March Madness… yes, that’s a good way to follow the happenings of this past month. We have had the complexities of coming up with a state budget, the distressing frequency of outdoor deaths in Denver and this week’s all-of-a-sudden urgency to remove the Presidential portrait of Donald Trump from the Colorado Capitol building. This week’s talking points for Colorado Inside Out kept changing and evolving leading up to the cameras turning on… here’s a glimpse of some of what we hashed out.

Colorado State Budget:
State budget writers were a few days late meeting their deadline but now the stage is set for the Senate, and then the House to review an operational budget for Colorado. As Senior Policy Advisor at Foster, Graham, Milstein and Calisher Law Firm Adam Burg pointed out: “The one constitutional obligation lawmakers have is to pass a balanced budget. The other 500 plus pieces of legislation are extracurricular in some ways.” And yes, Adam has discovered that since January, 560 items have been introduced this legislative session.

Douglas County’s pursuit of home-rule authority:
DougCo Commissioners said this week that they are fed up with legislative overreach and they want their county to make its own decisions and not follow state statutes set in place by the legislature and the Governor.

• If voters approve this change in governance in November, Douglas County will become the 5th of Colorado’s 64 counties to be set up with home-rule authority. Weld County was the first with a home rule charter that went into effect in 1976, followed by Pitkin in 1978 and then, Denver and Broomfield followed later. Westword Editor Patty Calhoun likens this to past efforts by northern Colorado counties like Weld County to secede, noting that Douglas County “kind of wants to be its own little fiefdom right now.”

Gun Control Bills:
continue to move through the legislature with much debate. Because of concessions and amendments being made in the process, they are more to the liking of Governor Polis compared to bills in past years. However, the Insiders all agree that the bills are prime for lawsuits if they pass with opponents arguing that they strike away at our 2nd Amendment rights.

THE BIG DEAL:
Thanks to the incentive of $34M in tax credits, the organizers of the Sundance Film Festival announced it will move to Boulder in 2027. Those tax credits are tied to a bi-partisan bill that some have argued are a poor use of state funding in a year when Colorado is facing a $1.2B shortfall. But the deal could pay off… big time. Utah reported that in 2024, the Sundance Film Festival brought $132M to the state’s economy in GDP.

Use of Messaging App Signal by both Federal & Local Officials:
Colorado Politics Columnist Eric Sondermann scoffed at how Trump Administration were using Signal to discuss a military operation in Yemen: “You don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” In reaction to Denver City officials using the app to discuss the city’s immigration operations, he was critical as well but for a different reason: “Government needs to be conducted in the public. The public has a right to know. Transparency has value.”  Adam Burg: “Having worked for several local governments and some other entities, I can tell you they’re all using Signal. It’s becoming increasingly common practice.” Patty Calhoun argued that if government officials are going to be “sneaky and not be transparent, you should at least be competent,” referencing to The Economist’s responsible handling of the sensitive military information obtained through the Signal group chat.

Proposed Federal Changes to Voting and Election Integrity:
President Trump signed an executive order to overhaul the way we vote and directed a review of how states maintain voter registration data, aiming to prevent non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

• Former Elections Spokesperson for the City & County of Denver Alton Dillard: “Elections are not federalized…so the President has very limited jurisdiction in this…. What comes to mind is the claim of this boogeyman of non-citizens voting, and voter fraud. No one is saying that it doesn’t occur from time to time, but it is fair that out and prosecuted. The other thing I’m concerned about is the effect on our military voters. Military voters have an eight-day window post-election to be able to get their ballots back to their election office. So, if we somehow change that where all ballots have to be in the door by Election Day, that’s going to disenfranchise the people fighting for this very right that we are trying to protect.”

Rise in Overdose Deaths in Denver:
During the month of March, as many as 15 people have died outside in Denver, many of those are assumed to be overdoses. Alton Dillard: “We cannot normalize outdoor deaths.” The increasing prominence of fentanyl is seen as a major factor in the rise of overdose deaths. Adam Burg, who is our Insider statistician, offered some startling realties:

• In 2023, approximately 48.5 million Americans, age 12 years or older, experienced a substance use disorder… that’s about 17% of the population.
• In Colorado, the overdose rate increased from 16.1% per 100,000 residents in 2011 to 31.4% per 100,000 residents in 2021 according to KFF.
• A 2019 study by The Cornerstone Program ranked Colorado 9th in the U.S. for substance abuse rates.
• Same 2019 study Colorado is #1 for the percent of individuals needing but not receiving treatment.

To those numbers, Patty Calhoun said: “We’re about to see big federal cuts, $130 million in money, some of which would have gone to programs that are helping people with substance abuse. So, Denver’s going to find some money. I’m assuming Colorado will have to figure out where to get some of this money to make sure there’s help out there. But it’s going to get tougher.”

After those heavy statistics, we like to end on some high notes, Eric Sondermann mentioned his son’s wedding this weekend; Patty Calhoun celebrated the life of Brian Vogt, former head of the Denver Botanic Gardens and a significant figure in Colorado’s leadership who recently passed away; Adam Berg paid tribute to the late Tom Clark, aka “The Godfather of Regionalism” who served in many positions most recently as the CEO for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp before retiring.

And then… leave it to Alton Dillard to give my Maryland Terps a hard time. Maryland stopped the CSU Rams from becoming the Cinderella Story of the NCAA Basketball Tournament with a winning shot at the buzzer. Alton: “Maryland’s Derek Queen, who they say is an NBA prospect, is well groomed for the NBA because he traveled before he took his shot. I understand, not wanting to have a whistle by a ref dictate the outcome of a game, but that was a traveling violation and it was just rough to see CSU’s Cinderella run come to an end.”  To that, I pointed out how uncanny it was that Alton was sporting many shades of red, one of Maryland’s team colors. It’s all fun in March Madness and at the CIO table… can’t wait to see what April Fool’s Day ushers in next week.