Speaker 1: This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
Speaker 1: edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to The Dan Caplis Show tonight. I'm Christy
Speaker 2: Burton Brown.
Speaker 3: Happy to be with you all, and very happy to
Speaker 3: have our guest joining us, Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer Is. I
Speaker 3: call her one of the most powerful Republicans in our
Speaker 3: state Senate. If you want somebody to get done, you
Speaker 3: should definitely talk to Senator Kirkmeyer. So, Senator Kirkmeyer, welcome
Speaker 3: to the Dan Caplis Show tonight.
Speaker 4: Oh thanks, Christy.
Speaker 5: It's great to be hearing. Great to hear from you.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, I'm so glad you were able to come on.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you're quite busy with the legislature starting next Wednesday,
Speaker 3: but I also know you've already been busy on the
Speaker 3: Joint Budget Committee.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Correct, We started pretty much right after the election.
Speaker 5: The governor has to present his budget to the Joint
Speaker 5: Budget Committee on November first, but we started right after that.
Speaker 5: The election was over. We started in we're or full time.
Speaker 5: We've had the last couple of weeks off sort of,
Speaker 5: but we'll be back full time again on Monday.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and that's because of your expertise on the budget committee.
Speaker 3: Is why I wanted to bring you on the show
Speaker 3: today because so many people are asking questions about the
Speaker 3: budget shortfall, and to my understanding, there's discrepancy too between
Speaker 3: the numbers of the shortfall. The Democrats, i think, are
Speaker 3: claiming a lower shortfall than the Republicans. But maybe you
Speaker 3: can shed some.
Speaker 2: Light on that.
Speaker 4: You know, it varies.
Speaker 5: We just got another forecast the end of December, December twentieth.
Speaker 5: We you know, we have quarterly forecasts and so things change,
Speaker 5: you know, because we have more information as twitch to
Speaker 5: base the budget on. But their reality is it's not
Speaker 5: a shortfall. It's a structural deficit that we're in. So
Speaker 5: what that means is year over year over spending and
Speaker 5: you know for four years there with all of the
Speaker 5: federal funds that we received in so you know, we
Speaker 5: just keep overspending. They say it's going to be one
Speaker 5: time funding. We're going to start a these programs just
Speaker 5: because of COVID and the next thing. You know, they're
Speaker 5: continuing them, and it's it's outrageous overspending. I mean, we
Speaker 5: are we are clearly on a disastrous course right now.
Speaker 2: I mean sure sounds like it.
Speaker 3: And are there particular programs you would say you could
Speaker 3: point out that where the Democrats are wanting to continue
Speaker 3: them even though they really were based on one time money.
Speaker 5: There's things like in the let's see it's not a
Speaker 5: new department, but in the Behavior Health Administration that was
Speaker 5: pretty much started with, you know, federal funds, and we
Speaker 5: received billions of federal dollars because of COVID. So there's
Speaker 5: there's programs there. They're just they're just kind of spread out.
Speaker 5: It's like, for example, in the Department of Public Health
Speaker 5: and Environment, they've had a two hundred and seven percent
Speaker 5: increase in the number of fte that they have.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, right, I mean, I think.
Speaker 5: Just keep increasing. We have departments that while the state
Speaker 5: appropriation over the last six years and I'm talking general
Speaker 5: fund money here. So our state budget is about forty
Speaker 5: forty three billion dollar budget, but that includes general fund
Speaker 5: operating budgets budget dollars in that about it's about seventeen
Speaker 5: a little over seventeen billion. Right now, they're maybe closer
Speaker 5: to eighteen billion. And I'm just rounding off here. You know,
Speaker 5: there's cash funds, there's federal funds. So I'm talking about
Speaker 5: that seventeen to eighteen billion dollars general fund operating budget.
Speaker 5: That's what you know, when we pay in income tax
Speaker 5: and we pay sales tax, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5: That's where we're having this year over year outrageous spending.
Speaker 5: So over the course of the last six years we've
Speaker 5: had about our state appropriations has increased by eleven point
Speaker 5: three percent. Yet we have departments like the Department of
Speaker 5: Agriculture and even though it's a very small department, fifty
Speaker 5: six percent increase in their general fund appropriations. And all
Speaker 5: the departments there are anywhere, you know, with the exception
Speaker 5: of corrections, actually, but all of the governor's departments are like,
Speaker 5: you know, twenty seven percent, thirty six percent, forty six percent,
Speaker 5: and it just keeps going on. You cannot have that
Speaker 5: kind of overspending. And the governor came back with the
Speaker 5: budget of budget you know that he presented on November first,
Speaker 5: that just it wasn't even balanced. I mean, I don't
Speaker 5: sure what he says. He's on this disastrous course. You
Speaker 5: can say, we're anywhere from eight hundred million to one
Speaker 5: point three billion dollars, you know, in the hole, essentially,
Speaker 5: depending on what you're going to fund, what you're not
Speaker 5: going to fund. But the governor just keeps playing like
Speaker 5: this show game. You know, I think we've all been
Speaker 5: watching football, so I like him to. He's in the
Speaker 5: fourth quarter of the game and he keeps doing three
Speaker 5: and outs and punning the ball. So he's punting right now,
Speaker 5: that's what he's doing. And he's got this show game going.
Speaker 5: He's moving cash runs around, you know, those are not
Speaker 5: necessarily ongoing general fund money. And then he's trying to
Speaker 5: say we've got a balanced budget while he's cutting different
Speaker 5: programs that are critical core services to the state of Colorado.
Speaker 5: Quite frankly, we have to.
