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Tag: Julie McCluskie

Colorado Voters Prepare for Sweeping Legislative Changes in 2026 Elections
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Voters Prepare for Sweeping Legislative Changes in 2026 Elections

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics This year’s general election will feature an unusually high number of state Senate races — 21 seats, the most in at least three decades. The surge stems from the number of new senators appointed to fill vacancies during the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, which triggered additional seats to go before voters. That group of 21 includes six senators who are term-limited, running for other offices, or simply choosing not to return. Fifteen House members, meanwhile, will not return next term — they are either term‑limited, running for another office, or choosing not to seek reelection. Here’s a look at the lawmakers who are wrapping up their service in the General Assembly. Open Senate seats The 2026 elec...
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GOP Opposition Halts Last-Minute Bill Challenging Natural Gas Amendment
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

GOP Opposition Halts Last-Minute Bill Challenging Natural Gas Amendment

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado lawmakers pulled back plans to counter a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of consumers to use natural gas. The bill’s backers said the legislation would not have significantly affected the initiative’s impact, even as debate intensifies among environmental groups, the oil and gas industry and policymakers. The bill — initially planned by House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D‑Dillon, Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D‑Denver, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D‑Evergreen — would have addressed how the ballot measure might affect the state’s air quality. Bacon said the initiative’s wording is overly broad and could create unintended consequences. The proposed constitutional amendment, introduced b...
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Colorado Democrats Drop Effort To Limit Natural Gas Ballot Proposal
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Democrats Drop Effort To Limit Natural Gas Ballot Proposal

By Taylor Dolven | The Colorado Sun The initiative would give Coloradans a “right to natural gas” in the state constitution. State Democratic lawmakers abandoned their effort to blunt the potential impact of a proposed ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to give Coloradans a “right to natural gas.” Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Littleton, had pledged Friday to introduce a bill that would ensure the amendment doesn’t threaten public safety or local air quality. They would have had to introduce the bill on Monday in order to have enough time to get it passed by the end of the legislative session on Wednesday. Republican House members asked t...
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Colorado Businesses Could Catch Break On Credit Card Swipe Fees
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Businesses Could Catch Break On Credit Card Swipe Fees

By Rae Solomon | The Colorado Sun Bill to exempt sales taxes from swipe fees heads to Gov. Jared Polis as industry warns of legal fights and consumer impacts. A proposal to reduce credit card swipe fees has whipped up a frothy, multi-million-dollar lobbying fight at the State Capitol this year, pitting the banking industry against retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. It passed the legislature Wednesday and now heads to the governor’s desk. Senate Bill 134 concerns the interchange fees, or swipe fees, that merchants pay to the banks every time a customer pays with a credit card. Currently, those fees are calculated as a percentage of the total charge, sales tax and all. The proposal, which passed the House on a 44-20 vote, would remove sales taxes from t...
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Interim Committees On The Chopping Block As Colorado Faces Lean Budget Year
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Interim Committees On The Chopping Block As Colorado Faces Lean Budget Year

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics In a tight-budget year, the work of interim committees — those off-session groups that look at transportation, agriculture, water, healthcare, wildfires, pensions, and anything else lawmakers want to look at — is on the chopping block. And this year, no committee is considered sacrosanct. A bill introduced Thursday by the legislative leadership from both parties and both chambers wipes out just about all interim committees this year, including some year-round groups. It’s expected to save about $396,000 in the 2026-27 budget, according to legislative council staff. It would prohibit meetings, field trips, and legislative recommendations and reports from the year-round Capital Development Committee, which play...
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Colorado Program For Immigrant Children And Pregnant Women Blows Past Cost Estimates By 611%
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Program For Immigrant Children And Pregnant Women Blows Past Cost Estimates By 611%

By Jesse Paul and John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The state predicts that the Covering All Coloradans program will cost Colorado $104.5 million in the fiscal year that began July 1. Nonpartisan fiscal analysts estimated the cost would be $14.7 million. roviding health care to children and pregnant people who would qualify for Medicaid if not for their immigration status will cost Colorado more than six times what was projected this year.  Because of higher-than-forecast enrollment, the state is expecting that the Cover All Coloradans program will cost the state $104.5 million in the fiscal year that began July 1. When Democratic state lawmakers passed a bill in 2022 launching the health insurance safety net initiative, nonpartisan fiscal analysts estima...
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Fix It or Fund It: Inside the $361 million standoff over Colorado’s unfunded mandates
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Fix It or Fund It: Inside the $361 million standoff over Colorado’s unfunded mandates

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado counties say they’re done footing the bill for laws they didn’t fund. Citing a 1991 statute and more than $361 million in unfunded mandates, the Fix It or Fund It coalition is asserting that if the state won’t pay, local governments won’t comply. Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel didn’t set out to launch a statewide revolt. Two years ago, she created a spreadsheet to track state mandates that came without funding. The goal was to help department heads navigate budgeting headaches. But that quiet act of accounting has since grown into something far louder—a bipartisan movement spanning more than 36 counties, with local governments now invoking state law to declare state mandates “optional.” “We started this whole unfunded mandate...
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Colorado House Republicans elect Jarvis Caldwell as minority leader after Pugliese resignation
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado House Republicans elect Jarvis Caldwell as minority leader after Pugliese resignation

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The Colorado House Republican caucus on Saturday chose Rep. Jarvis Caldwell of Monument as its next minority leader. Caldwell succeeds former Rep. Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs, who resigned on Sept. 15. Caldwell won 12 out of the 20 votes cast. Two other nominees – Reps. Ken DeGraaf of Colorado Springs and Larry Don Suckla of Cortez, both received four votes each. The caucus meeting showed the angst over what happened in the recent special session is far from over. Caldwell began by thanking Pugliese for her leadership. But “we’re in a moment we may never see again,” he told the caucus. This is a turning point in the state of Colorado, Caldwell said, with Democratic approval ratings underwater and Democrats in the House aud...
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HB 1005, a $34M tax break for Sunset Film Festival, advances despite Rep. DeGraaf’s concern it is ‘disincentive’ to existing taxpayers
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

HB 1005, a $34M tax break for Sunset Film Festival, advances despite Rep. DeGraaf’s concern it is ‘disincentive’ to existing taxpayers

'This is not my hometown. I'm seeing my constituents' money going to a tax incentive that benefits your hometown, while Boulder is taxing itself out of viability.' — Rep. Ken DeGraaf By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice The appropriateness of a tax-credit incentive offered by the state, benefiting a single community and in recruitment of an external entity while ignoring struggling tax-paying entities in that community and other areas of the state, was the discussion of a Colorado House committee Thursday. House Bill 25-1005, by Democrat Reps. Brianna Titone and Julie McCluskie and sponsored by Democrat Sen. Judy Amabile and Republican Sen. Mark Baisley, incentivizing the Sundance Film Festival to relocate to Boulder, was advanced on a 7-6 largely party-line vote, with all commi...
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Democrat Colorado House Speaker McCluskie likely to remain in place following caucus leadership election
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Democrat Colorado House Speaker McCluskie likely to remain in place following caucus leadership election

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics State House Democrats elected its slate of leaders for the 2025 session on Monday. House Speaker Julie McCluskie of Dillon, who is entering her fourth and final term, will serve as the nominee for another term as Speaker. McCluskie was elected by acclimation. McCluskie was nominated by Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver, with a second from Rep. Matthew Martinez of Monte Vista. The full House must ratify that decision when it convenes on Jan. 8. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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