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Caldara: Ex-Rep. Ken Buck leaves constituents without a voice in D.C., at worst possible time
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Caldara: Ex-Rep. Ken Buck leaves constituents without a voice in D.C., at worst possible time

By Jon Caldara | Complete Colorado (You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.) The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has called for a vote on funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. He has done so at sizable professional risk. His isolationist Republicans might remove him from his leadership position for it. By the time you read this column, you’ll likely know how those votes went. As I write this, I have no idea. But I do know there’s one vote that could be wildly important, if only there were a representative to cast it. With Ken Buck’s resignation well before his term ends, he has left the voters of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District without a voice in government, and at a remarkably critical time. Not only is the ...
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Voters may get to decide on cost-saving shortening of Colorado legislative session
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Voters may get to decide on cost-saving shortening of Colorado legislative session

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Independence Institute President Jon Caldara has become well known for his willingness to take issues directly to the voters, and one topic has catapulted to the top of his “must do” list. Caldara is hoping to take what is currently known as Initiative 183 to the 2024 ballot, asking voters to reduce the annual Colorado legislative session from its current 120 days down to just 90 days. The initiative is now in the petition approval phase, after which Caldara will need to collect 124,238 valid signatures of registered voters (5 percent of the total votes cast for secretary of state in 2022). Additionally, because the initiative amends the Colorado Constitution he will need to collect at least 2 percent of that number from insid...
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Orr, Rolling: Xcel power blackout showcases the high cost of unreliable electricity
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Orr, Rolling: Xcel power blackout showcases the high cost of unreliable electricity

 By Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling | Complete Colorado Hundreds of thousands of Xcel Energy customers in Colorado recenlty lost power as high winds damaged power lines, and Xcel preemptively shut off the power to 55,000 customers to mitigate the risk of wildfires. Among the customers who lost power were homeowners and small businesses who received little to no warning. The Denver Post detailed how families experienced entire refrigerators and freezers full of food spoiling, forcing them to refill them at a time when food costs are 25 percent higher than they were four years ago. Business owners without power lost tens of thousands of dollars due to the outages, which stemmed from lost revenue from being unable to do business and lost products. Restaurant...
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Caldara: Colorado legislature is the real threat to democracy
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Caldara: Colorado legislature is the real threat to democracy

By Jon Caldara | Complete Colorado Every conversation about the Colorado state legislature should begin with this preface: “And these are the people who say Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. …” The legislature is moving forward with a bill to rip away direct elections of the Regional Transportation District Board (RTD), which encompasses the largest population of any local government in the state. Yes, they are willing to allow a couple of “window dressing” elected seats to “represent” the 3 million suckers in the Denver metro area, while minion political appointees seize control of the state’s largest local government. But the goal is clear: end taxation with representation. And these are the people who say Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. READ THE FULL...
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Rosen: The left’s assault on American patriotism
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Rosen: The left’s assault on American patriotism

By Mike Rosen | Complete Colorado The conventional definition of patriotism is love for and loyalty to one’s country. A 2023 survey published in the Wall Street Journal found that only 38% of respondents thought patriotism was very important to them, down sharply from 70% when that question was first asked in 1998.While 59% of seniors 65 and older feel that way today, only 23% of adults under 30 do. I vividly remember America’s 200th birthday in 1976.  Patriotic activities and celebrations abounded across the country leading up to a grand finale on the glorious Bicentennial Day.  What has doused that American spirit? The American left. It’s been a long slog but I’d trace its roots to the 1960s and 70s with the emergence of what came to be called the “New Left.” ...
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Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent
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Martinez: Court sends a reminder; tax hikes require voter consent

By Tyler Martinez | Complete Colorado In a major victory for taxpayers, a unanimous panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer Defense Center (NTUF) that an overnight doubling of the property taxes in a few Northern Colorado counties violated the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). We represented James Aranci and his neighbors, who were shocked to learn in 2020 that their property taxes to the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District doubled from 2019 to 2020 (and the years thereafter). TABOR mandates a ratification vote of any proposed tax increase or new debt taken on by government entities–including water districts. But there was no vote from Aranci or anyone else. So we came...
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Colorado voters may get final say over the legislature side-stepping open meetings
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Colorado voters may get final say over the legislature side-stepping open meetings

Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Doing what he is well known for, Independence Institute president Jon Caldara has started the process to let Colorado voters decide whether legislators should be treated differently than other elected officials when they meet in groups of more than two. Last Friday, Caldara and his co-proponent, Vanessa Rutledge appeared before the Legislative Council staff to answer questions about Initiative 287, which would repeal Senate Bill 157. Rutledge is the communications and marketing manager for the Independence Institute, a Denver-based free market think tank, which is also the publisher of Complete Colorado. SB 157, which was passed earlier this year in record time and signed into law by Gov. Polis on March 12, created a carv...
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Emails and audio show a Weld County commissioner hip deep in disputes, accusations
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Emails and audio show a Weld County commissioner hip deep in disputes, accusations

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado Emails and recordings obtained by Complete Colorado show a Weld County Commissioner who had her departmental oversight duties reassigned to other commissioners in mid-2023 lashing out not only at fellow commissioners but also county employees and private citizens, all during an election season where she has already left one race and entered another. Since January, Commissioner Lori Saine, who represents the southern end of Weld County, has erupted in disputes during public meetings, threatened and filed complaints against county employees, filed a complaint against fellow Commissioner Perry Buck claiming Buck assaulted her, organized protests against the commission, and orchestrated an 11th-hour challenge against Buck for her open at-larg...
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Cooke: Oppressive EPA emissions standard will cost Coloradans plenty
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Cooke: Oppressive EPA emissions standard will cost Coloradans plenty

By Amy Oliver Cooke | Complete Colorado There’s so much gaslighting in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently announced vehicle emissions standards, it may be guilty of expanding the Biden Administration’s carbon footprint simply with the news release. The EPA’s announcement claims its “strongest-ever” emissions standards will: Expand consumer choice in clean vehicles Protect Public Health Address the Climate Crisis Save Drivers Money The reality is that the new standards won’t do much, if anything, for the environment. They will cost consumers more money, reduce vehicle choices, and harm public health. Most egregious is the dictatorial nature of Washington, D.C. deciding for Americans across our vast nation how they can exercise their mobility freedom....
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Sharf: March has become wage-gap myth month for Colorado media
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Sharf: March has become wage-gap myth month for Colorado media

By Joshua Sharf | Complete Colorado Every March, it’s the same story – literally.  Local media run a series of lazy stories about the alleged gender pay gap, mixing up aggregate and individual statistics, and mentioning–then discarding–career and life choice differences. This year, the Colorado Sun’s Tamara Chuang adds a new twist, the pandemic, which they manage to include with a typical lack of curiosity and critical thought.  The article is a mass of logical inconsistency, internal contradictions, and what looks for all the world like a failure to read her own work. First, she uncritically repeats the claim that the 13-cent difference between men’s and women’s earnings constitutes a meaningful “pay gap.”  Then, she quotes at length an economist who...
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