Before this week ever got underway, Colorado was dealt a gut punch.

And I'm not talking about any lawsuits or orders from Washington, any of that.

You know what I'm talking about.

The loss of Bo Nix going into Saturday's big game at Mile High.

With the season on the line, the Broncos are turning to their second string quarterback, Jared Stidham, hoping he can deliver a strong performance.

This moment comes down to belief.

Hope is what is lef and hope is what Colorado does.

Having an open minded conversation is something that we practice every week here at the table.

We invite and welcome all different perspectives and insights as we break down what's happening across our state.

So let's get started with 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.

Marianne Goodland, chief legislative reporter with Colorado Politics in the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette, and Thomas Tafoya, a community leader and forme candidate for mayor of Denver.

And Kristi Burton Brown, the executive vice president at Advanced Colorado and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Much of the national attention is focused on the ongoing Ice presence and the protests in Minneapolis, a city like Denver led by a Democratic mayor in a state like Colorado that is has a Democratic governor.

The federal government has labeled both Minnesot and Colorado sanctuary states.

And that is something that Governor Polis rejects over and over.

Now, while Colorado is politically polarized, is not the same right no as what's going on in Minnesota.

So my question for the panel is, and this is asking out of curiosity, I don't want to be fearmongering, but what are we seeing?

Similar tensions leading up t what could happen in Minnesota happening here?

What's going on in Minnesota?

What makes Minnesota different since we are somewha similar of cities and makeups?

Patty, since the ice went into D.C., since I went into Chicag especially, people have wondered when I will come into Denver, with a bigger, bigger force.

We know ISIS already in Denver right now, and I think that conversation was renewed again in January when I became so omnipresent in Minnesota.

But there's some significant differences.

First of all, I would like to say Minnesota has two women senators.

Colorado has never elected a woman senator.

That alone doesn't excuse ice, but it shows one of the very big differences between that state.

In this state.

We also have to remember Minnesota was where George Floyd was killed.

And that meant you had very organized and irate population that is still ready to go out and protest for the right reasons.

And that's happening in Minnesota.

You also have, Minnesota Bear actually wasn't dragged into D.C.

last March like Mike Johnston.

So there's some other differences.

I think probably Donald Trump will invade Greenland, Colorado, before he sends ic in that kind of force to Denver.

Very good article, by the way, in Westword.

Very interesting.

All right.

Patty, Marianne, and I agree with Patty.

I'm not sure that we're going to see the presence of ice and the destructive behavior and all of that going on.

I think Trump's views of Colorado are far more focused on things like Tina Peters and punishing Colorado in financial ways.

And frankly, when you look an that is another big difference.

Colorado i in a financial crisis right now.

Our budget, our state budget is a mess.

There's $800 billion shortfall that they're heading into the next year on.

Trump can aggravate that situation and make things a lot worse by continuing to do what he's been doing, which is canceling energy grants and child care.

And and there's been such a push by our congressional delegation just to get that childcare money back.

We don't see any movement on that at all.

So so I think Trump's tactics toward Colorado are far more on the financial side than they have than they are on the immigration side.

Okay.

All right.

Ian.

Well, I would say that I'm incredibly disappointed to see what's happening.

We shouldn't be surprised.

This is literally what Trump was asking for.

He's been trying to push the envelope in LA and Portland and Washington DC and now in Minneapolis.

I think he's hopeful that people will speak out and protest, and he's pushing the limits so that he can, again, mayb try to use the insurrection Act to go in with more force than he even had previously, seeing the mayor and the governor being enthralled into it and ordering their police to get involved.

Is that same tension that we actually heard Mike Johnston say that he was willing to do and to be on the line, and we're seeing it play out in front of us.

I say one big difference that I see is I think Minneapoli a little more like Aurora in the in the fact that they are, racially diverse in so many ways, so many languages that are being spoken.

Not as much.

True, I think, for Denver or Colorado in general.

