive with the Koch network's Americans for Prosperity, qualified for the primary ballot by petition this week, while state Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Spr...
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Colorado businesses responsible for funding statewide recycling program left in the dark, advocates say
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Colorado businesses responsible for funding statewide recycling program left in the dark, advocates say

Business tax could be as much as $200,000 annually By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics As Colorado initiates the rollout of a statewide recycling program, business advocates are warning lawmakers that companies are facing hefty fees they may not be aware of and implementing the initiative may not be realistic heading into 2026, not to mention its price tag amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.   House Bill 22-1355, signed into law in June 2022, tasked the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment with selecting a nonprofit organization to oversee the recycling initiative, funded through annual dues from producers of packaging materials and paper products. Producers are not required to pay those dues until 2026, and their advocates are uncertain...
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Legislators push to reintroduce wolverines in Colorado, insisting process unlike wolves
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Legislators push to reintroduce wolverines in Colorado, insisting process unlike wolves

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The North American wolverine — the animal, not the X-Men character — could return to Colorado. Lawmakers are pushing a proposal to authorize the reintroduction of the animal, maintaining it is a completely different set of circumstances than program that brought back wolves to Colorado. The proponents behind Senate Bill 171 also said wolverines would be less destructive. The bill authorizes the reintroduction contingent upon the federal government designating wolverines as a nonessential "experimental population" under what's called the 10(j) rule. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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State Rep. Leslie Herod granted protective order after judge finds ‘sexual assault’ claims are not credible
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State Rep. Leslie Herod granted protective order after judge finds ‘sexual assault’ claims are not credible

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics After a year of social media accusations that she was a "sexual predator," Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, has been granted a restraining order against the spokesperson for state Treasurer Dave Young with a judge ruling the evidence does not support the claims. The restraining order is against Sheena Kadi, the public information officer and communications director for Young. Kadi is a longtime Democratic political operative and the the vice chair of public relations and marketing for the Colorado Democratic Party. Kadi did not respond to a request for comment. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Douglas County aims to challenge Colorado’s sanctuary laws amid illegal immigration surge in Denver
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Douglas County aims to challenge Colorado’s sanctuary laws amid illegal immigration surge in Denver

By Kyla Pearce | Colorado Politics Douglas County's commissioners are eyeing a legal challenge to Colorado's "sanctuary" laws amid a surge in illegal immigration that has already cost Denver — the epicenter of the crisis — tens of millions of dollars.  They also advanced a proposed ordinance that bars commercial buses from unloading passengers "other than at a planned and scheduled documented destination," a clear attempt to stop immigrants from arriving at the county's doors unannounced.   In a resolution, the commissioners on Tuesday directed the county attorney to "pursue legal action to permit the county to fully cooperate with federal law enforcement." READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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