I'm Alton Dillard in for Kyle Dyer this week.

And there's a lot to discuss.

Colorado legislators are once again tackling our state's criminal competency laws.

The GOP holds their state assembly this weekend in Pueblo.

Will there be any surprises?

There's a primary election at the end of June, and there's been some buzz about which candidates are and aren't showing up at community events and subsidized child care.

Is it in danger in Colorado?

Let's unpack the issues with the team here on this week's edition of Colorado Inside Out.

Let's get right to our insider panel for this week.

Patty Calhoun, founder and editor, Westword.

David Koppel, research director, the Independence Institute.

Jesse Paul, reporter and editor at the Colorado Sun.

And Carlos Martinez, president and CEO, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

Colorado's competency laws have been a hot topic for a while now because of high profile crimes committed by people ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Those who cannot be restored are sometimes simply released back to the streets, and sometimes commit even more serious crimes.

The Colorado Legislature has introduced Senate Bill 149, which aims to make changes while balancing the rights of the individual with public safety.

Patty.

This appears to be one of those rare bipartisan moments.

Well, not so rare because the problem is going to be with almost every bill going through.

How much is it going to cost, if anything?

How are we going to work it out in this 48.40 $8.6 million budget?

And so in this case, we're not talking about Robert Deer, for example, the man who shot up Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs wasn't ever found competent to stand trial.

We're talking about people who were charged with crimes, weren't mentally competent, but not that kind of high profile crime.

And certainly some of the cases have been trotted out like a 21 year old who had been who was accused of crimes in Weld County last year.

Elon Musk talked about a Jared Polis talked about it.

He was found not eligible to stand trial.

So he was released and wound up on a campus with a gun.

It's so challenging because it's not that many people that would be affected by this.

It's going to be very, very pricey.

But the problem is, if these people, they can't they can't be tried, but they also really need help.

And most of them go in voluntarily for help if they can find it.

that's the challenge.

Can you pay for it?

And can you find places for these people?

All right.

David.

Well, the answer to Patty's question is, of course, you can pay for it, but the legislature chooses not to buy our any kind of notion of due process.

You can't put a person on trial.

If that person is so mentally deranged that he or she can't even participate in his or her own defense.

So the these defenders can't be prosecuted.

The Colorado state budget ten years ago was $27 billion annually, as Patty said.

Now it's going up to 48 billion.

The population hasn't grown by that fraction.

Not even close.

So spending has zoomed under this state legislature and Governor Polis.

But they won't spend what is about $57 million extra to provide the treatment capacity to help these kind of people so they can either be restored to mental competency, at which point they could stand trial or, to confine them permanently, because if they're that deranged, it's unsafe to them and unsafe safer to the public to have them out and about ready to prey on other people, danger to themselves or others.

Jesse, what are your thoughts from Under the Dome?

So this actually is the one place where they are finding some new spending money in the very bad budget year that the legislature is having.

So there will be money for it for this bill.

And it has been set aside in the budget.

But there's actually an interesting proposal that would increase and spend another $50 million on this problem by letting the state, spend about $50 million or so on a new state hospital.

But this involves the long time discussion about whether or not to privatize Pinnacle Insurance, which is the state's working worker's compensation insurer of last resort.

The speaker of the House plans to introduce a bill in the coming weeks on that.

It would be a $300 million sale.

And one of the things that that money would go toward is this new state hospital and interestingly, also kind of water falling, into different programs and being able to roll back some of the cuts that the legislature is trying to make this year to balance the budget.

So that could be a very interesting discussion.

But labor hates the idea of privatizing pinnacle.

The business community has its own ideas about how that should go.

And I'm not sure there are votes, even in the legislature to get that passed.

So the governor wants to do it.

The speaker wants to do it.

But this could be an inter-party fight that I think is maybe not going to end well for the pro or pinnacle sale folks.

Carlos.

Sure.

And I think, you know, as my colleagues have already said, it's not about if someone is incompetent, can they be tried or not?

We already know that fundamental due process is there, but what do we do with them after?

And I think that's the bigger hanging.

And I think part of the bill also is looking like at a two track system, you know, those four that are higher, risk cases versus those that are lower risk cases.

what do we do with these folks?

How do we manage them?

You know, what are the guardrails that we're going to be putting in place I don't think that any legislator, any judge, wants to just release dangerous people out into the street.

