Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

The Colorado Sun

A new — and much gentler — property tax hike is proposed for Colorado short-term rental properties
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

A new — and much gentler — property tax hike is proposed for Colorado short-term rental properties

By Jason Blevins and Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun A proposed property tax hike on Colorado short-term rental owners would only kick in for people with three or more homes under new legislation proposed as a gentler alternative to a further-reaching measure also being debated at the state Capitol this year.  State Rep. Shannon Bird, a Democrat from Westminster, hopes her House Bill 1299 will work as a compromise to slow the growth of short-term rentals that is pinching the housing supply, especially for local workers.  Her legislation would impose the state’s much higher commercial property tax rate on properties offered as short-term rentals when they belong to a person or business that owns at least two other homes.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Parents of medically fragile kids can’t find nurses because the pay is so low. They want Colorado lawmakers to step in. 
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Parents of medically fragile kids can’t find nurses because the pay is so low. They want Colorado lawmakers to step in. 

By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun Nurses willing to care for medically fragile children and adults — including patients who use feeding tubes, can’t walk or speak, and rarely leave their homes — are hard to find in Colorado.  Amid a statewide nursing shortage so dire that even state mental institutions offer $14,000 signing bonuses, the lowest-paying nursing positions are going unfilled. That means many parents who have relied on “private duty nurses” for in-home care for their children and adult children are getting no help.  Colorado’s Medicaid program reimburses the agencies that employ these in-home nurses at some of the lowest rates in the nation, according to the Home Care and Hospice Association of Colorado. The rate for registered nurses in Colorado is $...
Read More
Colorado Democrats’ attempt to reduce gun violence is colliding with their criminal justice reform ethos
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Democrats’ attempt to reduce gun violence is colliding with their criminal justice reform ethos

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun When it comes to preventing gun violence in Colorado, there’s not much Democrats and Republicans agree on.  Getting gun rights and pro-gun regulation groups on the same page? That’s unheard of.  So when a bill was introduced in the legislature this year to increase penalties for stealing guns that brought those groups together, it seemed like a slam dunk. But the measure, House Bill 1162, was rejected in the House Judiciary Committee last week in a collision of two priorities for the Democratic majority at the Capitol: its desire to curb gun violence and its push to reduce the number of people being sent to prison. “We’re not going to incarcerate ourselves out of this,” said state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat and one of the leg...
Read More
Cory Gardner reenters Colorado political conversation to make endorsement in crowded 4th Congressional District race
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Cory Gardner reenters Colorado political conversation to make endorsement in crowded 4th Congressional District race

By Jesse Paul | Colorado Sun Cory Gardner reentered Colorado’s political conversation Wednesday to endorse former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg in the crowded Republican primary in the state’s 4th Congressional District, a race that includes U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.  “Jerry Sonnenberg is the conservative conscience of the 4th Congressional District,” Gardner, a former U.S. senator from eastern Colorado who lost his reelection bid in 2020, said in a written statement. “He will be a passionate and dedicated warrior for our nation and our shared conservative values.” Gardner represented the 4th District from 2011 to 2015 before he was elected to the Senate. He’s mostly shied away from the public spotlight since leaving Congress in early 2021, making his endorsement more notable. ...
Read More
Colorado Springs cracks down on homeless camping in hopes of pushing people toward shelter, services
No Comments
Approved, El Paso County, Local, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Springs cracks down on homeless camping in hopes of pushing people toward shelter, services

By Jennifer Brown and Hugh Carey | Colorado Sun Jeremy Krause has a simple code for making it on the streets of Colorado Springs: “Stay dry and avoid the cops.”  To keep warm, he burns hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol. To steer clear of the police, he and his dog move often.  But avoiding them is not working as well anymore.  “It wasn’t so bad in the beginning, but the last two years they’ve been really irrational,” said Krause, who has been homeless for about eight years. “They’ve stolen my things like six times. They take your tent, your blankets, your heat, everything you need to survive. That’s to force us into the shelter.” READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
State funding could be withheld from Colorado cities that don’t tie housing to transit under new affordability push 
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

