Federal spending cuts and layoffs are all the talk these days.

But here in Colorado, our state legislators are also trying to find areas to make cuts in our budget.

And Colorado has hit a huge milestone on this February the 28th.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Well, buckle up and get ready to take off with us on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer, and welcome to Colorado Inside Out.

Let me get right to our insider panel.

This week I have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Also David Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute Ed Sea Lover, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Colorado Chamber of Commerce and editor of The Sum and Substance.

And Penfield Tate, Denver attorney and community leader who served in both the Senate and the House of the Colorado Legislature.

On this stage 30 years ago, February the 28th, 1995, Denver International Airport opened for business.

Three decades later, DIA or Denver, as it's now called, is Colorado's largest economic engine, contributing billions of dollars to our state's economy.

And it is one of Colorado's largest employers.

Patty, I want to start with you.

Well, it opened on February 28th, but it was late opening.

That was just one of the disasters leading into Denver International Airport.

Originally, people scoffed when Federico Pena said, let's put it out in Adams County, you had a vote of annexation that passed, but the original architect had to be fired.

They brought in Kurt Fentress to figure out that tent roof.

At the very last second, we had the baggage claim that eight suitcases.

That's why the automatic baggage claim never worked.

We had continental pulling out right before the airport did finally open disaster after disaster.

But then, against all odds, the airport seems to have really taken off.

Literally, it's the third busiest airport in the country, although the signage is still abysmal from all the construction there.

Phil Washington, the current CEO, swears that the Great Hall construction will be done in 2027 and other projects on the concourses are done early.

And of course, we still have Lucifer.

It was 13 years late, but we have Lucifer still protecting this city from all the demons out there.

Where did you get that really cool keychain history?

Colorado.

You could ask Penn about it.

Okay.

All right, all right.

David, your thoughts on Dia and its impact?

In fact, Lucifer is the portal through which demons enter the city.

on the the economic impact.

Obviously, it must be large, but it's hard to tell because what the Colorado Department of Transportation put out was this eight page executive summary.

It's beautiful, glossy.

They did a swell job on it.

But the technical data, they say that he had some coming until April.

So we have no way of verifying what's in here or really seeing the facts and figures about how they calculated it.

And I'm a little skeptical about the size of the economic impact they claim, But overall, as Patty said, it has become a big success.

Denver International Airport, actually, for its first decade, was no more international than Stapleton had been.

Just it just had it had flights to Canada and Mexico, which is fine.

But that was it.

However, in the last decade, that's really improved.

I think there are now 24 international destinations served, with a whole bunch of transit landed flights to Europe and also many flights to Central America and the Caribbean.

And when they talk about the economic impact, the number in that report is $47.2 billion, was contributed to our state's economy in 2023.

That's what these figures are from.

And that's the number you doubt.

Because it's you got the direct impact.

But their multiplier effect seems to be a, I'm I'm skeptical on that one, at least until we see the figures.

Well, I feel like when I fly, it's always busy at Denver International Airport.

And your thought.

Well, I mean, I think that's what you see is what a lot of people say.

Third busiest airport in America.

That's what people think about.

I think when you're looking at this from a business perspective, and I'm not going to weigh in on what the exact economic impact is here, but this is the perspective.

The business looks at it as, when a company is looking to relocate or possibly expand to Colorado, there are a couple of things that they always look at.

Those are things like labor costs and things like cost of doing business and cost of living here.

Things like the regulatory atmosphere in Colorado is not doing well in any of those.

Yet.

Companies also say ease of transportation throughout the country and to the world.

And that is what Dia offers to us.

I mean, we're in the middle of the country.

Denver should not be a place that should be this easy to get to.

We're not on the East Coast, where everything is linked by a series of highways.

But yet, because of the IRS presence, companies have been able to expand out here.

They can get products out quite easily.

They can get people in from both across the country and across the world quite easily to visit them here.

and I think that's the biggest impact is it has led to an internationalization of Colorado's business economy.

And we haven't looked back since it opened.

And you know, Dia is a testament to having a big vision and having the political will to bring it into reality.

We remember the mayor who told us, imagine a great city, and everybody thought it was a catch line.

It was more than that.

But did you know Mayor Pena was was really prescient in this regard?

He knew and understood that we needed something to kickstart the state.

And I give Governor Romer credit because it wasn't the state's project.

