This week started on a somber note with the death of Pope Francis.

Governor Polis lowered the flags to half staff in Colorado, which is home to an estimated 830,000 Catholics.

On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said.

I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves.

Well, every week here on Colorado Inside Out, we bring together various perspectives with our insider panel, with the idea being the more we know where each other is coming from, the more of a path we have to been more connected.

And connection does have the power to bring trust.

So let's listen and learn from our insiders on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Penfield Tate, Denver attorney and community leader who served in both the Senate and the House of the Colorado Legislature.

Alton Dillard, principal consultant at the Dillard Group and senior advisor to the firm of Rockford Gray And Amber McReynolds, national elections administration expert and former director of Elections for the City and County of Denver.

This week, Colorado legislatures did the number one thing that they were elected to do, and they arrived at a budget and they closed $1 billion shortfall.

Now, while coming up with the state spending plan, every year is top priority, the Democrats and the majority have also been focused on this session, adding more protections to existing state laws and preparing for any possible legal challenges that might come from the federal government.

Patty.

And it appears it feels like a cat and mouse game.

I don't know if that's the right term.

Well, it does when you are in the blue island of Colorado, surrounded by a sea of red, and you see the kind of protections that some of them are still proposed in the legislature, some have come through and are at Pelosi's desk, like providing guarantees to abortion.

You have the fights going on still over the LGBTQ and transgender issues that are at the statehouse, but it is so contrary to what you see coming out of Washington, D.C., that you feel like we're challenging D.C. and Trump every single day.

The legislature has put in $4 million, approved 4 million for a legal fund, because we're going to have to fight to get the money that we are due.

According to federal allotments.

But there's certainly been noise that states like Colorado that are contrary to Trump's feelings won't get their money.

So we have a lot of fights ahead of us and how many different lawsuits we just joined.

Another one against the tariff rulings.

Yes.

We had.

All right, pen, you know.

The legislature's got an interesting bag and they need that to sort through Patty's write about taking protective action to protect Colorado from what's happening at the federal level.

But I think that's fair and appropriate.

I mean, this is a president who is surrounded by people who have harped for decades about states rights, states rights, states rights.

And now when they start punishing states, they're surprised that states are pushing back.

So that's appropriate.

Our legislature should be doing that.

The big issue in Colorado still remains our budget.

They had to cut, $1.2 billion.

It is a function.

And I know I sound like a broken record, but it's tabor stupid.

You've got to figure out how to go to people and talk about Tabor, because there is money there.

It's just the artificial restriction puts us in a bind.

We had funded some continuing programs with one time dollars, and now those one time dollars are gone and you have to reconnect and refigure the budget because of that.

So, it's tough task.

In your years in the legislature, did you ever have that much money that you had to cut?

Not that much.

But I'm the person who for the first time gets on the JBC in a down year.

So my two years on the JBC, we did have to cut the budget when previously we had not in my prior legislative career, which is part of why I'm hearing rumors now that for some reason, there may be a special session to deal with other aspects of the budget.

Okay.

Alton your thoughts.

And my thoughts on that or a couple things.

One I don't think they're doing a very good job of letting people know that the pain that they're talking about fiscally right now this is just one year.

I keep hearing that it's going to be worse down the road and do some of the tensions that Penn is talking about.

There are some people who say yes to the blame.

There's other people that are saying that runaway rampant government spending is to blame.

As far as putting Colorado in this, shortfall.

And back to the protection piece.

That's one of the things like it's been mentioned, Colorado, is this bluish purplish island because doing everything from expanding protections in Colorado's already excellent election model to the abortion issue to immigration issue, but also keep in mind that protection against Trumpism was one of the things cited by Senator Bennet as why he thinks he could be more effective in Colorado than out in DC, where the Democrats have been neutered.

Okay.

All right.

Amber.

Well, I think first and foremost, this is a very difficult job for the state legislature to do.

And I totally agree with all then that this isn't just one year.

These things are compounding.

Over time a bill gets passed.

It doesn't just cost in the first year, it's going to cost over a longer term.

And then you have an additional 700 bills that were filed this year.

