Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Colorado Legislature

Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s homelessness and housing funds recorded $153 million in phantom federal money, audit finds

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado wanted more control over its share of federal pandemic aid before the money hit its federal spending deadlines. So in 2024, the state moved it. It pulled hundreds of millions in American Rescue Plan money back out of four state programs, three of them tied to housing and homelessness, and replaced it with state general funds, so it could spend the federal dollars elsewhere before the deadlines ran out. Then the Department of Local Affairs set those funds up in the state's accounting system as if they were still federal. Every time the department spent a state dollar out of the four programs, the system automatically booked a federal reimbursement that was never coming. By the end of the fiscal year the departm...
Read More
‘I’m not running for me’: The everyman challenging Boesenecker in HD53
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

‘I’m not running for me’: The everyman challenging Boesenecker in HD53

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Daniel Frick did not like politics growing up. He thought it was drama and theater, the same way, he figures, most people do. Then his stepdaughter was hit by a car and left permanently disabled, and the family found itself in what he calls the dark corners of the state, where her case sat forgotten. Now he is a Republican running for Colorado House District 53, a Democratic-held Fort Collins seat. By Frick's telling, the district has been blue since 1986. "I'm not running for me. I'm running for Carissa," Frick said. "I'm fighting for Carissa. That's what this whole campaign is about, getting justice, holding people accountable and changing our state's political system so that other people don't end up like Carissa an...
Read More
Colorado Treasurer Race Pits Limited Government Against Expanded Investment Role
No Comments
The Sum & Substance, Approved, State

Colorado Treasurer Race Pits Limited Government Against Expanded Investment Role

By Ed Sealover | The Sum and Substance The Colorado Treasurer’s office, to be blunt, is a pretty boring post. It invests some $17 billion in state tax revenues and oversees a smattering of financial programs but is largely limited in the things it can do to impact the state and its business community. This year’s race for the open office, however, will serve as a referendum of sorts on whether voters want it to keep its traditional focus or would prefer it expand the ways in which it invests and safeguards Colorado taxpayers’ money. That’s because the two men seeking to replace term-limited Democratic Treasurer Dave Young have very different visions for how they intend to use the power of the office. Kevin Grantham — the last Republican to serve as Colorado Senate pres...
Read More
Democrats Eye New Governor in Renewed Push to Change Colorado Union Law
No Comments
DENVER7, Approved, State

Democrats Eye New Governor in Renewed Push to Change Colorado Union Law

By Colette Bordelon | Denver7 After Gov. Jared Polis vetoed similar bills twice, those behind the proposal to change how workers unionize in Colorado believe they will have better luck in 2027 with a new governor. LOUISVILLE — Democratic Colorado lawmakers are confident that their plan to change the way workers unionize in the state will be successful next year, hoping that a new governor leads to a different outcome for the legislation. Dubbed the Worker Protection Act by advocates, two iterations of the concept to eliminate the second vote needed to form a union in Colorado have passed out of the state Legislature and were then vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis in 2025 and 2026. Maggie Roesink, who works as a server and bartender at the Hotel Boulderado, attended t...
Read More
Denver Chamber CEO Says One-Party Rule Is Making Colorado Harder to Live and Do Business In
No Comments
Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Denver Chamber CEO Says One-Party Rule Is Making Colorado Harder to Live and Do Business In

By Ryan Warner | Colorado Public Radio Colorado is getting in its own way, and Democratic Socialists will only exacerbate the problem, according to the head of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. J.J. Ament believes one-party rule in Colorado means business owners are bombarded with regulation. “In each of the last two years, more than 500 new laws were introduced in the state of Colorado. No citizen, resident, small business person can keep up with that pace of change,” he said. Ament cited as examples local minimum wage ordinances and what he believes is an inflexible state family leave program. “We're certainly seeing a decline in our economic competitiveness. If you measure since 2019, we've sometimes seen as many as a thousand businesses leave the 80202 [...
Read More
Manny Rutinel Leaves Colorado Legislature to Focus on High-Stakes Race Against Gabe Evans
No Comments
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Manny Rutinel Leaves Colorado Legislature to Focus on High-Stakes Race Against Gabe Evans

