This week, floodwaters hit a 55 year high on the San Juan River, damaging hundreds of homes.

But the state is rallying just like in Nederland after that big fire.

It's what Coloradans do.

Come together.

Plus come together with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

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

Etsy love her vice president of strategic Initiatives and editor of The Sum and Substance for the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

Marianne Goodland, chief legislative reporter for Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette.

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

Everyone who is registered to vote in Colorado has received their ballots in the mail by now.

Election day is a little over two weeks away, and there are two statewide measures and a lot of local measures on the ballot.

So let's talk about some of what voters are facing.

Can I mention at first, oddly enough, with the timing in Pagosa Springs where the rushing waters took out a tree, which then took out an old pipe, releasing sewage into the water, voters are actually deciding on a 1% sales tax increase to fund the town's sanitation infrastructure.

Patty, the timing of that.

But there is so much that we've got two weeks to learn what we're facing and what we have to decide on.

Well, I'm thinking Pagosa Springs will definitely pass.

Let's first give a moment of thanks that we are still getting mail in ballots.

The Colorado, which has been the gold standard for mail in ballots for accessibility and voting, not corruption, that's accessibility that we get those mail in ballots, which gives us time to really look over the subjects, to sit and fill them out at our kitchen table when it's going to take some time and it is going to take some time.

If you're in Denver and you're looking at the vibrant bond issue, vibrant Denver bond divided up into five different sections, but within each section are a lot of different projects.

So it's going to take you time to go over that.

There's 310 also on the Denver ballot, which is due.

Are we going to ban flavored tobacco?

The opposition put it on the ballot.

It's an ugly one.

I don't know who else is getting all the emails that I am, but that's going to be hard fought.

And then statewide you've got low.

School lunches for kids.

It's a sounds very no brainer but people are fighting that too.

But vibrant Denver is where people are spending the money right now.

And then up in the high country and some of the mountain communities, there's options to raise lodging taxes.

You have written a lot about this for some in substance, various mountain communities, and talk about some of the reasoning and some of the reaction to this measure.

Yeah, these are interesting measures.

The ones I want to emphasize with the Colorado Chamber isn't weighing in on these local issues, but I've been covering them because they clearly affect local economies and local business.

What happened is up until this year, counties could only charge a 2% lodging tax and, say, limits what counties can do and things like that.

This year a law passed to change it to allow counties to up their lodging tax to 6% in unincorporated areas only.

And whereas before the lodging tax money could go only to tourism marketing, to child care and to affordable housing, now it can also go to public safety and public infrastructure.

And the reason why a lot of counties said, look, the tourists that are coming in are weighing on our infrastructure.

We need to have them help pay for the roads, the deteriorating, for the sheriff's calls, going to Airbnbs.

I think a lot of the hotel and tourism industry has been saying, look, we understand the need to share the load here, but is this really the right time?

Tourism is slowing down a little bit, and they're worried that the boost in taxes, if these pass would make visitors maybe think twice about coming, but more so think twice about going out to dinner or out to a show.

It's really a good question, a good debate about what role should tourists pay in paying for the towns or visiting.

Okay.

All right.

Marianne, what are you watching?

I'm watching three a little town.

But first I want to thank Jefferson County and and the city of Lakewood for no bond measures, no tax, and my ballot will take five minutes, tops to fill out.

All I have to do is go look at school board and and city council races.

It's great.

That's the shortest ballot I've seen in ages three A in Littleton is really fascinating in the context of the executive order that, Jared Polis issued in July, that would, put some, some roadblocks, for cities and towns that don't cooperate.

Some of the housing bills that we have seen passed in the legislature in the last couple of years, this is hundreds of millions of dollars.

Six communities have filed lawsuits.

Three a would, put a stop to plans by the city of Littleton on dense, denser housing.

And, about half of the housing in Littleton is single family homes.

And people want to the people who are pushing this want to keep the commute.

The character of those communities the same.

Littleton didn't join in this lawsuit.

Was not one of the six communities.

However, one of the candidates for mayor does support, sort of supports that lawsuit.

He doesn't he doesn't want to see this density issue either.

And the city of Littleton, of course, has not has not chosen to participate in this lawsuit.

So that's one of the things that I kind of find, curious about this issue and its ties to what's going on at the state level.

Okay.

All right.

And, Christy.

Also, I'd like to draw attention to school board candidates, I think, as serving on the state Board of Education myself.

I'm really interested in who serves on local school boards because Colorado is a local control state.

That's what our state constitution says.

Most of the decisions around your child's education are made at that local level.

And so I just encourage all voters to actually take the time to look into the candidates running for school board.

And a lot of people get a little confused because there's no Partizan affiliation to like, oh, I want to know, you know, for city council and school board, if these people are aligned with my values or not, a lot of local parties on both sides will put out that information and identify the candidates that do align more with your values.

So I think voters taking the time to look into that research, these are also local candidates.

A lot of them will answer questions from voters, or you'll get a lot of issue related material, in your mailbox, maybe over text.

I'd say pay attention to that.

Give some thought to who would best represent your interests when they're dealing with your kids, and then all the local issues in your city as well.

Okay.

Can I add something to this?

This this is a Jefferson County issue.

I was looking at the school board candidates, and the thing that I found really intriguing, is that there are several people running in district five.

The current chair, a woman by the name of Mary Parker.

