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Governor removes Democrat from board that blocked Douglas County’s property tax cut, replaces him with Republican
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State, The Colorado Sun

Governor removes Democrat from board that blocked Douglas County’s property tax cut, replaces him with Republican

Jared Polis took Bernie Buescher off the State Board of Equalization, giving Republicans a majority on the panel that reviews local property tax decisions By Jesse Paul | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN Jared Polis removed a Democrat he appointed to a state board that reviews local property tax decisions after the panel in December unanimously rejected Douglas County’s attempt to offer a $28 million tax break to homeowners. The governor blasted the State Board of Equalization’s decision at the time, and then last week took former Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher off the panel and replaced him with Richard Sokol, an Englewood Republican, who sits on the board for South Metro Fire Rescue.  Polis’ swap not only sends another message about his dislike for the State Board o...
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Top Republican in Colorado House narrowly survives vote to remove him following revelation about his 2022 DUI arrest
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State, The Colorado Sun

Top Republican in Colorado House narrowly survives vote to remove him following revelation about his 2022 DUI arrest

By Brian Eason and Jesse Paul | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN Colorado House Minority Leader Mike Lynch on Monday narrowly survived a vote to remove him as the leader of the chamber’s 19-member Republican caucus after it was made public last week that he was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and possessing a gun while intoxicated. The vote of no confidence was split 9-9, with one lawmaker absent and Lynch voting to keep his post. In ties, the vote fails. During the tense caucus meeting in a Capitol committee room, Lynch rejected calls from some members of his caucus to resign his post. The Wellington lawmaker defended his tenure, saying the caucus has had more cohesion under his leadership than it had in the past. “If I believed that this event,...
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Colorado officials thought they had 3 more years to spend $1.5B in federal COVID aid. They have 11 months.
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado officials thought they had 3 more years to spend $1.5B in federal COVID aid. They have 11 months.

By Brian Eason | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN Colorado state budget writers are in a race against the clock to spend $1.5 billion in leftover federal pandemic aid before the end of 2024 thanks to new guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. The deadline is two full years sooner than state lawmakers and Polis administration officials had expected. That has set off a mad scramble to rewrite the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, to allow the state to spend federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars faster than lawmakers intended. The time crunch arose from shifting guidance from federal officials on how they define “obligated,” a term that doesn’t exist in state law. Federal law has long required ARPA recipients to “obligate” all of their funding by th...
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On a dead-end street in north Denver, migrants are surviving winter with the help of an army of volunteers
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Downtown Denver, Local, The Colorado Sun

On a dead-end street in north Denver, migrants are surviving winter with the help of an army of volunteers

By Jennifer Brown | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN Footprints in the snow lead from the sidewalk to a path through the weeds, opening to a field that is almost invisible from the road.  North of Interstate 70, in a part of Denver filled mostly with warehouses and gas stations, the tents are flapping relentlessly in the wind. About 10 migrants from South America hunkered down here during four days of subzero temperatures, and the volunteers who brought them heaters and propane, hot meals and fresh water, are prepared to help hundreds more as Denver pushes migrants out of their city-provided hotel rooms in the coming weeks.  The dozen or so brightly colored tents were mostly concealed from view by the field’s dirt mounds, despite that they were just across the South Platte River from...
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How Colorado voters are reacting to Lauren Boebert’s congressional district swap
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State, The Colorado Sun

How Colorado voters are reacting to Lauren Boebert’s congressional district swap

By Jesse Bedayn, The Associated Press/Report for America | SOURCE: THE COLORADO SUN LAST CHANCE — Fleeing a tough reelection bid in the district where she lives, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is moving from the mountains to the plains, in the hopes of finding conservative pastures green enough to salvage her place in Congress. To win, she’ll have to convince a new swath of voters that her brand of white-hot, far-right political activism — built on divisive one-liners and partisan ferocity in the U.S. House — is more needed in Washington than the home-grown Republicans she now faces in the primary. While Boebert’s new district voted for President Donald Trump by a nearly 20 percentage point margin in 2020, more than double the margin in her old district, and some Republic...
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Colorado offered $1.45 billion in incentives to attract new business. About 5% was claimed.
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado offered $1.45 billion in incentives to attract new business. About 5% was claimed.

By Tamara Chuang, Colorado Sun If all 35 companies approved in 2023 take Colorado up on its offer of a tax credit to move or expand here, they’ll create more than 12,700 new jobs in the state in the next eight years.  The past year’s slate of approved job-creation tax credits is valued at $146 million, or double the amount approved in 2022 — and for twice the potential new workforce. From startups like Alquist, which plans to 3D-print houses in Greeley, to lithium-ion battery manufacturer Amprius Technologies in Brighton and several space- or semiconductor-related firms weighing a move to El Paso County, the new cohort joins more than 300 past awardees that have qualified for $1.45 billion of tax credits and created around 20,000 jobs in 14 years.  But so far, most award...
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Douglas County sues to overturn state board’s decision to block property tax relief plan
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Denver Metro, Local, The Colorado Sun

Douglas County sues to overturn state board’s decision to block property tax relief plan

By Jesse Paul, Colorado Sun Douglas County is suing a state board that last month blocked the county’s creative attempt to offer a $28 million property tax break to homeowners by making an across-the-board reduction in previously determined home values.  The 15-page lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Denver District Court against the State Board of Equalization. It argues that the board didn’t have the authority to block the tax break and that it didn’t follow Colorado’s open meetings laws in doing so.  The county is asking a judge to overturn the board’s unanimous decision to stop the reduction in home values.  The Douglas County Commission voted in September to reduce the county’s valuations, determined in May, of single-family homes, townhomes an...
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A lot of people want to run for office in Colorado this year. Here’s what it takes to actually get on the ballot.
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State, The Colorado Sun

A lot of people want to run for office in Colorado this year. Here’s what it takes to actually get on the ballot.

By Sandra Fish, Colorado Sun The 2024 general election is less than 11 months away and a wave of candidates are filing paperwork to run in Colorado’s eight congressional districts, 16 state Senate districts and 65 House districts. But jumping into a race doesn’t guarantee someone a spot on the ballot for the June 25 primary, let alone the Nov. 5 general election. Candidates must spend big money to qualify for the contest, or they can try to pick up enough support from members of their political party through what’s called the caucus and assembly process. The mad dash to make the ballot is underway, as the primary ballot must be set by April 26.  READ FULL ARTICLE ON COLORADOSUN.COM
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