There's cost to a lot of that.

Right.

So I think the legislature needs to really think long term about how they're going to meet these shortfalls, how they can do more with less.

Just like every family is doing right now, people are seeing higher prices on a variety of different goods.

They're starting to feel the impact of tariffs.

And and people are trying to do more with less.

And frankly, the legislature is going to have to rethink, sort of getting out of this one year mindset and do a longer term, strategy on how they're going to be able to keep up with funding as much as what's currently being funded.

Okay.

So as Amber said, since January 7th hundred plus resolutions, rules and bills have been introduced.

So what are each of you like keeping an eye on or what surprised you this session?

Or what are you waiting to see still happen?

The next week and a half?

I'll start with you, Penn.

There's a Senate bill that's proposing a tax exemption and incentive moves to bring data centers to Colorado.

but it seems odd in this difficult time to start throwing more money at big companies to build stuff on the hopes that it's going to pay off economically.

House Bill 1291 is interesting.

That deals with rideshare, and I find it pretty problematic.

It has been amended heavily and is being negotiated, but it creates liability on the rideshare companies to protect people because of claims and and charges of sexual assault by drivers and everything.

So there's an effort to enhance public safety.

And finally, I find it fascinating that the legislature's really considering suing the state over whether Tabor is constitutional.

we've had similar suits like this before that have gone on for ten years, that have cost tons of money.

I think the better approach is to start talking as a community and educating ourselves on the pros and cons of some of these things and moving forward that way, rather than trying to get a shortcut through a lawsuit.

Okay, Alton.

I'm keeping an eye on what I call the legislative sprint.

You can actually turn a bill from introduction, get it through both houses, get it through committee, get it through first, second and third reading in 72 hours.

That's why you really have to keep an eye on the dome at this time of the year, because you never know what's going to happen as at the last second, one of the examples I always like to use was from the prior legislative session, when the language to push CV ranked choice voting down the road got introduced at the last second by Representative Sirota.

That's an example of some of the things that can happen down there.

My friends in the lobbying corps who are already putting 10 to 12 hour days in, are now looking at 18 to 20 hour days, because signing day is that's a hard stop.

There's no well, we're not quite done.

So we get a couple of 48 hour extensions.

It does not work that way.

So keep an eye out for any last second things.

The trail slide under the radar.

Okay.

Amber.

there's been a number of discussions around the fixing the AI bill that was passed last year that continues to, certainly be a hot button item that not only industry cares about, but small businesses care about because it affects their and their innovation and their, implementation of dollars towards improvements in their services.

So certainly the AI bill, another bill that I saw and actually failed earlier this week was one that was, kind of a little bit interesting to me and that it was going to, require that all gas tanks have a warning label for, the health effects of gasoline.

And so it was very odd to me that that kind of bill would be proposed, given that it's likely going to cost a whole lot of money for the state to implement something like that and keep it up and and manage all of that.

So I think it's a good example of a bill that, that failed.

almost kind of a solution in search of a problem with also a lot of spend on what that would look like to implement.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I would go be all for saying gas tanks can't talk to you at all.

You know, I just really feel like my tank, you're in shock over what the prices are right now.

And then all of a sudden, you're hearing you can go inside and buy a pizza from your voice.

So overhead.

So I'd like to see that legislation come in 72 hours.

Someone here could do it.

I'm watching the rights issues that are still going through.

You've seen the book banning issues that have come up before the legislature to give schools, libraries the right to stop what they need to.

You've seen educational issues about black education, that you can include this in history.

So there's still are a lot of really tricky issues going through the legislature that are, again, counter to what we're seeing in DC, where all of a sudden history is being rewritten if it's not being entirely erased.

So good for the Colorado legislature to keep pushing for accurate history and access to history.

Okay, one other thing to remember about the legislature by rule, the rules change over the last ten days of the session.

So deadlines get shifted, requirements get shifted, so it's easier to move more quickly the last few days of the session than during the prior 1980 days of the session.

Okay.

All right.

Colorado's cultural, entities are really scrambling right now, either with a reduction in federal funding, or from corporate partners who are questioning their support of these local events and organizations.

