Author: David O. Williams
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A $5 billion ski industry confronts a cold front in global tourism | FISCAL ROCKIES
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Editor’s Note: Once among the nation’s fastest-growing economies, Colorado today confronts mounting challenges that threaten its momentum. This series reveals how a state once defined by prosperity is navigating economic cliffs and ridges. We explore the impact that increased regulations, tariffs, shifting tax policies, the high cost of living and widening urban–rural divides have on businesses,…
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As lodging tax hikes hit ballots, Beaver Creek threatens to incorporate
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BEAVER CREEK – Mountain counties across Colorado are jumping on the lodging-tax bandwagon at the polls this November following the passage last session of a bipartisan state bill (HB25-1247), but one ski county has run afoul of one of its largest tax sources over the issue. The Eagle County commissioners last month approved a Nov.…
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Schwartz hammers Tipton for draft of Thompson Divide bill
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Former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, came out swinging against U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton on Thursday, accusing the Cortez Republican of selling out to a Texas oil and gas company by crafting favorable legislation in exchange for campaign contributions. Schwartz, who represented a big chunk of the Western Slope in Senate District 5 for…
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Western Slope push for lower health insurance rates heads to governor
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AVON — As the Legislature streaks toward the end of session, lawmakers have passed a Western Slope health insurance bill that could prove a bitter pill to some of Colorado’s Front Range residents but might provide soothing relief for stressed-out mountain dwellers. Skyrocketing health care costs on the Western Slope in general and in the state’s…
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Oregon LNG terminal, pipeline seen as key to reviving Western Slope gas patch
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No one even remotely involved in natural gas production on Colorado’s Western Slope wants to continue to party like it’s 1999. Back then prices were below $2 per million British thermal units and there were just 94 well starts in Garfield County. Last year, prices continued to languish below $2 per million British thermal units…
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Bernie-mania still stirring things up in Colorado high country ahead of state assembly
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Western Slope Democratic Party officers say the youth-vote passion for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to roil county and congressional district conventions in the mountains even as the Dems head into the statewide assembly Saturday, April 16, in Loveland. Joy Harrison, first vice chair of the Eagle County Democratic Party, told The Colorado Statesman that…
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Hickenlooper, state lawmakers continue to push Congress for Good Samaritan bill
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Lawmakers at the federal level may not be much help, but the EPA and Colorado officials are working well together to fix the century-old mining mess above Silverton that continues to leak waste water into local streams, according to the town administrator. “That [Aug. 5] accident is going to allow this problem to be properly…
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Hickenlooper, Mead set aside political differences to dig into sage grouse plan
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While a massive five-year collaborative push by numerous government agencies, business interests, landowners and conservation groups to avoid Endangered Species Act listing of the greater sage grouse is largely heralded as a national model, it’s clear political differences remain between the neighboring Western governors who spearheaded the effort. Speaking at a two-day Western Governors’ Association…
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Colorado’s Western Slope counties back Sanders
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Colorado’s Western Slope has been bone dry of late, but on Super Tuesday the state’s mountain counties were really feeling the Bern as big crowds of Democrats turned out for Bernie Sanders. From the ski towns in Summit and Eagle counties west to the mining and drilling towns of Mesa and Garfield counties, the Vermont…
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House District 59 race promises more fireworks, lavish spending
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In 2014, the race for Colorado House District 59 in Southwest Colorado was one of the closest, nastiest and costliest in the state. Both of the major party candidates for HD59 who have filed candidacy in the 2016 election to date — incumbent Republican rancher J. Paul Brown and Democratic educator Barbara McLachlan — expect…