State funding could be withheld from Colorado cities that don’t tie housing to transit under new affordability push 

By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun Colorado Democrats on Tuesday introduced a bill that would send millions of dollars to cities that agree to encourage denser housing near transit — and withhold state highway funding from those that don’t. The measure, House Bill 1313, is a key piece of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ plans to address the state’s housing shortage and combat climate change. It relies heavily on financial incentives, such as affordable housing tax credits and infrastructure funding, to coax cities into developing transit-oriented communities — a departure from last year’s failed attempt to force cities to zone for apartments and townhouses. But it has a punitive side, too: Affected cities that don’t take steps to meet housing goals laid out in the bill could see cuts ...
Read More
Plan to ensure there’s end-of-life cash to plug all Colorado oil wells may fall short, study says
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Plan to ensure there’s end-of-life cash to plug all Colorado oil wells may fall short, study says

By Mark Jaffe | Colorado Sun New Colorado rules to insure there is enough cash to plug each oil and gas well in the state at the end of its life may not generate enough money to do the job, according to an analysis by Carbon Tracker. The report by the nonprofit environmental think tank said that in the short-run the state may end up with less in financial guarantees than it had before the new rules were adopted nearly two years ago and about 39% of oil and gas companies still have not completed financial assurance plans. The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, which adopted and administers the financial assurance rules, disputes those findings. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More
Beef, quality-stamped by an in-person grader, may soon be graded by someone looking at a picture
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Beef, quality-stamped by an in-person grader, may soon be graded by someone looking at a picture

By Tracy Ross | Colorado Sun In the old days, if a small or midsize beef processor wanted to get the most out of their highest-quality meat, they had to do as the big processors do: pay a living, breathing human sometimes upward of $114 an hour to travel to their plant, often out in the boonies, and grade the meat ranchers sold them after seeing it in person. Beef comes in “Prime,” “Choice,” “Select,” “Standard” and “Commercial” grades, according to the USDA’s tutorial on the subject, with prices corresponding to those grades.  Prime beef is produced from young, well-fed beef cattle, has slightly abundant marbling (the amount of fat interspersed with lean meat), and is generally sold in upscale restaurants, according to the USDA. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORA...
Read More
New $30 million Colorado rental assistance program launches this week
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

New $30 million Colorado rental assistance program launches this week

By Tatiana Flowers | Colorado Sun State leaders opened a new temporary rental assistance grant program this week that will use $30 million approved by the Colorado legislature in November to try to keep people in their homes after eviction filings reached record high numbers in pockets of the state last year. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs launched the first pre-application process through the Temporary Rental Assistance Grant program Thursday. The first round of pre-applications will remain open until 5 p.m. Tuesday. Coloradans who aren’t selected to move forward in the process to receive funds, and others who miss the deadline, will have another chance to apply when grant program leaders reopen the process again on the 15th day of each mon...
Read More
It’s official: Amache National Historic Site in Southeast Colorado ensures federal protection for former Japanese American incarceration camp
No Comments
Approved, Local, National, Southern Colorado, The Colorado Sun

It’s official: Amache National Historic Site in Southeast Colorado ensures federal protection for former Japanese American incarceration camp

By Kevin Simpson | Colorado Sun Nearly two years after legislation designated the site of Colorado’s Granada War Relocation Center — also known as Camp Amache — part of the National Park System, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Thursday formally closed the deal that creates Amache National Historic Site, ensuring federal protection for the grounds where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. Details surrounding Granada’s official acquisition and donation of the land were recently finalized to clear the way for the National Park Service to assume management of the site, which sits on nearly one square mile just outside of the southeastern Colorado town. Amache opened in 1942 and closed in 1945. It was the smallest of 10 suc...
Read More