I'm going to start with you over there.

Yeah.

One of the things I always tell my clients is they need to have diversified funding sources.

And one of the things that people sometimes forget is that there's a sort of a pattern here.

So I'm going to use the example of the transition that happened between US West and Quest back when US West was still the phone company here.

They were big into diversity, corporate giving, etc.

as soon as Joe Nacchio and the quest crew came in, those were the first two things to get removed.

And you know, I was a member at the time of the Urban League.

Young professionals, believe it or not.

And that sort of created this domino effect of what we now needed to be scrambled up funding wise.

And the whole thing with die to me is that two things.

One, that the main beneficiaries are white women.

Second of all, when it comes to the whole issue of quote unquote, Dei, we self-identifying blacks only about 14% of the country.

So why people think that this is just somehow getting rid of any form of meritocracy when they're trying to erase our history.

So there are two movements going on right now.

There's the, hands off movement, and then there's also what is, I'm going to paraphrase this, that your black behind down movement, where people are saying it wasn't folks who look like us who put the country on this trajectory.

So maybe it's time for some more pink hat marches or something.

Yeah, I totally agree on the diversification of, of of funds for especially nonprofits or cultural centers.

I mean I think it's, it's, it's, it's always important to, to approach things in that way.

one of the, stories that I've spent a lot of time telling and learning about in recent years is, actually that of the United States Postal Service and the number of people that I meet all over the country that have a family member that was a post, postman or a letter carrier or a postmaster.

In fact, Abraham Lincoln was a postmaster at the age of 18 years old in Salem, Illinois, made about $50 a year and served in that role.

And fast forward to the Civil War, that was where he had the idea to actually have soldiers vote by mail, because he had been a postmaster and understood that's how you could deliver a really important aspect of government to those soldiers that were serving abroad.

So, you know, look at the history.

The Postal Service is now 250 years old this year, and our country is a year younger.

And it it literally built the economic engine of the United States and it and it grew with the diversity of the nation.

It and it all happened naturally because we were trying to build something that would buy in the nation together.

And I think it's a great example of the importance of understanding history.

And, and, and recognizing that so that we can all grow together to build a better future.

All right, Patty, what you got?

I'll try to give a lesson.

Color Colorado Humanities sent out an alert earlier this month that it was in big trouble because it's funding.

The National Endowment for the Humanities also comes down to the State Humanities Council.

They say we're going to have to get rid of our programs, like, Colorado Book Awards, the poet Laureate programs.

They do a Chautauqua where they have people going and giving presentations on historic figures, endowment as a humanities in this state, and probably every single state is in trouble because most of their money does come from the feds or other government sources.

By contrast, the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities switched its to Colorado Creative Industries under Brian Vogt a long time ago, and they diversified their funding and their different programs.

So they're in less trouble.

Still a state program, but they're in a lot less trouble than humanities is here.

But you look at Juneteenth right outside this door, which is talking about it's going to have to go down its 59th year from two days down to one.

And even that is in trouble.

So we need to celebrate the arts, the humanities, while we can.

and lastly, pen.

You know, embers, lesson was a good one because you need to know that when you think about and hear about these efforts to privatize the Postal Service, it's like, why?

It's not like some of the other private messenger and delivery services are great shakes.

There are places they won't go and they won't serve.

So consider that when you hear some of these things in terms of diverse offering, support within the nonprofit community, I would just offer this to the corporate community.

If you're going to let a single president tell you who and what you can support and who and what you can believe in, be careful.

Because when the script gets flipped and someone else is in charge, telling you things that you really might not like, you're going to have to explain why you did it this one time and not other times.

what the administration is doing and Patty talked about what what's happening with the humanities, same thing is happening with the, Institute for Museum and Library Services.

History.

Colorado is lost some funding.

and we've relied on federal funding for seven of our museums, four of our cultural sites.

It helps support the Sand Creek Mass massacre exhibit.

it helps support the Ute Mountain Ute Museum in, in southwest Colorado.

And a number of our cultural institutions will suffer.

And they tell our collective history.