But Governor Romer put on that bomber jacket and did a whole bunch of oatmeal breakfasts all around the state in the area to get people to sign on, because he understood the importance.

the East and West coast are getting more and more congested.

So Denver becomes an attractive destination for people to to live and work.

And now that post-Covid you can work remotely, it becomes even more attractive because you can live here.

And if you have to go to your job on the East or West Coast, it's pretty easy to get there from Denver.

All right.

Pressing question since you brought the prop who's four against Lucifer.

Oh, you're no oh.

For a devil.

Are you kidding?

I reject Satan always works.

Works okay.

Prove it during this show.

Lucifer is fantastic.

All right.

we're.

The airport is a powerful economic force for Colorado.

Our state is still facing a growing budget shortfall of 1.2 billion.

That's up from the originally estimated 1 billion as Medicaid costs continue to go up.

So speaking of Medicaid, the state is disputing a federal court that it paid insurance companies for Medicaid care to patients who are dead, which led Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to post this week on ABC's.

Who is ready for Colorado Doge?

David, I'll start with you.

I think probably the most taxpayers in the state are ready for a careful line by line review of the Colorado state budget But it shouldn't be done like Doge, which is in the Silicon Valley mode of move, move fast and break things.

on the Medicaid fraud thing.

this comes on the heels of the Colorado Department, which dispenses Medicare Medicaid money, having failed federal and state audits for fraud prevention in 2018, 2019 and 2022. some people in the state legislature blame the tax payers bill of rights.

But the fact is, according to the National Tax Foundation, Colorado's tax competitiveness is already the worst of the money that's spent in the state budget annually $40 billion, now $10 billion more than when Governor Polis took office.

Half of that is already exempt from Tabor.

And Tabor says that unless the voters consent, the size of government increase should be at the rate of population increase plus inflation.

If we'd stuck to that when we had a 6 or $7 billion budget the year before Tabor was enacted, we would have a $26 billion budget today.

Instead, it's a $40 billion budget, 61% higher.

Now, some of that extra was approved by the voters, which is proper under Tabor, but a great deal of it wasn't with sleazy mechanisms that the Colorado Supreme Court allows for evasions, like calling a tax a fee, such as the recent increases in the gasoline tax.

I think the Medicaid issue is one that's starting to pop up.

And I want to give one example of how that was very relevant just this week.

hospitals, don't love Medicaid.

It pays about $0.72 on the dollar.

but they love Medicaid a lot more than people coming in uninsured, which usually pays $0.00 on the dollar.

just this week, the legislature passed along for, its first hearing, a bill that would cap the amount that hospitals can charge to small group plans.

Those are insured, employers with 100 or less employees.

and also to the state's plan.

Not not Medicaid, but its actual employees.

The 60,000 that it insures.

and hospitals are worried like heck about this.

They're saying, look, we're already seeing higher acuity in Medicaid, patients, which means we're getting paid less to do more.

we're seeing higher uninsured rates coming in.

And now we are capping, at about 165% of Medicare's cost, Medicare, which doesn't pay 100% of the cost either.

the idea that that some insurers can only pass so much.

So that's a long way of saying we're going to keep talking about these things, and Medicaid is going to play up in a lot of different ways, especially when we're talking about what's going to keep our hospitals sustainable.

Okay.

Penn.

You know with respect to David, everybody's talking Medicaid, Medicare and everything else.

And candidly we're just farting around on the edges because that's not the point.

It's time to take a big swing like Federico Pena did.

The real problem is the straitjacket we have placed on ourselves with Tabor tapers.

Contrary to the American ethic of collective work together, kind of like a barn raising.

It's an artificial limit that says you can only grow by inflation plus population growth.

Well, you know what?

The world doesn't get locked in to inflation plus population growth.

Sometimes you need to invest more to get where you need to be.

At some point, we need to wake up and say, none of this stuff makes sense.

We need to get rid of Tabor amendment 23, all of it, and let the legislature do its job as a representative organization.

Craft a budget that addresses the collective needs of the state based on what the consensus is.

When money short, reduce the budget when money's there, address needs and invest for the future.

Nobody's being taxed more.

The problem is we've created limitations on using the money we have based on the current tax structure.

All right, Patty.

And think about it.

Tabor was passed in 92.

So even before Denver International Airport opened, we've been talking for more than three decades about does Tabor need to be fixed, how to fix it?