Speaker 3: Fund right well exactly, we're talking now to Senator Barb
Speaker 3: Kirkmeyer here on the Dan Kapla show, and Senator, so
Speaker 3: you're saying it is a symptom of a giant overspending
Speaker 3: problem generally run by the Democrats and liberals and the legislature.
Speaker 2: What do you think is going to happen like how
Speaker 2: how is.
Speaker 3: The legislature, especially the Democrat majority, going to actually fix
Speaker 3: this problem.
Speaker 5: Well, so the Legislature does write the budget, and it's
Speaker 5: up to the Joint Budget Committee to really present the
Speaker 5: budget to the General Assembly, to all of the you know,
Speaker 5: the one hundred members of the General Assembly. So it's
Speaker 5: going to be a long budget year, you know. I'm
Speaker 5: I'm that Joint Budget Committee and are four Democrats two Republicans.
Speaker 5: But quite frankly, this is the place where regardless if
Speaker 5: you're in the minority of the majority, you're kind of
Speaker 5: on equal footing if you will. I mean, before any
Speaker 5: bills can come out of the Joint Budget Committee, it
Speaker 5: has to be every member of the Joint Budget Committee
Speaker 5: has to support it, you know. So I think it's
Speaker 5: going to be just like last year when Representative Taggert,
Speaker 5: who's Republican, out of Grand Junction and myself just said,
Speaker 5: look enough enough, we got to start cutting some things.
Speaker 5: We can't we can't go in We have to constitutionally
Speaker 5: have a balanced budget, right. We don't get to be
Speaker 5: like the federal budget where you go into debt and
Speaker 5: keep doing continuing resolutions and you do all these other things.
Speaker 5: We have to have a balanced budget. And so last year,
Speaker 5: last session, in the twenty fourth session, we were over
Speaker 5: a week late with presenting the budget to the General
Speaker 5: Assembly because it just took that long for myself and
Speaker 5: Representative Tagert to get our colleagues across the aisle to say,
Speaker 5: we're going to make some cuts and we're not going
Speaker 5: to fund everything, and we're going to have to do
Speaker 5: some things differently. Unfortunately, we didn't make enough cuts, and
Speaker 5: after the budget was shined and approved, they still approved
Speaker 5: even more spending and we basically depleted our reserves, you know,
Speaker 5: which I mean by statute we have to have a
Speaker 5: fifteen percent reserve. We're at like thirteen point eight or
Speaker 5: seven or nine somewhere in.
Speaker 4: There reserve now, So we don't even follow.
Speaker 5: Our own law that we tasked for ourselves. So it's
Speaker 5: just it's going to be a long budget year and everybody,
Speaker 5: you know, they just need to understand we need to
Speaker 5: down to the business of governing, of really looking at
Speaker 5: the budget. It is up to the Joint Budget Committee,
Speaker 5: and we're going to have to make some substantial reductions.
Speaker 5: And this is not like during the COVID period. This
Speaker 5: is not you know, we're kind of in a self
Speaker 5: imposed recession. But this isn't like during COVID where they thought,
Speaker 5: oh my god, we're going to have all these things
Speaker 5: where we have to cut we don't have enough money
Speaker 5: because you know, we're in like a type of recession
Speaker 5: with because of COVID. It's not like that. This is
Speaker 5: they just were overspending.
Speaker 3: Right, And I think they're pitching it very much in
Speaker 3: the media as oh my goodness, we're gonna be able
Speaker 3: to fund key programs. But if I remember correctly, I
Speaker 3: believe the entire state budget has increased by nineteen billion
Speaker 3: dollars over the last ten years, and certainly at a
Speaker 3: much higher rate than our budgets do at home.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean absolutely, But that has to do with
Speaker 5: federal funds. I mean that's why I was telling you.
Speaker 5: So really, when we're talking about what we're doing with
Speaker 5: the budget, it is that general fund operating portion of
Speaker 5: the budget, which is about eighteen billion dollars, and that
Speaker 5: has increased substantially. Like I said, it's increased by eleven
Speaker 5: point three percent over the last six years. Unfortunately, our
Speaker 5: spending has increased dramatically more.
Speaker 3: Right exactly would you expect, And we have about a
Speaker 3: minute left before I have to let you go, do
Speaker 3: we or would you expect bills with fiscal notes to
Speaker 3: all just get shut down this session? Or do you think,
Speaker 3: despite the budget constraints, that Democrats are still going to
Speaker 3: try and slam through some pet bills that cost money.
Speaker 5: I would tell yeah, I would tell all my colleagues
Speaker 5: in the Senate and in the House, all my colleagues
Speaker 5: down to Capitol, and I say this to the Senate
Speaker 5: Republicans all the time. Don't bring a bill forward with
Speaker 5: any kind of fiscal note on it because we can't
Speaker 5: afford it. Don't start a new program we can't afford it.
Speaker 5: We need to be looking to cut programs, cut spending.
Speaker 5: So you know, and I actually had a republic who said, well,
Speaker 5: what if I can find where I can cut the spending,
Speaker 5: can I then bring this bill forward if it's you know,
Speaker 5: I've got this great idea. And I said no. I said,
Speaker 5: tell me where you want to cut the spending. I'll
Speaker 5: take that cut, and then don't bring your bill forward.
Speaker 5: So every Democrat, every Republican needs to understand we are
Speaker 5: in a structural deficit. It's the foundation. We are way
Speaker 5: in over our heads. We have overspent for six years
Speaker 5: and now it's fine to pay the hyper We've got
Speaker 5: to cut spending. That means, you know, there are things
Speaker 5: that we have to fund, like education. The constitution requires
Speaker 5: a fund education. There are things like you know, provider
Speaker 5: rates across the board, think medicaid, thank the course of
Speaker 5: the poor, that we have to provide services to those
Speaker 5: type of critical functions. We have twenty five counties in
Speaker 5: our state that are in a maternal health care district.
