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Colorado lawmakers say new insurance fees lower costs: Critics say families pay the bill
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado lawmakers say new insurance fees lower costs: Critics say families pay the bill

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Rising homeowners insurance rates have been a hot topic at the capitol this legislative session. I wrote about a couple bills to do so in late April. That newsletter is linked first below. It wasn’t too long after writing about this laser focus on homeowners insurance affordability by our legislature that I finally had a free minute to comparison shop on mine. The picture heading this post is from one of the quotes I got. While the legislators talk a great game about affordability, right there on the quote are two brand spanking new fees they imposed. Let’s look at what they are. The first is a $5.75 (yearly) fee assessed on my insurance: a Colorado FAIR Plan Recoupment Fee. This program — FAIR standin...
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Senate Democrats Advance Plan To Redirect Millions In TABOR Refunds
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Senate Democrats Advance Plan To Redirect Millions In TABOR Refunds

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Despite objections from legislative staff and Republican opposition, Senate Democrats on Friday moved forward with a proposal to reroute $306 million in taxpayer refunds. Already, critics are preparing to sue over the proposal that seeks to take $300 million in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds over the next two years to cover what Democratic lawmakers believe is an overpayment from a previous fiscal year. House Bill 1419 won preliminary approval from the state Senate on Friday. It now awaits a final vote in the chamber and will then go back to the House, which must concur with any amendments adopted. The alleged overpayments in 2024–25 TABOR refunds were never reflected in the state’s 2024–25 budget because they stemmed ...
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Democrats Advance Bill Sidestepping Citizen Led Push To Prioritize Roads And Bridges
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Democrats Advance Bill Sidestepping Citizen Led Push To Prioritize Roads And Bridges

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The battle over road funding intensified at the state Capitol this week, where legislators are seeking to negate an initiative that supporters say is sorely needed but which critics insist would divert money from other state priorities. Supporters of the initiative questioned the timing of new legislation that emerged in the waning days of the legislative session. They also wondered about how much feedback sponsors sought, insinuating the House bill was crafted without input from the road construction industry. At stake is roughly $700 million in state dollars. Introduced last week, House Bill 1430 would take effect only ifInitiative No. 175 passes in November. The initiative would require that transportation-...
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Colorado Legislators To Receive Raises During $1.5 Billion Budget Crisis
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Legislators To Receive Raises During $1.5 Billion Budget Crisis

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado’s $1.5 billion budget deficit is driving widespread cuts across state services, including reduced reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers and steep income losses for families caring for relatives with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, as those reductions take effect, an automatic pay increase for state lawmakers — triggered by a 2024 change in law — remains scheduled to begin in 2027. When Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1333 on Monday, the measure included a salary increase for legislators. The bill does not reference this pay raise directly, nor is it mentioned in either of the bill’s fiscal analyses. The increased salary, along with higher per diem and mileage rates, is expe...
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SB 135 Education Tax Plan Lacks Accountability For Teacher Pay Raises
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

SB 135 Education Tax Plan Lacks Accountability For Teacher Pay Raises

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado According to the sponsors of Senate Bill 135, Colorado teachers will remain severely underpaid unless voters approve massive spending increases and a permanent change to how the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) revenue cap is calculated.  In reality, even if it were true that Colorado’s teachers are underpaid, the SB-135 tax hike does not guarantee that things like teacher pay will increase or that teacher retention will improve.  Let’s examine why.  False advertising  The stated purpose of SB-135 is to direct new education funding to any of four categories, as best determined by school districts: increasing teacher pay, improving teacher retention, lowering class size...
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Polis Plan Relies On Keeping TABOR Refunds to Balance Budget
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Polis Plan Relies On Keeping TABOR Refunds to Balance Budget

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Should voters have a say in whether Colorado’s state government can keep and spend $289.1 million in taxpayer money because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)?  House Bill 1419, titled “Refund of State Revenues,” fulfills one of Governor Polis’ primary budget requests to balance this year’s budget.  Background Polis’ office suggests that, due to immediate reductions in state tax collections upon passage of the federal OBBBA, the state is entitled to recoup Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds accordingly.  However, as previously explained, Legislative Council Staff believed that the request was legally dubious and could exacerbate future fiscal challenges should the g...
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Colorado Health Care Bailout Bill Could Hit Families and Small Businesses With $40 Million Fee
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Health Care Bailout Bill Could Hit Families and Small Businesses With $40 Million Fee

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado Colorado insurers say health care premiums could increase by hundreds of dollars in 2027. The warning comes as state lawmakers consider $40 million in new fees on insurers that the companies say they'll pass on to policyholders.  Democratic stet Sens. Iman Jodeh and Kyle Mullica are sponsoring a bill that would bail out the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, which is short $140 million. The enterprise subsidizes care for 176,000 Coloradans on Connect for Health Colorado and 6,700 undocumented immigrants on OmniSalud. That's in addition to supporting the Colorado Reinsurance Program, which helps cover high-cost claims. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO
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Colorado’s Republican governor primary: Scott Bottoms in his own words
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s Republican governor primary: Scott Bottoms in his own words

By RMV Editorial Board | Rocky Mountain Voice In five weeks, the candidate who won 45 percent of delegate votes at the GOP state assembly will be a name on a ballot. Scott Bottoms wants them to know exactly where he stands—on everything. In the individualized portion of RMV's governor primary feature, the Colorado Springs pastor and state representative answered questions about his faith-driven language on the House floor, his budget vote, his FBI claims, his endorsement of Joe Oltmann, his readiness to run a $46 billion state government and his vote against certifying election results. These questions were drawn from reader submissions, Bottoms' legislative record and public statements. The common questions all three GOP candidates received are published in the side-by-side c...
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Colorado’s Republican governor primary: Barb Kirkmeyer in her own words
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s Republican governor primary: Barb Kirkmeyer in her own words

By RMV Editorial Board | Rocky Mountain Voice In five weeks, more than 21,000 petition signatures become a name on a ballot. Barb Kirkmeyer got on that ballot by knocking on doors. While her two opponents competed for delegate votes at the GOP state assembly, this state senator skipped the convention and submitted 21,342 petition signatures—15,438 of which were validated by the Secretary of State—to qualify for the June 30 primary. In the individualized portion of RMV's governor primary feature, Kirkmeyer explains why she chose that path and answers questions about her budget vote, TABOR refunds, Tina Peters, abortion and what kind of Republican she is. The questions below were shaped by reader submissions, public statements and Kirkmeyer's record in the state Senate. The six ...
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Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado state senators recently engaged in more debate over Senate Bill 135, ultimately passing the measure and sending it over the House for consideration.     The bill sends a ballot measure to voters this November, exchanging billions of dollars in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds for a relatively small increase in education funding.  The Senate debate was enlightening in showing which amendments the bill sponsors supported and more importantly, those they did not.  For the kids (but not too much) One might think that the logical mechanism of a bill titled “State Public K-12 Education Funding” would be to increase revenues and direct the new money to C...
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