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CMU student leaders press governor hopefuls on taxes, energy and rural control
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

CMU student leaders press governor hopefuls on taxes, energy and rural control

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice TPUSA chapter leaders from Colorado Mesa University opened Monday night’s gubernatorial forum with a question more typical of a legislative hearing than a campaign rally. Instead of easing into the forum, they went straight to TABOR. “How would you approach balancing Colorado’s budget while complying with TABOR? And what are your priorities when it comes to taxes, refunds and state spending during periods of surplus and economic stagnation?” Six candidates were at the forum that evening. Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer told the crowd she almost didn’t make the trip, saying she rearranged her Joint Budget Committee schedule and decided to “head on over to Grand Junction” when the weather held. Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs share...
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$4 million-plus in alleged Medicaid ride billing draws federal fraud charges in Colorado
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

$4 million-plus in alleged Medicaid ride billing draws federal fraud charges in Colorado

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s Medicaid transportation system operates on a straightforward premise. A ride is provided to a qualified Medicaid recipient. Documentation is submitted. The state reimburses the provider. For thousands of Coloradans, particularly those in rural communities or without reliable transportation — that structure makes routine medical care possible. But federal prosecutors now allege that in two separate cases, the reimbursement model itself was manipulated. Non-emergent medical transportation billing is the focus in the cases that have been filed in U.S. District Court this month regarding providers in Mesa and Douglas counties. The cases involve more than $4 million. On Feb. 10, the U...
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Does anyone care about the wolves? Or just the politics behind them
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Does anyone care about the wolves? Or just the politics behind them

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com If you were a grey wolf, it would be hard to imagine a more hostile environment than this state, into which 25 wolves have been involuntarily and violently extradited from their natural homes. It is reminiscent of illegal immigrants from south of the border being deported to prisons in unfamiliar countries like South Sudan and Uzbekistan. Those people have at least been accused of committing some crime. But what exactly have these wolves done to deserve such a fate? Wolves are among history’s most hated creatures. Writers have taught children for centuries to fear the Big Bad Wolf. Think of the villains in “Little Red Riding Hood” and at least three other Grimm’s fairy tales, or “The Three Little Pigs,” or at least four Ae...
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Democrat TABOR Revenue Reclassification Plan Draws Scrutiny at State Capitol
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Democrat TABOR Revenue Reclassification Plan Draws Scrutiny at State Capitol

By Nash Herman | Complete Colorado Similar to last year’s Senate Bill 173, legislative Democrats are returning this year with another effort to bypass Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) by reclassifying certain state revenue streams.  While Senate Bill 26-042 may have some plausibility under specific TABOR terms, it raises broader concerns about the runaway growth of Colorado’s state government, and the mechanisms legislators pursue to evade voter consent over taxation.  What the bill does  While TABOR generally limits the growth of a portion of state revenue to a modest formula of population growth plus inflation, it allows for certain carve outs such as “damage awards” and “collections for another government.”  ...
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Rural Colorado Road Concerns Gain Ground As Bipartisan Resolution Moves to full Senate
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Rural Colorado Road Concerns Gain Ground As Bipartisan Resolution Moves to full Senate

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette A Republican legislator said he was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the state Senate’s transportation panel advanced a resolution brought to him by county commissioners urging the Colorado Department of Transportation to invest more money to fix roads. Road maintenance is “probably the No. 1 issue” in his seven-county district, said Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling. Morgan County’s transportation infrastructure is the worst, he added. According to a 2023 CDOT assessment, 70% of the roads in the county are in the “red” for maintenance, meaning they’ll soon be undrivable. A Reason Foundation report ranked Colorado 47th in the nation for rural road conditions. Pelton mentioned a 2021 funding legislation, Sen...
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Federal Government Requires Colorado to Share Medicaid Data With Homeland Security
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Federal Government Requires Colorado to Share Medicaid Data With Homeland Security

By Bente Birkeland and John Daley | Colorado Public Radio In January, the state’s flagship safety net hospital, Denver Health, distributed a one-page notice about patient privacy that carried groundshaking implications, especially for Colorado’s immigrant population. The notice stated that due to federal changes within Medicaid, the federal-state program for hundreds of thousands of low-income and disabled Americans, “limited” personal information could be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Denver Health said the information applied only to people who are not lawfully residing in the U.S and are enrolled in a program called Emergency Medicaid or pregnant and enrolled in Medicaid through Cover All Coloradans. But if a person is in one of those groups,...
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Trump Excludes Polis From White House Governors Meeting
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

Trump Excludes Polis From White House Governors Meeting

By: Parker Gordon | KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — President Donald Trump posted on Wednesday that two Democratic governors will not be invited to a bipartisan meeting next week. Gov. Jared Polis is one of them. “The invitations were sent to ALL Governors, other than two, who I feel are not worthy of being there,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to Polis and Governor Wes Moore of Maryland. Trump said Polis was not invited to the governors’ meeting since former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is serving her prison sentence. The post comes after Trump has repeatedly called for the release of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted for her role in a 2021 election security breach. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT KDVR
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Colorado’s immigration folly: Taxpayer dollars fueling a broken system
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s immigration folly: Taxpayer dollars fueling a broken system

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As the state representative from House District 22 in Colorado Springs, I see daily how federal immigration enforcement and state policies affect families in El Paso County. President Trump’s 2024 reelection brought a secured southern border after the Biden era’s chaos, when 8 to 11 million people entered illegally—the largest surge in U.S. history.  That influx overwhelmed communities nationwide, including Colorado. While federal policy now prioritizes removing criminal aliens, Colorado Democrats have enacted legislation that rewards illegal immigration with generous taxpayer-funded benefits, all while ignoring the burden on law-abiding citizens. Deportation data from 1993 to 2022 show enforcement is bi...
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Colorado’s proposed habitat map update could reshape oil and gas development
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s proposed habitat map update could reshape oil and gas development

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project ECMC’s 2026 High Priority Habitat Maps I recently got an email update from the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) about how they are going to update their High Priority Habitat Maps.The first link below is to their webpage on this update, but let's go back a bit and firm up some context on this issue before diving in to more details.A quote from the rulemaking notice gives plenty of detail for what we'll discuss. It's lengthy, so I attached a picture of it as screenshot 1. In brief, high priority habitat maps help dictate where in this state oil and gas development can occur and under what kinds of rules.CPW (per their explainer page linked second below) has no role in regulating ...
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Colorado Energy Mandates Stir Growing Debate Over Housing Affordability
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Energy Mandates Stir Growing Debate Over Housing Affordability

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado Over the last 10 years, Colorado has become one of the most energy efficient states in the country, and one of the most unaffordable as the cost of housing has soared. Roger Lovell, Building Official at the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, says it's no coincidence. "The big driver from an affordability standpoint is the cost of compliance with the latest energy codes," Lovell said. Lovell says Colorado's energy mandates have gone too far. "Now when you're designing the home, you have to bring on an energy consultant," he said. There's no national energy code, so most states adopt standards developed by the International Code Council. It assigns a point value for energy efficiency to everything fr...
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