Speaker 5: That is not something we should be proud of, and
Speaker 5: we need to figure out how to fund those areas
Speaker 5: of the state to ensure that people have health care,
Speaker 5: you know, things of that nature that we just are
Speaker 5: going to have to other things who have fun Department
Speaker 5: of Corrections. I don't care how much you dislike the
Speaker 5: Department of Corrections if you're on the other side of
Speaker 5: the aisle. We have to fund Department.
Speaker 2: Of Corrections absolutely.
Speaker 5: So you know there'll be things like that that we
Speaker 5: have to fund. And there's other things, other new program
Speaker 5: all those new offices that have been created over the
Speaker 5: last six years. I mean it's up in the forties
Speaker 5: or fifties of new offices I think that have been
Speaker 5: created under the police administration. They probably are gonna have
Speaker 5: to go away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, they should go away, and I have to
Speaker 2: go to a break now.
Speaker 3: But Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, thank you for explaining how we
Speaker 3: need to cut the state budget here on the Dan
Speaker 3: Capitola Show.
Speaker 4: Thank you absolutely thanks for having me, and now.
Speaker 6: Back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3: Colorado has at least three new driving related laws that
Speaker 3: came into effect this month. I'm pretty sure everyone has
Speaker 3: heard about the first one, which is that you can't
Speaker 3: have any handheld cell phone device whatsoever in your hands
Speaker 3: while you drive. There's been a lot of social media
Speaker 3: and news law enforcement attention on that one, and texting
Speaker 3: while driving has already been banned since two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3: But this actually bans you from using your phone at all.
Speaker 3: So not for maps, not for making phone call in
Speaker 3: your hand. You have to have a device that enables
Speaker 3: you to use it without your hands, a hands free device.
Speaker 3: That is what you're allowed to use in Colorado from
Speaker 3: now on. It is a secondary violation, so they have
Speaker 3: to pull you over for something else, some other violation,
Speaker 3: but then you can definitely lose points on your license
Speaker 3: and get fines for using a handheld cell phone device
Speaker 3: at all. Number two, gun owners must store their firearms
Speaker 3: in a locked container out of plane sight if you're
Speaker 3: leaving it in your car and you are not in
Speaker 3: your car, so it's sort of the catch twenty two
Speaker 3: on this one is if you leave your gun in
Speaker 3: your car and it gets stolen and you want to
Speaker 3: report it as a theft, which you obviously should do
Speaker 3: because if someone steals a gun, they are stealing and
Speaker 3: breaking into your car, they're probably a danger to the community.
Speaker 3: You would have to admit that your gun was not
Speaker 3: in the container and not locked away. So anyway, that's
Speaker 3: an interesting scenario that could happen, but that's a new requirement.
Speaker 3: And then the third one relates to children in vehicles.
Speaker 3: The age at which you must keep your children in
Speaker 3: booster seats has been increased in Colorado. They now must
Speaker 3: be in booster seats until they're nine years old, and
Speaker 3: they have to be in rear facing seats until they're
Speaker 3: two or over forty pounds. If they're either over the
Speaker 3: age of two or over forty pounds, you can forward
Speaker 3: face them. But along with that law is that now
Speaker 3: if you are eighteen or under, you must have a
Speaker 3: seat belt used to be sixteen or under in Colorado.
Speaker 3: So we have a lot of changes to driving laws
Speaker 3: in Colorado. So many things take effect in January. People
Speaker 3: often forget about them when they're signed the year before.
Speaker 2: But most laws, that's not necessarily true about most laws.
Speaker 3: I'd say a good portion of laws don't take effect immediately.
Speaker 3: Here in Colorado, the legislators are allowed to attach a
Speaker 3: health and safety clause, which they do to a lot
Speaker 3: of laws that have nothing to do with health or safety.
Speaker 3: And if they attach to that clause, the law can
Speaker 3: actually take effect immediately. But a good portion of laws
Speaker 3: actually do have to wait, often until the next year
Speaker 3: to take effect.
Speaker 7: So there you go.
Speaker 3: There are your new driving laws in Colorado. I want
Speaker 3: to play this clip from a Democrat Congressman Connolly talking
Speaker 3: about his reasons why CALFH. Pattel has no business being
Speaker 3: President Trump's FBI director.
Speaker 2: I think some of them are fairly funny.
Speaker 8: I did want to ask you a followup, quick follow
Speaker 8: up to that, if Cash Battel is made the director
Speaker 8: of the FBI, are you worried about some of the
Speaker 8: things that Donald Trump says and believes, the conspiracy theories
Speaker 8: that he follows and so on, perhaps tainting the work
Speaker 8: of the FBI. You're going to be a ranking member
Speaker 8: on the House over side committee, is that something you're
Speaker 8: going to be looking out for if cash Mittel becomes
Speaker 8: the director.
Speaker 9: Absolutely, I think cash Battel has no business being the
Speaker 9: FBI directory is not qualified. He's already showing his hand
Speaker 9: right he wants to purge the FBI of people who
Speaker 9: are doing their jobs. Yeah, the FBI knocking door makes
Speaker 9: you very uncomfortable, But the FBI has to be relied
Speaker 9: upon to be the chief law enforcement agency of the
Speaker 9: federal government, and they're professionals, they're not partisans. And to
Speaker 9: inject partisan political leadership at the top of the FBI
Speaker 9: is a very troubling development. And that's something we're certainly
Speaker 9: going to watch carefully and resist to the maximum possible extent.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that is funny that he's saying the
Speaker 3: reason he's not qualified to be the FBI directors because
Speaker 3: he was to purge the FBI of agents doing their jobs.
