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Gun control bill met with opposition on front steps of Colorado Capitol
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Approved, kdvr.com, State

Gun control bill met with opposition on front steps of Colorado Capitol

By Carly Moore | Fox 31 News DENVER (KDVR) — A bill seeking to change the requirements for purchasing a semiautomatic gun in Colorado will be discussed in the House on Tuesday. In February, the bill passed the senate 19 to 15, but not without strong push back. Senate Bill 25-003, “Semiautomatic Firearms & Rapid-Fire Devices,” has been amended 15 times. This bill would ban the sale and manufacturing of many semiautomatic guns in Colorado. One of the important amendments would allow guns with a detachable magazine to be purchased only if buyers complete about 12 hours of training courses. If you have a hunter’s safety certification, gun owners would only need a four-hour class. READ MORE AT KDVR.COM
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House Bill 1208: Price controls for a minimum wage mistake
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Approved, completecolorado.com, State

House Bill 1208: Price controls for a minimum wage mistake

By Ari Armstrong, Complete Colorado What happens when the price of eggs soars? People buy fewer eggs and start looking for substitutes. What would happen if, say, government set a $10 minimum price on a dozen eggs, higher than the usual price in stores these days? People would buy fewer eggs, yet producers would want to sell all the eggs they could. Some eggs would sit around unpurchased. No one disputes the economics of price controls on eggs. (We can leave to another day discussion of legislative attempts to set de facto price limits on products.) But, somehow, when it comes to wages, we’re supposed to throw basic economics out the window and pretend that price controls don’t matter. Obviously no one thinks that price controls never matter. If government set a minimum price of a...
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Universal preschool bill dies as some Colorado programs still complain of bumps
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Universal preschool bill dies as some Colorado programs still complain of bumps

By Ann Schimke | Chalkbeat Colorado via The Colorado Sun Colorado’s $344 million universal preschool program is popular among families, but some providers say they’re still wrestling with problems that make it hard for families to secure seats or for preschools to sustain themselves financially. Some preschool directors want greater access to the state’s preschool sign-up system. Others want to be paid by the state before kids step into their classrooms — not a month later. Some providers also want more leeway on preschool class sizes, which the state will cap at 20 by 2026 for most preschools. These are a few of the sticking points that remain a year and a half after the rocky launch of universal preschool. State lawmakers proposed a bill meant to address these and other issues, ...
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Colorado fuel retailers face up to $20,000 fine for failing to post warning stickers about global warming under proposed bill
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado fuel retailers face up to $20,000 fine for failing to post warning stickers about global warming under proposed bill

By Scott Weiser | Denver Gazette via Colorado Politics According to a proposal by Democrats at the Colorado state Capitol, up to a $20,000 fine will hang over the heads of every retailer who sells either liquid or gas fuels if they don’t have global warming warning stickers on their pumps and products if House Bill 25-1277 is signed into law. The bill, Increasing Transparency Impact of Fuel Products, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Jefferson County, says retail outlets selling petroleum-based fuel products must put stickers on pumps, store displays and other retail items or face fines. “Evidently the purpose of the bill is to shame buyers for purchasing a product necessary for them to use in many cases to transport t...
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Anderson: SB25-003 faces Constitutional hurdles under the Bruen standard
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Anderson: SB25-003 faces Constitutional hurdles under the Bruen standard

By Phillip Anderson | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Many conservatives and Second Amendment advocates have raised concerns about the constitutionality of SB25-003, a bill that seeks to make it significantly more difficult for Coloradans to exercise their Second Amendment rights. These advocates argue that if the bill becomes law, it will not withstand a constitutional challenge under the Bruen standard established by the Supreme Court of the United States. If you do not closely follow Supreme Court cases or have never heard of the Bruen standard, you may be unsure what to make of these claims. The Bruen standard of review in Second Amendment cases originates from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. In this case, two New York residents challenged a s...
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HB 1010 an attempt to expand governor’s power, Rep. Hartsook complains
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

HB 1010 an attempt to expand governor’s power, Rep. Hartsook complains

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice State Rep. Anthony Hartsook is concerned with the tsunami of bills he sees filtering through the legislature. "Numerous bills expanding government control continue to flood the General Assembly, threatening businesses and economic freedom," he wrote in a report to his District 44 constituency. One example, Hartsook says, is Democrat-led House Bill 25-1010, which aims to protect consumers from "price gouging during a declared disaster." Like many bills floating through the legislature, it does more than its title or brief description might indicate. "This legislation hands unbridled power and authority to the governor to declare a disaster, based on an 'imminent threat,'" Hartsook said. "We’ve seen this playbook before — for 16 months, the ...
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‘This is our Alamo!’: Gun owners rallying March 11 against SB 3 in Colorado House committee
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

‘This is our Alamo!’: Gun owners rallying March 11 against SB 3 in Colorado House committee

By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice A bill which some gun advocates say would lead to extinction of their rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday, March 11, in the House's Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 25-003, led through the upper chamber by Sens. Julie Gonzales and Tom Sullivan, prohibits the transfer, sale and purchase of semiauto firearms with certain exclusions permitted to allow the bill to clear the Colorado Senate on a 19-15 vote, with all Republicans and three Democrats opposed. At issue is whether, in the interest of stemming mass shootings in the state, if Coloradans should sacrifice constitutionally-provided gun ownership rights. Sullivan says the measure works to enforce the "high-capacity magazine ban" from 2014, but othe...
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Colorado bill, removing hunting as priority method for wildlife management, fails in House committee
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado bill, removing hunting as priority method for wildlife management, fails in House committee

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Animal rights groups lost at the ballot box last November in their efforts to ban big-cat hunting and trapping, but the fight was not over, as some lawmakers pushed to remove hunting, trapping and fishing as "primary" methods for "necessary wildlife harvests." The proposal ultimately died in the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday. Sponsored by Reps. Tammy Story, D-Evergreen, and Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, House Bill 1258 would replace replace language in one of the statutes governing Colorado Parks and Wildlife to say the state "may" — instead of "shall" — authorize hunting, trapping and fishing and that decision would be "based on best available wildlife and ecological science to benefit wildli...
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Unions introduce ballot measure to require employers prove ‘just cause’ to fire workers
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Unions introduce ballot measure to require employers prove ‘just cause’ to fire workers

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s labor battles escalated significantly on Friday, as the state’s largest unions filed a ballot initiative that would require private-sector employers to prove just cause before they could suspend or fire any workers. The filing of Initiative 43 follows the Feb. 19 decision by Colorado’s title board to approve the wording of a proposed 2026 ballot initiative from the Independence Institute that would ask voters if they would like to make Colorado a right-to-work state. And both are moving while a bill to upend Colorado’s unionization-governing Labor Peace Act has passed the Senate and is scheduled for its first House committee hearing on Thursday. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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Colorado education groups ask lawmakers to devise plan to boost school funding, eye 2026 ballot measure
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado education groups ask lawmakers to devise plan to boost school funding, eye 2026 ballot measure

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun Colorado education advocacy groups are banding together to call on lawmakers to begin more seriously examining how to close the gap between the amount Colorado spends on public education and the amount necessary to fully fund schools.  Following the results of two recent adequacy studies that indicate Colorado is underfunding education by billions of dollars, the organizations say the time to start figuring out how to steer more funding toward schools is now, even as Colorado faces a particularly tight budget year. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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