I think one of the first things to do is to set the time, even though economically it looks like it's time for some kind of fix.

David's right in the sense that you need to look through every line item on that budget, find out where there might be waste, where it's not really a priority for Colorado.

But then we need to figure out what kind of budget do we really need in Colorado.

So we have roads that work.

The airports are going to continue working, but how do we get the services we need in the meantime?

We're looking at early childhood education cuts coming next week and places I think Coloradans will really be concerned to hear about.

And one other thing we need to do this on an open, bipartisan basis.

People often talk to me.

The Tabor was to deal with Texans, been Democrats.

the Republican controlled both chambers of the legislature when Tabor was passed.

So that was not the reason for Tabor.

We need to take a step back, take a breath, and recognize Colorado in 2025.

Doesn't look like Colorado in 1992.

It does not.

okay.

All right.

Thank you all.

this week, Colorado House Republicans and Democrats agreeing on a bill that promotes nuclear energy.

HB 1040, House Bill 1040 is now off to the state Senate for consideration.

And this is a big deal, because efforts to add nuclear power to the list of clean energy resources have failed before.

And I'll start with you.

Not just failed, but in the past two sessions, they went to their first committee and died first on a party line vote.

And then I'm pretty close to party line vote.

This is an idea that suddenly sprang up and gathered a lot of support in this off session, seemingly.

Now, I think part of that is the fact that the federal government has been pushing nuclear energy as well.

That came from a Democratic president, Joe Biden.

and so I think some in the Democratic Party are starting to get on board with it.

And that's actually why this is advancing.

the House co-sponsor is, Representative Alex Valdez, who is a former, executive in a renewable energy company and is a big renewable energy proponent.

And he says, look, we cannot hit our emissions reduction goals without out, nuclear energy.

Now, a lot of environmental groups say, look, this is not clean energy.

Yeah, maybe it doesn't have any emissions associated with it, but you still have waste that has to be stored for thousands of years.

That is not clean.

However, that voice is being overshadowed now by Republicans are saying this is the all the above energy economy.

We want it.

We want to be able to include nuclear and just to be clear, this isn't going to bring nuclear here next year.

It's just going to open people up to consider nuclear more.

and Democrats who say, look, we got to cut emissions.

This is one way to do it, this is a big idea that the legislature ought to be looking at.

I don't know if I'm for or against this, but we know that we we've got a climate, issue.

we know that we need to do things to address it, reduce emissions.

And if nuclear is one of all of the above, that may work.

Assuming you figure out the waste disposal and storage piece, it's worth examining because we know we're going to have ongoing needs for power generation.

And maybe this is one of the solutions.

There are a bunch of smart scientists out there.

Give them free rein to start figuring some of this stuff out.

And Ed, wasn't there discussions at the state Capitol this week to create a new workforce development program to get people trained in this field?

Yes.

Yeah, that that bill is caught up in the budget talks right now, but that is also bipartisan pushing to get, career training in nuclear workforce.

I like hearing the bipartisan of this.

Patty.

I remember last year when I saw that Diana DeGette was talking about this in Congress.

So I'm like, wait, this is definitely a sea change.

It's not a surprise that Chris Wright, our new energy secretary who's from Denver, is talking about it.

He spoke about it down in New Mexico, but that the Colorado legislature is now looking at it, that people like Diana DeGette are saying this is something we have to explore.

just shows things have changed.

And it's just how bad other energy sources have become.

Coal, the other pollutants are in this world.

We have to remember that Rocky Flats was a weapons plant.

Rocky flats was not a power plant like the, beleaguered fort saying rain.

That really never worked.

But the the challenges we still face from Rocky Flats were an issue of poor management, poor waste disposal.

Not it was not a power plant.

So we have to keep that in mind as we keep talking about this.

Okay.

Yeah.

And when I worked at the Colorado Attorney General's office, I was somewhat involved in the Rocky Flats cleanup in which had a mother, among other things, tons of hazardous waste.

So I agree, our new Colorado nuclear plants should not do a sideline of manufacturing nuclear weapons, which was Rocky Flats job.

So nuclear energy is the safest, cleanest and best energy source.

And that's already being demonstrated in the 28 American states that use it.

And in France, which gets the vast majority of its power from nuclear in North Carolina during Winter Storm Elliot, lots of other energy sources went offline.

