Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Public Policy

Hospitals on life support: Report says 70% of Colorado facilities losing money
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Hospitals on life support: Report says 70% of Colorado facilities losing money

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette Nearly 70% of Colorado hospitals ended 2024 with “unsustainable” margins, according to a new financial report from the Colorado Hospital Association. Tom Rennell, the group’s senior vice president of financial policy and data analytics, said hospitals’ expenses are outpacing their revenue, as an increasing number of Colorado patients are losing their insurance coverage, partially due to the post-pandemic Medicaid unwind. “Over the last several years since the COVID times and through the high inflationary times, hospitals have been experiencing some significant econmic turbulence,” Rennell said. “We don’t have the full picture yet, but I can tell you that what we’re seeing so far in 2025 is that there has been even more of a deterioration a...
Read More
Audit Finds Financial Strain Growing in 16 Colorado School Districts
No Comments
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...
Read More
Colorado must stop pushing unfunded laws on local governments, lawmakers say
No Comments
The Daily Sentinel, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado must stop pushing unfunded laws on local governments, lawmakers say

By Rick Taggart, Janice Rich and Matt Soper | Commentary, The Daily Sentinel When lawmakers pass a new bill, there’s one question we should all ask before we vote: Who’s going to pay for it? Too often, that question goes unanswered. Across Colorado, local governments are being asked to carry out new state laws — on everything from wildfire codes to building standards — without the funding to make them possible. These are called unfunded mandates, and they’ve quietly become one of the biggest threats to local budgets and the essential services people depend on. In Mesa County alone, these mandates now cost nearly $10 million each year. Statewide, the total is estimated at more than $360 million — money that could otherwise fund deputies, road repairs, or mental health programs. Ins...
Read More
A ‘Trail of Broken Lives’ Tells the Real Story of Colorado’s Legalized Marijuana
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

A ‘Trail of Broken Lives’ Tells the Real Story of Colorado’s Legalized Marijuana

By: Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Denver Gazette Society once vilified marijuana. Later generations of hipsters laughed off the stigma.  Now, mounting evidence has brought things full circle — vindicating the psychoactive drug’s original critics after all.  Today’s high-potency pot — legalized for recreational use in Colorado in 2012 and in over two dozen other states since then — is leaving a trail of destruction. Whether it’s marijuana’s devastating impact on the mental health of our youth, or on the safety of our highways, it’s drawing overdue scrutiny that is justified by hard data. Pot’s toll in traffic fatalities in particular is back in the news. A new study by Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, looked at driver autopsy results from car crashe...
Read More
Why Ditching the Flat Tax Would Be Colorado’s Biggest Mistake
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Why Ditching the Flat Tax Would Be Colorado’s Biggest Mistake

By Jake Fogleman | Commentary, Complete Colorado The battle over Colorado’s future tax system has officially begun, and the stakes for families, businesses, and the state’s economy couldn’t be higher. Backed by a coalition of advocacy groups that consistently push for higher taxes as the solution to Colorado’s challenges, the Bell Policy Center submitted proposed language for the 2026 ballot that would overturn nearly four decades of sensible tax policy by abandoning Colorado’s flat-rate income tax and adopting a graduated tax system. Under their proposals, Colorado taxpayers would be forced to confront a new five-bracket tax system with marginal rates up to 9.5 percent, among the highest in the country. The proponents claim it’s about fairness, equity, and making t...
Read More
Colorado River faces new threat as zebra mussels take hold
No Comments
Fox31, Approved, State

Colorado River faces new threat as zebra mussels take hold

By: Spencer Kristensen | FOX31 KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife officially declared a portion of the Colorado River as “infested” with invasive zebra mussels after sampling detected adult zebra mussels in the river and another nearby lake in Grand Junction, CPW announced in a press release on Monday afternoon. “While this is news we never wanted to hear, we knew this was a possibility since we began finding veligers in the river,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis in the press release. “I can’t reiterate this enough. It was because we have a group of individuals dedicated to protecting Colorado’s water resources that these detections were made.” On Aug. 28, the Aquatic Animal Health Lab suspected veligers, the microscopic larval stage of zebra mussels, were collected fr...
Read More
Government Isn’t God: Why Broken People Need More Faith, Not Bigger Bureaucracy
No Comments
ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Government Isn’t God: Why Broken People Need More Faith, Not Bigger Bureaucracy

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com America doesn’t need bigger government. It needs bigger faith. Romans 13 shows government is a servant – not the savior. Since the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, I’ve watched the same battle lines get drawn. The script writes itself: “Take the guns. Prayer doesn’t work. Faith isn’t enough.” It breaks my heart – not only because of the lives shattered, but because half of America’s first instinct is to strip away our God-given rights. But the answer isn’t taking things away. The answer is realizing that people are broken, and only God – not government – can heal broken people. And if the church shooting wasn’t proof enough of how far we’ve drifted, the recent Colorado General Assembly Special Session sealed it. It...
Read More
Reduce Taxes BY Eliminating the Government Middleman
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Reduce Taxes BY Eliminating the Government Middleman

By Russ Minary | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "The power to tax is the power to destroy." – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819 In this article, I’ll explain and contrast how and why the American free market works differently and better than government (in many cases) using two free market American businesses you know: Amazon and Costco. NOTE: I am a Constitutional conservative and enthusiastic advocate of the free market wherever, whenever and in whatever ways possible. I don’t oppose all government, just that which is redundant, costly, over-regulated, complicated, unnecessary, or too oppressive and costly. Which is most of it. In the past, manufacturers, local retailers and their customers enjoyed friendly relationships. A middleman like a distribu...
Read More
Wolf Reintroduction Sparks Debate at Upcoming Colorado Town Hall
No Comments
State, Approved, The Gazette

Wolf Reintroduction Sparks Debate at Upcoming Colorado Town Hall

By The Gazette Staff | The Gazette Agriculture and outdoor recreation are considered two of Colorado’s most important industries. The outdoor recreation industry contributes over $65.8 billion and 511,000 jobs to Colorado’s economy, while the agriculture industry generates $47 billion and 195,000 jobs annually, according to the most recent data. Yet as Colorado Politics’ recent Rural Reckoning series indicated, these two powerhouses don’t always get the attention that industries do in the halls of the Capitol. A town hall on Tuesday, Sept. 9, sponsored by The Gazette and The Common Sense Institute, will dive more deeply into the importance of these industries to Colorado’s economic success, and the policies necessary to ensure they thrive. The Common Sense Institute is a non...
Read More
Dear Colorado Legislature: Here’s Your $1 Billion Cut List
No Comments
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 ...
Read More

FD863768-0ACF-495E-9D21-2EF784DFFA6B[1]

Join us at RMV's Freedom Festival

Click Here for Tickets!

This will close in 0 seconds