Hi, everyone.

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

On this Friday, January the 10th, let me introduce you to this week's insider panel.

We have Patti Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Erickson and columnist for Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette.

And Marianne Goodland, chief legislative reporter for Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette.

And Adam Berg, senior policy advisor at Foster Graham Law Firm.

Before we get started talking about all things Colorado, I want to address the wildfires that have destroyed neighborhoods and in California and taken lives.

It was just a little over three years ago when a community here was wiped out in the deadly Marshall fire.

And you all have written or reported on that fire multiple times and policies following it.

And and I'm sure you've looked at stats, you know, as you do, I just would love your thoughts about what can Californians what can we expect for California going forward from what we learned here Well, you could look at a lot of heartache and also fights with insurance companies.

We've seen health insurance is a big issue.

Start of the year we're going to see homeowners insurance is a big issue, too.

I also think we might be seeing the end of Gavin Newsom as the presidential aspirations.

not to mention Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, who even despite all the fire warnings and the fact the Santa Ana winds were coming and the risk was high, decided to get on a plane for gone off for some ceremonial function there.

We've been paying particular attention to this one.

My wife grew up in Pasadena, you know, she graduated from high school in the Rose Bowl, and the Rose Bowl itself is now threatened.

It's just a horrific hellscape.

Marianne, I'm watching the the insurance issue, not only from the perspective of what it's going to do to homeowners insurance rates, both in California and frankly, it's going to have an impact here too, as well as looking at what it does to, homeowner homeowners association fees.

my, my HOA fees went up by $119 a month.

The biggest increase since we've lived in our in our home.

And it's all due to high claims.

Florida, California, Colorado, hail, wildfires, that kind of thing.

So we're going to be in for, and the folks in California, too, are going to be some really tough years.

Getting insurance in California is going to be nigh on to impossible after this.

All right, Adam.

we may see increased conversations as well about the Colorado River compact and negotiations around the future of water policy around the West.

I also think possibly more national conversations about climate.

I think this shows that climate doesn't care about your salary or your zip code.

Seeing the homes of Hollywood stars burning and then talking about it on TV in a very urban setting, which is sort of what we saw in Colorado just a few years ago.

so increased, I think, conversations about what, as a country, are there going to be policy shifts?

How do we address this, especially with the new administration?

Okay.

All right.

on Thursday, Governor Jared Polis delivered his seventh state of the state address before the legislature and said Colorado leaders must push for affordability, livability and sustainability.

Yet he also acknowledged that cuts need to be made in the state's budget.

Governor Polis also acknowledged the incoming changes in leadership in Washington and, as expected, throw in some of those cultural references he likes to do in all of his speeches.

what stands out to you all from what he said yesterday?

Well, here in the free state of Colorado, we can say just about we can speak freely about this speech.

He had Jimmy Carter in there.

He had Taylor Swift in there.

He of course, I do have star Trek in there.

but he also mixed some topics that were really fascinating that he got into.

We knew he would talk about the union issue because that is going to be huge.

We knew he would talk about housing affordability issue.

charter schools was a little bit of a surprise.

The biggest surprise, though, I think for most people, was how he took some of the Trump rhetoric regarding immigration and deportation and talked about how we didn't want any criminal elements coming in, how we didn't want drugs coming in, how we didn't want the crime coming in.

But he did borrow a little bit of the language, and that had people concerned on the Democratic and the Democratic side.

And let's also remember here in Colorado, Jay, Jared Polis is free to say he's free to not be a traditional Democrat.

He can be a renegade.

And he certainly did that again this time.

Well, I think it was notable the speech was notable as much for what he didn't address as what he did there was no mention of wolves.

Instead, we have cattle rustling, which all of a sudden elevated to the list of us, I mean, to the rank of a state of the state speech.

I did find he that he put down an interesting gantlet on the Labor Peace Act.

He didn't say was going to veto it, but he basically said, if you can't get something that has both labor and business reasonably happy with it, that he's going to look askance at it.

And this whole emphasis on the free state of Colorado, I thought it was a little overdone and a little limited in its definition.

When he defined the Free State of Colorado, it was always the freedom to marry who you want and the freedom of reproductive choice, both of which are very popular in Colorado.

