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Tag: Jared Polis

Colorado Lawmakers Weigh $500 Million In Cuts As $1.5 Billion Deficit Looms
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Weigh $500 Million In Cuts As $1.5 Billion Deficit Looms

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee is working through a list Wednesday of about 150 suggestions to cut as much as $1.5 billion in general fund dollars out of next year’s budget. The largest on the list prepared by JBC staff is $198 million in cuts to the funding for the annual senior and disabled veterans homestead exemption. Funding for the homestead exemption has to come out of general fund dollars in the 2026-27 budget because the state does not have a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights surplus that would normally cover that cost. The other side of the issue is Gov. Jared Polis’ support for a proposal to allow Pinnacol Assurance to privatize, with the hopes that half of the funds Pinnacol would pay the state as a result ...
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The Democrats who funded Colorado’s 611% Medicaid overrun are running for Congress
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The Democrats who funded Colorado’s 611% Medicaid overrun are running for Congress

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is staring down a $1 billion budget hole. Disabled kids are losing healthcare. Dental benefits are getting capped at $750 a year. Two Democrats who helped create and fund Cover All Coloradans are now asking voters to send them to Congress. Shannon Bird stepped away from the statehouse to run full-time. That sets up a primary between Bird and Rep. Manny Rutinel in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, with Republican incumbent Gabe Evans waiting in November. It started with HB22-1289 in 2022, opening Medicaid-style coverage to children and pregnant women who otherwise met eligibility but didn’t qualify because of their immigration status. Bird voted yes. The early estimate was $14.7 million for the fiscal year, tied to an expe...
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Polis Administration Faces Lawsuit Over Keeping Minors In Custody After Judges Ordered Release
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Polis Administration Faces Lawsuit Over Keeping Minors In Custody After Judges Ordered Release

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado officials are facing a lawsuit alleging the state kept minors in juvenile detention for days or months after judges ordered them released, largely because appropriate foster or community placements were not available. Two minors facing juvenile delinquency charges sued Gov. Jared Polis and the director of the state’s Department of Human Services, alleging the state is incarcerating children despite judges’ orders to release them to the community. The state refused to comment on the litigation, though a spokesperson said the safety of children under its care is a top priority. The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of civil and disability rights advocates on behalf of defendants known only as Isaac N. and Tony S., alle...
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Colorado Budget Gap Swells To $1.5 Billion As Lawmakers Brace For Cuts
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Budget Gap Swells To $1.5 Billion As Lawmakers Brace For Cuts

By Nick Coltrain | Denver7 New forecasts set the stage for the final push on the state budget. DENVER — The fiscal picture for Colorado’s state government has somehow gotten even murkier — and potentially much worse. Lawmakers walked into Thursday’s key economic forecasts pessimistic about what the reports would tell them about the state budget. They walked out of it with one forecast warning they now needed to close a $1.5 billion deficit in the next week or so, an increase over the $1 billion prediction from just a few days earlier. That does not account for some cuts the committee has proposed but not yet finalized. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
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Colorado Lawmakers Clash Over Prison Spending As State Budget Tightens
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Clash Over Prison Spending As State Budget Tightens

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette The Polis administration is asking for hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the state’s prison system, just as Colorado’s legislators are bracing for a worsening fiscal outlook. The request sets up a clash over priorities at a time when the state faces a nearly $1.5 billion shortfall. The administration is seeking to add prison beds amid overcrowding, though advocates on both sides of the spectrum disagree over its cause. Some advocates have argued that the crisis is partly the result of a backlog of inmates awaiting parole placement. Others maintained that the “crisis” resulted from Democrats’ policies that ultimately seek to release offenders back into communities. On Wednesday, the governor asked budget writers f...
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Colorado Health Initiative For Immigrants Exceeds Fiscal Projections By Over 600%
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The Daily Caller, Approved, State

Colorado Health Initiative For Immigrants Exceeds Fiscal Projections By Over 600%

By Harold Hutchison | The Daily Caller A program to provide health care for pregnant illegal immigrants in Colorado is costing the state over seven times its budget projections since it was enacted, the Colorado Sun reported. The Covering All Coloradans program, which was enacted in 2022, gave health care benefits to illegal immigrants who would otherwise have qualified for Medicaid, according to the Sun. The program was expected to cost the state $14.7 million dollars but its cost has instead ballooned to over $104 million. The program’s launch was secured in 2025 when money was appropriated by the state legislature. The state is now facing a $1 billion budget shortfall, primarily due to programs like Covering All Coloradans, the Sun...
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Polis Backs New AI Framework To Replace Controversial 2024 Law
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Polis Backs New AI Framework To Replace Controversial 2024 Law

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette A group that has been working on artificial intelligence policy has reached an agreement on a framework that would replace the regulations adopted by Colorado legislators two years ago. The agreement has the backing of Gov. Jared Polis, who reluctantly signed the AI law in 2024. The agreement reached by the Colorado AI Policy Work Group is meant to repeal and replace the 2024 law, whose sponsors said would protect consumers and residents from algorithmic discrimination but which critics called heavy handed and unworkable. A multi-billion dollar technology company, which recently decided to leave Colorado, cited the new regulations on artificial intelligence as a cause of concern, comparing the “state-level over...
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Tina Peters Cleared In Prison Assault Case After January Scuffle
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Tina Peters Cleared In Prison Assault Case After January Scuffle

By Ava Kian | CPR News Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is currently serving a nine-year sentence for her role in tampering with Mesa County’s election equipment in search of election fraud, was found not guilty of assault after shoving another inmate last January in state prison. She was found guilty for the lesser charge of “unauthorized absence” after being in a restricted area where she was not assigned, Corrections Department spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia said. It’s not a criminal charge, but instead an internal process used to address behavior. Gonzalez-Garcia said the determination was after reviewing evidence, including video footage, medical anatomical forms for both inmates involved, and witness testimony. One of Peter’s attorn...
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Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The case of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters has become one of the most controversial legal and political episodes in modern Colorado election administration. But stripped of partisan rhetoric and competing narratives, the core issue before the public is far simpler—and far more troubling. Should an election official who believed she was preserving federally required election records spend years in prison for a disputed administrative decision? That question deserves serious reflection from every Coloradan, regardless of political affiliation. Public confidence in elections depends not only on accurate vote counts but on transparency in the systems that produce those results. When officials believ...
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All 66 Colorado Democrat Lawmakers Press Polis To Reject Clemency For Tina Peters
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

All 66 Colorado Democrat Lawmakers Press Polis To Reject Clemency For Tina Peters

By: Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun The letter warned that clemency would be a gift to conspiracy theorists and risks undermining the safety of future elections. All 66 Democrats in the Colorado legislature signed onto a letter Wednesday urging Gov. Jared Polis not to reduce the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a missive that escalates the party’s near-universal disapproval of Polis’ posture toward the case.  “This is about the security and assuredness of our elections,” the letter said. “This is about the future of our democracy, and of free and fair elections in our nation. We ask you to stand with us in safeguarding the future.” The letter says that clemency is “for those who have taken accountability for their crimes, understand ...
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