Colorado’s Western Slope communities could generate about $40 million in new tax revenue from vacation rentals to support affordable housing
Carbondale
Posted inElection 2022
Voters across Colorado’s high country will weigh in on new taxes on short-term rentals, affordable housing proposals
As many as 14 Colorado municipalities and counties will ask voters next month to increase or repurpose taxes on short-term rental properties — offered on sites by Airbnb and Vrbo — to help fund affordable housing
Posted inPolitics and Government
Biden makes Camp Hale a national monument, moves to block mining and drilling on 225,000 acres of Colorado’s Thompson Divide
Biden traveled to Camp Hale and was joined by veterans of the 10th Mountain Division as well as members of the Ute Tribe during the proclamation signing
Posted inEquity
Colorado’s child care crisis shows no sign of waning
Timing was everything for Jaiya Jermulowske and her husband, Kory. They knew they couldn’t afford to have two kids in day care at the same time, so the couple— who live about 35 minutes south of Steamboat Springs — planned their second pregnancy around child care. When her son, Kayson, was born, Jermulowske left her […]
Posted inGrowth, News, Outsider
Colorado mountain towns feel more crowded than ever. But census data shows the population has barely changed.
Mick Ireland knows Pitkin County’s streets. The former Aspen mayor and 30-year politico has knocked on thousands of his neighbors’ doors over the years, promoting candidates and ballot issues as well as helping to register voters. So when the 2020 census report showed entire blocks in Pitkin County — not city blocks but the small […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: 12 years is too long to let the Comanche 3 coal-fired electricity plant keep running
As mayors who represent Coloradans in Xcel Energy’s service territory, we urge the Public Utilities Commission to reconsider Xcel’s settlement decision that would keep the state’s largest climate-polluting coal plant open until 2035, and instead ensure that the coal plant is replaced by cleaner, more affordable electricity before 2030. The climate crisis weighs heavy on […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, Equity, Housing, News
This is the first net-zero affordable housing project in Colorado’s high country. It certainly won’t be the last.
Jeremy Duncan enjoys scrolling through apps and websites regularly to check his family’s energy consumption at his home in Basalt. “Holy Cross shows you how much you are saving, and SolarEdge has a feature where you can look at solar panels and see which panels are used most,” Duncan said. “You can break it down […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Health, News
How fake blue pills killed people on the Western Slope and led to Colorado’s first counterfeit opioid death conviction
The pill was light blue and stamped with “30” and “M,” just like a real 30mg oxycodone. Except it was a counterfeit, cooked up in an illegal Mexican lab rather than precisely measured in a pharmaceutical factory. The fentanyl it contained was potent enough to kill Jonathan Ellington in a matter of seconds. He died […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Environment, Growth, Health, Wildfire
The high cost of climate change is already straining the budgets of Colorado towns
The Grizzly Creek fire still is smoldering, but Glenwood Springs is already contemplating the challenges it will leave behind: severe damage to the forest drainages the Western Slope city depends upon for its drinking water. “We are concerned about a lot of mud and ash coming down the creek,” said Shelly Kaup, the city’s mayor […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Politics and Government
Supreme Court ruling on DACA brings more time, but no less uncertainty for Coloradans
As of the end of last year, Colorado was home to 14,640 DACA recipients. They have always known their freedom runs on a clock. Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration cannot summarily shut down the program does not change the precariousness of their legal status in this country, but it buys more […]