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Could an election-reform initiative really help the business community?
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State, The Sum & Substance

Could an election-reform initiative really help the business community?

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance To the average business owner struggling to keep up with inflation and new regulations, electoral reform may not seem like an issue that should be at the top of their priority list. But former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry would beg to differ. Thiry, no stranger to election fights, is spearheading a ballot initiative this year that would upend the way Coloradans vote in statewide primary and general elections. Proposition 131 is drawing criticism from party leaders, unions and senior groups for being confusing and self-serving to the businessman, ensuring that it will be one of the more talked-about measures on what will be a crowded ballot this fall. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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State regulators on verge of passing new cumulative-impact requirements on oil-and-gas projects
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State, The Sum & Substance

State regulators on verge of passing new cumulative-impact requirements on oil-and-gas projects

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado regulators are debating an “enormous” set of regulations that will require consideration of the cumulative impacts of any new or expanded oil-and-gas project on air, water and other natural resources before state officials can grant operating permits. The rules are the product of several laws passed since 2019 aiming to protect communities already dealing with significant emissions by requiring the state to consider permits in the context of existing pollution rather than focus only on the impacts of the new projects. The most recent bill on the subject, approved this year, gave the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission a specific definition of “cumulative impacts” around which it must build the new regulations. How...
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Bill signing, initiative withdrawal sets November ballot at 14 measures
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State, The Sum & Substance

Bill signing, initiative withdrawal sets November ballot at 14 measures

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s November ballot took its final 14-initiative shape Wednesday as Gov. Jared Polis signed a tax-cut bill resulting in the withdrawal of two high-profile initiatives that sought to achieve even bigger tax reductions and lead to bigger revenue losses for governments. With the removal of Initiatives 50 and 108 from the ballot, the remaining issues either have no direct impact on businesses or affect only specific business sectors, such as firearms dealers and operators of veterinary practices. But former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry is pushing one voting-reform measure, Initiative 310, in hopes that it can help more moderate and often business-friendlier candidates to survive the primary- and general-election processes more often. The Democr...
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Lawmakers also extended agricultural equipment property tax exemption in special session
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State, The Sum & Substance

Lawmakers also extended agricultural equipment property tax exemption in special session

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators who focused heavily on cutting property taxes for homeowners during this week’s special session also approved one other tax break — one specifically focused on an emerging technology in the agricultural sector. House Bill 1003, which passed both chambers by wide margins, expands and extends a 2022 law that defined produce-focused greenhouses and the equipment therein as agricultural equipment and thus exempted them from the business personal property tax. While such a focus for a bill may seem to have been far afield from the main concerns of the four-day session — and was a major reason some legislators opposed it — sponsors argued it fit under Gov. Jared Polis’ call to pass bills lowering property tax for 2025....
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On opening day of special session, lawmakers kill most bills, advance tax cut, constitutional change
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State, The Sum & Substance

On opening day of special session, lawmakers kill most bills, advance tax cut, constitutional change

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators winnowed 13 property-tax bills down to just four during the first day of a special session Monday, but put a bill at the center of a governor-negotiated deal on a collision course with a constitutional amendment that could upend that deal. In the most anticipated hearing of the day, the House Appropriations Committee approved a measure that would expand property-tax breaks passed at the end of the regular session in May and cap annual growth of property-tax revenue for schools and local governments. Passage of House Bill 1001 also would get Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern to pull from the November ballot a pair of more far-reaching property-tax-cut proposals that education and government leaders fear would result in ...
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Concerns grow over expanded property-tax proposal
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State, The Sum & Substance

Concerns grow over expanded property-tax proposal

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance A new version of the tax-cut bill at the heart of the special legislative session seeks to further limit property-tax revenue growth — a provision producing angst around what proponents are touting as a compromise solution that could head off a costly ballot battle. Colorado legislators will gavel into session again at 10 a.m. Monday at the request of Gov. Jared Polis to consider a brokered deal designed to stop two property-tax-cut initiatives that could cut billions of dollars in state and local funding from going to the ballot. Instead, the Democratic governor is asking legislators to pass a bipartisan bill that will expand a recently passed $1.3 billion property-tax cut to roughly $1.6 billion and will, if signed into law, commit proponent...
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In look ahead to 75th session, legislators may renew emission-reduction tactic discussion
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State, The Sum & Substance

In look ahead to 75th session, legislators may renew emission-reduction tactic discussion

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators once again are discussing how to move office workers and other commuters out of single-occupancy vehicles, setting up another potential confrontation on the subject during the 2025 legislative session. Democrats on the Transportation Legislation Review Committee, which examines issues each year in between legislative sessions, voted Friday to draft a bill that would require state officials to make air-quality improvements related to transportation. Although Sen. Kevin Priola, the Henderson Democrat who asked for the bill draft, did not specify the contents of the proposal, he said it could incorporate numerous suggestions that environmental advocates presented to the TLRC. Those suggestions included two ideas that have ...
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Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules
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State, The Sum & Substance

Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado officials are advancing rules to cut carbon emissions in yet another sector — this time in the midstream sector of the oil and gas industry, a battleground area in which both industry and environmental leaders worry already about the proposed regulations. The midstream sector is comprised of the pipelines and facilities that transport natural gas from wells to the transmission companies that distribute it to power plants and homes. A key part of the sector — which is made up in Colorado of three major players and a couple dozen smaller companies — is the compression plants that keep the gas moving down long pipelines to its destinations. As part of efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, state officials have put rules i...
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Advance Colorado could pull two ballot initiatives, likely leading to property-tax special session
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State, The Sum & Substance

Advance Colorado could pull two ballot initiatives, likely leading to property-tax special session

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators appear headed for another debate about lowering property taxes after an influential commission largely backed a compromise plan Monday to cut taxes further if backers of two wide-ranging initiatives removed the measures from the November ballot. It’s not an absolute certainty that Gov. Jared Polis would call a special session to consider the framework deal agreed to by initiative proponents Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado with legislators and other officials who have been involved in negotiations. But with Polis having signaled a willingness to consider the idea and with the governor-backed Commission on Property Tax getting some level of support from most of its members to the general details in the plan, pressure i...
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