But he neglected other freedoms.

I we're not, you know, talking about the freedom to know what's going on under the gold dome, i.e.

the freedom of transparent government, which has been jeopardized over the last year or two by that legislature.

So it struck me as a narrow definition of this great free state.

Okay, Mary Ann, you're there.

We've been there all week.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes, 117 days ago.

there were a couple of of topics that he spoke in support of that he has not been supportive of in the past, which I found really fascinating.

One is a wage theft issue that, Majority Leader Monica Duran, ran a bill on last year, and he vetoed.

the other thing he voiced support for that he has been absolutely silent on is construction defects reform.

And, when you look at all the affordability, housing issues that the legislature has worked on, the one area that has been completely ignored by the governor, at least, and by a lot of Democrats, is condo construction.

And that's the entry point for young families who want to start building wealth, buying their own homes.

It's the exit point for seniors who want to downsize.

but the fact that he was even mentioning it, the speech I found interesting, the other thing that he talked about was a bill on guns.

This is a bill that's being run by senators Tom Sullivan and Julie Gonzalez, and it is a de facto assault weapons ban.

There were two things that he didn't mention that I found fascinating.

Number one, every year he was asked for a reduction or elimination of the state income tax.

That didn't come up.

The other thing that he really didn't get into is water.

And that has been a huge issue in Colorado, but not in this speech.

Adam.

Something that stood out to me was also public safety and crime.

I think the governor sort of picked up the mantle for this year talking about reducing youth violence.

He also doubled down on proposition 130, which was that $350 million fund for officer retention, training and support for families specific mentioning that as well as, Golden Officer Evan Dunn and his family, what stands out to me most right now in session is both sides talk about saving people money, reducing cost.

And they introduced 126 bills on the first day of session, many of them new regulation, many of them potentially increasing cost on Coloradans.

I used to joke that, you know, the first bill each session should be to adjourn for the year and maybe take a year off to allow some of these new laws to come into place.

So I'm expecting another 600 to 800 bills and 120 days.

And yet again, we will spend our time trying to, implement.

Them 126 already on the first day.

All right.

Let's talk about what we can expect from our lawmakers this session.

we have a lot of new lawmakers.

We have some new appointments that were filled this week by vacancy committees.

Eric, what are you expecting on the question of new lawmakers, just in this last week, we have three new state senators not elected by voters, but elected, selected through this very inter exclusive vacancy committee process.

But if you're asking the voters for their confidence, you have to take that seriously.

And it just struck me as very, very cavalier.

Whether it's Chris Hansen, even Janet Buckner, wonderful woman, did yeoman's service to the state, There is something fundamentally wrong with the process by which so many of our legislators are selected, not elected.

And lastly, the notion of educational deserts, basically places where schools are underperforming.

There's been a long track record of kids underachieve being and to provide parents their with more options than they otherwise have.

I think that's going to be certainly an emphasis of James Coleman, and hopefully it goes somewhere.

Okay.

All right.

Marianne.

the one thing that we haven't touched on yet is the budget.

we have a $700 million shortfall, heading into the 25, 26 budget that the Joint Budget Committee will have to figure out in the coming weeks.

And once, a lot of that is being driven by Medicaid, costs.

Colorado did a pretty quick job of getting people who had gone onto Medicaid during the pandemic and getting them back off the rolls, but what they were left with was high utilization by those who are still on those rolls.

And that's driving a lot of the short budget shortfall.

the other issue that is, going to be very big in this session is the whole issue of regulation.

this is Republicans favorite topic right now.

They want to see, a lot of winnowing down of regulation.

And, and fees.

I like the, the grocery bag fee.

I know there's a bill coming from, House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese on this.

I think there's also going to be a bill to get rid of the retail delivery fee that was imposed in, the 2021 session.

So, those are going to be some, some very, very hot topics in this, this legislative session.

I think the fight over the budget is going to be the biggest fight this year.

Not a lot of money for new programs.

higher education is going to be watching sort of their funding.

What does this mean for them?

Because they're typically the first to potentially get cut.

so I think it's going to be mostly a fiscal battle this year.

