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How Colorado laws are really made: What Rep. Matt Soper says voters rarely see
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

How Colorado laws are really made: What Rep. Matt Soper says voters rarely see

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado legislature is about to gavel in for another 120-day sprint, and with it comes a flood of bills most Coloradans will never see until the consequences land.  What many don’t see is how quickly ideas move, who pushes them forward—and why outcomes can feel disconnected from public input. Few lawmakers are positioned to explain that gap as clearly as Matt Soper, now the longest-serving Republican in the House and widely regarded inside the building as the caucus “dean.” With term limits constantly churning the legislature, Soper has watched the same policy ideas cycle through multiple sessions, often repackaged and moving faster each time. “There’s the textbook version of how a bill becomes a law that everyone...
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When gun storage becomes public health policy in Colorado
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

When gun storage becomes public health policy in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Guns and public health: Safe Starts at Home program The Anschutz Family Foundation recently gave a grant to CU Anschutz and its associated schools to develop a program called Safe Starts at Home.I linked to the press release I saw first below.Quoting from the press release with links intact:"The program [Safe Starts at Home] began in response to requests from several Colorado counties and was developed by the Injury and Violence Prevention Center (IVPC) and the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI). The IVPC and FIPI teams packaged research on effective household safety practices to prevent firearm and overdose injuries and deaths, and developed training for these county staff who v...
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Colorado to Enforce New Gun Purchase and Ammunition Restrictions in 2026
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KKTV 11, Approved, State

Colorado to Enforce New Gun Purchase and Ammunition Restrictions in 2026

By: Rachel Ramsey | KKTV 11 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Some of the new gun laws set to take effect in Colorado this summer have gotten mixed reactions. Those who support the new laws say they will improve public safety. Those against them say they infringe on Second Amendment rights. Senate Bill 25-003 has seen the most controversy. The law is set to take effect August 1, and will ban the purchase of certain semi-automatic firearms unless certain requirements are met. Those requirements include applying for a permit through your local sheriff’s office, then, if approved, taking gun courses. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT KKTV 11
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New Colorado Laws Take Effect Jan. 1 With Sweeping Changes for Health Care Housing and Gun Shows
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

New Colorado Laws Take Effect Jan. 1 With Sweeping Changes for Health Care Housing and Gun Shows

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A new year means new laws in Colorado, covering everything from health insurance and gun shows to “junk fees” and protections for wild bison. Here’s a list of laws passed during the 2025 legislative session that will go into effect on Jan. 1. House Bill 1002: Medical necessity determination insurance coverage This law codifies and clarifies mental health parity requirements for insurers, ensuring that individuals receive the same coverage for mental health and behavioral services as they do for physical care. House Bill 1030: Accessibility standards in building codes This law requires new local building codes to meet or exceed international accessibility standards. It prohibits them from providing less protection than ...
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Colorado Coyote Debate Reveals Sharp Divide Between Ranchers and Activists
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Coyote Debate Reveals Sharp Divide Between Ranchers and Activists

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–A recent Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s (CPW) stakeholder report shows a wide gap between agriculture producers and animal welfare activists when it comes to management of coyotes.     The stakeholder report, released in early December, summarizes four months of CPW meetings with rural interests, such as ranchers and sportsman, along with animal welfare and environmental activists. CPW held these meetings to explore potential changes to current furbearing animal management.  While the two sides found common ground on management strategies of most other animals, coyotes were the one species the groups could not compromise over.    Ranchers, sportsmen, and rural landowners expressed the ...
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State accessibility law exposes gap between lawmakers’ intentions and local reality
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

State accessibility law exposes gap between lawmakers’ intentions and local reality

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project How is our state’s accessibility law playing out? Part 1 If you spend your days immersed in politics, things don’t really sneak up on you; you watch a bill work its way through the process, then get signed, then get enacted. If you have other things occupying your attention, say you have kids and a family and a mortgage, bills can sometimes be a surprise. The 10 cent bag fee is a great example. Despite lots of news coverage, you didn’t see a lot of fuss about it in the public square until the bag fees were enacted, until Wal-Mart said they were just going to stop putting bags out altogether. HB21-1110 is like those bag fees, though perhaps it won’t intersect with as many lives as grocery bags d...
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Colorado theft crisis: More crime, fewer inmates, and mounting economic fallout
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado theft crisis: More crime, fewer inmates, and mounting economic fallout

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A Growing Problem That Stores Can’t Ignore Ask almost any retailer in Colorado what’s changed over the last few years, and you’ll hear some version of the same thing: theft isn’t a once-in-a-while headache anymore. It’s constant. The Common Sense Institute recently put numbers to what stores have been describing, and the scale is hard to miss. Police logged just over 27,000 shoplifting reports in 2024 — a jump of more than 22 percent in a single year. And that figure doesn’t capture most of what’s happening. Many stores no longer call police unless something turns aggressive. CSI cites national surveys suggesting that as much as nine in ten retail thefts never make it into official police statistics. If that holds true...
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Colorado’s “Reform Paradox”: Falling Recidivism, Rising Violence, and the Real-World Cost of Dangerous Releases
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s “Reform Paradox”: Falling Recidivism, Rising Violence, and the Real-World Cost of Dangerous Releases

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The Common Sense Institute’s October report shows Colorado’s three-year recidivism rate falling from about 52 percent in 2019 to near 31 percent in 2022. On paper that looks like improvement. In practice, the number tells only a small piece of the story.  CSI makes it clear that the number drops mostly because fewer people are going to prison at all. The state’s incarcerated population has shrunk, felony filings are down, and more defendants are getting funneled into diversion programs or handed PR bonds under Colorado’s evolving bail practices. When the state isn’t locking people up, fewer people return to prison later. That’s not a public-safety miracle. It’s just the math. Ask people who actually live here whether things...
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Advocates Urge State Leaders To Protect Vulnerable Residents From Budget Reductions
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Advocates Urge State Leaders To Protect Vulnerable Residents From Budget Reductions

By: Colette Bordelon | Denver7 For the second year in a row, Colorado is staring down a daunting budget deficit — and the governor believes cuts to Medicaid are one solution to balancing the budget. DENVER — With a budget deficit looming over the State of Colorado next year, one program in particular is under the microscope: Medicaid. A special session tackled some of the anticipated $1.2 billion budget shortfall, which was created in part by tax changes made in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Act (H.R.1). As a result, Colorado will collect less revenue than expected when lawmakers approved the state budget in May. Some of that $1.2 billion revenue loss was absorbed by the state education fund and the affordable housing fund. Around $300 million that...
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