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Colorado Senate advances bill limiting local control over housing projects
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

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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Lawmakers Attempt End Run Around TABOR With New Tax Bills
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers Attempt End Run Around TABOR With New Tax Bills

By: Mike Rosen | Complete Colorado The governor and progressive Democrats that dominate the state legislature and every statewide office in Colorado have been masterful ― if not ethical and honest ― in devising devious schemes to circumvent the TABOR amendment in the Colorado Constitution.  That’s the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, passed by a 1992 voter-initiated ballot measure that bypassed the legislature. It limited government spending and barred the legislature from increasing taxes or imposing new ones without the consent of the voters. Democrats have always despised TABOR. Their favorite ploys have included misrepresenting taxes as “fees” and funding spending programs through tax credits. Because those credits reduce government revenues, they’re the equivalent of...
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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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