It's a Friday near the end of August in Colorado.

And what seems more fitting in these fleeting days of summer, the anticipation for the world's slapper eating championship at the Colorado State Fair or the state Capitol Showdown, the special legislative session where lawmakers are ordered back to work this week in the summer to develop a leaner budget.

In all seriousness, budgetary issues do take priority this week, both on the state level and in Denver, and a lot of people are rattled.

So let's get our conversation started 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.

Krista Kafer, columnist for The Denver Post.

And Chris Falk, consultant with Work Media.

And Laura Eldredge, a building consultant and former director of planning for the City and County of Denver.

The ladies in white at the end of the table.

Good to see you all matching.

All right.

We did not plan this.

So the special legislative session started on Thursday and before anything got underway, more than two dozen bills were introduced suggesting ways to, fix our budget, which will be have $800 million we need to fix in the current budget.

The governor's budget director has been quoted as saying, right now, we don't have the cash to pay our bills.

That's the state of Colorado saying that.

Patty, I'll start with you.

We have the cash.

If we go into the reserve fund, which we're not supposed to do, you're supposed to keep it at a certain level.

So right now, in order to keep it up fairly high, especially if we get a recession when we'll really need it, we're looking at 300 billion in cuts right now.

You saw an incredible number of talk about inflation.

You saw an incredible number of bills coming in on Thursday.

you've got the endless eye things, things don't that don't have much to do with the budget except with I.

People are talking about how it is actually cramping this proposed bill that is supposed to take effect in February, that it's cramping businesses, maybe moving to Colorado, maybe expanding in Colorado.

And part of our problem is we don't have enough money coming into Colorado.

So that does affect the budget.

But the discussion of that is impossible to settle in just a few days.

I think that when they're looking at the major issue and the budget cuts and where the health money is coming, and do we get rid of wolves and how are we going to feed the children and the education?

It is really a mess and it's going to get uglier before they come up with a solution.

Krista.

So I'm with Senator Barbara Kirk Meyer.

They don't need a session.

They need an intervention.

There are lots of places to cut.

The IT legislature has been spending wildly over the last couple of years.

They've hired like some like 7000 people.

The state has it just in the last year or two.

Just keep hiring new programs, all kinds of things.

What the legislature really needs to be doing with the state in general, needs to be doing is setting priorities and funding those priorities.

I think the average person in this room could take that budget in a red pen and balance it.

We need these legislators to look at that the way they would look at their own personal budget is that we need to set priorities, fund those priorities, cut where there is an excess.

And, you know, think about the wolf program.

Wolves naturally make more wolves.

They're fine.

We don't need to be spending that $200,000, to bring in more wolves when they can make more wolves on their own.

And we could spend that on things that are important to them, to Coloradans, such as reducing health care premiums and making sure that the average person can get access to insurance.

She teed you up for the wolves, Chris.

Yeah, speaking of wolves, I'd like to compliment Senator, Dillon Roberts for bringing forth the bill that potentially would have put a pause on the program and cut about 12.5% from the budget, redirecting it to health care priorities.

He really showed that he has a pair going against the governor's pet project.

It's disappointing because this bill got gutted.

It's because Governor Polis threatened to veto this piece of legislation.

Because he said he didn't want to hold up the reintroduction.

He wanted to, continue with the will of the people.

Well, I'd like to point out to the governor that Tabor, the taxpayer Bill of rights, is also the will of the people, supported by 70% of of Coloradans.

And yet Democrats have no problem going after Tabor a pause on this program would have been excellent to get everybody regrouped and figure out how do we handle this problem in a in a reasonable way.

just to toggle it back to the the fighting that's going on in the legislative special session right now.

Everybody is, you know, pointing fingers on who to blame.

And I think it's a time, Chris, a little bit to your point of this is a moment for us to, to, open our checkbook and balance our budget and make some difficult decisions.

I think one lesson here is we can no longer assume that the federal government is stable and reasonable, and we need to make our own decisions and make our own rules and laws around how the budget is working and how we're going to create our budget moving forward and not tie it to the tax policy of the federal government.

And I do think it's the what is being hinted at is how the governor is going to be making these cuts is really across the board.