And then obviously fighting over the major issues like labor peace, act like construction defect, like wage theft, which may take some time to weed out over the next four months.

And the fact that lawmakers have to make room for what voters wanted.

The 350 million, for to help support police, that's going to that has to figure somewhere in that budget.

It's not the whole 350.

Okay.

that there is no timeline for when that money has to be spent.

Now the governor wants to see it started this year, particularly on the issue of, covering families of fallen officers.

But that won't be the whole.

That's not all of it.

I want to talk about the fact that we don't see people playing nice.

Even on Wednesday, you had six people who refused to certify the results of the election.

Extreme Republicans who we can see, it's the definitely the MAGA branch of the Republican Party who didn't want to certify the election.

And in fact, if it hadn't been certified, one of them had just been elected for the first time and wouldn't have been able to sit down.

So we're seeing that people do not have a problem expressing themselves in ways that are counter to their party, maybe to the good of Colorado.

So we're going to see a lot of that.

I also think people don't realize this is a citizen legislature.

It's four months technically of the year for these people.

They are.

And what, 47,000 if they're a new senator?

Meanwhile, full time workers at the legislature are the lobbyists who are in a lot more in many cases and do actually work behind the scenes and influence a lot of things.

So they are people to watch during this session.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Wednesday night, after a daylong hearing, Colorado Parks and Wildlife rejected a petition to take a pause on the release of a second round of Gray Wolves.

This almost unanimous decision was made after CPW received a $582,000 bill from ranchers in Grand County, whose cattle and sheep were killed by wolves that were released in the first year of the reintroduction project, which, we remind everybody, was passed by voters.

This whole idea of reintroduction, voters passed it in 2020.

Marianne, I'm going to start with you.

the decision to reject that petition is as was not a surprise to anyone.

we knew the administration would be opposed to it.

We knew the head of CPW was not likely to to take up that cause.

So if anybody was surprised by it, and then they're fooling themselves because there was no question that they were going to put a halt on this.

I think there is at least some hope, by the ranching community, that the Trump administration will step in into this, when, wolves were delisted, under the Trump administration and then relisted, by the Biden administration.

So, you could if they are delisted from the Endangered Species Act, that kind of changes the narrative or the potential for the narrative on this.

As to that $582,000 bill.

and that's not all of it.

There's going to be more, And most of these claims are related to low, low conception rates for cattle who are very stressed and low weights when they get to market because they're not eating, they're they're too afraid to openly graze.

So this has turned into an incredibly expensive and a considerably more expensive proposition than was sold to the voters by the Wolf Advocate community back in 2020.

And there's already people trying to get it back on the ballot again.

We'll see.

Yes, we do have a group that has formed.

It's very new.

it's being run by Patrick Davis, who was the 2016 chair of the Colorado Trump campaign.

so they want they want to get that repeal on the ballot in the 2026 election.

So whether it's wolves or wolverines or, you know, big cats on the last ballot, it highlights these issues, the divide between urban and rural Colorado.

there's a higher voting population, obviously, within the metro area.

And at times they are making decisions, on behalf of the state.

And I think that is creating a divide with folks who don't live down near Denver.

And they see these bills coming into play, and it's having a very real and very direct impact on their lives and their livelihood.

We here in the metro area, don't see that as much.

We don't have wolves, you know, running around the 16 Street mall.

I think this is going to be an issue that's going to also continue to play out at the Capitol this year.

You are going to see whether it's transportation, agriculture, rural legislators really stepping up this year to talk about these issues.

Well, we did see it.

Just even talking about the cattle rustling issue and the punishment that Polis was talking about.

That petition, they announced they were filing it.

They put in the language, last Friday.

I think we will definitely see it on the 2026 ballot.

It would be not to pause the program, to end the program.

And I think it has a pretty good chance of passing depending on what happens, because people in the urban area who really have listened to the ranchers feel badly about their votes in some, in some cases.

So the fight is going to continue and it'll be in the legislature and it'll be at the ballot box.

I agree with Patty.

I think there's substantial buyer's remorse out there.

This is a serious group of people.

Patrick Davis is a serious political consultant behind the repeal measure.

They need to make it bypass.

It isn't it can't just be a a very MAGA kind of Republican thing, but I think that will come with time.