I can tell you that the Latino community in particular, who has been the focus of Ice here in Colorado, has been diligently coming together to come up with response plans.

We've been in meetings with the elected leaders to say, what is the plan?

Before the, Aurora Council flipped, to Democrat from a Republican, I literally I sat and I talked to the mayor and I said, what do you think is going to stop them from just positioning in Aurora and coming into Denver as compared to Denver?

So I think there's a lot of what ifs are possible.

We already are under attack.

I don't know if, looking at Black Lives Matter by comparison, even with, you know, the unfortunate burning of buildings and violence that happene in Denver, it was nowhere near what was happening with George Floyd or in LA.

Christie.

Sure.

So I think when we look at these kind of situations, a lot of people love to blame the Trump administration and say, oh, what's Trump doing to aggravate these, these scenarios.

But I think it's important to look at what the states are doing as well.

And you see, Governor Walz from Minnesota, you see the Minneapolis mayor like directly go and challenge, the federal government and, and try and threaten Ice and do their own, I think ill advised measures instead of fixing the fraud and the problems in their own state.

I do think, you see Colorado elected officials are probably behavin a little bit better, honestly.

I mean, you do see Governor Polis saying even that Colorado isn't a sanctuary state.

He's wrong.

Nonpartisan organizations nationally call Colorado a sanctuary state.

But you do see him at least talking differently, I think, and sayin that Colorado wants to cooperate with Ice and wants to have violent criminals, in particular, taken off our streets.

So I just think you see a very different narrative from Colorado's elected officials.

Now, of course, I think our laws should actually match up with those narratives.

In Colorado, we need to actually allow law enforcement to cooperate, to take violent criminals and repeat felons off our streets, which is something that actually isn' allowed in Colorado right now.

But at least the narrative from our elected officials is a lot better tha you see coming from Minnesota.

This week, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that it will not be introducing any new gray wolves into the state this winter.

It was we couldn't get the wolves where we needed to start releasing them in January.

So now you January, March and Marion, you were at the Capitol and CPW came out with this announcement, surprised.

Not terribly, not really.

When you look at all of the, rhetoric that' going on between CCW in the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, which began back in October when the head of U.S.

Fish and Wildlife told Colorado they couldn't go to British Columbia to get more wolves, which is where the last batch came from.

And of those 15, seven of them have now died, including one this week.

But Fish and Wildlife made it very clear no more wolves from British Columbia.

We could only go to the western states that were previously on the list, and that one of them said, we're going to send you any wolves.

Washington State emphatically said, you guys have mismanaged this program.

We sure as heck are not sending wolves.

And then you had the letter in December, from Brian Nesbitt the head of Fish and Wildlife, who wanted a full accounting of everything that Colorad is doing in this wolf program.

And he set a deadline of last Sunday, for getting that material.

And he said, if I'm not satisfied, we're going to take that program away from you.

They are ready to pull th authority from Colorado on this.

Well, I'll just remind people that regardless, the voters voted for this.

And so it is going to continue as a program.

And I hope that this extra time can be used to improve community engagement, to continue the conversation about monitoring and fair compensation for the local communities.

You know, it is important for our ecosystem.

We believe possibly, that chronic wasting disease came from Colorado, and it is a scary disease that eats and rots the brains of these, you know, ungulates that, wolves are immune to and eat.

And it can impact us.

And it is the kind of thing where it can like literally, you can leave this, the body of the animal and stay alive on alive, because it's kind of thi weird virus that's on the ground and is wasting away their brains.

So we definitely need this.

I think hunters and anglers and a lot of different people came together or, you know, to push forward this legislation.

Well not legislation to the voters.

Excuse me.

And I just last thing I think I'll leave with people is just like, this isn't the only animal that's, it works on.

There's suppose to be legislation around bears this year.

We reintroduced wolverines last year.

There's a beaver pla that's coming out in February.

So I think, you know there's a lot around wildlife.

I want to encourage people to to know that the Parks and Wildlife Commission is a thing you can attend and use your voice at.

