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Tag: Taxpayer Funding

Colorado Graduated Tax Initiative Draws Major Support From Democratic Lawmaker’s Nonprofit
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Graduated Tax Initiative Draws Major Support From Democratic Lawmaker’s Nonprofit

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – State Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Westminster Democrat, has been working overtime to ensure a progressive state income tax initiative makes it in front of Colorado voters this November, including donating big bucks via a tax-funded nonprofit to the issue committee charged with getting the measure on the ballot. If passed, Initiative 195 would raise the current flat tax rate of 4.4 percent to 7.4 percent for those earning more than $500,000, and increasing as incomes rise to a top rate of 8.4 percent for those earning more than $1 million. A majority of Colorado taxpayers might see a slight income tax reduction, with many eventually getting caught up in the graduated brackets, as they are not indexed for inflation. ...
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Colorado Built a Taxpayer-Funded System to Transition Children While Sidelining Parents
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The Federalist, Approved, State

Colorado Built a Taxpayer-Funded System to Transition Children While Sidelining Parents

By Breccan F. Thies | Commentary, The Federalist Colorado medical students are taught that children as young as 18 months old can ‘distinguish between gender identities,’ and by six years old, ‘develop his or her own gender identity.’ Colorado has been using taxpayer dollars to groom children into believing they are “transgender” and point them to mutilation surgeries, emphasizing that many do not need parental consent. According to a new report from Do No Harm, Colorado spends millions of dollars on government programs, social media influencer campaigns, and medical school curriculums all aimed at convincing children they are a different gender, pointing them toward medicalization, and bullying the parents who do not want to destroy their children. Colorad...
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DOJ Challenges Colorado Law Granting In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants
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Colorado Free Press, Approved, State

DOJ Challenges Colorado Law Granting In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants

By: Naveen Athrappully | Colorado Free Press The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Colorado on Thursday over state regulations that provide in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal immigrants. The July 23 lawsuit, filed with the District Court for the District of Colorado, accused Colorado of ignoring Title 8 of the U.S. Code Section 1623, which bans illegal immigrants from being eligible for post-secondary education benefits in a state unless the same benefits are provided to all U.S. citizens, irrespective of their state of residence. Colorado’s Advancing Students for a Stronger Tomorrow Act, initially passed in 2013 and amended in 2019 and 2022, allows illegal immigrant students living in the state to access in-state tuition and financial aid. In-state tu...
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Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Seeing an “affordable housing” project from the inside. I wrote about a project to build so-called affordable housing on a weird little quadrangle of land up near Golden, the Golden Range project. The newsletter from March of this year is linked first below if you’d like to go review. After talking to their media person, I set a reminder to follow up later in this year to see about any new developments. The project was just in its infancy when I wrote about it before. If it was in its infancy in March, it’s now in its toddlerhood. We are still a long ways from the end, but I have some updates to share. As the title of this post suggests, this will be one of multiple updates on this project; its a great...
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Who will shape Colorado’s 2030 census? Nonprofit funding raises questions
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who will shape Colorado’s 2030 census? Nonprofit funding raises questions

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project And a nonprofit shall lead them.... The Sky Hi article linked first below details how the State of Colorado plans to get out there ahead of the 2030 census to make sure we get all the “hard to count” residents we can. The census is critically important to our state. So many things from political representation to federal money to state programs run off the data the census produces. It’s probably not a surprise, then, that the state wants to get out there and make sure we count as many people as possible. And as you can see by checking a nearby calendar, we’re starting early. These counting efforts are not new. I wrote a newsletter back in 2025 (see the second link below if you want the context), covering h...
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Colorado’s prisons are on the verge of total collapse. 
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s prisons are on the verge of total collapse. 

By Ahnaf Kalam | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado's prisons are on the verge of total collapse. As of late 2025, state facilities are operating at nearly 98% capacity, while being severely understaffed. Men's prisons alone are projected to run out of beds entirely in the next fiscal year unless drastic measures are taken to reduce the population or add capacity. Inmates are backing up into county jails which were never designed or funded for long-term state housing, while prison staff face mandatory overtime, burnout, and reduced security and rehabilitation programs. And yet, amid this crisis, the Colorado Department of Corrections has found it in its budget to staff a full-time, taxpayer-funded practitioner of "gender-affirming care" for prison inmates. ...
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Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State

Legislative transparency takes a hit as video livestream decision stalls

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Update-a-palooza on legislative livestreams and campaign finance complaints I wanted to update some stories I’ve been following before they get too stale (as you can see in today’s third post, I’ll be taking the rest of the week off). First, and simplest, is an update to whether or not the state legislature will continue what was a pilot program to livestream legislative committee hearings (video and audio instead of just audio). The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition story linked first below offers more details, but the upshot is that the legislature is a decided “maybe” on whether or not to continue it. The livestreams, at least according to the article, are pretty popular but it seems the sticking point ...
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Weiser’s Anti-Trump Agenda Comes at Taxpayer Expense
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Weiser’s Anti-Trump Agenda Comes at Taxpayer Expense

By: Rob Natelson | Complete Colorado Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser says he favors trashing Colorado’s legislative reapportionment system to get more Democrat members of Congress elected. His statement offers some useful instruction in how, when conservatives make political deals with the left, it usually comes back to bite them. The current reapportionment system resulted from such a deal. It was made only seven years ago and ratified overwhelmingly by the voters. Now Weiser wants to renege. The Colorado background In 2018, Coloradans voted for Amendments Y and Z. Amendment Y transferred the job of drawing congressional districts from the state legislature to an independent commission. Amendment Z did the same for state legislative districts. I ...
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Denver explores plans for new Broncos stadium as city grows
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Fox31, Approved, Local

Denver explores plans for new Broncos stadium as city grows

By: Shaul Turner | FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — While the Broncos stadium proposal announced Tuesday will likely boost Denver’s chances of hosting a Super Bowl and other events, economic experts say the greater benefit will be a boost to Denver’s economy. Empower Field at Mile High stadium opened in 2001 at a cost of more than $400 million. The new multi-billion-dollar stadium will be located about a mile south of that location. Construction is expected to be completed by 2031. “It’s an area that was waiting to be redeveloped,” Dr. Andrew Goetz of the University of Denver told FOX31. The 58-acre abandoned railyard is slated to host a state-of-the-art football stadium with a retractable roof. The project is privately funded by the Walton-Penner ownership group. The city will create ...
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Denver Councilwoman Raises Concerns Over Taxpayer Funding For Soccer Stadium
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Local, Approved, The Denver Gazette

Denver Councilwoman Raises Concerns Over Taxpayer Funding For Soccer Stadium

By Daniel Boniface | The Denver Gazette A proposed Denver stadium for professional women’s soccer could be in jeopardy of receiving public funding following the city’s budget troubles and layoffs. City Councilmember Flor Alvidrez, who represents District 7 where the Denver Summit FC stadium would be built, walked back her support for the project in an interview Monday on the popular podcast, City Cast Denver, saying she was undecided on whether she’ll vote to approve a $70 million subsidy. Paul Karolyi, the show’s senior producer, pointed out that Alvidrez was wearing a t-shirt promoting Denver’s National Women’s Soccer League team when the city council voted 11-1 to move forward with the framework for a public-private partnership around the proposed stadium. “It seemed like yo...
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