And you had rolling brownouts, but the nuclear plants stayed 100% operational the whole time.

The environmental footprint of a nuclear plant is much smaller than from wind and solar.

They need lots of rare earth materials, and lots of rare earth materials come from child labor in poor countries and awful environmental degradation for mining also at home.

Nuclear is harmless to wildlife, unlike wind turbines, which, according to the American Bird Conservancy, kill all, kill over a million birds per year.

Wow.

Okay, that's not good.

thank you for that little factoid.

I can think of that every time I see a turbine.

we started off the show talking about one really big Colorado business.

But, of course, small businesses employ a lot of people in Colorado and contribute a lot to the state's economy.

According to the Small Business Administration, in 2024, Colorado had over 715,000 small businesses.

And despite those kinds of numbers this week, the Small Business Administration projected plans to move its regional headquarters out of Denver because of the city's immigration policies.

No timeline for that.

But I should mention the regional, SBA office here covers Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, North and South Dakota.

It's a big office here.

And I'll start with you.

You know, it's interesting, first of all, factually, a significant portion of the workforce works in small businesses as is defined by the SBA.

There's no disputing that it is important.

And the new SBA director, when she was appointed said, quote, small businesses are the backbone of our nation, driving innovation, job creation and prosperity.

close quote.

And she talks about how she and President Trump are big supporters of small business.

President Trump did not make his career in a small business.

The new SBA director spent 30 years in two tech companies, both of which were traded on the new York Stock Exchange.

So you have people talking about we love small business who have no experience in small business.

If you had experience in small business, setting aside your political philosophy, you wouldn't move the office to service small businesses to some remote place away from the population centers.

The density where the number of small businesses are.

so you need to set some of the ancillary political doctrine and philosophy aside.

I'd like them to spend time talking to small businesses and ask what can we do to make your lives better and easier?

Okay?

Patty.

It is a punishment of Denver that the SBA office will be moved out of here, but there are plenty of other places they can move it.

Lakewood, for example, which has so much federal, so many federal offices, so many federal employees.

And now we're hearing that a lot of those offices are going to be leaving, leaving empty space in Lakewood.

If you have to move it out of Denver, put it in Lakewood, still close enough to Dia.

And what's really critical is that the small businesses that need help, and I can tell you, you don't loan the SBA does not loan a brand new newspaper because we certainly tried.

But the ones that can work through their programs, help them be there, because they're going to be a lot of people unemployed.

We're going to be looking to starting new businesses because they've been laid off by the government.

So we are we're in for a big mess here.

David.

Well, your plan, about the this huge federal complex in Lakewood, which from some of what I've heard is drastically under occupied right now, that makes a lot of sense to to move to, for existing office space.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler promised that the move would be to less costly, more accessible locations.

So as long as they don't move it to Boulder, it's going to be less costly.

On the other hand, in this states, you mentioned eastern Colorado.

Denver is is at the far southeastern edge of all that.

So you could certainly get a more central location within those upper Midwest and upper Rocky Mountain states that that this regional office serves.

Okay.

All right.

And I'm glad we're talking about small businesses.

And certainly the federal government has some impact on them, but the state government often has more.

I know just last week you were talking about the tip, credit bill and small restaurants.

There's another one that was started moving through this week that's going to affect small businesses.

It's a bill to expand the ability for people who are suing, for violations of disability rights, to add on things like emotional damages, up to $50,000 and to expand the amount of time they have to sue.

This is particularly a bill that worries small businesses because large businesses often have H.R people.

Legal counsel who can tell you where to hang the signs, exactly how you have to make your business successful.

Small restaurants, small shops don't.

And they're worried that they're inadvertent violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act or something going to get caught up in what can now be much more attractive and larger lawsuits.

And I think the the, the plea from the business community, the legislators think about this.

Let's, you know, let's make sure bad actors are getting punished.

But let's not draw in the good actors who are trying to be good citizens.

And facing a $50,000 lawsuit could be looking at shutting down and said.

Okay, All right, let's go down the line now and talk about some of the highs and lows, that have been happening this week.

We'll start on a low note and we'll start with Patty.

I'm returning to the airport and a decision made several years ago before Phil Washington got over there.

And it's the reason we have the mess at the Great Hall we have now, which was the contract the Denver City Council approved.

