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Colorado GOP leader angers candidates, county leaders with primary endorsements
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado GOP leader angers candidates, county leaders with primary endorsements

By Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun Colorado Republican candidates and local party officials are objecting to a plan by statewide GOP leaders to endorse candidates in the June 25 primary, a break from the party’s decades-long tradition of staying neutral. The GOP on Tuesday sent a three-page questionnaire to Republican congressional and state legislative candidates nominated at assemblies quizzing them on a range of issues, including whether they support “President Trump’s populist, America-first agenda.” Three congressional candidates have denounced the plan to endorse candidates in the primary. And party leaders in two of the state’s eight congressional districts — the 3rd and 8th, both of which are competitive — told The Colorado Sun they won’t participate by refusing t...
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Colorado owes taxpayers $34M in refunds it never sent. That means trouble for the state budget. 
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado owes taxpayers $34M in refunds it never sent. That means trouble for the state budget. 

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun The state government owes Colorado taxpayers an extra $34 million in refunds it should have sent out years ago, legislative budget staff told lawmakers Friday, blowing a hole in the state’s budget with just days left in the 2024 legislative session. The error was first uncovered by a state audit released in February. State officials had planned to come up with a solution by June, but after conferring with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Joint Budget Committee staff members say the matter can’t wait until after the session. “We really don’t have any choice,” JBC Director Craig Harper told the budget writing committee Friday. “That’s an under-refund from prior years and will need to be refunded at the earliest available opportunity.” ...
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Democrats make deal with governor to redirect TABOR refunds to low-income families
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State, The Colorado Sun

Democrats make deal with governor to redirect TABOR refunds to low-income families

By Brian Eason and Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun Democrats in the Colorado legislature on Tuesday announced a deal with Gov. Jared Polis to make sweeping changes to the state tax code that reduce income taxes and redirect hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer refunds to low-income parents and the middle class. The tax package, spread across a handful of different bills in the final days of this year’s lawmaking term, represents an escalation of the legislature’s recent efforts to reimagine the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — a darling of the conservative movement — as a vehicle for progressive policy. Under the TABOR amendment, the government must refund money to taxpayers when revenue rises faster than the combined rate of inflation and population growth. This fiscal year, it’s...
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A billionaire’s fence is the latest fault line in a 150-year-old San Luis Valley land war
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The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

A billionaire’s fence is the latest fault line in a 150-year-old San Luis Valley land war

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun  For more than 150 years, going back to when this high desert of sandy arroyos and snow-capped peaks was ceded by Mexico, they have gone to “the mountain” as part of their survival. Like their ancestors who settled in the San Luis Valley before it was even Colorado, the descendants still gather firewood and graze their livestock on what they call “La Sierra” — more than 100 square miles of juniper and piñon pine forest rising to a 20-mile stretch of the saw-toothed Sangre de Cristo range.  That was the deal made when the valley was subdivided in the mid-1800s. The settlers each got a plot of desert with access to an acequia irrigation ditch, and they were allowed to go into the high country to harvest timber, hunt deer and elk, and graze t...
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Durango’s hotel-to-housing project financing is a first in Colorado
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The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

Durango’s hotel-to-housing project financing is a first in Colorado

By Mark Stevens | The Colorado Sun Giant plastic sheets seal off the hazard zones where asbestos abatement is in full swing. The swimming pool where travelers once lounged is buried under fresh fill. Kitchen appliances, new smoke detectors and media boxes for internet access are being added to each of the 72 rooms in the former roadside inn. Plumbers are fitting new sink drains. A new community room, laundry facility and fitness center are being readied off the main entry. Saws buzz, hammers pound, and a giant Volvo L60H loader kicks up dust as it makes runs to fill the foundation where a new general store will rise. Two new structures are going up behind this former Best Western motel a mile west of downtown Durango along Colorado 160. They will be home to 24 two-bedroom and 24 thre...
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Colorado lawmakers back off withholding road money from cities under plan to boost housing near transit
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers back off withholding road money from cities under plan to boost housing near transit

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Facing outcry from local officials, Colorado Democrats this week said they would back off a plan to withhold highway maintenance funding from cities that don’t meet proposed state targets for housing density near transit stops. But even with the biggest penalty in the bill on the chopping block, local government leaders across the Denver metro area remain divided over the legislation, the centerpiece of Gov. Jared Polis’ plans to reduce housing costs in Colorado. House Bill 1313 would require a number of urban and suburban local governments to allow more apartments and townhomes along major transit corridors. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Democrat Trisha Calvarese can remain on 4th District special election ballot, judge rules
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State, The Colorado Sun

Democrat Trisha Calvarese can remain on 4th District special election ballot, judge rules

By Sandra Fish | The Colorado Sun Democrat Trisha Calvarese will remain on the June 25 special election ballot in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a Denver judge ruled Wednesday in throwing out a lawsuit seeking to dislodge her.  Calvarese “has presented a good faith effort to comply with applicable regulations and has not acted to mislead the electorate,” Denver District Court Judge David Goldberg wrote. The ruling came after a one-hour court hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit trying to keep Calvarese off the ballot based on the allegation that she hadn’t been registered as a Democratic voter in Colorado for long enough to qualify as her party’s nominee for the contest.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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One introduced wolf is dead in Colorado as another is likely expecting pups in Grand County
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The Colorado Sun, Western Slope

One introduced wolf is dead in Colorado as another is likely expecting pups in Grand County

By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun Just a few hours after U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists confirmed that one of the 10 gray wolves transplanted to Colorado in December was found dead in Larimer County, the state’s top wildlife official told ranchers he will not kill a wolf blamed for the death of four cows in Grand County because it is likely the mate to a wolf that appears to be denning. Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis on Tuesday said GPS points from the female wolf’s collar indicate that she is likely in a den. In early April, GPS points stopped uploading and very recently those points began to upload again.  “The biological interpretation of this is that she was likely in a den during the time when connectivity with the collar was interrupted, which aligns ...
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Democrats are set to unveil their Colorado property tax relief plan this week. Here’s what’s in it.
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State, The Colorado Sun

Democrats are set to unveil their Colorado property tax relief plan this week. Here’s what’s in it.

By Jesse Paul and Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun Democrats in the Colorado legislature are preparing this week to introduce a measure that would overhaul the state’s property tax system to limit future spikes in businesses’ and homeowners’ tax bills, with an eye toward providing more relief to people who own lower-value homes.  The legislation would let people exempt 10% of their primary residence’s value from taxation, up to $75,000. In most communities, that would represent a maximum savings of around $450 a year, though tax bills can vary greatly depending on local mill levy rates. Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and main sponsor of the measure, said the new homestead exemption would effectively lower the property assessment rate for most homeowners to 6.4% for taxes ...
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Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?
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State, The Colorado Sun

Rural “cowboy up” culture has led to high suicide rates. How can the state improve mental health in ag?

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun San Luis Valley cattle rancher George Whitten was halfway through a mental health workshop when he let himself tally up a figure he had never wanted to know — the number of people in his life who had died by suicide.  It was eight.  “You just sort of file that away in a gray box, a place in your mind that it’s there, but it’s not something you want to revisit,” said Whitten, who is 71 and runs 150 cows on land outside Saguache that has been in his family for 140 years. “There’s still a lot there that I really haven’t unpacked.”  All eight of those relatives and friends were from the rural, agricultural community, starting with Whitten’s cousin, who died at 18 after he was sent from the family’s ranch to Brigham Young Universit...
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