Speaker 2: Uh, not whatsoever for the case.
Speaker 3: He's actually trying to purge the FBI of people who
Speaker 3: are not doing their jobs, who are partisan and politically
Speaker 3: focused and aren't actually solving the major crimes going on
Speaker 3: in the United States today, but are focused on political enemies.
Speaker 3: So also very funny that he thinks the appointment of
Speaker 3: Cappital by President Trump is now suddenly injecting partisan politics
Speaker 3: at the head of the FBI, like who's been running them.
Speaker 2: For the last several years.
Speaker 3: So I think it's very funny when people have no
Speaker 3: basis to actually stop at President's appointment, but want to
Speaker 3: whine about it and make complaiants that are highly hypocritical,
Speaker 3: and they're basically just exposing what's been done in the
Speaker 3: FBI for many years. If you have thoughts, you can
Speaker 3: call in eight five five four zero five eight two
Speaker 3: five five. I'm Christy Burton Brown here on the Dan
Speaker 3: Kapla Show. In a few minutes, we're going to bring
Speaker 3: in Michael Fields, who's the president of Advanced Colorado. He's
Speaker 3: going to join me for a couple segments on the show.
Speaker 3: Especially with the special not a special session. We had
Speaker 3: a special session last year, but the legislative session about
Speaker 3: to start on Wednesday at Advanced Colorado. We release a
Speaker 3: legislative policy agenda ahead of that.
Speaker 2: We'll be really see on Monday, but Michael.
Speaker 3: Will give you a preview of some of the issues
Speaker 3: on that agenda. It's basically issues that we think the
Speaker 3: legislature should be passing, should be dealing with, but if
Speaker 3: they don't, there's often a lot of opportunity to bring
Speaker 3: those issues to the ballot and let the people decide.
Speaker 3: We'll probably also cover some of the things that Jared
Speaker 3: Polis claims he wants to do for Colorado versus what
Speaker 3: he actually should be focusing on.
Speaker 2: But before we.
Speaker 3: Get into that, we have a few minutes before we
Speaker 3: have to hit the next break. And I'm not sure
Speaker 3: if you're aware of some of the new bylaw being
Speaker 3: proposed by the Colorado Republican Chairman. Dave Williams has been
Speaker 3: if you know, I used to be the Colorado State
Speaker 3: Republican Chairman or the first woman to be elected to
Speaker 3: that position in forty years, and really loved running the
Speaker 3: party for a couple of years. But now Dave Williams
Speaker 3: has been over it. Unknown if he's going to run
Speaker 3: for another term or not in March that's when the
Speaker 3: party typically has its elections March or April of every
Speaker 3: off year. But he's proposing to pass six new by
Speaker 3: laws at the end of January. Since I got elected
Speaker 3: to the State Board of Education, I'll actually be a
Speaker 3: voting member again of this body. So I was reading
Speaker 3: an analysis of the bylaws he's suggesting. One I particularly
Speaker 3: found was interesting, and it would be to actually pull
Speaker 3: people off the State Central Committee, to take away the
Speaker 3: vote of almost every single elected official who has a
Speaker 3: vote on the state Central Committee. So every state representative,
Speaker 3: every state senator, all the congressmen, state Board of Education
Speaker 3: members have votes on the state Central Committee because represent
Speaker 3: your party at the state level A and you get
Speaker 3: to represent their policy as well and have a vote
Speaker 3: on their bylaws and on their leadership. Well, he wants
Speaker 3: to take that away and let every elected body pick
Speaker 3: one representative. So basically all the state representatives would get
Speaker 3: one vote, all the state senators one vote, all the
Speaker 3: congressmen one vote. I'm never sure why you want to
Speaker 3: take votes away from people. I don't really care who
Speaker 3: they are, who they support. I'm not a fan of
Speaker 3: limiting participation and interaction with your own party, and so
Speaker 3: I think that's a very misguided amendment. Another one I
Speaker 3: actually found to be interesting was to put restrictions on
Speaker 3: appeals processes. Basically, county parties can complain into the state
Speaker 3: party and say here's what's going on. You need to
Speaker 3: solve it right now. You have to hear it. As
Speaker 3: a state party. I heard a whole lot of controversies
Speaker 3: as chairman. He wants to give the executive team at
Speaker 3: the party the ability to say, that's a frivolous appeal.
Speaker 3: You can't make it, We're not going to hear it.
Speaker 3: On one hand, that sounds very attractive having been the
Speaker 3: chairman before. But on the other hand, I think shutting
Speaker 3: off people's voices and not giving them recourse at this
Speaker 3: state level just isn't how we operate. If you believe
Speaker 3: in the constitution and in due process, you've got to
Speaker 3: let people bring their issues and hear them make their
Speaker 3: case and make a decision one.
Speaker 2: Way or the other.
Speaker 3: It's kind of your job if you run the state party.
Speaker 3: So that's my take on a couple of the bylaws proposals.
Speaker 3: Dave Williams is making. You're on the Dan Kapla show.
Speaker 3: I'm Christy Burton Brown. When we come back after the break,
Speaker 3: we're gonna have Michael Fields, president of Advanced Colorado, joining
Speaker 3: us and talking about the agenda that the state legislature
Speaker 3: should have here in Colorado.