And and it's going to be painful, for everyone.

And most likely it will be those who are, income restricted, right, who are going to feel it the worse.

We are all in a comfortable situation and can can bear that change.

But but those who cannot will, will be hurting.

But I just want to remind everyone, this is the same group that had to do the budget cuts, the hard budget cuts, the painful budget cuts in the last session before the special session.

So it is going to be really ugly.

And although the wolf one I think was a good cut, it was an 12.5% of the whole budget.

It was just over the.

Wolf of the Wolf budget.

So it.

Would not have solved.

The problem.

Yeah, it's a drop overall.

It's a drop.

In the bucket.

Yeah.

Okay.

So it may be a trying time at the state Capitol this week.

But also across the way at the city and county building where the, the for the first time in quite a long time, there've been layoffs.

169 people were laid off this week.

More than 650 vacant positions were eliminated, and 92 people have been transferred to different departments to help but not completely solve Denver's $250 million shortfall.

Chris De I will start with you.

Well, you know, it is tough.

It's tough again to make those those, those cuts.

But this is this is their job.

But I also think they also need to just like with the legislature, scrutinize some of those programs, the press revealed that there is a $9 million hotel that was purchased, and it's just sitting there vacant.

that is $9 million that could go to other programs.

But it's just sitting there idle.

So I think the layoffs are sort of the, the first thing you do.

The second thing is going through and scrutinize these programs and saying, what is the most necessary?

What do we keep?

And there's a lot of things that were wrong with that big, beautiful bill.

But the money that is not going to state and city coffers is, in fact, going back into the pockets of of Americans, Americans and American businesses where it goes to generate economic prosperity.

And so I think keeping in mind that, yeah, it's it's painful to make these cuts, but there's something nice about Americans keeping more of their own money to be able to invest in their own priorities.

Okay.

All right.

Chris, what are you thinking?

One cut that really caught my attention was there was a big cut to the transportation department.

We're talking maintenance of streets.

We're talking traffic control and safety in general.

Isn't that a priority?

Shouldn't that be funded?

Well, I'm not sure.

We've seen the homeless situation.

More than 200 million will have gone to that during the Johnson administration by the end of the year.

DDP, the Downtown Denver partnership, 1.5 million in March for these pop up concerts and then another 100 million for, projects was announced in July.

There was a retreat plan, $26,000 that got canceled, you know, and the city of Denver carries a pretty heavy debt load.

And they're about to go to voters and say, hey, give us, what, $950 million more?

And I was on here two weeks ago and I said, you know, went to a ballot initiative, comes forward for, spending money.

Voters want to know where the money goes, but they also want to be able to trust the people that are spending it.

I'm not sure where there.

So a couple of things.

One is, the mayor said this is the part he his quote was, I never wanted this part of the job.

This is the job.

This is the job is to be the to oversee the management of the city and the budget and the people.

And I think it is starting to show that he, needs to run it with, fiduciary responsibility to the city taxpayer.

That's really what this is about.

having been in executive director position at the city, these position, there are some positions that needed to go away.

And so this is a great opportunity and they took advantage of it.

I think the next question is how are they going to how are they going to innovate?

How are they going to bring AI into the city, to be able to work more efficiently?

How are they going to have a sense of urgency that they need to deliver on the city, on the people's tax, on the taxpayers.

Putting the big difference between what's going on in Denver and what's going on at the state capital is state capital.

It's political, among other things, because you have both parties fighting here.

You have Johnston.

His the decisions are his, his administration.

It's not like you're weighing Republicans and Democrats.

He's been in office two years.

So you would hope over two years he'd had the chance to really look into these departments.

And remember, for the last 12 years, we've almost doubled the number of people who work for the city of Denver.

So over the last 12 years.

So some of that wasn't him.

But you have time to figure out which offices are working, where the inefficiencies are.

So this was a chance to regroup a little.

Let's hope they based it on two years of research, figuring out where the inefficiencies are.

It's a shame that it happened the way it did.

Good thing they just put in a new city attorney because I think she'll be really busy with the lawsuits that are going to come from those who lost their gigs.

Yeah, okay.

