Today is March 29, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

The $38.5 billion state budget introduced Monday under Senate Bill 214 – the Long Appropriations bill – was crafted by a panel with five new members, and they managed to finish crafting the budget days ahead of schedule.

Here’s five takeaways, and things to watch, as the budget moves through the House and Senate over the next two weeks.

TikTok is now banned on devices owned by the City of Aurora and on personal devices that are used to access the city’s networks. But the city council’s decision also raised concerns that the recent furor surrounding TikTok could foster xenophobia, and that it does not address the full scope of potential cyber threats posed by media platforms.

The Aurora City Council approved a resolution Monday that bans TikTok and other platforms from its parent company on city-owned devices. People who use personal devices to access city networks cannot have the app on those devices either. Councilmember Alison Coombs dissented.

The resolution has two goals, its sponsor Councilmember Dustin Zvonek said. The first aim is to address the bipartisan concern about potential national security threats posed by TikTok, which is owned by the Beijing company ByteDance. Banning TikTok does not solve all cyber security threats, which is why the resolution also asks the IT department to evaluate other platforms for similar risks and come forward with recommendations for addressing those, he said. City staff will be in charge of implementing the ban, Zvonek said.

Chief Information Officer Scott Newman told city council the resolution would provide additional tools for the IT department to create a “more rigorous program around evaluating threats as they emerge.”

The General Assembly’s Western Slope lawmakers have teamed up to introduce a trio of bills intended to push ahead Colorado’s efforts to reintroduce the gray wolf. 

What’s most significant is support from Gov. Jared Polis for the process outlined in one of the bills, despite the possibility that a new federal rule might not come in time to get the first introduction of wolves into western Colorado by year’s end.

Polis’ support may also put him at odds with environmental and wildlife advocates who aren’t expected to back a rule proposed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

As Colorado continues to suffer through harsh drought conditions, the state legislature is considering removing barriers for some residents to save water on lawn watering. 

Around 60% of Coloradans live under a homeowner association (HOA). If passed into law, Senate Bill 178 would allow those homeowners to swap their grass lawns for landscaping that needs less water to maintain, forcing HOAs to accept the alternative landscaping. 

Colorado lawmakers are tackling the legislation as the federal government – and the states that rely on the Colorado river – are scrambling to save the river system that has fueled growth in the West. 

SB 178 unanimously passed its first vote in the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee Tuesday. 

In the federal budget standoff, the majority of U.S. adults are asking lawmakers to pull off the impossible: Cut the overall size of government, but also devote more money to the most popular and expensive programs.

Six in 10 U.S. adults say the government spends too much money. But majorities also favor more funding for infrastructure, health care and Social Security – the kind of commitments that would make efforts to shrink the government unworkable and politically risky ahead of the 2024 elections.

These findings from a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research show just how messy the financial tug-of-war between President Joe Biden and House Republicans could be. At stake is the full faith and credit of the federal government, which could default on its obligations unless there is a deal this summer to raise or suspend the limit on the government’s borrowing authority.

Biden this month proposed a budget that would trim deficits by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years, but his plan contains a mix of tax increases on the wealthy and new spending that led GOP lawmakers to declare it dead on arrival. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is insisting on budget talks with the White House but has not produced a plan of his own to cut deficits, which Biden has said is a prerequisite for negotiations.