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Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado state senators recently engaged in more debate over Senate Bill 135, ultimately passing the measure and sending it over the House for consideration.     The bill sends a ballot measure to voters this November, exchanging billions of dollars in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds for a relatively small increase in education funding.  The Senate debate was enlightening in showing which amendments the bill sponsors supported and more importantly, those they did not.  For the kids (but not too much) One might think that the logical mechanism of a bill titled “State Public K-12 Education Funding” would be to increase revenues and direct the new money to C...
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Beyond the “kill switch”: How modern vehicles are already tracking drivers
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Beyond the “kill switch”: How modern vehicles are already tracking drivers

By Maria Orms | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Many people are talking about the “car surveillance” provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which directs regulators to develop technology that can monitor driver impairment—such as passively detecting blood alcohol levels. This has led to claims about a government “kill switch.” But what’s less widely discussed is that forms of remote connectivity and control have already been built into vehicles for over a decade. Since the 2010s, automakers have steadily integrated cellular connectivity—first 3G, then 4G LTE, and now 5G—into modern vehicles. Systems like OnStar and similar platforms allow cars to communicate with external networks. These connections enable features like emergency assistance, navigation up...
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The golden rule of government: Who controls the funding shapes Colorado education policy
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

The golden rule of government: Who controls the funding shapes Colorado education policy

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado We have all heard the Golden Rule, based on Matthew 7:12, which commands that we treat others the way we would like to be treated. But have you heard of the Golden Rule of Money? This rule says that “He who has the gold makes the rules.” It is a truth based on ownership of resources, which we should be very familiar with here in Colorado. The part-time homeschool enrichment public funding conversations happening under the golden dome in Denver are an incredibly clear example of this golden rule. The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) has asked for a bill* to be drafted that addresses Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) operating programs outside their member districts, defines “instructional time,” and clarif...
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Where money meets power: Inside the rise of the environmental industry
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Where money meets power: Inside the rise of the environmental industry

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com I follow the ups and downs of the environmental industry almost like a part-time hobby, for several reasons. For one, many environmental groups pretend to be local, grassroots activists, when in fact many are nationally organized and funded as part of a larger network. But also, their growth, influence, finances, and occasional declines offer fascinating insights into Americans’ interest in the environment, and their perceptions of groups who presume to speak for them. I use the term “environmental industry” to illustrate the unparalleled growth of these organizations, both in money and power – often the primary objectives. U.S. environmental organizations reported to the IRS assets of well over $200 billion by 2022 (most recent available...
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PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

PERA Program Designed to Help Rural Schools Has Potential for Abuse

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project A reader messaged me recently about concerns they had in their own local district. The concern centers around who was getting hired (well, re-hired) at their local school district. For a number of reasons, it’s not feasible to go and check out the reader’s district, but I hung on to the story because it felt like a good learning opportunity to share something I learned about, and it might be a concern you share. As best as I can tell (there may have been laws that refined or changed the original program), a 2017 law which I link to first below created a program in PERA, the Public Employees Retirement Association, to help get teachers into rural schools. In order to understand how this works, I have to bac...
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Colorado Case Tests Limits Of Religious Freedom In Publicly Funded Programs
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Case Tests Limits Of Religious Freedom In Publicly Funded Programs

By Ari Armstrong | Commentary, Complete Colorado The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a Colorado Catholic preschool that wishes to get state funding but not follow all antidiscrimination laws pertaining to gay and transgender students and possibly staff. I suspect that constitutional law professor Josh Blackman is right to predict the Court’s view, “This will likely be yet another repudiation of Colorado’s hostility to religious liberty.” Yet I wish Blackman and other conservatives would more fully think through the implications of the case for freedom of conscience. Remember who’s paying the bill The basic argument for not excluding the Catholic preschool is that excluding it infringes the school’s religious liberty. Religious prescho...
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Energy Foundation China Has Been Generous to Those Dealing in Colorado Politics
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Energy Foundation China Has Been Generous to Those Dealing in Colorado Politics

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Energy Foundation China has been generous to those dealing in Colorado politics. One of my recent op eds is linked below. It was a fair bit of research, but worth it. There is a group named Energy Foundation China, which, though it has a San Francisco address for its headquarters, is strongly tied to Beijing, the Chinese government, and the CCP. Another important thing to note is how generous Energy Foundation China has been to environmental and other nonprofits here in Colorado. I was barely able to scratch the surface given how interconnected the nonprofit ecosystem is here in Colorado, but I detail the heavy hitters in a recent op ed below. Follow the money. https://completecolorado.com/202...
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GOP Urged To Refocus As Voter Turnout Concerns Mount for Midterms
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Washington Examiner, Approved, Commentary, National

GOP Urged To Refocus As Voter Turnout Concerns Mount for Midterms

By Leona Salinas | Commentary, The Washington Examiner Just eight weeks ago, during his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump argued that economic stabilization is underway. He stated that egg prices had fallen by 60% and cited declining gas prices as evidence of progress. Republicans thought they could walk into the 2026 midterm elections with the most dangerous assumption in politics: that because Trump is in office, the ground is secure. How quickly things can change in a matter of weeks. Gas prices scratched an average of $4.12 per gallon, and who is monitoring egg prices when there’s a much more pressing situation in the Middle East? Even as signs of stabilization appear, frustration remains high. And frustration d...
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If the state can take property without a conviction, no property is safe
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

If the state can take property without a conviction, no property is safe

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Civil asset forfeiture began as a narrow exception in colonial maritime law, not as a general tool of domestic policing. In those early admiralty cases, the government often had jurisdiction over the ship or cargo, but not over the owner. The vessel might be in port, but the owner could be overseas, unknown, or beyond the reach of the court. In that circumstance, proceeding against the property itself—an action in rem—was often the only practical way to enforce customs law.  Justice Neil Gorsuch recently highlighted this history in his concurrence in Culley v. Marshall and asked the obvious question: if the government today has full jurisdiction over the person—if it can arrest, charge, and prosecute them directly—...
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Counties forced to pay: State landfill mandates come without funding
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Counties forced to pay: State landfill mandates come without funding

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Funded mandates on county landfills? One of the consistent complaints coming out of municipal and local governments is the sheer number of unfunded mandates our state government puts on them. For some context on that, I link to an Advance Colorado report on them first below. Not all mandates come from the state legislature either. Sometimes they come from one of the copious unelected boards running more of the state than they should. A recent decision by the unelected Air Quality Control Council imposed significant costs on smaller, municipal landfills regarding methane controls. As usual, this mandate did not come with any dollars to help fund it. My state senator, B Pelton, has put forward a bi...
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