That was for 30 years to have a Spanish company, company, Ferrovial, redo the Great Hall.

It was appalling.

The city council should never have passed it.

Good for us getting out of it.

We're still paying for that.

But city council members need to remember their votes matter.

Yeah they do okay.

The Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team, the Ore Diggers, last week won their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season, and they are now ranked as the number five team in the nation in their Division two play.

Okay, unfortunately, we reported the first, death from measles in a decade this week in Texas.

I understand that vaccines have become a political hot button, but folks, this isn't about the government.

This is about private businesses that research and work for decades to come up with.

These vaccines had basically eliminated these diseases in America.

And these businesses that are creating these vaccines only get paid if they do it well.

And if they save the population, people need to think twice when they're refusing to vaccine because of the government, when it's not the government creating vaccines.

Okay.

Yeah.

Similar to to Ed's point, it's both state and federal level.

this reliance on voodoo economics when we need to sit down and talk common sense on a federal and state level about how you manage the money that people pay in taxes at the federal and state level, you can't fix the budget with a chainsaw, as one person has been waving around, and you aren't going to fix the state budget without addressing the heart issues.

We need our elected representatives to step up and start thinking through problems more thoroughly.

Okay.

All right, a high note, Patty.

Go along with the airport construction Kpbs more great art at the airport, but if you really want to see great art this weekend, month of photography starts in Denver.

It's a great it's more it's more than 100 exhibits involved, and there are almost no smaller businesses than artists.

So go out and support.

Where.

All over town.

Okay.

Month of photography.

You can find it online.

Okay.

All right.

Month.

I accidentally gave my high thing first.

I am for the Colorado School of Mines audio lessons.

Let's be clear about that.

another high.

The DaVinci, the DaVinci Museum that's going to open in Pueblo.

Putting Pueblo in this regard on the scale level of London.

Paris, not even not even London.

They don't have one.

Paris, Seoul, South Korea will have life sized bills of da Vinci machines made from his sketches at the facility.

Also hopes to one day open up a planetarium.

And they're located very close to the Arkansas River Walk in Pueblo, so, folks, when you get when you get a chance, go down there and check it.

Out, okay?

We'll do.

It's going to be great.

For many years, businesses have been complaining about a lack of skills they need in the job applicants are seeing graduating from local schools.

My organization, the Colorado Chamber, has worked with the State Office of Economic Development and with groups like Colorado succeeds for years to create a new initiative that launched this week called the Regional Talent Summit Program, in which businesses and educational institutions sit down, talk about what the skills are needed, and figure out how in partnership they can bring about those in the pipeline.

The first meeting was in Greeley on Tuesday.

It went fantastically.

Look forward to six more meetings to really get this conversation ramped up.

That sounds great.

Okay.

yes.

The ALC Club of Denver, formed in 1941, in Northeast City Park, is having their clubhouse designated on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

it has the longest running debutante cotillion in the state, 74 years.

This year, celebrating and presenting, African American women.

So congratulations to the Owl Club.

Congratulations, Denver, for supporting the organization over 89 years.

And how long have you had that?

since I became a member 30 years ago.

Excellent.

All right.

Thanks for bringing the props this week, everybody.

Very good.

My positive is that this coming Wednesday, Colorado actor Jenna Bainbridge will start her run in Wicked on Broadway playing Nessa Rose, the Wicked Witch of the East, and younger sister of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

If you have seen the play or the movie, you know that Nessa Rose uses a wheelchair, as does Jenna.

Because of a neurological issue that led to a spinal cord injury when she was a younger girl.

Believe it or not, this is going to be the first time the wheelchair using, which will be played by a wheelchair using actor in the Broadway production of wicked, which started back in 2003, Jenna went to a Cassville high school as an actor.

There she joined family as a teenager.

Families, of course.

Denver's theater company that features exceptional actors with disabilities.

She went to Deuce Lamont School of Music.

She's been the Shakespeare Festival, the Fox Theater, DPA, you name it.

But this is her first time, she's been on Broadway before, her first time playing a first on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater.

I think that's wonderful.

Congrats to Jenna, and thank you, panel for joining us this week.

Very good conversation.

I have learned a lot.

Thank you for watching.

Hope you have learned as well or listening to our podcast.

I am Kyle Dyer and we'll see you next week.

Next month here on PBS 12.

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