They're not making stuff up.

Not long ago, it seemed as though here at the table, we were talking a lot about the need for more affordable housing here in Denver, especially.

But now this week, there are all sorts of discussions about all these huge developments that are going up.

A new stadium for the women's soccer team is moving forward.

There's also the big plans for the area round ball arena.

I'm seeing aside from hotel and sky, you know, high rises, there's going to be an outdoor amphitheater.

And then there are also plans for a $400 million construction project at the stock show, including and equestrian center and a hotel and all this.

So there is just it seems like we're talking about we need more money, but then let's spend all this money.

I'm just curious how it's all going to play out.

I'll start with you, Amber.

with regards to the women's soccer stadium, I'm delighted that there's an investment happening on women's sports because this has been, the obviously expanding in terms of interest.

And I, you know, I think and I have a daughter myself who's 14 and her being able to go and see women play at a high level, a professional level of sports is is deeply impactful to her ability to to thrive and think it's possible can't be what you can't see.

And then I think that we have to remember a lot of these are public private partnerships.

It's not all, you know, public money or private money.

I do think those kinds of opportunities are exactly what government should be thinking about in also listening actively to the community about concerns, about needs, about how to fill gaps in, in, in amongst our community where a lot of people are hurting.

So there's this balance that has to happen.

And I think it's important that, political leaders really understand that nobody has a monopoly on good ideas.

And you don't have to look at everything from a partizan lens.

But instead look at things of how do we build community?

How do we create more vibrancy?

How do we ensure that Denver and Colorado thrives into the future?

And you're so right about the private partnerships, which we were just talking about.

If there are more, you know, in all aspects of our city and, and, and I'm not downplaying all the excitement that's happening with our city at by any means.

It just seems like it's a lot.

This week we've been hearing about.

I think any private citizens who need to raise some funds should consider starting a gondola or canoe line along the South Platte, because you're going from the national Western all the way down to where that stadium is going to be down by in the old gates area.

You're not going to be able to drive to all these places, but a nice little canoe and nice little boat ride along the South Platte.

Good way to raise money so we can get into that business to help support channel 12 when funding has gone up.

But on top of that, also let's remember there's the football stadium and play, which is in the middle of this quadrant of all these developments.

So that could move ideally will not move out of Denver, but there could be a big project there too.

So we're looking at all these public private partnerships.

At the same time, the city is looking for a big bond issue on vibrant Denver in different neighborhoods, different kind of amenities for areas that are not going to be along these this, South Platte corridor.

So we really need to know where that money would go.

We need to look at where the money for the last big bond projects went.

Show the library, show the rec centers.

Let's see what we're really investing in.

Okay.

One thing I'm curious about is the park, the Park Hill golf course, which you've been involved with.

Short.

What's the latest with that?

Well, you know, the city has, tentatively entered into a purchase agreement with the prior developer.

They'll do a land swap.

Developer, get some land.

By day, the city takes the golf course.

April 29th is what I'm hearing is the week when measures are going to be introduced to approve the purchase and to change the zoning, tap back to open space.

City owned.

The city has this week announced the process for the visioning, encouraging people to go online, sign up, and prepare to give some input on how to activate the 155 acres.

So we're very pleased in in Park Hill to see that happening.

But let me dovetail that into a couple of the comments that other people make.

I want to see the administration and city council work together and talk comprehensively about how we grow and develop as a city.

I think the women's soccer arena is phenomenal.

I approve that.

One thing that worries me is except for the stars of the team, the other women on the team are going to have trouble finding someplace they can afford to live in the city and county of Denver, because the price of housing is just going crazy.

When you look at the River North development, with everything happening there, only about 18% of those units that are going to be built around all this commercial and mixed use is going to be affordable housing.

That's 1100 units, and the money they want to spend on the National Western Stock Show there are only 30 or 40 affordable housing units.

So while we're investing in all of these things, we need to make sure that we also, at the same time, invest in making the city livable and affordable and affordable housing, accessible housing, whatever you call it, has to be an integral part of everything the mayor and the city council do does moving forward.

Well said.