Speaker 6: And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3: Ills president of Advanced Colorado, where I also work, but
Speaker 3: we wanted to talk to you about the policy agenda
Speaker 3: that Advanced Colorado is setting out. We're gonna release it
Speaker 3: on Monday in full, so you can definitely check it
Speaker 3: out on Advancecolorado dot org on Monday podcast up where
Speaker 3: we talk through every piece of the agenda. But this
Speaker 3: is what we think the legislature should be dealing with.
Speaker 3: And Michael, some of the issues we focus on our economics.
Speaker 3: Some are education, some are crime, and some are mental health.
Speaker 3: But I think one of the most important is affordability.
Speaker 3: We've talked about affordability issues on this show today and
Speaker 3: you Haul just came out with like a growth index rating.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know they had this, but in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, Colorado is number nine, good growth position, but
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four drop down to number forty. And
Speaker 3: the reason you Haul ranks this is it's the number
Speaker 3: of people using U haul trucks to get out of
Speaker 3: the state and move, yeah, to leave.
Speaker 10: It's good to be on with you, Christy and happy
Speaker 10: New Year. I think this isn't that surprising if you've
Speaker 10: watched what's been happening the last few years here in Colorado,
Speaker 10: that people, you know, they vote with their feet if
Speaker 10: they don't want to be here for whatever reason, they leave.
Speaker 10: We know that housing costs are extremely high in the state.
Speaker 10: We know that we're less safe than we were, and
Speaker 10: I think it's unfortunate, Like we have such a great state,
Speaker 10: you know, the best, if you know, one of the best,
Speaker 10: if not the best states in the country, and to
Speaker 10: see the direction that it's been going lately, I think
Speaker 10: everybody has noticed. This is even why the governor's coming
Speaker 10: out with we need to be one of the top
Speaker 10: ten safest states because we're not. Right now, we're third
Speaker 10: most dangerous. Yeah, And so I think, you know, focusing
Speaker 10: in on those economic issues, those education issues, safety has
Speaker 10: been a big one why we ran ballot measures this
Speaker 10: last year and will continue to. But I think it's
Speaker 10: unfortunate when you look at states where people are leaving,
Speaker 10: it's usually because of the policies that are being passed
Speaker 10: to the legislature.
Speaker 3: Right it's no longer workable for families, for communities, for
Speaker 3: small businesses, and people who want to have opportunities to
Speaker 3: succeed in a state it's becoming harder and harder to
Speaker 3: do that are basically just to afford life in Colorado
Speaker 3: and on affordability, I know, one of the items on
Speaker 3: our agenda that you know a whole lot better than
Speaker 3: I do is construction defects. How would solving that help
Speaker 3: housing affordability?
Speaker 10: Yeah, so you know, costs for houses you grew just
Speaker 10: an enormous amount the last decade, but also after COVID,
Speaker 10: and so what this would do is just reform this
Speaker 10: system where kind of your starter house, which is a
Speaker 10: condo for a lot of people, there's laws, there are
Speaker 10: regulations right now that make it so difficult to build that.
Speaker 10: And you know, they've been talking about it for years.
Speaker 10: They did some reforms a few years back, but nothing
Speaker 10: enough to say, you know what, We're going to have
Speaker 10: developers create and build more of these condos where people
Speaker 10: can get a starter home. Because you look at the
Speaker 10: average home in Colorado and in the metro area especially,
Speaker 10: you're talking six fifty seven hundred thousand dollars houses, condos
Speaker 10: can be a lot cheaper, get people in, get them
Speaker 10: some equity, and then they can move on to a
Speaker 10: bigger house. But there is this is something that we've
Speaker 10: heard for a long time that there is just this
Speaker 10: opening this gap in the market, and reforming those laws
Speaker 10: would be a big way to lower and make really
Speaker 10: housing more affordable in the state.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and while It's Colorado is a conservative organization and
Speaker 3: we push conservative policies, we also try and find bipartisan solutions,
Speaker 3: and I think construction defects is one of those things
Speaker 3: that could be solved on a bipartisan basis, like property
Speaker 3: taxes were last year, although of course some people had
Speaker 3: be pushed and forced to actually get that done.
Speaker 10: But yeah, it did get done though, and I think,
Speaker 10: you know, that's what we're looking at is you know,
Speaker 10: that was another housing related thing, right, a cost of
Speaker 10: living thing. We were talking to seniors who were like,
Speaker 10: we don't know if we can stay in our house,
Speaker 10: we can't pay these bills. And so putting the pressure
Speaker 10: on the legislature to call special session to drop property
Speaker 10: taxes by one point six billion dollars was a big win.
Speaker 10: But it's still unaffordable here in the stay across the board,
Speaker 10: and so we're looking at ways one to protect tabor,
Speaker 10: to make sure we're not raising taxes even higher. We
Speaker 10: need to get fees under control because they come out
Speaker 10: of our pocket too, and didn't do these reforms, whether
Speaker 10: it's business reforms or reforms to housing that need to
Speaker 10: get done to make Colorado you know a place where
Speaker 10: people want to be and stay and move to.
Speaker 3: Well. Absolutely, And yeah, speaking of fees, one of my
Speaker 3: favorite parts of the agenda is repealings of delivery fee.
Speaker 2: Is I get too many Amazon boxes delivered.
Speaker 3: To my house and always paying the state twenty nine
Speaker 3: cents every time we do it? I think it's just,
Speaker 3: you know, another way the state likes to reach their
Speaker 3: hands into everything we do in our line and make
Speaker 3: sure they can get some money from it, which is
Speaker 3: unfortunate and.
Speaker 7: Sins their way to get around Tabor.
