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Tag: Public Spending

Audit Raises Questions Over DPS Debt Practices As Taxpayers Foot the Bill
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Audit Raises Questions Over DPS Debt Practices As Taxpayers Foot the Bill

By Nico Brambila | The Denver Gazette Denver Public Schools is operating with a negative net position — owing more in long-term obligations than it holds in assets — a rare and troubling financial posture for a major Colorado school district, according to an audit. Presented on Thursday, the audit for fiscal year 2024–25, which ended June 30, showed the district is carrying $4.07 billion in long-term liabilities. (For context, the district budget last fiscal year was about $1.5 billion.) Total assets remained lower, even after the district added nearly $1 billion in unspent 2024 bond proceeds to its books — cash voters approved a year ago that had not yet been put to use. As those bond dollars are spent, the cash asset will disappear, while the long-term debt remains,...
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Bill search reveals how Polis grew Medicaid—yet he blames rising costs
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Bill search reveals how Polis grew Medicaid—yet he blames rising costs

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado bill search: a new tool for the toolbox The post that follows this one will lean on a search of Colorado legislation, so before we get to that, I wanted to show you how to search for bills. This is a great way to do some investigating on your own if you have a mind to.The first link below is to the Colorado legislature’s bill search page. It lets you search bills back to the 2016 legislative session with a variety of filters.Screenshot 1 shows the search bar. Going left to right ....Field A is for a keyword. In the post that follows this one, I looked at Medicaid-related bills, so I typed “Medicaid” there.Field B lets you search by chamber (House or Senate). My search was more general, I left it on the d...
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Denver Council Rejects Mayor’s Budget, But Johnston’s Spending Plan is Alive and Well
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Council Rejects Mayor’s Budget, But Johnston’s Spending Plan is Alive and Well

By Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette The Denver City Council rejected Mayor Mike Johnston’s $1.66 billion spending plan, but the proposal, as amended, will still govern operations, as the charter requires the city to have a budget in place by Nov. 12. In a split 6-6 vote on Monday, councilmembers expressed disappointment with various aspects of the budget process, citing its complicated nature and “lack of collaboration and transparency.” One councilmember was absent. Councilmembers Chris Hinds, Kevin Flynn, Diana Romero-Campbell, Jamie Torres, Amanda Sandoval and Darrell Watson voted in favor of the budget, while Councilmembers Flor Alvidrez, Shontel Lewis, Stacie Gilmore, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Paul Kashmann, and Amanda Sawyer balked at the spending plan. At-large C...
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Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado
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The Business Times, Approved, Commentary, Local

Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado

By Bobbie Daniel | Commentary, The Business Times In the business world, there’s one principle that separates success from failure: You can’t spend what you don’t have. If a company tried to launch a dozen new initiatives without funding them, investors would walk, creditors would call, and the board would be out by morning. Yet somehow, that’s exactly how the State of Colorado has been operating. Each year, new laws are passed that sound good on paper but come with no money to make them work. Those costs get quietly pushed down to local governments — and ultimately to taxpayers. We call them unfunded mandates, and they’re the public-sector version of bad business. Here in Mesa County, we’ve been tracking these costs for two years, and the numbers tell the story. This year alon...
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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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Education funds drained by bureaucrats while kids fall behind
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New York Post, Approved, Commentary, National

Education funds drained by bureaucrats while kids fall behind

By Post Editorial Board | Commentary, New York Post If you think spending more money on America’s schools will lead to greater student achievement, guess again: A new analysis of 12,000-plus school districts shows just the opposite. Not only does more spending not correlate with better student performance, turns out it coincides with moderately worse performance. The public-policy watchdog Open the Books looked at payroll growth at 12,531 public-school districts from 2019 to 2023, and compared it to the percentage change in the district rankings on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, the gold standard for measuring reading and math proficiency of fourth and eighth graders. Guess what: The greater the payroll growth, the more...
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Denver’s $950 million bond: Taxpayers deserve full accountability before another blank check
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Westword, Approved, Commentary, Local

Denver’s $950 million bond: Taxpayers deserve full accountability before another blank check

By Erik Clarke | Commentary, Westword "Denver residents want to support good projects that improve our daily life and solve real problems. Taxpayers also want to know that their money is being managed responsibly." In 2017, Denver voters approved the $937 million Elevate Denver Bond Program to improve civic infrastructure across the city. Eight years later, while some projects have made meaningful progress, many remain delayed, over budget or not yet started. Now, the city is preparing to ask voters to approve another nearly billion dollars through the proposed Vibrant Denver package. Before we’re asked to vote this November, we deserve more than summaries and categories. We deserve transparency. We deserve details. As of today, there is no public cost breakdown ...
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Interest rates stay put: President Trump says Powell is costing the country trillions
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THE HILL, Approved, National

Interest rates stay put: President Trump says Powell is costing the country trillions

By Alex Gangitano | The Hill President Trump on Thursday blasted Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, lodging insults at the head of the central bank for opting again to not lower interest rates. “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell has done it again!!! He is TOO LATE, and actually, TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “He is costing our Country TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS, in addition to one of the most incompetent, or corrupt, renovations of a building(s) in the history of construction! Put another way, ‘Too Late’ is a TOTAL LOSER, and our Country is paying the price!” the president added. The nation’s central bank on Wednesday kept short-term interest rates at a level of 4.25 p...
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From $6B to $950M: Denver’s ‘Vibrant’ bond trims housing while boosting cultural projects and road funding
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Denverite, Approved, Local

From $6B to $950M: Denver’s ‘Vibrant’ bond trims housing while boosting cultural projects and road funding

By Kyle Harris, Andrew Kenney | Denverite The Denver City Council made final changes to the debt proposal, which is likely heading to voters this November. Denver City Council members made tens of millions of dollars of changes to the Vibrant Denver bond proposal on Monday night. The council added funding for traffic calming measures for two major avenues, but reduced funding for affordable housing. The final package also includes more funding for an American Indian Cultural Embassy. The proposal would ask Denver voters this November to approve $950 million of debt funding for nearly 60 infrastructure projects, ranging from rebuilding bridges to building new parks and maintaining cultural attractions. On Monday, city leaders added: $15 million in funding for an Amer...
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Gaines: Subsidies save some—but in reality, they’re just wealth transfers
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Gaines: Subsidies save some—but in reality, they’re just wealth transfers

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Let me start with a couple non-contiguous quotes from the article linked at bottom. “'By better using the heat beneath our feet to help us, we are leading the nation in innovative clean energy technologies that save Coloradans money, and protect our air quality. Investing in Geothermal heating technology increases energy reliability and serves as a low-cost energy source,' Polis said." “'Geothermal heating technology plays a huge role in helping Colorado reduce emissions from homes and buildings while saving Coloradans money on heating and cooling costs,' said CEO Executive Director Will Toor. 'It’s exciting to see so many innovative geothermal initiatives being made possible due to Colorado’s investment in this technolo...
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