Author: The Pueblo Chieftain

Colorado taxpayers dodged a bullet this past legislative session when a proposed half-cent state sales tax hike was rejected. House Bill 1242 would have increased state sales taxes by $568 million in the first full year (fiscal 2018-19). The Senate Finance Committee voted 3-2 to kill the bill on April 25, even though it had…

Pueblo-area controversy over Black Hills Energy’s rates and related policies spilled over into Colorado’s legislative session that ended last week. A dispute between state Public Utilities Commission members Wendy Moser, a former Black Hills senior lawyer, and Frances Koncilja, a Pueblo native critical of the electric utility, spawned a PUC ethics bill sponsored by Rep.…

Lest we forget is the theme of a month of events honoring the hundreds of Pueblo men who served in World War I, which the United States officially entered a century ago this week (April 6, 1917). An exhibit will run the entire month at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library’s InfoZone News Museum, displaying…

It was great to see Pueblo Police officers join with city Parks and Recreation department volunteers and community members brave the wind last week to clean up an area of Bessemer that needed assistance. Cops and code enforcement officers joined the others to pick up trash, rake and cut down branches in the 1000 block…

Advocating for a brighter, more positive future for our community is the laudatory goal of ProPuebloCO, a newly formed group focused on three local issues – drug culture, vagrancy and crime. Jack Rink, who moderated a press conference introducing the group, specifically mentioned marijuana now that Pueblo and Colorado have some experience with the legalization…

Incarcerating a prisoner and separating that person from his gang on the outside doesn’t mean he’s out of the gang. On the contrary. Once in the prison, gang members often renew friendships with fellow gang members already imprisoned, and form relationships with other gang members they meet on the inside. State officials say they monitor…

It feels like Pueblo City Schools (D60) – in an effort to save several of its troubled schools – is throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks. And in fairness, it’s the state that is making the district do that. At a school board meeting Tuesday, it was announced that the state is…

There’s no doubt Colorado’s roads are badly in need of repair. The question is whether to raise taxes, as legislative leaders are asking this year, or in the alternative find the money to meet the transportation need within the state’s $27 billion annual budget. Rather than try to reprioritize the existing budget, which is at an…

More good news for Colorado State University-Pueblo. Last week, the Colorado General Assembly Joint Budget Committee voted to award the university $1.8 million for its Institute of Cannabis Research. That’s double the amount the Legislature granted the university last year for its innovative research center. The money will be included in the Long Bill, the…

More good news for Colorado State University-Pueblo. Last week, the Colorado General Assembly Joint Budget Committee voted to award the university $1.8 million for its Institute of Cannabis Research. That’s double the amount the Legislature granted the university last year for its innovative research center. The money will be included in the Long Bill, the…