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Priced out, packed in: Colorado renters squeezed by costs, policy gridlock and population growth
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Priced out, packed in: Colorado renters squeezed by costs, policy gridlock and population growth

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s affordable housing crunch – especially in the rental sector – has been building for years. Reports from the Common Sense Institute and Bell Policy Center trace the tipping point to around 2015, when demand consistently began outpacing supply. The last decade has seen rising home prices, stagnant wages and insufficient new construction which has made the situation worse due to recent immigration pressures and allegations of resource allocation issues. Origins and escalation of the crisis Bell Policy Center noted a statewide rental rate increase from 30.9% in 2009 to 34.8% by 2022, with urban counties like Denver reaching 50.1%.  In just a year, Colorado slipped further down the affordability scale, now rank...
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Gazette editorial board: Time to repeal the delivery fee feeding Colorado’s bloated government
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Approved, Commentary, denvergazette.com, State

Gazette editorial board: Time to repeal the delivery fee feeding Colorado’s bloated government

The Gazette editorial board | Commentary, Denver Gazette Do you use DoorDash for lunch or maybe Uber Eats for dinner? How about Amazon, FedEx or any of the other delivery services — for just about everything else? Probably. Have you ever noticed a 29-cent “retail delivery fee” on your tab once your order was fulfilled? Probably not. After all, it’s only a fraction of the price you paid for whatever was delivered, so even if you did see it, you likely shrugged it off as just another one of the taxes assessed on your order. Which, in reality, it is. But technically, it’s not a tax; it’s a “fee” that was slapped on deliveries by the Legislature in 2021. And because it was designated as a fee in statute, it didn’t require statewide voter approval as a tax would under our state c...
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Colorado ranks 5th in nation for work hours—high cost of living a key factor
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Colorado ranks 5th in nation for work hours—high cost of living a key factor

By Brooke Williams | Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — Coloradans spend more time on the clock than people in most states in the U.S., according to a new report. Qualtrics XM, a data tool for businesses, released a report in March analyzing what percentage of the past year people spent working. The study used data from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for all 50 states. A handful of states had fewer than 10 survey responses and were excluded from the main story, but were included in a separate list. Where do people spend the most time working? According to the report, people in these states spent the highest percentage of their past year working: Utah: 25.17% Mississippi: 23.89% North Carolina: 23.51% Alabama: 23.44% Co...
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Petition launched to stop Colorado’s nickel-and-dime delivery surcharge
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Approved, completecolorado.com, State

Petition launched to stop Colorado’s nickel-and-dime delivery surcharge

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Colorado voters may get the chance to repeal at least one of the many news fees set by the Colorado legislature in the recent past— the retail delivery fee of .29 cents on any tangible property that is delivered by motor vehicle. The fee, which was passed by majority Democrats in the legislature in 2021 and amended in 2023, is scheduled to be reduced to .28 cents on July 1. The money generated by the fee, nearly $90 million in 2023, is currently earmarked for transportation projects. The ballot initiative language approved by the title board on May 21, would repeal the fee entirely.  The measure is now awaiting approval of petitions to begin circulating for signatures. Supporters will then have six months to gathe...
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Boll: Colorado calls it protection. Parents call it betrayal.
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Approved, Commentary, State, Substack, Top Stories

Boll: Colorado calls it protection. Parents call it betrayal.

By Laureen Boll | Commentary, Genspect Colorado is increasingly unhinged when it comes to gender Imagine the nightmare: You learn that your 17-year-old daughter, with whom you’ve always shared a deep, loving bond, has embarked upon an intimate relationship with her female teacher—a deeply inappropriate situation under any circumstances. But instead of acting to safeguard your child, school officials secretly label her “homeless” to allow her to move in with the teacher, withholding the truth from you. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality for one Jefferson County, Colorado, family. When the parent uncovered the deception and confronted the high school principal, they were met with a shocking defense: the teacher was simply “helping kids explore their sexual identity.” Some ...
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Wolf claims top $650K, but CPW records don’t add up
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Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Wolf claims top $650K, but CPW records don’t add up

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The state wolf compensation fund, set at $350,000 by statute last year, saw claims from 2024 that are approaching double that amount. Data obtained through an open records request to Colorado Parks and Wildlife showed that the agency paid out $425,478.61 in claims. But the information provided by the agency appears to exclude claims that were denied, recent claims paid and claims still awaiting final payments or settlements. Based on information independently verified by Colorado Politics, the total amount of claims stood at at least $649,765.90, with a dozen claims still showing as pending on CPW's wolf depredation website. Two ranchers in Grand County settled for lesser amounts, which are not reflected in the data obtained from...
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Paul Lundeen resigns from Colorado Senate to lead American Excellence Foundation
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Paul Lundeen resigns from Colorado Senate to lead American Excellence Foundation

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, is resigning effective Monday to become president and CEO of the American Excellence Foundation The top Republican in the Colorado Senate announced Monday that he is resigning from the legislature to take a job in the private sector. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, is resigning effective Monday.  “Serving Colorado has been an honor and blessing,” Lundeen said in a written statement. “I am grateful to the people of Senate District 9 for the opportunity to fight for policies that empower individuals, protect our communities, and promote prosperity. As I transition to a national platform, I am eager to continue advocating for personal freedom, economic opportunity and common-sense c...
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A crisis of cradle and classroom: How Colorado’s baby bust is closing schools
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A crisis of cradle and classroom: How Colorado’s baby bust is closing schools

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s classrooms are getting quieter – not because kids are learning, but because there are fewer of them. Across the state, dropping birth rates and shrinking enrollment are forcing schools to close, merge – or sit half-empty. And the trend isn’t slowing down. In May, the Common Sense Institute released a report warning that Colorado’s birth rate has been declining since 2005 and has fallen faster than the national average since 2011. The report projects the state will lose more than 15,000 children under age 18 by 2030 – roughly the equivalent of the entire Thompson R2-J school district. Denver Public Schools is already deep into closures. According to CSI’s analysis, DPS has approved the closure of seven schools and partial restructur...
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McCombie: Initiative 82 revives push to restrict hunting, override expert conservation
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Approved, Commentary, NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum, State

McCombie: Initiative 82 revives push to restrict hunting, override expert conservation

By Brian McCombie | Commentary, NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum Colorado anti-hunters are making yet another push to wrest control of that state’s wildlife from wildlife professionals. This time, it is the recently proposed Ballot Initiative 82, the “Colorado Wildlife & Biodiversity Protection Act.” At its core, Initiative 82 would create an independent commission parallel to the current Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. This independent commission would then draw up legal protections for unnamed “keystone species” and assess financial penalties for any violations of these protections. If approved by voters in the state’s 2026 election, $2.5 million in taxpayer dollars will fund this commission. It then will decide what exactly are the “keystone species,” though observers ...
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Federal judge upholds Colorado’s 21+ gun law, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners vow to appeal
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Federal judge upholds Colorado’s 21+ gun law, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners vow to appeal

By Taylor Dolven | Colorado Sun A gun rights group challenged the 2023 law in court. Thursday’s ruling by a U.S. District Judge is a win for gun-control advocates. Colorado’s law requiring people to be at least 21 years old to buy a gun can stand, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The ruling is a definitive win for gun control advocates and a blow to the group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and two young people hoping to purchase guns, who sued Gov. Jared Polis to block the law in 2023. Chief U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer sided with Polis and said in his ruling that the plaintiffs could not prove that the law violated their rights. “Plaintiffs cannot establish a violation of a right secured by the Constitution or that they have suffered an irreparable injury from such a violat...
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