Concerned about local control? Got a bill tracker. A 2023 bill comes home to roost. Apparently our state legislators learned nothing from our current mess.
Concerned about state politicians stomping on local control?
If you want to keep track of bills that either help or hurt local control, I got just the thing for you.
A reader sent me the link below. It's from the Special District Association** and is their legislative tracker for 2025 bills.
If local control, if keeping the state out of local affairs, is a concern for you, bookmark the link and keep it handy. I'd also recommend looking at the bills the Association supports as well as the ones they don't like.
Pro Tip: sometimes speaking up in support of bills can be psychologically easier than speaking against bills. It's a good way to start advocating or to get back in the habit.
**The Special District Association is the association for local municipal governmental/taxing districts. Think Metro Districts, think water conservancy boards, think library districts, that kind of thing. The Association advocates for their interests.
https://app.coloradocapitolwatch.com/bill-analysis/7611/2025/0/
A 2023 bill which obliges you to pay for prisoner's phone calls comes home to roost.
Back in 2023, Colorado Democrats passed a law forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for prisoners' phone calls (see the original bill linked first below and a Sept 2023 newsletter linked below that for context if you want it).
Get ready for a shocker, because it turns out that when you give people things on someone else's dime, they tend to use it. Per the 2025 Axios article linked third below, that's exactly what prisoners are doing: they're using those taxpayer-subsidized phones like nobody's business.
Prior to the 2023 law, prisoners had to pay their own phone bills, but the government-provided phones provide unlimited calls and the charges just keep mounting. Quoting the Axios breezer (with links intact): "By the numbers: The cost of cellphones for inmates is $579,000 over budget in the current fiscal year and estimated to run the state $5.4 million by July 2026 — five times the original projections."
Add this to the pile of irresponsible spending the Democrats have engaged in over the last four years. Add this to the pile of things to remind them of every. single. time they talk about the government not having enough money, or how TABOR is too constraining.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1133
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/struggling-to-meet-your-bills-you?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/02/04/colorado-prison-inmate-phone-calls-cost-budget
Apparently our state legislators learned nothing from the spending mess they find themselves in.
The post right prior to this one was (yet another) example of how the Democrats' reckless spending over the last few years has given us budget troubles this year, about how the fiscal chickens for their profligate overspending of YOUR money have come home to roost.
Apparently they haven't taken much of a lesson from this, and the reason I say that is typified by the two story links below.
The first is about the financial incentives we are offering the Sundance Festival to grace Boulder with their presence. The second is about a bill that a Democrat lawmaker is running to expand the duties of the state's ethics commission to include school districts and special districts, a move that adds more government employees and spending.
If you want details on that, check out screenshot 1 attached. It's from the bill's fiscal note (linked third below).
It is reasonable to argue that there is the chance Sundance will bring more tax value (certainly to Boulder, a little less reasonable to say so for the state as a whole) than the incentives cost. It is reasonable to argue that Story's bill adding to the workload of the ethics commission doesn't add much cost.
But it is also reasonable to question why, when money is tight, we are thinking about obligating ourselves with costs that we do not need. I.e. why spend money we might (or might not) get back if we don't have it?
We should make a case for Sundance to come to Boulder, but not be offering them money. We should not give more work to government agencies that isn't needed urgently to be done.
One more thing to note here. The Sundance thing has bipartisan support, proving that some politicians are more politicians than they are Republicans or Democrats, than conservatives or liberals.
They just like spending your money and aren't too concerned with learning from past behavior.
https://tsscolorado.com/incentives-to-attract-sundance-film-festival-win-bipartisan-legislative-applause/
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/democratic-lawmakers-expand-ethics-commission/article_b824ce98-dea0-11ef-b4d9-fb06a98cf222.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1079
Democrats can’t (or don’t bother to) do math.