If Jay Geyer’s pitch to voters sounds like it was written by an ethics teacher, well, that’s because it was. The independent candidate for the Colorado General Assembly, who teaches ethics and political philosophy at CU Boulder, isn’t rallying supporters by pledging to vote a certain way on divisive social issues like guns or abortion. […]
Brian Eason
Special to The Colorado Sun
Twitter: @brianeason
Posted inGrowth, News, Politics and Government, Transportation
Colorado Propositions 109 and 110 are all about how to pay for roads. They’re also about everything else.
For the better part of the past 10 years, the question has left Colorado state policymakers paralyzed. How should the state boost funding to transportation, when neither side can even agree on what the transportation grid should look like — much less how to pay for it? This November, the question will be taken directly […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Colorado voters could drastically change the state’s school funding this November. Here’s your guide to the ballot.
START HERE: WHAT’S WRONG WITH COLORADO’S BROKEN SCHOOL FINANCE SYSTEM When Colorado voters tear open their ballot envelopes this month, they’ll be presented with a familiar debate over how to fix the state’s K-12 schools. They’ll have the option to raise taxes statewide by $1.6 billion to finally fund schools at the level voters intended […]
Posted in2018 Voter Guide, Education, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s school finance system is broken. Is Amendment 73 the answer?
On its face, the question Colorado voters will be confronted with this November is a simple one: Should taxes go up to inject more money into the state’s schools? They’ll have the chance to weigh in through a $1.6 billion statewide tax hike, and through a host of local measures. They’ll also have choices between […]
Posted in2018 Voter Guide, Business, Crime and Courts, Energy, Environment, Growth, News, Politics and Government, Transportation
A preview of Colorado’s 2018 ballot: Taxes, roads and an existential crisis for oil and gas
This time two years ago, Colorado voters “raised the bar” in a bid to shrink the state’s ballot and keep potentially devastating policies out of the state constitution. Two years later? In the first test of the new requirements, the statewide ballot looks as packed as ever. And Colorado political leaders say the stakes are […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
PERA’s latest fix is stronger than the last one, but longer-living retirees, future downturns could still pose risk
Colorado lawmakers in 2018 set out to fix a $32 billion problem confronting the state’s public-pension program, and by all accounts, they appear to have succeeded. In its latest financial statements, the Public Employees’ Retirement Association showed dramatic improvement, finally reversing a years-long slide. The rating agency questioning the state’s unfunded pension debts has withdrawn […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News, Politics and Government
Wages are up. Taxpayer refunds are back. 5 takeaways from Colorado’s fall revenue forecast.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The Colorado economy’s doing great. And — finally — workers are starting to reap the benefits. For the typical Coloradan, this was perhaps the single best piece of news from a Thursday budget briefing where lawmakers were presented a state revenue forecast chock-full of encouraging economic signs: […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Walker Stapleton’s PERA crusade: His warnings came true, but he missed the big moment for reform
Heading into his eighth and final year as Colorado’s state treasurer, Walker Stapleton could finally say, “I told you so.” The term-limited Republican had spent his entire tenure on a lonely crusade for public pension reform, warning that a “long-term fix” passed in 2010 hadn’t really fixed anything at all. So when the Public Employees’ […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, News, Politics and Government
Colorado House Democratic leader KC Becker endorses stricter oil and gas setbacks
Colorado House Majority Leader KC Becker told The Colorado Sun she has endorsed a ballot initiative to establish a half-mile buffer between oil and gas drilling and homes, making her the first high-ranking elected official in the state to do so. The endorsement from Becker — a Boulder Democrat who is the leading candidate to […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s PERA board may ditch its longtime financial adviser after $1.3 billion mistake
The Public Employees’ Retirement Association’s board of directors is considering jettisoning its longtime financial adviser after an accounting mistake caused the firm to underestimate the Colorado state pension’s liabilities by $1.3 billion. The error was spotted by an internal audit, triggering what the board president described as a “serious fire drill” to rewrite the pension’s […]