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Colorado Ballot Measure Would Protect Hunting and Fishing in State Constitution
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Ballot Measure Would Protect Hunting and Fishing in State Constitution

By Mike Krause | Complete Colorado DENVER–Colorado voters will decide in November whether to enshrine hunting and fishing as a constitutional right, after the secretary of state’s office on Wednesday confirmed Initiative #302 qualified for the general election ballot. Backers of the measure, formally titled “Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish,” turned in over 184,000 petition signatures, with state election officials declaring more than 145,000 of those as valid, easily clearing the roughly 124,000 signature threshold required for constitutional amendments, as well as the 2% per-district requirement in all 35 of Colorado’s state senate districts. The measure, backed by the newly formed T. Roosevelt Conservation Alliance, amends the Colorado Constitution to establish...
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Weighted, primed and paid: A walkthrough of the survey behind Colorado’s furbearer vote
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Weighted, primed and paid: A walkthrough of the survey behind Colorado’s furbearer vote

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Dr. Niemiec's Deeply Flawed Research At a recent Colorado Parks and Wildlife meeting, newly-appointed CPW commissioner Dr. Niemiec produced an incredibly flawed study to help back up her motion regarding furbearer bag limits, a change in policy that was not on the agenda and for which there was no opportunity for comment by the public. If you would like to read up on the meeting itself and a potential lawsuit, see an earlier newsletter linked first below.Not too long after writing the earlier newsletter, a reader shared the Club 20 article (linked second below) providing some context and background on the work. In addition to encouraging you to read the piece, it provides a great excuse to follow up on the ...
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Hunters Warn Colorado Wildlife Commission of Legal Challenge Over Furbearer Limits
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Hunters Warn Colorado Wildlife Commission of Legal Challenge Over Furbearer Limits

By Derek Draplin | Complete Colorado DENVER—Two groups representing hunters are warning Colorado’s wildlife commissioners to withdraw their recent vote that restricted the bag limit for furbearer species to two per day, or potentially face a lawsuit. The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and Safari Club International argue in an August 5 letter to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission that hunters and trappers were deprived of providing public comment when commissioners adopted the two-furbearer daily bag limit that was pushed by one of Gov. Jared Polis’s appointees to the commission. The letter lays out how the commission gave public notice of two options under consideration: a daily bag limit of 15, or a bag limit of up to eight (or four), depe...
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Colorado Graduated Tax Initiative Draws Major Support From Democratic Lawmaker’s Nonprofit
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Graduated Tax Initiative Draws Major Support From Democratic Lawmaker’s Nonprofit

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – State Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Westminster Democrat, has been working overtime to ensure a progressive state income tax initiative makes it in front of Colorado voters this November, including donating big bucks via a tax-funded nonprofit to the issue committee charged with getting the measure on the ballot. If passed, Initiative 195 would raise the current flat tax rate of 4.4 percent to 7.4 percent for those earning more than $500,000, and increasing as incomes rise to a top rate of 8.4 percent for those earning more than $1 million. A majority of Colorado taxpayers might see a slight income tax reduction, with many eventually getting caught up in the graduated brackets, as they are not indexed for inflation. ...
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One-party rule, one-way press access in Colorado
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

One-party rule, one-way press access in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Complete Colorado Republicans in Colorado have, at best, a ”fraught” relationship with liberal local news media. Given this history, it’s probably not surprising that when Republicans refuse to talk to the progressive press, they enthusiastically spill ink over it. To wit, journalism professor Corey Hutchins, in a recent edition of his media newsletter, noted how Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx denied some media outlets access on the night of the GOP primary, saying that his campaign chose not to rely on legacy media to tell its story. Think what you will about the maturity of Republicans or the news media, their squabbles hide something more important, especially given Colorado is run almost entirely by Democrats. Many Dem...
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Cherry-picking the rankings: A columnist’s case against Polis education claim
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Cherry-picking the rankings: A columnist’s case against Polis education claim

By Ari Armstrong | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado ranks 47th in crime and corrections, 45th in fiscal stability, and 39th in opportunity, according to U.S. News and World Report, Governor Jared Polis noted in July. Ha ha, just kidding! Polis proclaimed that “Colorado Ranked #1 in Education,” ignoring the low rankings in other categories and downplaying the fact that most Colorado students cannot read or do math at grade level according to state testing. You can see the U.S. News rankings for yourself. Colorado ranks as 17th “best state overall,” which I guess is kind of good? I mean, it’s the top half, right? Okay, sure, we got beat by Wyoming, Wisconsin, and Delaware, while our neighbor Utah took the #1 spot. Not embarrassing at all! Cherry pick...
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Colorado Progressive Tax Plan Raises Long-Term Bracket Creep Concerns
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Progressive Tax Plan Raises Long-Term Bracket Creep Concerns

By Nash Herman | Complete Colorado Proponents of a progressive state income tax claim that it will give most Coloradans a break on their taxes.   Those familiar with history, inflation, and bracket creep see a much different long-term picture.   Repeating history The US adopted a federal income tax in 1913, justified by the claim that only about one percent of the population would pay the tax in its earliest years.  Does this sound familiar?   Proponents of Initiative 195, the ballot measure to switch Colorado’s 4.4 percent flat income tax rate to a progressive tax, are adamant that the measure is fair because 97 percent of filers will receive a tax cut.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COMPLETE COLORAD...
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A mass of contradictions: One writer’s read on Phil Weiser’s plan for Colorado
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

A mass of contradictions: One writer’s read on Phil Weiser’s plan for Colorado

By Ari Armstrong | Commentary, Complete Colorado “Democrats lay out plan to win supermajority in Colorado Legislature,” reads a recent headline from the left-leaning Colorado Newsline. So how might Governor Phil Weiser interact with the legislature, whether or not Democrats reach their goals for legislative seats? For that we can turn to his 109-page “blueprint” Unsurprisingly, Weiser wants to be all things to all people. He talks about freedom, prosperity, and a business-friendly environment out of one side of his mouth while promoting tax and spending hikes and tighter regulations out of the other. Housing affordability Unaffordable housing exacerbates various other problems, starting, of course, with homelessness. It makes child care less available and mor...
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After voters overturn zoning changes, Lakewood tightens rules for citizen ballot measures
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Local

After voters overturn zoning changes, Lakewood tightens rules for citizen ballot measures

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado LAKEWOOD – It appears that after Lakewood residents spoke at the ballot on controversial zoning changes, city council members decided they want the last word, having since created new municipal rules that will make citizen-initiated issues harder to put before voters. Lakewood — a home-rule community — borders Denver on the west. It is home to just under 160,000 residents in Jefferson County. In April, Lakewood voters took to the ballot via a special election and repealed major zoning changes that among other things, would have allowed multifamily units, such as duplexes, triplexes, or townhomes to be built city-wide on lots currently zoned for single family detached homes, as well as eliminating parking minimums in some area...
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Fauci Diary Renews Questions About Colorado’s COVID Response
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Fauci Diary Renews Questions About Colorado’s COVID Response

By: Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado We are finally getting a clearer picture of what happened during COVID. Not because the people who locked us up, masked our faces and forced unproven chemicals into our bodies have suddenly become transparent, but because Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era diary is coming into public view. This long document makes one thing painfully clear: the people who forced us to surrender our lives to their expertise did not have the expertise they claimed. At best, they were guessing. And when their guesses failed, they did not retreat. They didn’t come clean. They doubled down. Arrogance unbridled Our health, our freedoms, our bodies, our economy, our children’s education were all less important than their unchallenge...
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