roads
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Updated: Sen. Randy Baumgardner calls out governor on under-supporting roads
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(Editor’s note: This story was updated to include information from the governor’s letter to the Joint Budget Committee.) Colorado’s bustling economy gave state lawmakers a gift for roads, an estimated up to $300 million more than expected to spend over the next two years, starting with the legislative session that commences next Wednesday. After initially…
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Colorado House speaker outraged over Republican leader’s allegations of a ‘plan’ to destroy roads
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House Speaker Crisanta Duran is outraged over recent comments by her Republican counterpart suggesting that Democrats have a “plan” to destroy Colorado’s roads. Calling the comments from House Republican Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock “absurd,” Duran, a Democrat from Denver, pointed out that she worked this year for a bipartisan solution to come up…
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Noonan: Poor school funding over eight years leads to low four-year state graduation rates
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Colorado’s four-year high school graduation rate is bad. That should be no surprise. According to Education Week, Colorado achieved a 77 percent graduation rate in 2016, seventh from the bottom. Neighbor New Mexico has the lowest rate at 69 percent and Nebraska has the second highest rate at 90 percent. It’s interesting that road quality in…
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YESTERYEAR: Legislator’s party flip infuriates local union
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Thirty Years Ago this Week in the Colorado Statesman … State Rep. Faye Fleming, D-Thornton, switched her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican Feb. 14, 1987, only six weeks after she took office. One of her campaign contributors, United Steel Workers Local 8031, threatened to sue her for misrepresentation. The influential union also took to the…
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Funt: Fees, fines and fairness
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Which best describes your view of America? Everyone pays an equal share? Or, everyone pays his fair share? Both sound reasonable. One hinges on equality, the other on fairness – two principles we generally embrace. But as I wrote in The New York Times the other day, we are increasingly becoming a nation of haves…
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New plan unveiled to raise money for critical Colorado state services with days left in legislature
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Despite a dramatic back-and-forth Monday over a plan to free money for critical state services, legislative leaders say they are close to a compromise. The proposal would create a 20-year bond program to direct $1.8 billion towards critical infrastructure, including roads and highways. The first iteration of the legislation started with a $1.35 billion bond program. Lawmakers…
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UPDATED: Hickenlooper’s proposed $28.5B Colorado budget affects transit, health care
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Colorado’s transportation, education and health care spending will not grow as hoped for by Gov. John Hickenlooper under a proposed $28.5 billion budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year that he sent to lawmakers Tuesday. The proposed budget is 3.3 percent larger than this year’s, and it includes requests to use marijuana tax dollars for affordable…
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? Grantham: Amendment 72 would further hamstring Colorado’s budget
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Amendment 72 promises to further tangle Colorado’s budget. As a member of the Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, I can assure you that this is the last thing we need. Earlier this year, legislators struggled to balance Colorado’s complicated budget, as is required each year by law, while also providing services that our communities need.…