Denver's financial problems follow a lot of years of a lot of spending, including around, what, $350 million spent since the end of 2022 on helping migrants who showed up here in the city with nowhere to go.

Our city's welcoming nature has not only gotten us in trouble financially, but also with the federal government.

This week, a report came out that immigration arrests have quintupled in Denver and Attorney General Pam Bondi place another warning on Denver and the state of Colorado to roll back the laws that keep local law enforcement from working hand in hand at all times with Ice officers.

Or else the quote was we will come after you.

And to that, local leaders are saying we're not budging.

So let's start with you.

Well, Pam Bondi said that, the federal government will withhold funds if 11 states don't respond by saying we will comply with federal law.

Our governor, Jared Polis, responded by saying, we're not a sanctuary state.

What are you saying?

How are we not a sanctuary state?

We have state and local law enforcement are not allowed to hold people on immigration status.

We have local law enforcement not, able to share information on immigration status.

And we have no agreements with Ice to hold people based on immigration status.

So when we don't have any kind of agreement or cooperation with what the federal government is doing, then I don't think that we can make this the case that we're not a sanctuary state.

So I'm not quite sure what will happen, but we will see.

Yeah.

It be interesting.

Laura.

Well, I think, Aggie Bondi, her her use of extortion as a way to govern a democracy is, is problematic, by our laws, we have decided how we're going to, police and how we are going to relate to the federal government in terms of immigration.

I think and and then starting in July, we began to see that Ice, detentions were, have increased for those populations that have not yet had a final decision on, on their cases.

And so does that mean that that Ice is already on through all the criminals, all those with outstanding warrants for arrests, and now they're just picking up anybody who doesn't look American, which I would say in their eyes is probably people who are brown and black.

And so I to me that is clearly racial discrimination.

And I think, I think there's a lot of fear.

And in our, in the Latino community around that, there on that issue, Patty.

We can't backtrack on what happened with the migrants when they came to Denver.

I mean, I guess we could have just sent them all back to Texas when they were bust up here, which would have just moved the problem to someone else.

But we did become a welcoming city, whether or not it was a sanctuary city.

The response was due on Tuesday to Pam Bondi, who certainly is a genius legal person.

So everyone sent back for legal their responses.

The mayor, the state.

What's also interesting is there's really no legal definition for sanctuary city.

So it's just kind of whoever you want to say is one, we've proclaimed sanctuary.

It's at certain times when people go into churches, but it's not a legal definition for governments.

And that's something we have to remember.

We also have to remember we don't have police there first job is not to monitor who's crossing the border.

That's not what a municipal police department does.

They fight crime.

They work for safety in their city or the municipal city.

So if Ice isn't doing its job, that's a different thing.

We should worry about traffic and burglary and all the other things the police here handle.

If they find someone who's in the files, who is a criminal who's evading ice, that's a different issue.

shame on on un bondi.

I mean, how many of these Republicans carry a pocket constitution and apparently never glance at it?

There's something called the 10th amendment.

The 10th amendment says anything that is not specifically in the Constitution, that the federal government is supposed to do, that those those things go to the states and local law enforcement, including how immigrants are handled by local law enforcement is a state prerogative, period.

They have absolutely no right to tell states what they're going to do.

And, you know, should police work with Ice?

I think that's something that should be discussed by legislators.

And determined there.

But there's reasons for the way Colorado does things.

Could there be more communication with the feds?

Possibly.

But we want to also make sure that immigrants who are here illegally, who are victims of crime, still feel that they can approach the police.

I mean, think about it.

A woman who, you know, she may be here illegally, who was abused by a partner and feels that she cannot go to the police, is going to be continuously abused and possibly killed unless she can get justice and some alleviation for her situation.

So shame on Bondi.

And I also think that the ultimately the Supreme Court, as this moves its way up, will find that these 11 states are in the clear and are backed by the 10th amendment of the Constitution.

Okay.

It was back in 2013 when Colorado adopted all mail voting.

In 2024, returning a mail ballot was the preferred method for 92% of Colorado voters, according to the secretary of State's office.

But for the midterm elections next year, President Trump wants there to be no mail in ballot balloting.

Posting this week, I and the Republican Party will fight to bring honesty and integrity back to our elections.

