After years of sparring over property tax rates, leading Colorado Democrats and conservative activists finally see an offramp from the conflict. To get there, it will only have taken two special sessions, annual short-term bills at the Capitol, multiple threats of ballot measures and a failed attempt to override the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The … Read more
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of State of Emergency, a series exploring how climate disasters impact voting and politics. It was published with support from the CO2 Foundation. As the one-year anniversary of the 2021 Marshall fire approached, Kyle Brown was serving as a city councilman in Louisville, a Denver suburb … Read more
A Democratic vacancy committee has selected Jillaire McMillan as the party’s candidate for a key state House race in November, weeks after the sitting legislator announced she wouldn’t run for reelection. McMillan, who runs a small marine robotics company with her husband, beat Richard Garcia by two votes — 16 to 14 — in the … Read more
As Colorado’s universal preschool program moves into its second school year this month, officials are hoping to leave its rocky rollout in the rearview mirror. By the end of July, more than 31,000 4-year-olds matched with state-funded preschool providers for the coming year, according to the most recent data for the core program from the Colorado … Read more
Primary voters set major-party matchups for three open congressional seats, chose a challenger for an incumbent in a battleground district, and weighed in on state and local races across Colorado in Tuesday’s elections. It was all a prelude to the November general election — though voters also selected likely winners in areas dominated by one … Read more
The suite of landmark zoning and land-use reform laws passed by Colorado lawmakers this year should help alleviate the housing crisis, national experts say, while catapulting the Centennial State into the ranks of other housing pioneers. But those experts cautioned that the reforms seeded this winter and spring will take years to bear fruit. New … Read more
Groundwork for possible car-free living along Colorado’s Front Range got done Thursday as Gov. Jared Polis signed four bills into law to boost public transportation. The new laws let state leaders pump tens of millions into transit projects, foremost a multi-billion-dollar rail system linking Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and, eventually, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Polis … Read more
Colorado lawmakers have agreed on a compromise measure to combat distracted driving on roadways, solidifying a ban on the hand-held use of cellphones behind the wheel that is moving toward passage in the final hours of this year’s legislative session. Negotiators faced pressure from law enforcement officials to make sure the ban was enforceable — … Read more
Leading Colorado Democrats and the state’s oil and gas industry announced a preemptive armistice Monday — one that seeks to defuse the latest round of dueling ballot initiatives and legislation aimed at the industry and its environmental impacts. The proposals, described to reporters by Gov. Jared Polis and legislative leadership, include imposing a new per-barrel … Read more
Former Edgewater police officer McKinzie Rees hopes to serve and protect again, but first she must get her name removed from a so-called “bad cops list” maintained by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. It landed there, she said, as retaliation after she reported sexual assaults by a supervising sergeant. That sergeant went on to work … Read more
