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Concerns grow over expanded property-tax proposal
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Concerns grow over expanded property-tax proposal

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance A new version of the tax-cut bill at the heart of the special legislative session seeks to further limit property-tax revenue growth — a provision producing angst around what proponents are touting as a compromise solution that could head off a costly ballot battle. Colorado legislators will gavel into session again at 10 a.m. Monday at the request of Gov. Jared Polis to consider a brokered deal designed to stop two property-tax-cut initiatives that could cut billions of dollars in state and local funding from going to the ballot. Instead, the Democratic governor is asking legislators to pass a bipartisan bill that will expand a recently passed $1.3 billion property-tax cut to roughly $1.6 billion and will, if signed into law, commit proponent...
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In look ahead to 75th session, legislators may renew emission-reduction tactic discussion
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In look ahead to 75th session, legislators may renew emission-reduction tactic discussion

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators once again are discussing how to move office workers and other commuters out of single-occupancy vehicles, setting up another potential confrontation on the subject during the 2025 legislative session. Democrats on the Transportation Legislation Review Committee, which examines issues each year in between legislative sessions, voted Friday to draft a bill that would require state officials to make air-quality improvements related to transportation. Although Sen. Kevin Priola, the Henderson Democrat who asked for the bill draft, did not specify the contents of the proposal, he said it could incorporate numerous suggestions that environmental advocates presented to the TLRC. Those suggestions included two ideas that have ...
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Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules
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Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado officials are advancing rules to cut carbon emissions in yet another sector — this time in the midstream sector of the oil and gas industry, a battleground area in which both industry and environmental leaders worry already about the proposed regulations. The midstream sector is comprised of the pipelines and facilities that transport natural gas from wells to the transmission companies that distribute it to power plants and homes. A key part of the sector — which is made up in Colorado of three major players and a couple dozen smaller companies — is the compression plants that keep the gas moving down long pipelines to its destinations. As part of efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, state officials have put rules i...
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Advance Colorado could pull two ballot initiatives, likely leading to property-tax special session
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Advance Colorado could pull two ballot initiatives, likely leading to property-tax special session

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators appear headed for another debate about lowering property taxes after an influential commission largely backed a compromise plan Monday to cut taxes further if backers of two wide-ranging initiatives removed the measures from the November ballot. It’s not an absolute certainty that Gov. Jared Polis would call a special session to consider the framework deal agreed to by initiative proponents Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado with legislators and other officials who have been involved in negotiations. But with Polis having signaled a willingness to consider the idea and with the governor-backed Commission on Property Tax getting some level of support from most of its members to the general details in the plan, pressure i...
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