By Bente Birkeland | The Colorado Sun Rutinel is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District north of Denver. Manny Rutinel, a Democratic state representative from Commerce City who is running in Colorado’s most competitive congressional district this year, resigned from the state legislature Friday. Rutinel is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District north of Denver. Evans narrowly won the seat two years ago, defeating Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo. It’s considered a district that could swing and the race between Evans and Rutinel has garnered national attention. Rutinel’s campaign announced Friday that he was resigning from the statehouse effective immediately. READ THE FULL ...
Read More
Six online schools, a $15 million balance, one district: What D49 took on when it dissolved ERBOCES
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Six online schools, a $15 million balance, one district: What D49 took on when it dissolved ERBOCES

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Five days before the School District 49 board voted to dissolve Education ReEnvisioned BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services), the withdrawal that had pushed the co-op to the brink was deferred. Pikes Peak State College had signaled it would leave the co-op effective Aug. 15, a move that would have dropped ERBOCES to a single member and made it ineligible to operate. Then ERBOCES produced a 2013 memorandum of understanding requiring a year's notice, and on Aug. 12 the college indicated it would stay through summer 2027 to honor that notice. D49 dissolved the co-op anyway, on Aug. 17.  The reversal settled little, because the state had already raised a deeper question about the MOU. The same agreemen...
Read More
What DSA wants to do to the Senate, the presidency and the courts
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

What DSA wants to do to the Senate, the presidency and the courts

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Cliff Connolly wanted his fellow socialists to understand why the fight was worth having. "The whole point of having the Senate, the president, and the Supreme Court is so that, if popular legislation passes through the House of Representatives, the ruling class has these other levels they can pull to stop it from happening," he said, according to City Journal, which reported from inside the meeting. He pointed to the Supreme Court striking down President Biden's student debt plan as his example. Connolly sits on the Democratic Socialists of America's National Political Committee, the group's highest governing body between conventions. He was arguing for language DSA has now adopted as official policy: a plan to take a...
Read More
Colorado Mother Blames Immigration Policies After Daughter Left Severely Disabled
No Comments
Real Clear Politics, Approved, National

Colorado Mother Blames Immigration Policies After Daughter Left Severely Disabled

By Ian Schwartz | Real Clear Politics https://twitter.com/cspan/status/2094811461709082986?s=20 Patricia Fox, whose daughter Carissa was a victim of a hit-and-run accident committed by an illegal alien, slammed Democrats at a House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee. According to FOX News, Carissa underwent emergency surgery to remove part of her skull and relieve brain swelling. She is now minimally conscious, nonverbal, wheelchair-bound, and fed through a G-tube. PATRICIA FOX: Wouldn't be the same. Because of an American citizen had hit my daughter. I wouldn't be here asking why was somebody who had no lawful right to be in this country here to hit her in the first place. Valeria Bermudez-Marcano wouldn'...
Read More
Colorado Voters to Decide More Than a Dozen Ballot Measures Including Tax Hikes, Immigration and Youth Sports
No Comments
Axios Denver, Approved, State

Colorado Voters to Decide More Than a Dozen Ballot Measures Including Tax Hikes, Immigration and Youth Sports

By John Frank | Axios Denver Colorado voters will decide more than a dozen ballot measures this November, from remaking the state's tax system to banning gender-affirming surgery for minors. Why it matters: Beyond the candidates, voters will have a direct say on major changes to taxes, immigration, criminal justice and other hot-button issues. State of play: The marquee measure would scrap Colorado's flat 4.4% income tax in favor of a graduated system that would raise taxes on those making $500,000 or more a year. Legislative fiscal analysts estimate the Democratic-led measure would generate an additional $2 billion a year, with the money reserved for education, health care and early child care. The other side: A countermeasure backed by ...
Read More