And I'm not sure of Denver's true level of commitment to affordable housing.

I mean, you hear about it to pence point being integrated into all these different projects.

And I've been saying this from this table for the whole time I've been over here.

You know, we're going to turn into San Francisco.

No one's going to be able to afford to live here and to, you know, also got brought up in the intro.

Where's the money coming from?

I mean, last I heard, we had a big budget crunch.

We didn't have any flowers in our parks last year, but all of a sudden we're flush enough to do this.

So the public private partnership, part of it makes sense to me a bit more.

Now.

The other thing on a vibrant Denver bond, this is my communications hat.

I just find the branding interesting because the terms kind of have been hijacked.

So every time there's an outdoor death, how vibrant Denver is, every time someone gets shot in Washington Park, Denver's real vibrant city.

So they may want to rethink the branding there.

And then I also have to, I admit that I'm, trustee of the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation.

And so we have been participating in the talkback sessions that you referenced around the city because our infrastructure, existing infrastructure is getting a little long in the tooth.

Okay.

All right, let's go down the line now and talk about some of the highs and the lows of this week.

We'll start on a low note.

And with Patty.

Weirdly, the Justice Department seems to be having trouble coming up with reasons it should get involved in the Tina Peters conviction by a Colorado jury.

and, you know, we talk about historic preservation and community, investment.

unfortunately, a 24 year community owned local restaurant, the Stockyard Saloon, an inn on the National Western site, is being forced to close to make way for new redevelopment.

Okay.

Milo is that it's, spring time to a squeegee season again.

Even though it's illegal to be on the median.

Keep yourselves and your kids out of the flow of traffic, please.

And the kids.

That's what makes me so nervous.

The kids that are in those intersections.

All right, Amber.

so for me, a low, is I really wish elected politicians would try to find more commonality amongst, the citizenry and recognize that a filter of your partizan perspective is not always the best answer to solve problems.

And so, you know, it just seems so like so many news stories are always about so-and-so proposed this, they're not this.

So therefore everyone's going to oppose it because they're not they're in that mold.

And I just think if there's a way to stop filtering based on Partizan perspective, we would we would get more done and our communities would be, even even better than they are today.

Okay.

All right.

Something good.

Patty.

Doctor Warren Hearn, a staunch fighter for women's rights, went through a lot as an abortion doctor in Boulder, is finally retiring.

And he's done a lot of good work for for everyone.

Okay.

Yesterday was the 44th Governors Holocaust Remembrance Program.

it is always moving to hear Holocaust survivors and their descendants talk about that time, especially when you have some people claiming it never existed.

It never happened.

My high as a birthday belated birthday shout out to my former boss, U.S.

Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 92 years old, still kicking.

Thank you for taking a chance on this shuttle bus driver and launching my career.

And he's a fabulous jeweler.

Used to make beautiful jewelry as well.

Still designs.

It still.

Does.

Okay, awesome.

Amber spring flowers, spring sports and spring snow, which makes the grass greener.

There you go.

Okay, my high is that next week Denver is going to be in the spotlight as Series Fest gets going for its 11th year.

Series Fest is a TV shows what Sundance is to movies, and it's so appropriate that the founders made the home of Series Fest here in Denver, the first the birthplace of cable television.

I recently spoke with, Randy Kleiner, who is one of the co-founders, and she wants everyone to know that all are welcome We Do panel, so you can learn about how your favorite television series get made from the creators, from the actor point of view, from costume design, set design, you know, all different things.

and then at the core of what we do, we also show about 50 independently produced pilot episodes.

Series Fest takes place all next week at the C Film Center, but opening night is at Red Rocks on Tuesday.

You can go to Series fest.org for more information, or catch all of my interview with Randy on this coming Tuesdays.

Studio 12.

That is a brand new show here on PBS 12.

Now for this show, I have to say huge thanks to our insider this week.

I so appreciate your coming in.

Great insight.

As always, thank you for watching or listening along to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer and we'll see you next week here on PBS 12.

And I thought of something else Coors Field.

Happy birthday on Saturday.

30 years old doesn't look like it.

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