I think the thing is about, how do we manage this and control it so that we can provide this in a civil way, both for the low risk and the high risk?

Folks who are deemed incompetent and won't stand trial.

It's the Republican Party's turn to hold their state assembly in Pueblo.

And it's not hyperbole to say that the Colorado GOP has been in disarray for a few years, and they're undergoing yet another change in leadership as they meet to determine who makes the ballot.

Is there another Wayne Williams, Walker Stapleton or Cynthia Coffman emerging?

They won statewide races for secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general as Republicans.

But that was way back in 2014.

David, our House delegation is split for Republicans, for Democrats.

But are there any viable candidates for Colorado's constitute offices going to emerge?

Well, sure.

State senator, Barbara Kirk Meyer, has won in, and in, swing in a swing district, very capable, has sponsor, into law of 49 bills, extremely competent person.

Now, on the other, if she gets the nomination on the other side, she'd be facing either U.S.

Senator Michael Bennet or Colorado Attorney General Phil Wiser, both of whom are also capable, competent people.

But there's a different race, which is Colorado Attorney general.

the Democrats look poised to nominate the most in competent person they can find, which is current Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold.

She's put out ads saying how she argued in front of the United States Supreme Court, a flagrant law.

As far as we can tell, she hasn't argued anything ever, in any court, even once.

She, as secretary of state.

Leaked, put on, put on a public website.

The secret passwords for voting machines.

She sent out voter registration cards to 30,000 non-citizens and more recently, she has finally removed 300,000 over 300,000 ineligible voters from the voting rolls because she was forced to buy a lawsuit.

So if you have Michael Allen versus her, anybody who wants the government to have minimal competence would have to vote for Michael Allen, Jesse, Barbara Kirk Meyers gathering signatures to make the ballot so she won't be involved in the weekend's state assembly.

But there are a bunch of other interesting Republican gubernatorial candidates who are vying for a spot through Assembly.

You've got, Victor Marx, who's a pastor.

Big social media following.

He also gathers signatures for us to get a fraction of the vote.

Scott Bottoms is trying to make the ballot.

Jason Mix was trying to make the ballot.

The sheriff down, and, and Teller County.

So there's a whole bunch of folks.

It could be kind of interesting.

If you have ever been to one of these state assemblies, they are absolute torture.

And I think that this, GOP one might be the height of torture, given the, leadership problems that the party has right now, it's been very difficult to find out what's even going to happen.

I was at the Democratic State Assembly in Pueblo, in late March.

And that went relatively smoothly, smoothly.

But even that situation was a headache, a long day.

So pack your patience.

Pack a lunch.

I did not have snacks, and I regretted it for the dem one.

Carlos, your response?

Well, I, I think you know what?

They'll come out with candidates.

I don't doubt that.

But I think the other piece also with, the the party is that it's in disarray.

They're lacking leadership, too.

Lacking funds.

And they're fighting over control, And I think that that disarray that the party is in right now, how will they be able to support any candidate moving forward?

And I think, you know, as a state where the majority of our voters are, unaffiliated or independent, it's like they want to see, you know, a party that is, moderate, that is that is not in chaos, that is in control.

And I don't think they're going to be able to go ahead and see that.

So I think for me, as they go to the into the assembly, can they come out as a united party.

going to be torture and not sure what's going to really be the outcome of how they're going to be able to support their candidates moving forward.

Politics is the art of the possible, Patti, or the impossible in this case.

So what you have is Joe Altmann, for example, who was going to run for the gubernatorial nomination and the Republican Party.

Now he is saying, and this is a podcaster, an election denier, pushed a lot of the election denial agenda nationally.

He's saying he wants to run the Republican Party.

Rita Horne is resigning, has resigned.

She is leaving as the head of the Colorado Republican Party after the Assembly.

But in the meantime, they're going to wind up with people who will be on the primary ballot.

And if you would, reasonable moderate people like Carlos was just talking about, with more than half the voters unaffiliated, you would have a chance of getting a reasonable moderate candidate to win in that primary.

But the way the Republican Party is going, it's just not going to happen.

Which means in most cases, in almost all cases, a Democrat will win.

But the Republicans should be happy to have unaffiliated voters able to vote in those primaries if they could put a reasonable candidate on the ballot.

Right.

And it is an election year, so things are going to be interesting.

There's also an election wrapping up on June 30th.

