Democrats in the legislature and Gov. Jared Polis did not violate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in Colorado’s constitution or state law when they enacted a slate of new transportation fees in 2021, a Denver judge ruled this week in rejecting case that threatened to upend road and transit funding. A group of conservative activists sued the state and governor in 2022 to try to invalidate the fees, which are imposed on things like gasoline and diesel purchases, as well as deliveries and rideshare trips. They are slated to generate billions in revenue in their first decade, including more than ..read more

Tucked inside an eleventh-hour bill that would impose new fees on oil and gas produced in Colorado is a requirement that the Regional Transportation District prioritize completion of its long-promised commuter rail lines between Denver and Longmont and Denver and north Adams County. The measure would also require RTD to work with the state on the routes and send a plan to the legislature and governor by July 2025 explaining how it plans to get the projects done.  The clauses in the fee bill, the revenue from which would go to transit projects, are the latest examples of how Gov. Jared P ..read more

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 t ..read more

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 th ..read more

Semitrailers and other commercial vehicles are about to be prohibited from traveling in the left lane on several treacherous sections of Interstate 70 through Colorado’s high country under a bipartisan bill passed by the legislature Wednesday.  Senate Bill 100, which is awaiting the governor’s signature, would enact the prohibition starting in August for Floyd Hill, Georgetown Hill, Vail Pass, Dowd Junction near Minturn, Glenwood Canyon and near the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels. The only exception is for when a commercial vehicle driver is “specifically required or authorized to ..read more

A Golden homeowner’s plan to add solar panels was thwarted when the transformer in his neighborhood couldn’t handle another solar installation. Xcel Energy told him he’d have to pay $7,000 for a new transformer. In Westminster, a builder was told that it would cost $10 million in upgrades to hook his housing project to the grid and a plan for an electrical vehicle fast charger in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood using a state grant, was scrapped for the same reason. Meanwhile, nearly 300 megawatts of community solar gardens are sitting and waiting to be connected to the grid, according to t ..read more

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 gover ..read more

Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the legislature unveiled a deal Monday with the oil and gas industry and environmentalists to tighten the state’s air quality regulations and raise millions of new dollars for transit projects in exchange for all sides pausing their pursuit of other legislation or ballot measures for the next several years.   The grand compromise, which will be accomplished through two bills expected to be passed in the final days of Colorado’s 2024 legislative session, is aimed at heading off the General Assembly’s passage of more stringent rules for the drilling ..read more

A man in an orange Larimer County jail jumpsuit grew defiant within moments of entering a Fort Collins courtroom — raising his voice as he spoke to a judge. As he sat at a table beside a lectern, the man said he wanted to fire his attorney that day because he believed the lawyer was trying to kill him. Each time he spoke, Chief Judge Susan Blanco calmly interrupted, and asked him to create a plan that could help him stabilize and stay out of jail. “Whatever you think is going to make you the most successful after you leave, let’s work on that, please,” she said during the April 11 court heari ..read more

In the few minutes that longtime political activist Angela Davis spoke to student protesters in Denver under a gray sky Saturday afternoon, she raised up their efforts as those that will be responsible for the change the world has long needed, branding it “the moment we have all been waiting for.” Davis, a renowned professor and author who was part of the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party, stopped by the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver where students, faculty and community members have been demonstrating since Thursday, calling for the University of Colorado — located on the campu ..read more