Personally, I'm only as we speak there are wolves.

Another batch of wolves on their way here from British Columbia.

Given the tensions between the US and Canada with Trump in coming, I only wish that the Canadians had just said no thank you.

Or maybe Donald Trump could slap a tariff, on the new batch of wolves.

Or somehow it seems like, you know what Trump refers to as the great 51st state of Canada, could have come to our aid in this one.

Okay.

All right.

This week started with the release of a scathing editorial written by Aurora's mayor, directed toward Denver's mayor, and the ongoing claims that Denver is responsible for sending migrants into Aurora.

Mike Coffman of Aurora is asking Mike Johnston of Denver to, as he calls it, tell the truth about what he did.

It is not good, Adam.

When these two neighboring cities, their leaders and their big cities are not getting along, I don't see how this is going to calm down.

It's it's not good.

I had the pleasure of actually working for the Johnston administration at one point, and I can tell you it's disappointing to see this sort of dynamic playing out in the city of Denver over a several year period took in over 40,000 people, who arrived here.

And I should say tokens maybe loose where they arrived here without the city having much say.

And the city's responsibility was on to figure out what do we do.

And you'll recall that Congress was completely ineffective in addressing any border solution.

They also weren't effective in providing funding.

so I think it was sort of the Wild West at the time.

The thing I would remind people is when people arrived in Denver, they were, you know, essentially checked in and registered that they arrived.

And then, you know, this is America.

They were free to move about the metro area or move to other states or move on, you know, to to other areas of this country.

And so it's it's a complicated dynamic.

I hope they can resolve this, in a respectful way.

But it is disappointing to see that the mayor of Aurora, surprised the mayor of Denver with sort of this op ed Patty.

And it was also interesting that on Sunday, about 4:00, the media got an announcement that Johnston was giving a speech talking to the media the next morning.

So that's pretty quick to talk about your years triumphs.

No more warning than, what, 16, 20 hours?

so I don't know if he got wind of the Coffman thing.

He wanted attention.

But what I would like to see, perhaps we could do it if Polis didn't do it.

Have them sit down together in a public gathering.

Talk openly.

The city of Aurora deserves it.

The migrants deserve it.

The people working with the migrants who feel completely besieged, the nonprofits they deserve.

But we need a clear reckoning of what's happening.

And then a decision on where we're going from here.

Because the migrants are still here.

You have DPS suddenly has more students than has had since 2019 because of the addition of migrants.

So that's going to help them with funding.

But these are all interlocking issues we have to talk about.

I don't find it surprising that there's tension between the city of Aurora and the city of Denver.

I mean, they have different agendas, somewhat different needs.

Tension is fine.

I found the column written by Mayor Coffman not in Aurora, to be overly harsh.

in terms of Mayor Johnston here in Denver, his touting the accomplishments in his scorecard of the last year, whatever we are do as a community.

And Lord knows I don't have the answer.

I'm not sure anyone around this table has the answer.

But switching from the migrant issue to the homelessness issue, those numbers just continue to be disturbing.

No matter what we do, no matter how much money we invest in it or throw at it, And the strategies we have just are not working.

And there needs to be a real, honest assessment of what we're doing and conversation about.

Does this all make sense and does it have a good outcome?

Marianne I was sort of fascinated by that column juxtaposed with a letter that was sent to the legislature and the governor yesterday from Mayor Coffman, Mayor Johnston and the mayor of Colorado Springs, whose name I always mispronounce.

so and, and it was focused on three issues.

Construction defects was one juvenile justice was the second, the third was public safety and crime.

And as I read that letter, I was looking for something to, you know, to address the migrant, the migrant issue that the mayor Coffman was so upset about.

It wasn't there?

primarily it was dealing with sort of just regular crime.

I don't know if that's the right word for it, but but wanting to deal with with the larger public safety issue.

So while Coffman and Johnson may be going after each other right now, about over this migrant issue, they do have, they do have ways to work together and express that to the legislature and to the governor this week.

Okay.

Let's talk about some of the highs and the lows from this week.

Let's start with a low point so we can on a good note for the week.

Patty, I'll start with you.

Shockingly, there were no longhorn cattle in the stock show parade on Thursday.