Speaker 10: Right, they're taking it out of our pockets, and they're
Speaker 10: saying we're going to do hundreds of millions of dollars
Speaker 10: or billions of dollars in new fees and not have
Speaker 10: you have a vote on it.
Speaker 7: And Taylor is more popular than ever.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 10: It's one of those that we're always trying to defend
Speaker 10: because the legislature always wants more money.
Speaker 7: We see what happens in these.
Speaker 10: Other states California, Illinois, they raise taxes whenever they want. Well,
Speaker 10: legislatures said, we can do that with fees and the
Speaker 10: delivery fee, the ride share fee. I mean, they come
Speaker 10: up with new ones every year that take money out
Speaker 10: of our pockets, and so we have to fight back
Speaker 10: when it comes to that.
Speaker 7: We do.
Speaker 3: You're on the dan CAPLI share right now, Christy Burton Brown.
Speaker 3: I have Michael Field's president of Advanced Colorado as a guest,
Speaker 3: and I had Senator Barb Kirkmeyer on in the last segment.
Speaker 3: If you miss that, she shed light on the budget
Speaker 3: shortfall and she says it's not a shortfall, it's actually
Speaker 3: mismanagement by the liberals in charge who have been overspending
Speaker 3: for the last six years and now say they don't
Speaker 3: have the money for all their pet programs that they're
Speaker 3: calling essential but aren't really the essential services. So if
Speaker 3: you miss that, you should definitely go back and listen.
Speaker 3: Think Michael, I'd like you to talk about safety and
Speaker 3: crime issues are always a big part of the Advanced Colorado,
Speaker 3: Moving Colorado Forward agenda and one of the biggest things
Speaker 3: I think that needs to be confronted in Colorado is
Speaker 3: fentanyl and a drug crisis.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and it's a big issue.
Speaker 10: If you talk to law enforcement, it is their number
Speaker 10: one I mean the growth of unfortunately the deaths of
Speaker 10: people on finance across the state too. I mean we've
Speaker 10: talked to law enforcement everywhere in the state. They all
Speaker 10: say the same thing. They say, it's the number one
Speaker 10: issue that needs to get addressed. And really, you know,
Speaker 10: this also stems from a few years ago they lowered
Speaker 10: the penalties on fentanyl. Then they realized they made a
Speaker 10: mistake and made it a little stricter, but it's still
Speaker 10: not nearly where it needs to be. And so you know,
Speaker 10: we're pushing legislators, you guys need to come down on
Speaker 10: these drug dealers. You know, they need to come down
Speaker 10: on possession, how much you're having, because you know, if
Speaker 10: people have enough to kill two hundred people, this isn't
Speaker 10: for personal use. And so really working with law enforcement
Speaker 10: to say, look, if the legislature does it, great, but
Speaker 10: we're not holding our breath that they're going to do that.
Speaker 10: And therefore, you know, let's go to the ballot and
Speaker 10: figure out a ballot measure that would pass.
Speaker 7: But you know, it's on people's minds.
Speaker 10: You've seen the stories here, kids getting into you know,
Speaker 10: adults that you know killed, you know.
Speaker 7: In Commerce City, you remember that story.
Speaker 10: Yeah, So this is happening all across the board, and
Speaker 10: it is tied in with the you know, failed immigration
Speaker 10: policies on the federal level, that this is flooding across
Speaker 10: our border coming up here. We don't have the penalties
Speaker 10: we need to do on it, and so I'm hoping
Speaker 10: that legislators pick it up.
Speaker 7: But otherwise we're going to move forward with a ballot
Speaker 7: measure for twenty.
Speaker 3: Six absolutely, and I think when we had some of
Speaker 3: those meetings with sheriffs and other law enforcement officers, one
Speaker 3: of the scariest pieces to me that I think a
Speaker 3: lot of parents would be concerned about as well, is
Speaker 3: that they're saying every single type of drug is being
Speaker 3: laced with fentanyl across Colorado.
Speaker 2: Even if you're taking.
Speaker 3: Marijuana, which is legal in the state, the drug dealers
Speaker 3: are lacing all of it with fentanyls. We also have
Speaker 3: to address not just oh, you're carrying pure fentanyl and
Speaker 3: selling it to people, but if any drug you're selling
Speaker 3: contains any amount of fentanyl, you're a drug dealer of
Speaker 3: fentanyl and you're threatening a lot of lives. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you look, I think there's been a four hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty percent increase in fent all drug overdose deaths
Speaker 3: in the last five years.
Speaker 2: It's huge.
Speaker 10: And the education piece of this, you know, people have kids,
Speaker 10: tell them like anything can have any of these drugs
Speaker 10: can have fentanyl in it, and it is in there
Speaker 10: and a lot of people are unaware of it. And
Speaker 10: so yeah, making sure if somebody is dealing any drug
Speaker 10: that has fentanyl in it can kill people, that they
Speaker 10: are you know, getting punished for it accordingly. And so
Speaker 10: I do think there needs to be more education in
Speaker 10: our state. Given those numbers, the increase that we're seeing,
Speaker 10: you know, you've got to get the word out that
Speaker 10: you know, anything can have it in it, You need
Speaker 10: to know what you're taking and really cut down on
Speaker 10: these drug dealers. That's what law enforcement, das everybody is
Speaker 10: telling us we.
Speaker 2: Need to do exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think one thing the legislators should deal with
Speaker 3: themselves is when they slightly increase the penalties on fentanyl,
Speaker 3: they failed to increase them on cocaine, meth hero and the.
Speaker 2: Date rape drug.
Speaker 3: All these drugs that they had lowered penalties on years before,
Speaker 3: and they're seeing bad effects. Fentanyl was in the news,
Speaker 3: so that's the only one they actually raise the penalty on.
