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@nickcoltrainColorado legislature week in review: $18 million in overpayment, former senator is convicted of felonies, Democrats aim at arena prices. DenverPost.com @The Denver Post #copolitics #coleg
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Colorado lawmakers sign off on prison funding after delay, but renew demand for overcrowding plan
Colorado lawmakers voted Wednesday to send millions of dollars to the state’s overcrowded prison system, one week after a key committee rejected the funds and demanded that Gov. Jared Polis provide a plan to release more eligible inmates.
No plan has yet materialized, but lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee said they were swayed by safety concerns in the prisons and county jails — and by a new willingness from Polis’ staff to discuss prison overcrowding. The committee voted to fully fund payments to jails, which have housed some offenders as a backup, and for medical payments. Read more
For years, Colorado Medicaid mistakenly paid a program’s providers several times too much — costing millions
In November, Colorado Medicaid officials corrected a mistake.
Five years earlier, they’d told contracted transportation providers in metro Denver to bill the state as if the providers were specialty ambulances. By 2022, those providers — who transported patients using large wheelchairs — were billing the state for more than $640 for every pick-up. By 2025, the rate increased more, to nearly $669.
In reality, the pick-ups should have cost $65, legislative staff told lawmakers Tuesday.
“This just seems like — what?” said Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat, citing the final difference. “We paid 10 times what we were supposed to pay?” Read more
New Colorado red flag law expansion — allowing more people to seek a gun-removal order — clears first hurdle
A proposal to again expand Colorado’s red flag law cleared its first hurdle in the state Senate on Tuesday.
The law, which allows judges to issue extreme risk protection orders, now allows family members, law enforcement, health care professionals and educators to petition the courts to require people to surrender their firearms temporarily. The judge must find the person to be a risk to themselves or others.
Senate Bill 4 would expand that list of petitioners to include behavioral health professionals who are co-responders with police or other authorities in emergencies, as well as health care and educational institutions. Read more
Colorado lawmaker drops defamation lawsuit against women who accused him of sexual harassment
A Colorado legislator has dropped a defamation lawsuit he filed against two women who accused him of sexual harassment.
Rep. Ron Weinberg and the two women, Jacqueline Anderson and Heather Booth, agreed to end the suit in a Friday joint filing that was submitted a week before all three parties were set to testify in court. The dismissal was approved by a judge later that day.
No settlement or confidentiality agreements were part of the joint filing, Anderson said in an interview. Read more
Are stadium food and beer prices too high? Colorado lawmakers unveil bills targeting costs.
Colorado Democrats unveiled a trio of proposals Monday aimed at wrenching down rising prices that they blamed on corporate greed — and at forestalling newer attempts at varying pricing for different customers.
The proposals include a measure that would require price transparency for what might be considered “captive consumers,” including at sporting events or airports. Another would prohibit wholesalers from giving preferential pricing to large groups. And a third would ban companies from using consumers’ personal data to set prices or wages.
“Affordability isn’t this abstract concept. Everyone has experienced the $20 beer at a Nuggets game, the $10 water at the airport or the $80 Tylenol at the emergency room,” state Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Fort Collins Democrat, said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “When people are forced to pay more, simply because they’re trapped, that isn’t the free market. It’s exploitation.” Read more
Colorado lawmakers express anger over killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as legislature prepares for first bill debates
Ninety-nine bills have been introduced in the Colorado legislature in the 2026 session’s first dozen days. This week, legislators will begin debating several of them.
But this morning’s proceedings began first with lawmakers addressing the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, by a U.S. Border Patrol agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pretti’s parents live in Arvada, and Renee Good — who was shot and killed by an immigration agent earlier this month — also had Colorado connections.
The majority Democrats in both chambers started with comments from the floor criticizing Pretti’s killing.
“We are angry, heartsick and scared,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie said. Read more
Colorado Democrats float big changes aimed at reforming income taxes and unleashing state spending
A pair of measures that Democrats are aiming to place on the November ballot would significantly alter the foundation of Colorado’s tax code, upending the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Taken alone, either of the two proposals — a graduated income tax that requires the wealthy to pay more and another that raises the state’s spending cap dramatically — would represent a fundamental change to the state’s rigid tax structure. Taken together, the measures ask voters to reimagine how taxes are collected and spent.
The potential benefits would go to education, in particular, as well as to health care, child care and a slew of other state services that Democrats say have been shortchanged by a system that has been largely untouched for nearly 20 years. Read more
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