Now, Matt Crane, the Republican who is the executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said this week.

Mail in ballots are not rife with fraud.

Voting systems are incredibly accurate and incredibly secure, not just in Colorado, but across the country.

Laura, I will start this conversation with you.

Well, all mail voting does does three things.

It provides, access to all, which I think is the number one issue for for Trump and his administration.

He does not want access for.

All.

To vote.

Two, it has great accuracy and three, it's secure.

So, Colorado and Denver are considered the gold star, right?

I think we have worked diligently, to, to create our systems that provide these three elements.

The US Constitution allow, it allows for states authority to establish that time, place and, and, the manner in which we vote.

So, he's not even in the ballpark of of being able to influence or or change it.

Also, you know, Smartmatic and Dominion lawsuits just came out.

I get, you know, in favor of those two.

He oddly timed this comment with, his meeting with Putin and said he had a conversation.

I mean, if that's not a red flag, I'm not sure what is a red flag for who we are looking to for a, good democracy.

So lots of troubling times ahead, I think, for us.

Right.

Putin said, why do you allow this?

This doesn't look like it's a good thing to be doing in terms of Mail-In voting.

Yeah, I think he said Mail-In voting is corrupt.

Like I guess he would know.

But we have to remember.

And Jennifer Griswold mentioned this when you have Mail-In voting, you can't have Russia hacked your computers because you pieces of paper.

It actually is a gold standard system.

You can go back and recreate the election and find out that indeed, there was no fraud.

Newsmax did settle last week for 67 million, with Dominion, which had already won 787 million from Fox.

There was no election fraud in November 2020.

There could have been little problems that happened in any election, but outright fraud rigging?

No.

And total Trump, who, when he's not beating us up over immigrants, is beating us up.

Yesterday he was texting about crooked Colorado politicians who kept poor Tina Peters in jail.

In prison.

Let's remember that Tina Peters actually broke Colorado's rules by going in and allowing an outsider into a system she was supposed to be operating in Mesa County.

So the hypocrisy is horrifying.

But our our election system is one of the things that is working in this country.

Yeah.

Kristen, I'm over here laughing because it's like an SNL thing, right?

You've got Vladimir Putin like it is corrupt.

You cannot do this right.

Then you've got, Trump being like, no, I will come in and save election integrity.

Like like what you did on January 6th.

I mean, come on.

I mean, is it absolutely ridiculous he tried to subvert the will of the people, to cheat in an election fomented a mob that attacked the Capitol, caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

And now he's like, no, I'm here to champion, you know, election integrity, like other panelists have said, Mail-In voting is the standard.

It does produce a record.

And I say this as somebody who really misses in-person voting.

But here's the thing.

10th amendment.

Once again, we decide how we do our elections.

How dare you try to come in and change that?

We do it this way for a reason.

You want to lobby all the Coloradans and say, if we can't change it, fine.

You can try to do that.

But you will not do this by force.

You will not do this by threats.

We do our own elections.

And, Chris.

Well, the other side of this is it can't be done by executive order.

And Trump talks about unconstitutional things all the time.

He talked about running for a third term.

You know, I think it largely he does this to feed red meat to the base and to provoke the media somewhat to be outraged.

I don't see this happening anytime soon.

80% of people in Colorado support mail in ballots, just in our state alone.

I looked up what that number could be nationally, and there was Pew Research did a study in 2024, and it was 57% of the nation supports mail in ballots.

There were some other interesting facts in that poll.

82% favor paper ballots as a backup to electronic machines, 81% support showing ID when you go to vote, 76% support early voting, and 72% want to make Election Day a national holiday.

So, I don't see this happening anytime soon.

It's interesting to see everybody worked up about this.

I understand we want to keep the sanctity of our voting system secure and available to all, but I don't see this as happening.

Okay.

All right.

Let's go down the line now and talk about some of the highs and the lows.

We'll start with the lows so we can please.

And then week on the high note.

Patty, as we pass through all the events of the past week, we realize even if you don't like some of the media, the more the better, the more access to information, the better.

So that is why the next are taking over Tegna, which owns K nine news here in Denver.

And there will be some merging of those newsrooms and who knows how it will emerge.

