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Don’t buy The Sun’s spin: TABOR isn’t the reason Colorado’s roads are failing, it’s lawmakers’ misplaced priorities
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Don’t buy The Sun’s spin: TABOR isn’t the reason Colorado’s roads are failing, it’s lawmakers’ misplaced priorities

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Sun's Gigafact check tries, but fails spectacularly. The Sun has been doing yeoman's work lately to get the progressive talking points on our state's budget and TABOR out there. Their Gigafact check linked first below is a great example.In answer to the question, "Has the condition of Colorado’s roads worsened under TABOR?", their response is a resounding YES.Let me pull some non-contiguous quotes. As a quick aside, the amount of text below is about 50% of the entire text in the fact check, a point I will return to shortly."The percentage of state roads in Colorado rated “poor” by the Federal Highway Administration has risen from 8% to 24% since the agency began collecting data in 1994, two years after the Taxpayer’...
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The special session leaves Polis with a $783M deficit — here’s how he can fix it without new taxes
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The special session leaves Polis with a $783M deficit — here’s how he can fix it without new taxes

By Russ Minary | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Governor Polis recently called—and lawmakers have now concluded—a special session aimed at addressing the estimated State budget deficit of $1.2 to 1.6 BILLION. That means that every man, woman and child in CO has to pay $208 more this year. That’s in addition to all of the other current local, county, state, sales and special district taxes they are already paying. But kids don’t pay taxes; adults do. I think CO taxpayers and citizens already pay enough in taxes. While lawmakers passed roughly $300 million in tax changes during the session, the ball is now in Gov. Polis’ court. He has been given authority to sign the bills and make deep spending cuts, up to $300 million, to close the remaining $783 million gap. Rather than a...
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One third fixed two thirds punt: Colorado’s special session shrugs off hard cuts
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

One third fixed two thirds punt: Colorado’s special session shrugs off hard cuts

By Scott K. James | Commentary, Scott K. James Dems filled about $253M of a $783M gap by ending tax breaks, then handed the real cuts to Polis and the reserves. One-third fixed. Two-thirds punted. The Denver Post reports that the Special Session Show wrapped after Democrats plugged about $253 million of a $783 million shortfall by ending tax breaks and other revenue moves. Roughly $530 million still yawns open. That hot potato now rolls to Gov. Jared Polis, who is expected to mix mid-year cuts with a deep dip into reserves. Eleven bills head to his desk. The biggest moneymaker, HB25B-1004, auctions tax credits for a one-time cash hit this year while sacrificing future revenue. The Post also notes the partisan script. Democrats...
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Colorado’s budget hole: How Democrats’ spending spree forced a special session
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s budget hole: How Democrats’ spending spree forced a special session

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC) Just Stop Digging! You can almost smell the school supplies in the air as all families with school-age children or university students start scheduling their year and make the annual trek back to campus or begin rearranging and assigning their homeschool curriculum. Fall is in the air, but for the Colorado State Legislature, another budget session begins on August 21st to plug the self-induced hole in the 2025-2026 state budget.  The session will last a minimum of three days but can continue as long as it takes the General Assembly to complete its work. Since Colorado law requires a balanced budget, Governor Polis announced a Special Session to resolve the issue. The Governor’s announcement was entit...
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Colorado’s infrastructure report reveals more about politics than potholes
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s infrastructure report reveals more about politics than potholes

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project ASCE leans on the Colorado Fiscal Institute and the Economic Policy Institute to understand TABOR? The Complete Colorado article linked at bottom details a recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) which gave our state an overall C- rating on infrastructure. Quoting the article, "The ASCE report evaluates 14 categories of the state’s infrastructure, assigning a letter grade to each of the categories: Aviation, dams, rail (B-), bridges (C+), energy, public parks, wastewater (C), drinking water, solid waste, storm water, transit (C-), levees, schools, and roads (D+)." Sounds about right. The article goes on to detail some issues with the report. One of these is how the report misunderstands ...
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New Era Colorado exploits budget crisis to push higher taxes
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

New Era Colorado exploits budget crisis to push higher taxes

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project New Era Colorado Using CO's budget crisis to push a graduated income tax. I wanted to share a tweet I saw from Free State Colorado recently. The tweet is linked first below if you want to see the original (and/or follow them on Twitter--which you should if you're not following them some other way). If you don't have twitter, the subject of the tweet is how progressive policy organization New Era Colorado is pushing for a "graduated" income tax and using current Federal policy + the state's budget problems as justification. Free State Colorado put up pictures of an email that New Era sent out on Aug 6th encouraging their followers to write in an email encouraging what they call a graduated income tax in Colorado. I...
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Colorado’s path to ruin: How bad policy created crisis and dependency
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Substack, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s path to ruin: How bad policy created crisis and dependency

By Christopher Richardson | Commentary, Substack Colorado stands at a crossroads. For too long, state policy has ignored the basic truths of economics and public safety, and we are now paying the price. The upcoming general session must be more than another exercise in partisan talking points—it must be an honest debate about how we got here, and how we can get back on track. The warning signs are everywhere. Overregulation and endless legal risks have driven businesses out of Colorado. Entrepreneurs hesitate to expand, while larger firms look to friendlier states. The result? Job growth has shifted almost entirely to government payrolls, leaving fewer private-sector opportunities and stagnant wages for working families. At the same time, rising crime has made Colorado less at...
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Selective reporting skews the Sun’s take on Colorado’s budget reality
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Selective reporting skews the Sun’s take on Colorado’s budget reality

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Paul's and Eason's disingenuous reporting on the special session The Colorado Sun article linked at bottom has the title "Frequently asked questions — and misunderstandings — about Colorado’s special session to close a nearly $1B budget hole", but the article itself fails to deliver on that claim. The article in reality devolves more into "what do conservatives and Republicans have wrong" editorializing than an informative piece.Don't misunderstand me, the article makes plenty of valid points. I would, in fact, include it on a list of required reading to get a partial understanding of Colorado's budget situation and also of the upcoming special session.But, it is that "partial" in there that is the operative word. What ...
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Gaines: Colorado’s add-back taxes are a backdoor tax on overtime
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Gaines: Colorado’s add-back taxes are a backdoor tax on overtime

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Great Colorado Add Back? My state senator (B Pelton) alerted me to something you'll almost certainly see in the coming state special session: add back taxes. I thought it would be good to give some resources on that so you'll better understand it and (I hope) be a better advocate on the issue. This is something I will follow up on as the special session gets going; Sen Pelton is running a bill to make such taxes conform to TABOR limits. I have asked for a copy of that bill and will share if and when I get it. There are many different kinds of tax add backs, but I'll stick to the topic of state income tax add backs because I can use the link below as a reference. The State of Colorado weblink at bottom gives ...
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Colorado Faces $800 Million Budget Gap With No Deal In Sight
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State, Approved, denvergazette.com

Colorado Faces $800 Million Budget Gap With No Deal In Sight

By: Luige Del Puerto | The Denver Gazette Colorado legislators will convene at the state Capitol in about two weeks without first having secured a deal — with the governor or among themselves — outlining how to plug an $800 million budget deficit, which means the upcoming special session could be more open-ended and the fiscal prescriptions, whatever they may be, less defined. An agreement might materialize between now and the special session later this month, as policymakers scramble to line up ideas on how or where to cut the state budget. Gov. Jared Polis said his proclamation a few days ago set the parameters of what the legislators will discuss — but it will be up to the latter to decide the details of the fiscal remedy. "The legislators decide what bills to pass...
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