And as it becomes clear who will be on the ballot.

Debates and candidate forums are popping up everywhere.

There's been some buzz in the community, as gubernatorial candidate Michael Bennet backed out of a forum hosted by the Muslim community and Attorney general candidate Jenna Griswold did not attend a forum hosted by the Colorado Black Women for Political Action and the Sam Carey Bar Association.

That's the Black Bar Association AG candidate Heraldo.

She had a scheduling conflict and at least had asked to participate remotely.

But it really reminded me of back in 2018, when then gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis blew off the club 20 debate, which caused quite a controversy on the Western Slope.

Jesse, candidates can't possibly get to every event they're invited to, but how do they balance the optics of not attending at all?

I think these things oftentimes matter a lot to a lot more to people who are paying attention than they do to the entire voting public.

So I'm not sure, you know, it's like nobody's going to lose a race because they didn't attend the forum.

This this one situation was interesting for a lot of reasons.

Michael Bennet said he didn't attend the debate or the forum because he was concerned about there being disrupted and disruption from protesters.

And that all of the questions were going to end up being about Gaza and Palestine.

That actually was the case.

I went and watched, the event.

bigger picture here.

You know, Michael Bennett is in a tough spot because he's trying to be a U.S.

senator while he's running for governor.

And there have been a number of events that he's missed.

This was over a weekend, and also during Easter break.

So he could have been there, right?

I mean, this was a choice.

This wasn't a scheduling conflict.

as the election day gets closer, if this race tightens, which it kind of seems like it might, this could be a problem for him.

He's going to have to make some tough decisions about whether it be in Washington or whether it be here on the campaign trail.

Carlos.

Well, optics can be really interesting because a lot of voters will sometimes think they're, you know, he's avoiding his voters or he's avoiding the issues or he's avoiding those communities as well.

You don't want to engage with them.

But I also understand from campaigns their strategy around sometimes not showing up they don't want to be caught in a gotcha moment because I gotcha moment and can go ahead and have its own life.

It could be called viral.

It could go in so many ways, and they're looking at it more from a strategic point, as opposed to a voter not looking at it that way, but looking at it more like he's not there.

And I think sometimes that empty chair sends a big message, sometimes with, with voters as to how, how important, this community is to that, candidate.

And it can actually, I think sometimes can backfire.

But I think, you know, sometimes with community, that empty chair does send out, a big message.

I did reach out to the Bennet campaign and offer them an opportunity to respond to the questions that were asked at the debate, if he didn't like what the the, forum was or the, context, or he was worried about security.

So so far I haven't heard back.

So we did try and give him that opportunity, though.

And I think you make a fair point.

All righty, Patty.

Well, and it can backfire too if you're playing off someone not showing up.

Like, think about Shannon Bird, the pinata episode where she was replaced with a pinata when she couldn't come.

And I think she was saying it was a scheduling issue.

I think if I were running for office like this, I would schedule something every single minute of the day so you could use that excuse whenever you needed it, even if it was just talking to your mother on the telephone, because you can't.

And I'm also interested to figure out how much this really affects ultimately, how these how the candidates are regarded, because some of these are very, very small audiences.

You also think the poor people putting on the forums and the debates think about 2023 when we had 17 mayoral candidates.

Who do you leave off?

And that's another big issue.

Do you leave off the people who are polling very, very low, in which case John Hickenlooper wouldn't have been in the first debates for mayor when he ran because he was pulling up 1%.

So it's almost a no win, at least with remote, you can you could appear remotely if they've got the technology, and then you could just pull the plug.

If they were asking bad questions, you could just say it was a technological failure.

Well it's yeah.

No win.

That's I like that term.

David, what are your thoughts.

Well if he didn't I hope he the senator does answer Jesse's questions because because voters, whatever their views, deserve to know the answers to this.

in the Democratic Party, it is no secret that the Democratic left, Democratic socialists, America, students for Democratic Society openly side with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian tyrants say that they are part of the progressive global global left, supposedly.

And these are all organizations that explicitly want to exterminate Israel, kill all the Jews there, and go around encouraging people to kill Jews here like happened in Boulder.

Not too long ago.

And whether and if somebody is against that, then they ought to be willing to say so to the people who have different opinions and forthrightly say, because it's not just a matter.

It's not like the governor has any much influence on foreign policy, on, you know, arms sales to Israel.