Okay.

All right.

Christy.

Well, I think I'd say if Colorado doesn't want things taken away by the federal government, they should probably manage things better.

And the wolf reintroduction program is a prime example of this.

Voters were told when they voted yes that this would cost the stat approximately $800,000 a year.

It has exceeded tha by four times almost every year, 3.3 million to 3.5 million every single year.

And it's been a complete failure.

Whether you look, you talk to some environmental organizations or animal rights advocates, they don't like that the wolves are being killed constantly.

In Colorado, you talk to farmers and ranchers, people in the district.

I represent the state Board of Education, and their livestock is getting demolished, and then the stat can't even pay them the amount they're supposed to pay them, because it's an it's costing too much money.

So this really isn't working for anyone.

I think it's a great idea that there's a pause on the program right now, and the federal government needs to step in and take it over, because Colorado is mismanaging it so badly and affects people across the state.

And maybe that teaches Colorado a lesson to do what we actually promised voters and not constantly mess up on it.

Interestingly, if you want a comparison with Minnesota, we are like Minnesot in the sense that the urban area is really red.

The rural area, I mean, the urban areas blue, the rural area is red, and there are fights between the two.

And so we had that going as soon as it passed here, even before it passed, Colorado blew it on its own.

I would like to think that Colorado can fix things on its own, and maybe the one yea pause will allow it to do that, unless in fact the is taken away from Colorado and becomes a federal thing, which is certainly possible.

But this is one place wher Colorado blew it all on its own.

Okay, let's talk about how things are proceeding down at the state legislature.

I going into like the end of last week, over 100 bills were introduced to start the session off.

And what are you watching?

I'm sure a lot of environmental things and there are plenty to do, but well, these first few days I think people can watch the Smart act hearings.

If you're not familiar with this, this is kind of where an agency comes in.

They get grilled about every kind of program.

A lot of questions get asked.

I think it's a great way for people to learn civics.

And I attended some with CDot, the Regional Transportation District and Front Range Passenger Rail District, who all came forward in front of a joint hearing.

And it was just really interesting to hear, you know, what our ten year vision is, what is the future of RTD?

We know that that's played out over the last couple of years, and RTD and Front Range Rail are headed on this track also, pun intended.

Around the, Joint Service Agreement to finally deliver a train service three times a day to Fort Collins.

And whether that gets done this spring, what are the funding mechanisms to deliver this project as we're in this 15 50 looking back to our history with trains in the future with trains, I'm really watching that.

I also will say data centers and multiple bills around data centers are going to be hot and whether or not we think Google deserves 20 years of tax abatement, no regulations or guardrails on their water and energy consumption, or whether we're going to, you know, bring them together.

And in this state, with this winter water I think, is on everybody's mind.

And I've also heard some really interesting bills that are going to be around the judiciary, around recidivism rates and making sure that people have everything they need the day they walk out of the door to reenter into our society.

How about you, Christy?

So it's a lot of bills we could mention.

I think there's going to be some interesting ones coming through the House Judiciary and Public Safety.

One specifically cracking down on people involved in human trafficking of children that I think will be really important, bipartisan.

But of course, I'm going to bring up something on Tabor taxpayer Bill of rights.

I think it's going to get a lot of attention this session, sponsored by, Jeff Bridges.

Senator Bridges.

And it would ask voters if they want to raise the Tabor cap by $4.5 billion.

I do think the way it's being pitched is very disingenuous.

Sia is behind it.

The teachers union, and they're saying this is for education, but education would get a 2% increase, which is only would only be $90 million.

That is extremely small.

When you look at the potential growth of 4.5 billion in the cap.

And of course, the state's not going to get that much every year, because you just don't collect that much.

But giving the state the possibility to increase the Tabor ca by $4.5 billion would eliminate, taxpayer bill of rights refunds that voters get.

There's a poll in December that ask voters if they'd be interested in removing Tabor for the purpose of funding health care, education and roads.