Speaker 3: And I think is the legislature is going to be responsible.
Speaker 3: They aren't just going to pay attention to the drug
Speaker 3: that's in the news at the time and the big
Speaker 3: ticket issue right now, but actually increase the penalty on
Speaker 3: all these heavy duty drugs. I think they're all Schedule
Speaker 3: two drugs or Schedule one and definitely need to treat
Speaker 3: them like the danger they are in society.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I think you look at you know, the
Speaker 10: policies you can go back every time when police, you know,
Speaker 10: we're leaving the ranks because of these laws that were passed.
Speaker 10: Everything over the last four or five years has been
Speaker 10: you know, pro criminal almost right, like, you know, lowering penalties,
Speaker 10: making it harder on cops. We're trying to reverse that
Speaker 10: and say we're going to pass measures we passed too,
Speaker 10: We're going to pass more of them to fight back
Speaker 10: on this because our state is dropping in terms of
Speaker 10: safety measures across the board. We need to fix that.
Speaker 10: That's the number one job of governments to keep people safe.
Speaker 2: Exactly. You're on the Dan Caplai Show.
Speaker 3: I'm Christy Burton Brown with Advanced President Michael Fields. We'll
Speaker 3: be back and we'll talk about education and mental health,
Speaker 3: pieces of what we think the legislature should pass in
Speaker 3: their policy agenda for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Keep it here on the Dankpla Show.
Speaker 6: You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3: Talking through the agenda we think the state legislature should
Speaker 3: have this year. But we've seen throughout Colorado history that
Speaker 3: when politicians fail to do something, when they won't pass
Speaker 3: the laws that people want. In Colorado, we have ballot
Speaker 3: measures as an option, so the people will often pass
Speaker 3: what the legislature won't. We covered crime and affordability issues
Speaker 3: of the last segments. If you're interested in those, go
Speaker 3: back and listen. But education and mental health are another
Speaker 3: couple pieces of our policy agenda, and we talked about education.
Speaker 3: We're often talking about school choice. Michael, what are your
Speaker 3: thoughts on that?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 10: We had that measure this last year that we tried
Speaker 10: to pass putting school choice in the constitution. It got
Speaker 10: almost fifty percent, was forty nine point three percent. I'm
Speaker 10: very encouraged by that looking at you know, the attacks,
Speaker 10: the money that was spent against it. We still live
Speaker 10: in a state where people support school choice, and so
Speaker 10: we think that the legislature needs to make sure. I mean,
Speaker 10: they were coming after charter schools last year. There is
Speaker 10: this push to make sure everybody is in a neighborhood school.
Speaker 10: And you know, that's fine if that's what you choose
Speaker 10: as a parent, but we need these other options too,
Speaker 10: and so we are very interested in making sure at
Speaker 10: the legislature at least the good school choice laws we
Speaker 10: have now remain in place. But then also do we
Speaker 10: need to come back, you know, in the future and
Speaker 10: make sure this is in our constitution because we don't
Speaker 10: know who the next governor, who the next legislature is
Speaker 10: going to be, and people are stuck in some failing
Speaker 10: schools unfortunately, and you know, the options aren't there for them,
Speaker 10: people that don't have enough resources to send their kids elsewhere.
Speaker 10: So I think it is something that we're going to
Speaker 10: continue to focus on. That's so important. I know, you
Speaker 10: just got elected to the state Board of Education, which
Speaker 10: is great, and you know, I do think school choice
Speaker 10: needs to remain a focus given you know, some of
Speaker 10: the pushback that's been happening at the legislature.
Speaker 3: Right absolutely, and you know, Colorado has the second highest
Speaker 3: population of charter school students in the nation. We have
Speaker 3: parents who exercise open enrollment all the time, crossing district lines.
Speaker 3: Actually think fifty percent of the kids who go to
Speaker 3: neighborhood schools cross district life in Colorado. And there are
Speaker 3: threats at the legislature, specific individuals there who would love
Speaker 3: to create what they call the beginning of the end
Speaker 3: of charter schools and love to be I think on
Speaker 3: the watch for bills like that. But absolutely, people in
Speaker 3: Colorado support school choice, to exercise it, and they want
Speaker 3: those options. It's something we can protect in the future
Speaker 3: in Kloros constitution, I think yeah.
Speaker 10: And I think it's just important again constitutionally because the legislature,
Speaker 10: future legislators can change this at any point. And I
Speaker 10: think that was the biggest thing as we talked about
Speaker 10: our measure was but we already have school choice, Yeah,
Speaker 10: but they can change it tomorrow in any way that
Speaker 10: they want to. And so you know, we will continue
Speaker 10: to focus in on this. Give people opportunities, give families,
Speaker 10: parents the opportunity to send their kid and thinking long term, right, like,
Speaker 10: this is the problem. You look in Colorado, we wouldn't
Speaker 10: imagine kind of politically what's happened over the last decade
Speaker 10: ACA a decade ago, and so looking at that, we
Speaker 10: don't know what the future holds.
Speaker 7: Let's lock in the things that are important.
Speaker 10: Let's protect Tabor, let's protect school choice, and look at
Speaker 10: those big things that really has made Colorado great for
Speaker 10: a long period of time. How do we lock those
Speaker 10: in knowing that there could be hostility coming from this
Speaker 10: current legislature and future ones.
Speaker 2: Exactly. No, that's a great point.
Speaker 3: And I think when we move into mental health, that's
Speaker 3: the other issue on our agenda. We can look at
Speaker 3: Douglas County as a great example of a county that's
Speaker 3: done community response teams. They pair a mental health professional
Speaker 3: with a law enforcement officer and actually go get people
Speaker 3: to help they need instead of throwing everyone in jail.
