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Framed as education, but tied to TABOR: Measure to keep surplus revenue advances
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Framed as education, but tied to TABOR: Measure to keep surplus revenue advances

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s fight over spending limits is back at the Capitol, and this time it could end up in front of voters. The Senate Finance Committee voted 6–3 on March 12 to advance SB26-135, teeing up a 2026 vote on whether the state can keep revenue above the TABOR cap instead of sending it back as refunds. It comes down to a basic question: should that extra revenue go back to taxpayers, or stay with the state? What follows is less straightforward. How the bill works The proposal does not rewrite TABOR itself. Instead, it puts that decision to voters—whether to allow the state to keep and spend money that would otherwise be refunded. If voters sign off, the state could retain revenue above the cap, up to an amount ...
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Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters
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Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The case of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters has become one of the most controversial legal and political episodes in modern Colorado election administration. But stripped of partisan rhetoric and competing narratives, the core issue before the public is far simpler—and far more troubling. Should an election official who believed she was preserving federally required election records spend years in prison for a disputed administrative decision? That question deserves serious reflection from every Coloradan, regardless of political affiliation. Public confidence in elections depends not only on accurate vote counts but on transparency in the systems that produce those results. When officials believ...
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Colorado Senate Panel Advances Bill To Redirect TABOR Refunds
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Senate Panel Advances Bill To Redirect TABOR Refunds

By: Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–Couched as a state education funding effort, legislation to siphon off overcollected revenue that would otherwise be refunded to Colorado taxpayers passed out of a Democrat-controlled Senate committee on Thursday. Senate Bill 26-135, “State Public K-12 Education Funding,” refers a question to Colorado’s November ballot to increase K-12 education funding by 2% annually for the next ten years. According to the bill, the money is intended to go towards teacher pay increases and retention, lowering class sizes, and technical career programs. Along with raising education appropriations, the bill allows the state to keep and spend excess revenue collected above the limitations in the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). ...
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Report Ties Colorado’s Fentanyl Death Surge To Weaker Drug Laws
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Report Ties Colorado’s Fentanyl Death Surge To Weaker Drug Laws

By Jacob Mauk | Colorado Politics Overdose deaths from opioids rose in Colorado, diverging from the national trend, which has been decreasing, according to a new study from a think tank. In its new report, the Common Sense Institute said synthetic opioid overdose deaths in Colorado have grown by 17% since November 2024, the third-fastest growth rate in the country. The only states with higher spike rates are Arizona and New Mexico, according to the report. If Colorado had followed the national trend, some 1,600 lives could have been saved, the study said, adding the opioid deaths represented a cost of roughly $18.3 billion. “While this number does not encompass the entire value of human life, it does indicate that lives lost due to fentanyl and other opioids red...
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Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing
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Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel shut off power Saturday afternoon in parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties—roughly 18,000 customers in all. The wind was up, fire danger was high, and outages weren’t limited to the shutoff areas—some hit in the foothills, others farther into the mountains, where crews were still working Sunday. House Bill 26-1246 had come up earlier in the week during a committee hearing. Rep. Ken DeGraaf pointed to those kinds of events as a warning. “Public safety power shutoffs… have become increasingly normalized,” he told lawmakers. What followed wasn’t just a debate over one bill. It was a clash between two different ways of thinking about how Colorado should power its future. At its core, the disagreement comes down to this: should...
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Colorado Wolf Program Faces Scrutiny As Survival Rate Falls To 44 Percent
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Colorado Wolf Program Faces Scrutiny As Survival Rate Falls To 44 Percent

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The female wolf of the mating pair for the King Mountain pack has died, bringing total fatalities to 14 out of the 25 animals reintroduced in Colorado. The wolf, identified as No. 2310, was among the 10 wolves brought to Colorado from Oregon in December 2023. The male of the King Mountain pack mating pair had died in January in Routt County following a botched collaring operation conducted by a Colorado Parks and Wildllife contractor. That operation drew criticism from wolf advocates at the March 5 parks and wildlife commission meeting. Advocates claimed the effort was reckless and that the contractor hired was a “bargain basement contractor who had a history of deaths” in similar efforts. State wildlife authori...
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George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.
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George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Dinner one night back in 2018 was seafood and gator sausage, with family around the table. Before long the conversation landed where it usually does in the Markert family—service. George Markert was on official Marine Corps business at the time in Pensacola, Fla. Markert was leading a high-level investigation as a colonel. His uncle got word he was in Pensacola and insisted they get together before he left. The worn Constitution changed hands at the end of a family dinner in Pensacola. When Markert flipped it open, he saw a handwritten note. “The note read, ‘This was your grandfather’s, and he held it sacred,’” Markert said. “He did a tour in Washington, D.C. in the Navy back in the 1950s and used to take my dad and his three sibling...
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When my power went out…
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State, Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

When my power went out…

By Mark Salley | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The inconvenience of a power outage — the loss of electricity to light your dark bedrooms, to power the televisions that distract us, even to losing internet connections to the outside world — is…a gift! I was quickly reminded of the benefit — even the joy — of being without power. It is electricity that connects us to the world at large. What’s going on in Iran? Did the USA win its baseball game in the world baseball classic? What am I missing tonight on my favorite TV show? The electric garage door opener won’t work. There’s no electric light at night to read my book in bed. In fact, there is no nightlight to help me navigate my home in the dark! What’s a man or woman to do? Rejoice. Be glad. When the power is o...
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Colorado Senate advances bill limiting local control over housing projects
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Colorado Senate advances bill limiting local control over housing projects

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers spent part of the week hashing out just how much the state should push new housing. The Senate approved House Bill 26-1001—after several amendments. Those amendments were agreed upon by the House the next day. Land that is already owned by institutions or the government is the main focus of the bill. If the measure is eventually passed into law, property owned by school districts, housing authorities, universities, transit agencies, and some nonprofit organizations may be eligible for a simplified approval process. Supporters say some of that property is sitting unused. If approvals were easier, they argue, some of it could be turned into housing. During the bill’s second reading, Senator Tony E...
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House Bill 26-1246: Protecting Colorado’s citizens, landscape, and economy
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

House Bill 26-1246: Protecting Colorado’s citizens, landscape, and economy

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Editor’s update: House Bill 26-1246 was heard in the House Energy & Environment Committee on Thursday, March 12, 2026, and laid over for further consideration. The bill is expected to return to committee within approximately two weeks. Coloradans who want to weigh in before the next hearing can track the bill’s status and find contact information for committee members at leg.colorado.gov/committees/2026A/house/EnergyEnvironment. Colorado is at an energy crossroads. Decisions being made today about how electricity is generated, transmitted, and paid for will shape our state’s economy, landscape, and cost of living for decades to come. House Bill 26-1246 is a response to a simple but increasingly urgent problem: th...
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