Only 26% of voters said yes, that's one.

Just over one quarter of voters.

Tabor is extremely popular.

I think it's unfortunate the legislature continues to think that the only way to solve their budget crisis is to have people give them more money, instead of actually managing the budget in a healthier way.

But with no Tabor refunds this year we already know that, correct?

Yeah.

Okay, Patty, I'm guessing Marianne, we'll talk more about this, but the Department of Corrections is certainly under the gun.

Literally.

This year they, the legislature just said, no, you're not getting a $22 million emergency infusion of funds right now that spills into the whole issue of sentencing spills into the whole issue of Tina Peters and whether or not people can get out earlier.

That's going to be a huge one.

I it's going to be huge.

But also you return to the data centers and the issue of scarce resources, where the only it's supposed to worry us that we're one of only 14 states that doesn't give, a benefits packag to data centers coming to town to lure data centers to the state.

When data centers provide some jobs.

Sure.

But they suck up energy.

They suck up water.

And is that what we want to do right now?

Speaking of energy and resources, we're going to see the PU also coming under big scrutiny, just like RTD this year.

So there is a lot to do at the legislature, a lot of discussion and not much to pay for.

Not much money.

No.

And the data centers is something that the Denver City Council talked about last year.

Was it last year?

Yeah.

Same idea.

It's here.

It's growing.

But Denver will not give the incentives.

Yes.

The 300,000 square foot building is being constructed now in Swansea.

I just opened up an air permit for Cdbg two weeks ago for a new center in Douglas County.

And so it's at the point of if we don't give them incentives, will they still come?

They're already building.

Yeah, yeah.

Marianne.

And to the data center issue.

I was taking a look at the, draft environmental impact statement issued by the Bureau of Reclamation for management of the Colorado River.

And one of the things that came out in that is that this has been the worst winter for snowpack in 25 years, which means we'r going to have a real hard time, satisfying the water needs of this state and the other six states on the Colorado River basin at a tim when data centers are coming in and saying, give us an incentive for us to use your water.

That's that's a problem.

The other bills are I'm looking at the Labor Peac Act is back for another round.

That's and and it seems t not be any different than what the bil the governor vetoed last year.

So we'll see if if he' persuaded to do something else.

We have a couple of interesting, ballot measures.

The one that that Christy mentioned.

We also have, a graduated income tax measure ballot measure that is being proposed by a coalition led by the Bell Policy Center.

And this is to change our flat income tax rate, right, that every everybody pays the same income tax rat to a graduated income tax rate.

So I'm watching some legislation on pesticides that I thin is going to be a very hot topic, something that the governor mentioned in his speech last week.

Okay.

All right.

New state numbers show that Colorado's overall crime rate has decreased by double digit margins over this past year.

The McGee report that compared Januar through June of 2024 to January through June of 2025, showed a dip in all sorts of different crimes Christy, let's start with you.

Your organization, Advanced Colorado, has talked about the crime issues in Colorado, once calling it a crime tsunami.

Here in our state.

What's your reaction to these new numbers?

First of all, it's great for Colorado.

We want to see crime decrease.

I think one thing worth pointing out is that Aurora was the cit with the highest death at 16.8%.

Now the former Aurora City Council, which did just flip, had had done a lot to be hard on crime.

Better laws in the state ha on auto theft and retail theft.

And now with a recent Colorado Supreme Court decision, localities can't do that anymore.

And they actually cannot have more stringent laws on crime than the state has.

So I think that's going to be interesting and informative.

Like what effect does that have on localities that have been able to reduce crime through these higher penalties?

But Denver, to give them a little bit of credit to reduce crime by 10.2%.

But what is Mayor Johnson been saying?

He's been saying that he's increasing funding for law enforcement.

So I think we can point to specific action being taken by localities.

That's pro law enforcement cracking down on crime.

That's made a difference.

And then, of course, advanced Colorado.

We did pass two ballot measures in 2024 that the voters agreed with truth and sentencing.

