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Interim Committees On The Chopping Block As Colorado Faces Lean Budget Year
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Interim Committees On The Chopping Block As Colorado Faces Lean Budget Year

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics In a tight-budget year, the work of interim committees — those off-session groups that look at transportation, agriculture, water, healthcare, wildfires, pensions, and anything else lawmakers want to look at — is on the chopping block. And this year, no committee is considered sacrosanct. A bill introduced Thursday by the legislative leadership from both parties and both chambers wipes out just about all interim committees this year, including some year-round groups. It’s expected to save about $396,000 in the 2026-27 budget, according to legislative council staff. It would prohibit meetings, field trips, and legislative recommendations and reports from the year-round Capital Development Committee, which play...
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Colorado Program For Immigrant Children And Pregnant Women Blows Past Cost Estimates By 611%
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Program For Immigrant Children And Pregnant Women Blows Past Cost Estimates By 611%

By Jesse Paul and John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The state predicts that the Covering All Coloradans program will cost Colorado $104.5 million in the fiscal year that began July 1. Nonpartisan fiscal analysts estimated the cost would be $14.7 million. roviding health care to children and pregnant people who would qualify for Medicaid if not for their immigration status will cost Colorado more than six times what was projected this year.  Because of higher-than-forecast enrollment, the state is expecting that the Cover All Coloradans program will cost the state $104.5 million in the fiscal year that began July 1. When Democratic state lawmakers passed a bill in 2022 launching the health insurance safety net initiative, nonpartisan fiscal analysts estima...
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Does affordable housing mean subsidized housing?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Does affordable housing mean subsidized housing?

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project The more I read into what the Democrats running this state think affordable housing ought to mean, and how it ought to get done, the more I’m convinced that what they’d like to do is to equate affordable with (in one way or another) publicly-funded housing. The Sun article linked below offers pretty good evidence. It details a couple of proposals by Democrats. Quoting: “Solutions to Colorado’s lack of affordable housing for teachers and other key staff are slowly taking shape, with one new state program designed to offer an estimated 200 low-interest mortgages to rural educators and district staff. Another potential program, part of legislation that Democrat state Sen. Jeff Bridges plans to introduce this week, would all...
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Critics Warn Senate Bill 66 Could Limit Affordable Weight Loss Treatments In Colorado
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Critics Warn Senate Bill 66 Could Limit Affordable Weight Loss Treatments In Colorado

By: Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado For decades, Colorado has led the way in legalizing non-FDA approved drugs for use as experimental medicines, including marijuana and other psychedelics. So, I couldn’t believe it when I heard about Senate Bill 26-066, “Regulation of Compounded Weight Loss Medication,” which slaps onerous restrictions on Coloradans’ ability to obtain life-changing, and relatively inexpensive versions of GLP-1 weight loss drugs from compounding pharmacies. A favor to pharma There are so many reasons to oppose this bill, I honestly don’t know how anyone could support the “bi-partisan” effort of Democrat Iman Jodeh and Republican John Carson, other than as a political favor to big pharma. After listening to all the testimony on the bill (as well a...
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Democrats Sound Alarm Over “Secret” ICE Facilities Publicly Listed Online
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Uncategorized, Approved, DENVER7, State

Democrats Sound Alarm Over “Secret” ICE Facilities Publicly Listed Online

By: Natalie Chuck | Denver7 Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen is joining the chorus of Democratic leaders demanding answers from ICE. DENVER — Several Democratic politicians in Colorado are sounding the alarm over what they call "secret" ICE facilities after an online news outlet published an article last week. But are they really a secret? On Wednesday, Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen took to multiple social media platforms, expressing her concerns over "secret ICE holding cells." In her posts, Rep. Pettersen attributed her claims to the Colorado Times Recorder, which posted an article saying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained people for weeks at a time in "secretive" facilities. The Recorder's article was written an...
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Colorado Wolf Compensation Claims Top $700K In 2025 Far Exceeding State Fund
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Wolf Compensation Claims Top $700K In 2025 Far Exceeding State Fund

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approved more than $706,000 in wolf depredation claims for 2025 during its March meeting last week, an amount that exceeds the state’s annual wolf compensation fund by more than double. The commission also rejected another $53,611 in claims. But more claims are expected, based on comments from Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff in January.  Of the claims approved last week, $615,000 was listed on the commission’s consent agenda; another claim for $125,265 was split, with $91,170 approved for payment and the rest denied. There were several other claims recommended for denial by CPW staff, which the commission affirmed. A CPW official told a joint meeting of the House and Sena...
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Colorado Republican Party Chair Brita Horn Plans April Exit After Year Of Party Infighting
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Republican Party Chair Brita Horn Plans April Exit After Year Of Party Infighting

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Colorado Republican Party Chair Brita Horn said Thursday that she will resign her position next month following the GOP’s state assembly, citing what she described as an “enduring divide” within the party “marked by vitriol and hostility.” Horn’s announcement came just over a week after the Republicans’ state central committee voted overwhelmingly to approve a measure expressing “no-confidence” in her leadership. An earlier central committee meeting organized by Horn’s critics approved an identical “no-confidence” resolution and demanded her resignation. The meeting, which Horn dismissed as “illegal” and lacking authority, also sought to restrict her spending authority and require that the party end litigation involvi...
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The Capitol flagpole is not a friendship bracelet
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The Capitol flagpole is not a friendship bracelet

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s State Capitol is not a festival stage. It is a civic altar of sorts, the place where law is made, rights are protected, and citizens who disagree about nearly everything are still supposed to recognize one another as equals under the same authority. That is why a flagpole on Capitol grounds is never “just symbolic.” It is government speech, rendered in cloth and wind. Governor Jared Polis’ decision to hoist Canada’s flag over the Colorado State Capitol for the second-annual “Colorado-Canada Friendship Day” was therefore not appropriate, even if Canada is a friendly neighbor and a major trading partner. The problem is not Canada. The problem is the office. In March of last year, the Governor’s office framed t...
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PUC sunset bill would allow backroom commissioner talks and expand state override of local land use decisions
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

PUC sunset bill would allow backroom commissioner talks and expand state override of local land use decisions

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project HB26-1326 PUC Sunset Bill There is finally firm policy to share about the Sunset Bill for the Public Utilities Commission. HB26-1326’s bill page is linked first below. I had heard some rumors so it’s good to have some specifics to examine. I wanted to get this out there faster than I had time to digest, so don’t expect more than a quick rundown of the things that I find concerning. I will be watching the bill and hoping to speak against what I’m about to share with you. If you have concerns of your own that you want to share, please speak up. In broad strokes, this bill continues the PUC for a while forward, but (as is their wont) the sponsors couldn’t help tossing in some extra goodies. Some fees go up,...
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Colorado House committee kills bill requiring abortion providers to offer adoption information
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado House committee kills bill requiring abortion providers to offer adoption information

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A bill that would have required health care providers to inform women about adoption before performing abortions will not move forward this year after a sharply divided hearing at the Colorado Capitol. Lawmakers on the Colorado House of Representatives Health and Human Services Committee voted March 10 to postpone indefinitely Colorado House Bill 26-1105 following testimony from witnesses who framed the proposal in dramatically different ways — from a measure supporters said would expand options to one critics argued would insert the state into private medical decisions. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ava Flanell, Rep. Scott Slaugh and Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson, would have required health care providers to offer information ab...
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