What got cut in the first draft of the state budget

Good morning, Colorado!

Technically, I’ve been an adult for a good 14 years now. But more and more lately, I’ve been leaning into full adult mode. I leave parties by 10:30 p.m. (A sharp turn from 10 years ago when that was the time my night was just getting started.) Strangers regularly call me “ma’am.” More of my conversations with friends these days revolve around home improvement projects, crockpot recipes and what software we’re using to do our taxes.

Thrilling, eh?

Sometimes I pine for the days when my prefrontal cortex was still baking and I felt a little more invincible. But I’m learning to appreciate what sometimes seems like a more mundane chapter of life. I mean, why spend a night barhopping when you could start plotting how to reorganize your closet?

And why stay out till barclose when you could get your full eight hours of sleep so that you can jump out of bed first thing and read about what’s going on in your home state? I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (and groaning at my adult self for using those words) and ready to crack open today’s headlines with you. Shall we?

Erica Breunlin

Education Reporter

THE NEWS

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Colorado lawmakers finalize budget proposal. Here’s what they cut to close $1.2B gap — and what they didn’t.

It’s been the silent behemoth haunting the Colorado Capitol since the beginning of the session: The $1.2 billion budget gap. After weeks of slicing, dicing and rearranging, the Joint Budget Committee released its proposed budget and Brian Eason will walk you through it, category by category.

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• Colorado may let utilities pay millions into home insurance fund in exchange for less wildfire liability. To prevent some areas of the state from becoming uninsurable, Colorado lawmakers are turning to an idea from the health care industry: reinsurance. Jesse Paul explains how this idea, which is unique to Colorado, could possibly cut down on premiums.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Growing government workers union holds rally outside of EPA’s downtown Denver offices

More government employees are turning to unions as the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts continue to remake the way America operates — and those unions are taking action. Parker Yamasaki reports on how leaders are using protests and lawsuits to take a stand against cuts.

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• Colorado is losing $250 million in federal funding for health services because of DOGE decision. A spokesperson for Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration said the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration notified the state of the termination Monday and said it was implementing the president’s “Department of Government Efficiency” cost efficiency initiative.
• “It feels terrible”: How one CU researcher lost her NIH grant and the impact that will have. The NIH cut a grant for Colorado School of Public Health professor Annie Collier, who was studying vaccine hesitancy among Alaska Natives.

BUSINESS

Colorado overcharged businesses $5 million for unemployment insurance last year. It’s getting refunded.

A programming error overcharged some (and undercharged other) businesses for unemployment insurance premiums in 2024. Tamara Chuang reports on how the error was discovered and what the state’s labor department is doing to rectify the imbalance.

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ENERGY

Colorado regulators sign off on oil and gas drilling near new Erie housing development

Just outside the Erie city limits, Civitas Resources can begin drilling 26 new wells that would reach under the city after approval by the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission. Mark Jaffe reports on how the energy company convinced regulators that site was the only option.

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Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

COLORADO REPORT

• Good Times CEO talks about competing against big burger. Ryan M. Zink sat down to discuss the burger business — including why the chain has no locations outside of the northern Front Range (spoiler: the lack of housing for workers is involved).
  — Colorado Public Radio
• Broker denies bodyslamming, says developer started country club tussle. Developer Brad Eide accused broker Nick Steitz (who had a short NFL career) of picking him up during a golf outing without consent, “bouncing” him and then throwing him to the ground and causing him to hit a table. Steitz denies the allegation — and the lawsuit’s claim that he weighs 300 pounds.
  — BusinessDen 🔑
• Oil giant sells Denver-Julesberg Basin assets for $905 million. Occidental Petroleum, now the second-largest oil and gas producer in Colorado, sold more than a quarter-million acres of mineral rights to private equity-backed Elk Range Royalties.
  — Denver Business Journal 🔑
• Why Denver leaders surprisingly rejected a $3M contract with the Salvation Army. “There’s no reason to approve additional dollars when they have shown that they are not able to keep our communities safe and that they’re not willing to be accountable to the safety of our communities,” District 8 Councilmember Shontel Lewis said.
  — Denverite
• Douglas County Commissioners to pursue a home rule charter. Seeking authority over entities like public health and safety, property tax codes and more, the county’s conservative commission is pursuing a home rule county charter that would be put to voters.
  — Douglas County News Press

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

What’s Happening

ACT Human Rights Film Festival. In 2016, a film professor at Colorado State University decided to set aside a chunk of money to establish a film festival at the school. The films would focus on human rights issues — the historical struggles and contemporary actions that have ignited, and united, people across time and geography, hopefully with a filmmaker nearby.

The ACT Human Rights Film Festival in Fort Collins is entering its 10th year Wednesday, with screenings, panels and parties through the weekend.

This year’s feature, “Separated/Separado,” chronicles years of family separation as an immigration policy in America. Interviews with government officials, on-the-ground reporting and narrative vignettes trace one migrant family’s journey through the system, and show the full effect of the dramatic immigration enforcement. The screening April 3 is followed by a panel of immigration lawyers and local activists.

There are moments of hope and light sprinkled throughout the festival, too, like the feature-length film “Wild Coast Warriors,” about a group of Indigenous South Africans who took Shell Oil to court — and won — or “The Story of Ne Kuko,” a powerful statue housed in a European museum, and the efforts to return the statue to its homeland in Congo.

Films play at the Lory Student Center at CSU and The Lyric Theater in Fort Collins; a shuttle will run continuously between the venues on festival days. Tickets to individual screenings are pay-what-you-can, and a full festival pass costs $125.

$125 full festival; April 2-6; The Lyric, 1209 N. College Ave., Fort Collins

• Blue Silo Studios show. A group exhibition featuring work from 18 artists united by a studio space in north Denver (but the exhibition is in Evergreen). I’m especially interested in work by Maeve Eichelberger, a Colorado collage artist, who does interesting things with plexiglass. Opening reception tonight! Free; 4-7 p.m., March 27; Center for the Arts Evergreen, 31880 Rocky Village Drive, Evergreen
• Changemaker: Cory Richards. Professional climber and Nat Geo photographer Cory Richards regales the crowd with photos and stories from a lifetime of global adventures. Richards is the third and final presentation in the Wheeler Opera House’s Changemaker Speaker Series. $45; 7:30 p.m., March 28; Wheeler Opera House, 320 E. Hyman Ave., Aspen
• Youth on Record concert. A night of music by Youth on Record fellows and alums to raise money for the organization’s next season of teen art and music programs. $40 donation; 7 p.m., March 27; Roxy on Broadway, 554 S. Broadway, Denver

Section by Parker Yamasaki | Reporter

We’ve zipped right through today’s news and the countdown to the weekend is on. I don’t know about you, but I’m most excited for the weekend so that I can meal plan and find just the right new candle to buy, like the remarkably fun adult I’ve become. We’ll see you back here tomorrow!

— Erica & the whole staff of The Sun

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