tracy kraft-tharp

Advocate for small businesses gives Colorado General Assembly a grade of B- for session

May 13, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Colorado’s largest association of small businesses gave the General Assembly’s just-completed session a grade of B- in a legislative report card issued this week. Split control of the House and Senate led to missed opportunities, said Tony Gagliardi, Colorado director for the National Federation of Independent Business, which counts 7,000 members in the state. He…
House Democrats ask what happened to a vanishing regulatory relief bill in the Senate

May 8, 2017

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Joey Bunch

Remember a few weeks ago when Senate Republicans were looking for a couple of their bills? Well, House Democrats are missing something, too: Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp’s regulatory relief bill. The caucus put out a video over the weekend asking where the bipartisan House Bill 1270 has gotten off to in the Senate. “After years of failed partisan…
Lakewood Democrat Andy Kerr plans to announce run for 7th Congressional District seat Wednesday

Apr 11, 2017

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Ernest Luning

With a promise to fight for education, jobs and the Colorado way of life, state Sen. Andy Kerr, a Lakewood Democrat, plans to announce on Wednesday afternoon he’s running for the 7th Congressional District seat represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who declared Sunday he’s running for governor in next year’s election. “The working families…
How much is in that marijuana cash fund, anyway? Read the memo.

Apr 6, 2017

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John Tomasic

In the House budget debate set to begin Thursday, a cash fund brimming with an enticing $117.7 million in marijuana sales tax money is sure to attract attention, as it did in Senate debate last week. The fund has figured in talk at the Capitol ever since recreational weed sales began filling it steadily years…
Advocates, lawmakers celebrate value, impact of historic preservation in Colorado

Feb 8, 2017

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Ernest Luning

“We know historic preservation has a positive economic impact to our state,” Steve Turner, the state historic preservation officer and executive director of History Colorado, told the several hundred preservation experts, community leaders and property owners gathered on Friday, Feb. 3, at the Colorado Convention Center for the Saving Places Conference. Then, pointing to preservation…
State fund would pay workers’ comp when the boss screws up

Jan 26, 2017

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JOEY BUNCH

Someone who gets hurt working for a boss who failed to carry workers’ compensation insurance shouldn’t have to shoulder the cost of his employer’s negligence. That’s the intent of House Bill 1119, which is being billed as the Colorado Uninsured Employer Act. Claims would be paid from a fund made up of penalties from employers…
The Hot Sheet, August 22, 2016

Aug 22, 2016

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Jared Wright

VOL. 01 NO. 157 | AUGUST 22, 2016 | COLORADOSTATESMAN.COM/THE-HOT-SHEET | © 2016By TCS Editor and Publisher Jared Wright DENVER – Good morning and Happy Back-To-School Monday! Hopefully your smaller versions of self (if you have them) are off to a great start today. The weekend had lots of small tweak-type developments on Colorado’s political path to enlightenment…
Noonan: Republican senators lay off contentious bills to hold the chamber

Jul 12, 2016

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Paula Noonan

Nine state senators are up for re-election and nine Senate seats are up for grabs in November. Seven of those seats have fewer than 9,000 votes separating the parties in registration numbers, while two seats have under 800. The Senate is 18-17 to the Republicans, all of which explains why the Senate was a more…
Noonan: Sponsored bills reveal how House members do their job

Jun 22, 2016

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Paula Noonan

Legislators make their mark through their sponsored bills. Sponsored bills show what issues legislators commit to, their bipartisan collegiality, their productivity in bills passed versus bills killed, and their dispositions related to bills that function as messages versus bills intended to become law. Legislators are supposed to sponsor no more than five bills, but only…
Sonnenberg OK with lack of attention at Capitol to agriculture, but pushing two bills he says really matter

Mar 11, 2016

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Ramsey Scott

Lawmakers haven’t introduced many agricultural bills this legislative session, but that doesn’t mean farmers and ranchers haven’t been paying close attention — or that they’re upset about the lack of acknowledgement. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, chair of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said Colorado’s farmers and ranchers work better when they’re left to…