But it's bad news in general for journalism and Denver.

Yep.

My sheep of the week.

Surprise, surprise goes to Donald Trump and attempting to get Tina Peters out of jail.

Come on.

She was, convicted by a jury of her peers.

We have a system for justice here in Colorado.

Stop trying to get into our business.

Okay?

Milo of the week is a man named Cody Roberts in Wyoming.

He's in legal trouble right now, thankfully, because he ran down a wolf, a female wolf with his ATV, taped her mouth, while she was still alive and suffering.

Took her around to other people to see what he had done.

This is inexcusable behavior.

There are cruel people in this world to all kinds of animals, even wolves.

And, but I also want to point out this is not indicative of the people who oppose wolf reintroduction in Colorado.

To make that clear, this is a very sick individual.

Okay.

All right, Laura?

Well, I was disappointed in council person.

Gilmore's lashing out at the mayor, when her husband, Scott Gilmore, was laid off as part of the city layoffs.

It just it is a hard.

It is hard clearly, to be laid off.

But the lack of professionalism and the lack of human integrity, of just communicating your emotions to another human, in that manner is is, uncalled for and disappointing.

Okay.

All right.

Something good.

Patty, please.

I want to agree with Laura just because a good friend of mine was laid off, but is someone who's behaved much better.

At the state fair starts in Colorado.

No matter how you feel about what's going on at the state capitol, it's good to go to the state fair and Pueblo and just see what all the other counties and people are doing.

Yeah.

All right.

Krista, and while you're down in the south, head over to Canyon City.

The Fremont Center for the Arts has an exposition of art from supermax.

The prison has an arts program working with prisoners to produce art.

It not only produces some beautiful art, but I think it does.

It just does a lot of good, for people in prison, to be able to, participate in something that is beautiful.

Okay.

Yeah.

My high of the week is Congressman Jeff Hurd has joined Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper in supporting the Gore pack that stands for the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act.

It came out of the Core act, which Senator Bennett was not able to get across the finish line and get approved.

He is Congressman Hurd is taking a lot of flak from front range Republicans.

I point out front range Republicans who may never have stepped in Gunnison County at all because there is some withdrawal of mineral rights oil and gas in in Delta County.

However, these lands are very rough, very rugged.

They're they're poor for development.

So you have to be knowledgeable before you take an ideological stand on something.

So congratulations to Congressman Hurd.

Okay.

Is it gorp a snack?

Yes it is.

Good old raisins and peanuts.

Let's go down the trail.

All right.

Laura?

Well, I'm an opera fan, and Opera Colorado has a new CEO and general director.

Her name is Barbara Lynn Jamison.

She is known for community engagement, which I know opera struggles with.

Sometimes it feels very off putting.

It can be, as well as education, arts education.

And so I think those are two winning characteristics for Opera Colorado to, to gain.

This year's this season their La Traviata and Madame Butterfly are showing and it's just a terrific experience if you haven't done it.

I've seen people I haven't experienced, I've seen people in sweats and I've seen people in gala dresses.

So just come as you are and enjoy the experience, okay.

All right.

Thanks for sharing.

So from my hi, I just want to extend encouragement and gratitude for my former family of journalists over at Nine News, where I am so proud to have worked for 20 years.

I came to Denver in the 90s not knowing anybody.

So I didn't think I would stay, but I'm here still in Colorado today because of my time on Nine News.

I grew as a journalist there, and I also grew as an adult, because of Nine News.

So to my friends who I used to work with and to all the new members of the team there, keep doing what you do every day and carry on with that strong commitment to excellence.

You may not know what is coming for your future with the sale of the station, but you can dominate the present and kick butt at excellence and doing great journalism every day, as the station has done since 1952.

You know, back in the day, they used to end shows by going to schools or games or community groups, and they'd have people just hold up the number one, you know, nine news is number one.

So I'm ending this week by doing this to my team over there at Nine News.

Okay.

Thank you panel for joining us this week.

And kudos to Christa for winning an award this week from the Colorado Press Association for best humorous column.

Writing.

Thanks.

Well done.

Well done to everybody this week.

Thank you for watching.

You're listening to our podcast, I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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