Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is proposing a year of “belt-tightening” to make up for softening inflation and higher Medicaid costs. He presented his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year on Friday afternoon. It doesn’t account for Tuesday’s elections, which include some potentially costly measures on the state ballot. The next legislature, which is also … Read more
One of the top issues on the minds of Colorado voters this election is the cost of living, with about 15% in the ongoing Voter Voices survey by media outlets across the state saying they intend to focus first on the economy as they mark their ballots. Coloradans are concerned about the price of housing, … Read more
A water provider in metro Denver has faced a lose-lose situation: Apply for state funding for water projects and risk giving up tax revenue — or abstain from seeking the millions of dollars of available grant money altogether. It’s a bad choice voters can help an Adams County water district avoid by passing a ballot … Read more
Lamenting the uneasy budgetary situation facing the state, Colorado lawmakers rejected a proposed bill Friday that would have increased annual payments to the Public Employees’ Retirement Association in times of inflation. “I think it’s a good concept. I don’t see how we can afford it this year,” Rep. Rick Taggart told fellow lawmakers on the … Read more
Heard of ballot box biology? That’s when special interests ask voters to circumvent the expertise and inclusive decision-making of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to get what they want. Equally pernicious is ballot box budgeting which distorts the state budget process in favor of certain interests by appealing directly to voters through initiatives. Ballot … Read more
Expect Colorado’s upcoming state tax refund to be the last big one for a while. Forecasts by legislative economists released on Thursday predict a softening of economic conditions, tighter budget forecasts and recent changes to state law. Together, those are expected to decrease state refunds due under Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, from … Read more
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
Boasting that child poverty in Colorado would soon be cut nearly in half, Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a large new tax credit for low-income families into law. The ceremony put an underline on a legislative session that featured state policymakers looking again and again to the state surplus to flatten inequalities. Lawmakers passed … Read more
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed several tax-related bills into law Tuesday, including two that deliver what officials are touting as historic cuts to taxes of different kinds. One reduces income and sales taxes. Senate Bill 228 cuts the state’s income rate by up to 0.15% in years when state revenue handily exceeds the cap set … Read more
Unlike last year, the end of the Colorado legislative session Wednesday came with no fireworks — no protest walkouts, no intracaucus tensions boiling over into public, no last-minute implosions of keystone policy bills. The final day of lawmakers’ nearly four-month session instead was dominated by noticeably brighter spirits as the General Assembly put the finishing … Read more