Everyone likes to see them.

The good news is that you can still go to the stock show where they'll be on parade on the 18th.

They'll be in the Wild West shows.

It's definitely worth getting to the stock show this year.

all the city I think is excited about the Broncos finally breaking the long drought and qualifying for the playoffs.

We'll see if it's, a decent playoff run or if it ends quickly in Buffalo this weekend.

But something about the way the Broncos made the playoffs, the way Kansas City completely tanked.

That is not good for the integrity of the sport.

Yes, Denver was the beneficiary of that in this case, but there'll be some time in the future when Denver is the victim of that.

There should be an obligation on professional sports franchises, not to tank, to put in an effort.

it was unseemly.

To not even score at all for Kansas City.

I know Marion.

Judge Marshawn, the New York judge who presided over the trial of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts, passed sentencing Friday morning.

And no fines, no jail time, no probation, no nothing, which I found rather interesting, given that Trump fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court this week to prevent that, that sentencing, and it wound up being nothing.

Denver is just the latest city this week to move forward with legislation restricting gas stations.

This is something we've actually seen across the metro area, across the country as well.

And it's an interesting trend because it's done both through the guise of, environmentalism that, you know, gas stations can be emitters, which, sure, maybe some of the old gas stations are, but much of these new gas stations are also providing EV chargers.

some of them provide food in areas that may be food deserts or not have access to any kind of food.

And gas stations, some of these new ones increasingly, increasingly trying to offer a diverse array of things for people.

So interesting to see, in Denver, it's being pushed as an affordable housing effort to save land for affordable housing.

they're taking this up again in February.

So just keep your eyes on that and see how it plays out, okay?

All right, all right, let's, end on something good.

Patty.

Tim Gill, who's been intrinsic in making Colorado the state of freedom, a blue Ireland.

He was honored by the white House this week because not of his good works.

Not just here, but around the world.

So good.

Good work by Tim Gill.

Highest civilian honor.

Yeah.

That's impressive.

Here, here on that one.

these Tim Gill, two people, both of whom are participants on this show, one of whom is sitting at the end of this table, who have newsletters going out about the legislative process on a regular basis that are incredibly thoughtful and incredibly comprehensive.

And if you follow the Colorado Legislature, I'm increasingly regarding them as essential reading Ed Sealover, who's a sometimes panelist here with the summons he calls his The Sum and Substance.

And Adam Berg doesn't have a title of it.

He probably needs to do a better job of branding it.

But, I've been on that mailing list for the last few weeks, and it is very, very informative and.

Useful and conversational.

So you understand kind of how it affects me and my community.

Marianne.

I want to give a shout out and a salute to the Denver Press Club, which in 2025, will celebrate its buildings.

100th year.

and, Patty is a member and longtime member of the club.

and I'm also, the president of the board.

The press club is at 168 years old this year.

It is the oldest continuing serving, press club in the nation.

So happy birthday, Denver Press club building.

Absolutely.

That's great.

So it's January for a lot of people.

This is dry January, where people take the time to sort of reflect on their relationship with alcohol.

as someone in recovery, I think this is a really important exercise.

It's a good thing for society.

you know, not everyone has a drinking problem, but I think it's a good thing for people to look and evaluate.

Is this adding to their life or is it taking away from their life?

So really proud of the people who are who are attempting to do that this month and and good for them.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

my high is this weekend's opening of the National Western Stock Show, and that includes the Coors Western art exhibit and sale on the third level of the Expo hall, which a lot of people don't really know is there.

So you need to check it out because you will see the best of the best when it comes to our country's best contemporary Western artists.

I'm very excited that my friends, sixth Generation Colorado and Doug Beardsley is the featured artist this year, and you must check out his work.

But I also want to mention how the proceeds from the sale of all the art help support Colorado students studying agriculture, rural medicine, and veterinary science as 120 students each year to be exact.

So the stock show really does, support our vital art community and celebrates the Western way of life and as a whole lot of fun to get out there this opening weekend.

Thank you, insiders, for joining this week, especially.

Have such a big week, Marion, especially.

You've been there.

You've been working along couple hours, a couple days.

thanks for you all for watching or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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