It's going to keep violent criminals in jail longer after they're sentenced, and also provide $350 million in funding for law enforcement at the state legislature, decided to take ten years to implement that.

So 35 million per year in increased funding for training, bonuses, other things that law enforcement needs to keep us safe.

So I think that at the core is the real question, can we sustain this drop in crime, and can the legislature actually participate in making that happen?

Okay.

Your thoughts, Patty, I think we can sustain it.

I mean, we're coming off Covid still, and that was an aberration.

Let's hope we never see again, both in peopl being locked up in their houses, people being locked up in their in jail, people being out on the streets.

And so we earlier before this statewide stat came out, we'd heard abou Denver's big drop in homicides.

That's something that's happening around most of the country too, which is something to celebrate.

I mean, Denver's drop was really impressive because it went back and you know, when it went down to, oh, our highs had been like a 93 and in 2003, but it was so low, the car thefts way, way down.

And that is clearly becaus Denver and the rest of the state took actio and used a lot of smart tactics.

Property crime i you still have property crime.

We just wrote about windshields being bashed in just because people are bored, or maybe are on the streets and don't know, not even bored.

Maybe just aren't on the planet, literally.

So things that we still need to be aware.

But I think the feeling also is, and I'll probably talk about this, people also feel better about their policing.

The communities feel better in this state.

At least.

We don't know about Minnesota.

But I think here people ar feeling better about the place.

Okay, but one of the things that I was I was looking at, was the statistics on, crime against people.

And this follows into the violent crime.

And, and there was another report, a second report that, came out before this, the talk about the domestic violence situation.

And that's going in the wrong direction.

Absolutely.

Going in the worst, in the worst direction.

Violent domestic violence cases are up, fatalities are up.

And the the thing that really stuck out for me was, the children who are involved in these domestic violence, incidents, even if they are not the intended victim, the fatalities for children was horrific.

And every single one of those fatalities was committed with a gun.

So there, while there's a lot of very wonderful good news in these new statistics, there's still some some really major work that needs to be done in this area.

Is there a discussion about domestic violence at the state Capitol this session?

Not not that I've seen yet.

Okay.

All right.

And I would agree with Kristy that it's a positive thing.

Any time we're seeing crime go down in any one of our communities.

I will say, though that the the implications of ice and the hiding of people who are living here undocumented, who are often eithe victims themselves or witnesses to the victimization of others, there' a chilling effect on the ability for these days to complete those cases and to bring justic for people who have been harmed.

I will also say that, a dip means that the amount of officers we do have have the opportunity to perhaps patrol more or to be more present in the community instead of always at a call.

And hopefully this leads to like, you know, lower call time.

So I think that's something that came up a lot when I ran for mayor about the call times and how we were going to, to, to get those down.

I also say that I forgot cameras.

All of this continues to be part of the conversation of what tools are available for officers and how AI is used.

Do you have your privacy?

I think this is going to continue to b a big part of the conversation.

And in particular, when you see, like the mayor of Denver who made claims that, you know, crimes were solved that weren't solved by by flock cameras, I mean, that continues to erode it.

And I appreciate you bringing up guns.

I mean, gun reform and violence is something that the youth have been marchin and marching and marching for.

And we continue to see guns, causing tons of problems across the United States.

All right.

Now let's go across the tabl and talk about some of the highs and the low that we've witnessed this week.

We'll start in a low point, and we'll start with Patty.

Just about the only thing that did not come up in Donald Trump's horrific, endless speec in Switzerland was Tina Peters.

Because Tina Peters is busy getting in fights in jail and complaining that she's being attacked when very handy cameras show that wasn't the case at all.

So, Tina, if you want to be pardoned, behave a little better, okay?

Marianne, two politica candidates who refuse to debate, I have had the opportunity to moderate.

I think I'm on my fourth.

Forum that, hosted by the Denver Press Club.

Last night we did attorney general debates and two of the candidates, one Republican, one Democrat did not show up.