Speaker 3: He all the time, But it hasn't spread across the
Speaker 3: state quite as much as we'd like to see.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I think it's such an important issue, as
Speaker 10: we know impacts so many people. You know, for too long,
Speaker 10: we've had you know, children's suicide rates that are too
Speaker 10: high in the state. Now we're forty fifth in terms
Speaker 10: of adult mental health. We need to be doing more
Speaker 10: on this issue, and it's one that we want to
Speaker 10: focus in on. It does have bipartisan support to look
Speaker 10: at and issues like this, and you brought up those
Speaker 10: community response teams. I think they're so important. They're in
Speaker 10: Douglas County, al Paso County, some of the most conservative
Speaker 10: areas are leading the effort on making sure that people
Speaker 10: are getting the resources that they need. And so what
Speaker 10: we want to do is spread the word, make sure
Speaker 10: that there's grant funding for this, because you know, law
Speaker 10: enforcement has to deal with keeping us safe and it's
Speaker 10: a tougher and tougher job. We need professionals dealing with
Speaker 10: people in mental health crisis that aren't a threat at
Speaker 10: that point, right the law enforcement goes in make sure
Speaker 10: everything's okay, then we need to get people resources. And
Speaker 10: so this is one that we're very interested in, you know,
Speaker 10: for kids, for adults, and we should be leading the
Speaker 10: way on mental health and Colorado, not kind of at
Speaker 10: the back like we are right now, and it just
Speaker 10: impacts so many people. So this is something you know,
Speaker 10: we put in our agenda we put it in last year.
Speaker 10: We want to continue to focus in on it, put
Speaker 10: more studies out and really spread the word of the
Speaker 10: things that are working in certain counties, right and bring
Speaker 10: those to other counties well.
Speaker 3: And like Douglas County suicide rate is actually lower than
Speaker 3: the state rate since they implemented this program. So if
Speaker 3: something that's working, it's what should be implemented. And so
Speaker 3: many things aren't working. And Michael, we have about two
Speaker 3: minutes left. I'm talking to Michael Fields for Vance Colorado.
Speaker 3: I'd love to get your take on I think Jared
Speaker 3: Pols I'm going to go to his State of the
Speaker 3: State address next time actually.
Speaker 2: On official imitations.
Speaker 3: And so I'm now elected, but I've heard that what
Speaker 3: he wants to focus on is making government more efficient.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing you have thoughts on that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting he came out
Speaker 10: with this, and it's kind of how Governor pullis is.
Speaker 10: There's a lot of smoke and mirrors right that. Oh,
Speaker 10: everybody wants government to be more efficient. They want them
Speaker 10: to answer our calls quicker, to get through paperwork, quicker
Speaker 10: to make things, you know, put things online that's digital better,
Speaker 10: all that but the real problem in color, that's not
Speaker 10: why people are leaving the state, right, Like that that
Speaker 10: needs to get fixed. You can always be more efficient,
Speaker 10: but policies, the policies that he's signing, the policies that
Speaker 10: are passing, are making us less safe, are making cost
Speaker 10: of living higher, All the things we just talked about
Speaker 10: are going on.
Speaker 7: That's why people are leaving.
Speaker 10: And so it you know, he puts this report out
Speaker 10: and the media covers it and he's like, oh, I'm so,
Speaker 10: you know, conservative on these issues or whatever, and he's not.
Speaker 10: And so I think we need to keep the focus
Speaker 10: on the big ticket items. So how do we make
Speaker 10: housing more affordable, how do we lower taxes, how do
Speaker 10: we make the states safer? And not the smoke and
Speaker 10: mirrors of him, you know, cutting up he cut up
Speaker 10: like two thousand sheets of payer and like that's great.
Speaker 7: Like we should be doing that.
Speaker 10: We should always make any government or company whatever more efficient.
Speaker 7: That's a great thing.
Speaker 10: But it is to distract from all the negative policies
Speaker 10: right that he is signing as they go to his desk.
Speaker 10: So we need to hold them accountable, keep our elected
Speaker 10: officials held accountable, hold the governor accountable, and really, as
Speaker 10: you mentioned, we're going to do that through ballot measures,
Speaker 10: and really it takes people contacting their elected officials, being engaged,
Speaker 10: showing up to the capital.
Speaker 7: All that stuff is.
Speaker 10: So important, you know, day in and day out to
Speaker 10: make sure that our state heads in the right direction,
Speaker 10: not the wrong direction exactly.
Speaker 3: And the legislative session starting on Wednesday, if you didn't
Speaker 3: know that. And throughout this show today we've talked to
Speaker 3: newly elected state Representative Jarvis Caldwell about one of the
Speaker 3: most important bills this session, ending pr bonds for violent
Speaker 3: repeat criminals. And also to Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, who sits
Speaker 3: on the Joint Budget Committee, about how the state actually
Speaker 3: needs to tighten its belt and cut the budget because
Speaker 3: it is overspending.
Speaker 2: It has been doing so for six years.
Speaker 3: And now just hearing from Michael Field's President of Advance
Speaker 3: Colorado on how the people can do things true ballot
Speaker 3: measures if the legislature won't, but get involved, stay involved
Speaker 3: in the legislative session. Make sure to watch it starting
Speaker 3: on Wednesday. Thanks for tuning into the Dan Kaplis Show.
Speaker 3: Thanks Zach being our producer today. I'm Christy Burton Brown.
Speaker 3: You all have a great weekend. Thank you,