taxpayer bill of rights
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Fields: Say ‘no’ to a special session for special interests
Not even 48 hours after the legislative session ended, the governor floated the idea of convening a special session to address the hotly debated hospital provider fee. This drum beat has continued in the press, with pressure from countless special interest groups who didn’t get their way during the normal 120-day session. And this all…
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Hillman: Embracing Obamacare caused Colorado budget crunch
The newest dubious justification for weakening Colorado’s limits on government spending is “our aging population.” The spending lobby seeks to frighten senior citizens by telling them that the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in our state constitution “hampers the ability to fund key programs.” Parents are told that public schools are in a squeeze because state…
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Debate begins at last on real live hospital provider fee bill
The months-long dress rehearsal at the Legislature has given way at last to the big show. Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Gunbarrel, on Tuesday introduced to the House Appropriations Committee House Bill 1420, which would reclassify the state’s hospital provider fee as an enterprise fund. Committee members and witnesses took turns weighing the…
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Hospital provider fee debate set to intensify
The political tension around the state budget that has flared intermittently this legislative session will grow hot and steady at the end of March. House Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they plan in March to team debate on the budget “long bill” with a push to to avoid more than $350 million in cuts by…
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Full-day kindergarten bills tangled up in TABOR debate
A Republican House bill and a Democratic Senate bill that take different approaches to funding statewide full-day kindergarten are going nowhere at the Capitol. Tied up in larger funding discussions, the ambitious bills have attracted attention in a year when legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle have underlined the need to prioritize education…
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Rural districts make two-day pitch at Capitol, draw talk, smiles, no promises
Leaders from advocacy groups Club 20, Action 22 and Progressive 15 told The Colorado Statesman they thought the trip helped focus the legislative conversation on the needs of the counties they represent — the 59 counties that often feel slighted by the five urban and suburban counties that dot the I-25 “metro corridor,” from Pueblo…
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Group looks to turn up heat on Crowder, any other would-be ‘constitutional arsonist’
The rolling skirmish over a plan to rework the state’s hospital provider fee at the Legislature is intensifying, even in the absence of any legislation for the opposing parties to wrangle over. Conservative advocacy group Advancing Colorado unleashed a broadside Wednesday against state Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, who has signaled he may be open to…