But the governor does have influence on the safety of Jews and other people in the state of Colorado.

Only a year ago, the line of families waiting for subsidized child care was a manageable, if daunting, 5700.

Today, that line is exploded to nearly 14,000 children, a small city of toddlers and infants left in a state of administrative limbo, according to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood.

The crisis isn't a fluke.

It's the result of a deep freeze in some counties.

The doors to these programs have been shuttered for over two years, leaving the state's most vulnerable parents scrambling for these family market rate.

Childcare isn't just an inconvenience, it's an impossibility.

Without the subsidy, the cost of a safe place for their children to stay while they work exceeds their entire take home pay.

Carlos, what is going on with Colorado's childcare system?

Well, first, I want to just say that childcare is not charity.

These subsidies are not charity.

They're really about economic development because it really allows the family to go ahead and go to work, contribute and also build up, their, economic independence.

Here in Colorado.

Child care is funded through various ways, but the most common way is a Colorado childcare assistance program, which is a federally funded program.

A lot of those federal dollars have been frozen by the current administration and blue states, Colorado being one of them.

And so, yes, that has gone ahead and created long, waiting list.

I know of several, child care centers who have just said, you know, we're not even going to do a waiting list because we just want to hang on to the subsidies we have right now.

And the waiting lists are getting longer and longer.

Our organization used to support, this childcare center, which just went out not too long ago because they couldn't make the economics work without those subsidies.

So, that that is probably the biggest program here in the state.

But other, cities may have a different tax funded initiative around child care.

And we see that, that that's also be able to go in and help.

Right now.

There are a couple of cities in the mountain area who are looking to see if they could go ahead and develop a district to develop a funding, initiative to be able to go ahead and support these communities.

That's in Gilbert, Gilpin County, Aspen.

So how do these communities come together?

So right now we see different cities looking at different ways to go ahead and do that.

The Denver preschool program this year celebrates 20 years of and it's actually, has its first cohort graduating from college.

And so right now they're doing an evaluation about that first cohort now graduating from college.

What the impact has been and the the early signs are saying that childcare pays off.

Really child pays off.

And that is something we should be looking at.

All right, Patty, that report is going to be fascinating because as you say, it's both an economic development issue for the parents.

So they can get out and work in jobs that otherwise people might not be taking.

That's one of the other things to think about, but how it grows future people for careers, if they go into childcare early and if they get ahead of things.

So in Denver, farsighted and fortunately is continuing.

It's not in the same crunch that so many places across the state are.

The feds drying that up?

There's no money.

14,000 people waiting.

And also there are no places, even if you could come up with the money, especially in rural areas, there just aren't childcare systems because they can't make the economics work out easily.

So it is really tough.

Even if the federal money comes, which I doubt it will, then you have to find out where it's going to go, because where can these kids go?

Oh, David.

Well, the the Common Sense Institute did a report on this, which was actually we talked about on this show last fall, that even before all the Trump shenanigans, the system in Colorado wasn't working, that the providers weren't getting paid nearly what they they ought to be, and that there was a huge backlog.

this is a proper safety net thing because it helps, you know, a a young parent who's trying to do the right thing and provides for his or her children, be able to work and make some income.

But again, the legislature doesn't prioritize things like this.

We have a huge program that's going on to buy free school lunches and school breakfasts for everybody, regardless of income level, not just poor people whose families can't afford the food.

We have Medicaid giving out free health care to people, to able bodied adults who refuse to work or even engage in job training.

We're spending $10 billion a year in corporate welfare for the film industry, and that's not even getting started on the vast amount of welfare this state spends on people who aren't even legally present in this country.

You know, it's very nice to say we're going to be virtuous and be the welfare state for the whole planet.

But before you to do that, you ought to take care of the citizens in Colorado first.

And the legislature has Deprioritized Colorado children ahead of behind, all these other, folks who I think deserve much less of a safety net than the Colorado children do you just a year take the legislature trying to tackle this issue.

And I don't think in the ways that that David would approve of.

But, it's interesting to see them with without money available on the budget to throw at this.

They're trying to kind of, help families that are on the lower end of the income scale with tax credits, and some of those had to be pared back or were turned off because of the state tax revenue reductions caused by the One Big Beautiful Bill act.

Lawmakers responded.