And it's my understanding that one of the candidates refuses to, to appear in person with her Democratic, opponents.

This isn't fair to the people of Colorado.

People need to hear from you.

Show up.

Please.

Okay.

All right.

And and you have to be hitting on forums in general.

I want to see people debate.

I want to see people going back and forth with each other.

I feel like that's the part that's missing so much.

In this process, my love for the week has to do with temperatures and the impacts of peopl who are living on the streets.

There's a lot going on, and the encampments are still in our communities despite people thinking they're not in downtown.

But I will say, as a person who did a lot of service work for the unhoused just blocks from here on Stout Street in Park Avenue, I saw an encampment back there again.

And so here we are.

Have these policies worked?

Are they not worked?

And it's the real issue is that these are people's lives.

And there is a camp outsid the DoubleTree hotel right now that we own that they're asking for it to be opened up because it's hitting, you know, 11 degrees at night.

And when people, don't have medical care and they end up in the emergency room, it costs all of us at Denver Health.

And Christie.

Sure.

I'd say this week in particular, there's been so much, I think, misinformation and myths, accusations about Ice.

People don't see them as legitimate law enforcement officers who are risking their lives, just like all of their law enforcement does, to to keep us safe.

And I think particularly a video highlighted when an Ice officer said, all these people who are protesting has right now right in front of me, don't know that who I'm actually tracking down is a child predator.

That's who I'm going after That's who I'm trying to arrest.

And I think people should know that.

So I think the narrative around ice is kind of a low, and people need to know more the truth of who they're actually targeting.

Okay.

All right Let's talk about something good.

Patty John Fielder, great photographer, gone, but certainly not forgotten.

He is being elevated into the Visit Denver Hall of Fame in March.

But before then, he is.

One of his photographs is featured on a new U.S.

stamp put out for Colorado's 150th anniversary.

You can go tomorrow to History Colorado at 830, get some stamps, see John Fielder's great collection there, and a new show opens of his work that day.

And the stamp features th jagged mountains and mountains.

Yeah.

It's beautiful.

It is all right, Marianne.

I got nothing.

Congratulations to the Indiana University football team, my alma mater.

My daughter and I have agree that Monday night was probably one of the five best days of our entire lives.

And also to all the young people who are going to be selling their livestock at the junio livestock auction Friday night.

I wish them all well and hope that they that this these auctions fulfill their life dreams.

Yes, yes, the auction is wonderful.

All right.

Ian Maher this week is celebrating Cleo Parker Robinson opening up their new, part of their facility agai as we're celebrating 150 years.

10 or 15 years.

Hard to imagine, Denver without Cleo Robinson.

I personally had, ballet class there as a child.

Did you?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Christie, I I'd say you should.

It's announcing that at the age of 40, she's pregnant with her fourth child.

A 38 year old, third time mom, myself.

I just think it's great to elevate that everyone can.

You can still have your too old to have a baby.

A lot of women are told that.

And I think she's illustrating that it's not true.

If you want to have another kid, go have one.

Just three weeks to go for you.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

My high is coming up, this Tuesday and most Tuesdays this winter, when you get to kno our Colorado Inside Out insiders from a whole different angle who are the people that come and sit at this table every week?

What makes them tick?

Well, you will be able to find out when we go to the doodle desk on studio 12 starting this Tuesday.

It's a fun, interactive way to get to know each of our team members.

Three of you haven't been interviewed ye or put to the task of drawing.

If you saw our Christmas episode, you kind of know what we're talking about, I think.

Patty, I believe you're the first episode premiering this Tuesday night on studio 12.

However, on Tuesday, all of our interviews that we've done thus far and a drawing episode will be on our YouTube channel.

So check it out, because it's kind of fun to get to see a different side of everybody, and we'll definitely get you all signed up as well.

All right.

Thank you all for joining us this week.

Thank you for watching and being engaged or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week.

In the meantime let's go Jared.

Sit him and let's go Broncos.

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