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Dear Colorado Legislature: Here’s Your $1 Billion Cut List
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Dear Colorado Legislature: Here’s Your $1 Billion Cut List

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com Colorado’s $1B budget hole isn’t rocket science – we found the cuts. From illegal immigration perks to bloated credits, here’s the fix. (And Yes, We Found It In the Couch Cushions) Colorado lawmakers are about to lock themselves in a special session cage match because they’ve managed to spend themselves $1 billion into the red. Cue the finger-pointing, cue the “hard choices” speeches, cue the “we just need more revenue” crocodile tears. Well, guess what? We did your homework for you. We found your billion. And unlike your staff memos written in bureaucrat-ese, this cut list is in plain English – with receipts. Brace yourselves, this will be long, but I’ll give you a TL, DR version right up front… TL;DR: Colorado’s ...
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New Era Colorado exploits budget crisis to push higher taxes
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

New Era Colorado exploits budget crisis to push higher taxes

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project New Era Colorado Using CO's budget crisis to push a graduated income tax. I wanted to share a tweet I saw from Free State Colorado recently. The tweet is linked first below if you want to see the original (and/or follow them on Twitter--which you should if you're not following them some other way). If you don't have twitter, the subject of the tweet is how progressive policy organization New Era Colorado is pushing for a "graduated" income tax and using current Federal policy + the state's budget problems as justification. Free State Colorado put up pictures of an email that New Era sent out on Aug 6th encouraging their followers to write in an email encouraging what they call a graduated income tax in Colorado. I...
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Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Potholes and Broken Promises: Colorado’s Working Class Deserves Better

By Bobbie Daniel | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Drive a mile in Colorado and you’ll know the truth: our roads are crumbling, and so is the promise that the government would take care of this basic function. Families scrape by to keep their cars running while the same political elite who’ve run this state for twenty years pour billions into pet projects and leave working people holding the bill. Colorado’s highways were built the way a farm is built — ditch by ditch, fence by fence, harvest by harvest. Generations of Coloradans invested billions so our economy could function. From rural to urban, our families could get where they needed to go. But now the ditch and fence are broken, and instead of repairing it, the political class is off buying themselves a BMW. Nice ride, m...
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Colorado faces $1B hole: Governor Polis calls special session called and imposes state hiring freeze
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denvergazette.com, Approved, State

Colorado faces $1B hole: Governor Polis calls special session called and imposes state hiring freeze

By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette Gov. Jared Polis will convene the legislature on Aug. 21 to enact cuts to the state budget amid a $1 billion deficit, even as he is instituting a hiring freeze. The governor said the hiring freeze in state agencies will start on Aug. 27.   The governor confirmed that, in addition to spending reductions, the special session will deal with AI regulation. Lawmakers approved new AI regulations last year. They are expected to go into effect Feb. 1, 2026. The AI law established rules around the use of artificial intelligence, primarily in employment, health care, education, and government practices, where, backers said, the risk of bias or discrimination exists. Businesses have argued that the new law is problematic, potentially penaliz...
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TABOR Undermined as Almost Half of Colorado Budget Now Exempt
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State, Approved, coloradopolitics.com

TABOR Undermined as Almost Half of Colorado Budget Now Exempt

By Hannah Metzger | Colorado Politics State spending that is exempt from Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights has increased by nearly 30% over the past 30 years, according to a report by the public policy think tank Common Sense Institute.  While TABOR places a limit on how much revenue the state can retain each fiscal year, certain sources — such as voter-approved changes, federal funds, and state enterprises — are exempt. According to the Bell Policy Center, enterprise funds are state-owned "businesses" that provide goods or services in exchange for revenue. Examples include the state lottery and the Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Enterprise (CHASE). According to the Common Sense Institute report, 46% of total state spending — ab...
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They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

They built the budget bomb: Now Colorado Democrats say President Trump lit the fuse

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board They built the budget bomb. Now they say Trump lit the fuse. Colorado Democrats want you to believe they’re victims of the Big Bad Federal Budget Bill. That the state’s $1.2 billion shortfall just... happened. Like a pothole after a snowstorm. Nothing to do with how they’ve governed. Governor Polis says, "The Trump Administration is withholding needed funds from our classrooms," and Senate President James Coleman warns, "There’s no avoiding the fact that these cuts will hurt Colorado families." Convenient. But here’s the part they don’t mention: Colorado’s fee-based revenue—the stealth tax that doesn’t require a vote—blew through the roof to $25.8 billion last year.  That’s right. More than half of the entire state budget now come...
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Progressive Spending Comes Due as Colorado Faces Billion Dollar Shortfall
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State, Approved, DENVER7

Progressive Spending Comes Due as Colorado Faces Billion Dollar Shortfall

By Brandon Richard | Denver7 News State lawmakers will likely return to the Colorado Capitol for a special session to address the budget shortfall. DENVER — For the second time this year, Colorado is facing a massive budget shortfall, and the legislature’s top Democratic leaders blame President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful bill." State budget officials released new projections on Wednesday, showing the current budget is suddenly $1.2 billion in the red. “Right now, we don’t have the cash to pay our bills,” Colorado budget director Mark Ferrandino told lawmakers. "We are talking about a budget and a revenue shortfall equivalent or greater than what we saw during the Great Recession." Some lawmakers were left shell-shocked and worried for Coloradans struggling to make it. ...
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Gaines: Instead of schools, state grants funded advocacy for equity, gay forestry—and ‘indigenizing’
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Gaines: Instead of schools, state grants funded advocacy for equity, gay forestry—and ‘indigenizing’

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project In an earlier post (see the first link below), I mentioned a couple of state expenses to the environmental advocacy group Cultivando that had caught my eye in their TOPS expense report.The first was a line item for $500 labeled as "personal services -- professional" charged to the Colorado Energy Office (CEO). The other was a grant for $24,700 to Cultivando charged to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).I wrote in and got the records back for these expenses. I thought them interesting enough to share. Perhaps they're not big dollar amounts, but they are representative of the kinds of thought processes among policymakers and bureaucrats that put us in the financial state we're in--you know the state where we are short...
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Rand Paul introduces bill to audit the Federal Reserve after $2.5B renovation uproar
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Washington Examiner, Approved, National

Rand Paul introduces bill to audit the Federal Reserve after $2.5B renovation uproar

By Washington Examiner Staff | Washington Examiner Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation on Thursday calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve. The senator’s proposal comes after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has faced scrutiny for the $2.5 billion in renovations he authorized for two federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Paul’s bill, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, would require a complete audit of all of the Federal Reserve’s operational activities and mandate an enhancement of its decision-making through increased congressional oversight. The Comptroller General of the United States would complete the audit and include an inspection of “the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and of Federal Reserve banks,” acco...
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Ballot Bait-and-Switch? Colorado Gray Wolf Plan Bleeds Taxpayers Dry
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State, Approved, CBS News

Ballot Bait-and-Switch? Colorado Gray Wolf Plan Bleeds Taxpayers Dry

By Shaun Boyd | CBS News Colorado Parks and Wildlife told an interim legislative committee it has spent about $3 million to relocate 30 wolves to the state over the last two years. That's more than double what voters were told it would cost when they approved wolf reintroduction in 2020. The Blue Book estimated it would cost about $800,000. Ranchers say, not only is the cost of the program out of control, the management of it is off the rails. "A depredating pack was known to have depredated in Oregon before they put them in Middle Park," Tom Harrington, a cattle producer in Roaring Fork Valley, told lawmakers. "They had serious impact there. They packaged them up, put them away for awhile. And then, they put them back out -- right in my backyard." Harrington and other ranch...
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