Budget & Spending Issues
May 13, 2013 JBudget & Spending, Energy & Environment
The worst legislative session in memory may be over, but at least one important piece of unfinished business remains – getting Gov. Hickenlooper to veto SB-252, a bill that will force rural Coloradans to pay more on their utility bills in order to satisfy one-size-fits-all “green energy” mandates approved by urban legislators whose own constituents are [...]
May 09, 2013 JBudget & Spending, Energy & Environment
DENVER – Lawmakers representing rural Colorado’s farm, ranch and mountain communities denounced legislation Thursday that will double the renewable-energy mandate on rural ratepayers. Senate Bill 252 would raise from 10 percent to 20 percent the amount of power that rural electric cooperatives–the nonprofit utilities serving much of the state–must obtain from costly renewable-energy sources. The [...]
February 01, 2013 JBudget & Spending, Labor, Education & Pensions
It’s rare that the liberal mayor of Boulder and conservative mayor of Colorado Springs strongly agree on something. When they do, we need to take notice. What the two agree on is that Senate Bill-25 — a bill that would grant collective bargaining rights for firefighters in those and other cities across the state — [...]
January 14, 2013 JBudget & Spending, Key Vote
It’s that time of year again, everyone. Legislators kicked-off the 2013 session last Wednesday and the bills — some good, others bad — already are flying fast and furious. You can help the good bills advance, and the bad bills die, by being on alert for the next 120 days, as part of AFP-Co’s Rapid [...]
January 03, 2013 JBudget & Spending, Health Care & Entitlements
Gov. John Hickenlooper is poised to plunge Colorado even deeper into the Obamacare morass, promising to pay for a federally-mandated Medicaid expansion with $280 million in miraculous “savings” he says can be pulled from the program. Problem is, the health care experts at Kaiser estimated late last year that Medicaid expansion will cost Colorado taxpayers [...]