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Last-minute voter? Your refund might be on the menu
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Last-minute voter? Your refund might be on the menu

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board Still sitting on your ballot? You’re not alone—Colorado’s full of last-minute voters trying to make sense of Propositions LL and MM before the drop box closes. Both deal with “Healthy School Meals for All,” a free lunch program with a not-so-free price tag. And depending how you vote, your refund might just end up on the menu. How we got here Back in 2022, voters approved Proposition FF, the “Healthy School Meals for All” program that promised every K–12 student a free lunch. It sounded simple until someone had to pay for it. The money came from a new tax on Coloradans earning $300,000 or more—along with wage hikes for cafeteria workers and a nudge to use more local ingredients. Fast-forward to 2025, and the legislature realized there’s e...
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Polis Sounds Alarm on Medicaid Spending: “We Can’t Fund Everything”
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Polis Sounds Alarm on Medicaid Spending: “We Can’t Fund Everything”

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado Gov. Jared Polis released his budget request for next year, and Medicaid will take a big hit. The governor says the health insurance program for low-income Coloradans is growing at nearly twice the rate of the state government overall. Polis says, if the state doesn't slow the rate of growth, the program will crowd out everything but funding for schools in the next few years. In the state, 1.2 million Coloradans rely on Medicaid. The governor says none of them will lose coverage, but what that coverage looks like will change.  "There's two levers on Medicaid," Polis said during a press conference. "One is how many people you cover, and two is what you cover." Polis' budget request hones in on what services Medicaid covers. "There have bee...
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Audit Finds Financial Strain Growing in 16 Colorado School Districts
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Audit Finds Financial Strain Growing in 16 Colorado School Districts

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Sixteen school districts in Colorado, almost all of them rural, are showing signs of financial stress, according to an audit released on the fiscal health of the state’s 178 public school districts. Eighteen other districts, however, are moving off the list with improvements to their fiscal health in the 2023-24 fiscal year. The Ellicott School District, east of Colorado Springs, was under the bullseye Monday, with five missed benchmarks in 2023-24, up from one in 2022-23. The district had no missed benchmarks just two years earlier.  School districts with two or more missed financial benchmarks, 2021-2022 to 2023-24. Of the 16 school districts that missed financial benchmarks, four were in rural El Paso County. The...
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Voters face a $56 million question: Should “free lunch for all” come from your refund?
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Independence Institute, Approved, State

Voters face a $56 million question: Should “free lunch for all” come from your refund?

By Nash Herman and Jake Fogleman | Independence Institute Executive Summary In 2022, Proposition FF created Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program, offering free school lunches to all students regardless of family income, funded by capping state income tax deductions for households earning over $300,000.  The program’s costs far exceeded expectations in its first year, creating a $56 million shortfall despite earlier warnings that it was likely to be unsustainable.  Proposition LL would let the state permanently retain and spend excess revenue from Prop FF, exempting it from TABOR refund limits going forward.  Proposition MM would institute another income tax hike by further lowering deduction caps, while also diverting some new revenue to fun...
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TABOR Didn’t Build the Potholes
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Substack, Top Stories

TABOR Didn’t Build the Potholes

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack Bureaucracy and pet projects did — and it’s time to realign our priorities. Colorado’s roads crumble, our classrooms overflow, and every budget cycle we hear the same refrain: “It’s TABOR’s fault.” Critics of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights insist that this constitutional guardrail has starved government of the resources it needs to educate children, maintain infrastructure, and keep the state running. But what if the potholes and crowded classrooms aren’t a symptom of too little revenue, but of misplaced priorities? The truth is, Colorado’s budget has grown steadily for years. Billions more flow into the state’s coffers than a decade ago. Yet the very areas citizens rely on most—roads, schools, public safety—continue to lag. TA...
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Colorado certifies light ballot: Two statewide measures on TABOR refunds and high-earner deductions
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado certifies light ballot: Two statewide measures on TABOR refunds and high-earner deductions

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Colorado voters will be getting a break from a long list of statewide questions this November, after Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced she had certified the 2025 ballot with only two measures going in front of all voters in the state. Voters will however still have their fair share of things to vote on closer to home as many city council and school board seats are up for grabs, as well as new local tax asks and extensions of existing taxes around the state. This year is an odd year election, meaning ballot measures are, for the most part, limited under state law to fiscal issues related to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The two measures that will appear were both referred by the legislature this S...
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State school trust lands were meant to fund education, not environmental agendas
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

State school trust lands were meant to fund education, not environmental agendas

By Greg Walcher | GregWalcher.com A land ownership checkerboard exists in nearly every state because of an oddity called “state school trust lands.” The federal government granted those lands at the time of statehood, under the Land Ordinance of 1785. Thomas Jefferson’s system divides and records land into townships, each with 36 one-square-mile sections. New states entering the union were each given 2 sections per township, to be held in trust to fund public schools. State Land Boards were created to manage those lands – in my state of Colorado it’s 4 million acres. The Board was charged with administering the lands “in such a manner as will secure the maximum possible amount” for the school fund. The Lincoln Institute of Public Lands explains, “That singularity of purpose continues...
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Adams 12 asks taxpayers for $39.42M more in November vote
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Fox31, Approved, Local

Adams 12 asks taxpayers for $39.42M more in November vote

By Heather Willard | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — The Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board of Education unanimously approved the placement of a $39.42 million mill levy override on the November ballot at the board’s Wednesday night meeting. “We know the state’s not going to have a lot of money to help us out for next year,” Superintendent Chris Gdowski said in the district’s announcement of the placement. “So if we don’t help ourselves here in Adams 12, next year will be another difficult year when it comes to cuts.” The mill levy override will help pay for ongoing operating expenses, such as additional staffing and academic programming for students; salaries for teachers and support staff; and investments in safety and security personnel. The district also noted that it ranks nearl...
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Colorado Lawmakers Hand Polis Authority for $300 Million in Spending Cuts
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State, Approved, DENVER7

Colorado Lawmakers Hand Polis Authority for $300 Million in Spending Cuts

By Brandon Richard | Denver7 The governor could make up to $300 million in spending cuts as part of the Democrats' plan to fix the budget gap. DENVER — Colorado’s special session is over, but there’s still more work to do to address the state’s $783 million budget gap. Most of that work will fall to Governor Jared Polis. Colorado’s Democratic legislative leaders have a three-part plan to address the budget gap. They took care of one part of that plan during their six-day special session when they cut several corporate tax breaks. "I'm grateful my colleagues didn't shy away from this challenge,” said Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver. “We faced it head-on. We rolled up our sleeves. We acted like the adults in the room." But they’re leaving the other two parts of...
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Lawmakers Pass The Buck On Budget Deficit Leaving Decisions To Governor Polis
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State, Approved, The Gazette

Lawmakers Pass The Buck On Budget Deficit Leaving Decisions To Governor Polis

By Marianne Goodland | The Gazette Most measures introduced for special session offer no clear plan to solve budget deficit. More than two dozen bills have been introduced ahead of Thursday’s special legislative session, where lawmakers will try to come up with nearly $800 million in budget cuts. What’s notably absent from the proposed bills so far is any clear plan for how those cuts would be made. Indeed, only one bill even hints at specific reductions — a proposal from Western Slope lawmakers to cut $264,000 from the state’s wolf management program and redirect that money to help pay for health insurance subsidies. There are two bills, similar in some regards, from members of the Joint Budget Committee, that deal with Gov. Jared Polis' authority to enact spending cuts whe...
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