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Colorado News Miner 37
Affordability, freedom, taxes, regulations, guns, snow, and more.
Copyright © 2025 by Ari Armstrong
January 11, 2023; ported here May 11, 2025
Affordability and the Legislature: Complete Colorado published my recent article about affordability and the legislature.
Taxes: "Two Democratic lawmakers plan to ask voters this November to divert TABOR refunds to primarily help pay, attract and retain teachers, making it third in line for TABOR surplus revenues," reports Colorado Politics. See more from the Colorado Sun.
Criminal Justice: Alex Burness points out that one of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee is "an ex-prosecutor who has often opposed reform bills from progressives." See Burness's article on the topic.
Regulations: So far compliance is low for Denver's inane licensing requirements for owners of rental properties, reports Westword.
Liability: The legislature is looking to further limit liability of property owners who allow others entry for recreational purposes, reports Jason Blevins. Offhand that seems sensible.
Guns: For once I agree with Kristi Burton Brown in her criticisms of a horrible bill to ban many semi-automatic guns. See also Dave Kopel's backgrounder.
Ballot Access: David Aitken wrote a history of Colorado's ballot access laws. Although at the time I supported easier ballot access for minor parties, in retrospect I think the changes were a mistake. Instead, the Libertarian Party should have promoted approval voting and equal ballot access to all comers regardless of party. See my 2018 Colorado Sun article on the general topic.
Snow: Jim Charlier argues that there are real trade-offs between plowing snow off of Denver roads and keeping the air clean: "Streets that have been plowed get icy at night from the day's snowmelt and have to be treated with sand and chemicals. The more miles of plowed street we have, the more particulate emissions we have—a result of both the increased use of sand and the reduction in snow cover."