Some, more liberal lawmakers in legislature have responded by trying to rollback some tax breaks for businesses and shuffle that savings, that money into and do tax break for, families with with children who are on the lower end of the income scale, but maybe be a thousand, a few thousand dollars, a year for them, obviously not enough to pay for $30,000 worth of child care, whatever it cost these days.

But, it's certainly an issue that's getting a lot of attention.

I want to just shout out, my colleagues at the center have been reporting on this very closely, and looking at it, we've got a whole series that's, going on, and I encourage people to check it out if this is an issue that's important to you.

All right.

Great discussion team.

Well, now it's time to go down the line with each of you mentioning a high and low of the week.

We'll start with Patty and the low note.

Let's hope that right now as you're watching this it is raining because we are seeing the end of the ski season early.

Just, incredibly disappointing ski season, really hard economy in those towns.

But we're also looking at a very long, hot summer, early fires.

So Mother Nature is again, my disgrace.

It's going to be a long, hot summer day, even when the Colorado Democrats and the Colorado state legislature look in the mirror every morning, they preen themselves and say how wonderful they are for protecting democracy.

But then they do the opposite when they're on the job.

Currently, the Regional Transportation District Board has 15 elected members chosen by the people Bill.

Moving through the legislature now would cut the 15 elected positions down to five, and have four others appointed by the governor.

They want to take RTD, a troubled, very troubled entity.

But you don't make it better by taking away the people's ability to control what goes on there.

Jesse, I am covering the budget this year closer more closely than I ever have before, just given all the cuts, and it has been very disappointing to see the let the budget move from the JBC to the full legislature and see the number of state lawmakers who really have not taken the time to understand the process.

And I think we're going to see that over the weekend, maybe, and in the next week.

But, lawmakers really need to understand this because they're making some big decisions here, and I wish they would take some time to listen to their colleagues in the JBC and do a little homework.

It sounds like, Carlos, I think, for me, is hearing our president say that he wants to allocate 1.5 trillion to the defense, at the expense of health care, housing, agriculture and some other key programs that so many Americans right now, rely on.

And I think as we continue to dismantle these areas, it's going to go in and put more pressure on communities and a lot more pressure on nonprofits.

And since I work with a lot of nonprofits, I'm seeing right now, kind of like the burden that they're having and trying to go ahead and respond to the higher demand of folks just trying to go ahead and get by.

And then with an additional cuts in these areas that the burden for nonprofits is even going to grow to the point that probably some of them are going to go ahead and just close their doors because they can't continue to go ahead and provide the kind of services with no resources, both human and financial, to be able to respond to these growing needs in the community.

And and as always, you like to end the week on a high note to set the mojo.

Going into the weekend.

Patty, I ran into many fans of PBS 12 at two great events Wednesday night.

Colorado Music Hall of Fame inducted a new class of businesses that have been really supportive to the music community, like Listen Up and Twist and Shout.

That was a great group.

And over at History Colorado, the Stephen at Heart Preservation Awards went to some incredible projects around around the state, one even helping child care.

And it's kudos to everyone and thanks for watching.

David, one of the greatest journalists ever in Colorado, Fred Brown, who passed away a few days ago.

He started writing for the Denver Post became a legislative reporter, then political editor, and then a columnist after that.

He was respected universally for being truly fair, balanced and wise.

After he retired in 2002, he became head of the Society of Professional Journalists, helped shape its code of ethics, and also taught media ethics at Du for 15 years.

What a great guy.

Great guy.

Jesse Colder Springs Marion Mobility announced that his new Chief of Staff is former color Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who, married mobile lot of beat in the 2023 election.

So I thought that was kind of an interesting moment of political unity in this time of political disunity.

Okay.

I want to give a big shout out to the Latin American Educational Foundation.

They're one of the oldest Latino, organizations here in the state.

This weekend, they'll be celebrating their 76th year and have given out more than 8000 scholarships helping students achieve their educational and American dream.

Very nice.

And my high is a shout out to those taking care of aging parents.

I know people who are solo agers and single, who are also the caretaker for an aging parent.

People who do everything from living with their aging parents to trying to navigate this journey with aging parents who live out of state.

Check on your friends who are dealing with aging parents and don't be afraid to have the hard conversations.

Your circle can be a great source of support.

Thank you all for watching along with us or listening to us on our podcast.

Available on Spotify and Apple.

I'm Alton Dillard and I'll see you next week here on PBS 12.

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