And, and she has been, endorsed, I think, by the Jefferson County or I'm sorry, by the, by the Democratic Party.

But if you look at what the Jefferson County Education Association is endorsing, they didn't endorse her, which I thought was really interesting.

They endorsed somebody else.

And so I'm this this shows a really interesting split in and between the teachers unions and the Democratic Party, which you don't actually see very often in Jefferson County.

Okay.

All right.

A new economic outlook this week said that Colorado's economy is treading water and pretty darn close to a recession.

Yet also this week, Governor Polis posted a very upbeat video saying that we're doing a lot more to save you money and to make more life affordable in Colorado.

And, he referenced cutting income tax rate different times, and the idea of replacing our flat income tax with a more progressive tax was talked up again this week in a big way.

Fill us in on the meeting that took place on Wednesday.

Yeah, there's this jumping ahead to the 2026 election, but it's such an important topic that I think we should be talking about this already.

The Bell Policy Center is pushing an initiative that would change Colorado's flat 4.4% income tax.

That's all businesses and all individuals.

The pay that to a graduated income tax that varies between 4.2% and 9.2% for the highest level, that's 10 million or more earners.

And basically says we believe that people who earn more money should pay higher rates of taxes.

One of the tricks of this, though, is that it's not just individuals.

And I think it's easy to sell a tax on millionaires.

These days.

But it's businesses too.

And when you talk about LLCs and sole proprietorships and a lot of the smaller businesses and the way they're organized, those individuals are paying taxes on their revenues, not their take home pay, but the revenues and $1 million in revenue for a business is a lot easier to hit than it is for, an individual.

And it can be really tough if you're going to raise taxes on them.

What happened this week is that the title setting board, kind of an obscure board that dictates how things get on the ballot, said, you've got too many subjects in this right now.

The measure was looking to redo the the income tax system is looking to let the state keep excess money.

So the proponents about Paul Sanders going to have to come back with some new wording, but for sure they are coming back.

And this is going to be a big discussion where you hear about for the next year.

Marianne.

And I agree this is going to be a huge discussion.

I agree with that on that.

And where I think that discussion is going to get hot.

Is that the state capital.

We it's an election year 2026 is an election year.

We have we have, all the statewide offices that are that are going to be up, this I think it's going to be a real interesting topic at the, at the legislature because the, you know, how the Republicans are going to react to this, should it get further than it already already has, if they come up with another, another proposal?

I, I do anticipate litigation, to follow this one pretty much all the way along along the line.

Okay.

And your thoughts.

Sure.

So I work for Advanced Colorado, and we were one of the organizations challenging the progressive income tax proposal at title board yesterday.

So really, I think the proper result from the title board, they voted 3 to 0 that this measure currently has more than one subject.

So basically what that means is Bell Policy Institute is trying to do too many things.

In one measure, they're trying to create, what they would call a progressive, tax increase on income for businesses like Ed pointed out, not just individuals, which is going to be a sticking point for a lot of people.

But then also they're completely debiasing, which means, it affects Tabor.

Tabor is extremely popular across the state.

70% of Coloradans love it.

And then they also were striking this provision out of Tabor.

Most people aren't even aware exists, which says that there's a prohibition on surcharges on income tax.

If you delete that, that prohibition, what that gives the legislature the opportunity to do is tag on any sort of fee on your income tax and basically target different industries and say, oh, you're an oil and gas worker.

We want to put a fee on your income tax or really anything they wanted to craft and come up with.

So that prohibition is something most people don't know about.

But a really important part of Tabor, the progressive income tax attempt from Belle policy was trying to strike that as well.

So the title board said, you're trying to do way too many things here.

Another part is they're trying pretty desperately to only repeal parts of the Constitution instead of amending it to amend the Constitution in Colorado, you have to go out and get 55% of voters to support it, instead of just the 50%.

I think they really want to avoid that because they know what they're trying to do right now just isn't popular enough with voters.

Wow.

That's a lot that many of us have gone on for a long time, cutie.

We don't know what's going to be too popular with voters a year from now, as we see costs keep going as they keep going up.

And, you know, taxing millionaires is going to become much more popular.

And billionaire is really popular.

But it's I give Colorado credit, I love the single subject because these proposals, I like it that we can have initiatives, but they have to be more simple because otherwise you have the crazy cause and effect of things that might rust, that might affect other things no one's paying attention to.

If it's more than one item, it's just too hard to look at.

So they're gonna have to go back to the drawing board.

Can they fix the business thing?

For example, Ed, can they separate the million dollar for businesses for $1 million single taxpayers?

I mean, that would also have to be a constitutional change now, because right now everything is, taxed is one.

So but it's one of the many things they're going to have to consider.

I expect we're going to see a lot of different proposals that they're going to come back with for how they could try to get this down to a single subject or multiple questions with single subjects.

I'm glad it's at 2026.

We can fill out that ballot that.

Seems like they have a lot of work to do.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

This week I have to give a shout out to the bravery of Colorado meteorologist Kylie Bearse.

She's so impressive.

She is sharing her story of what she has been dealing with.

An upsetting story when it comes to protecting herself from a stalker.

By Kylie bringing up her story.

Shelley Bradbury with The Denver Post looked into exactly how various county prosecutors approach and deal with stalking charges.

And Marion is kind of all over the place in Colorado.

And I think that's why you're going to see this at the Capitol in the next session.

I think criminal justice is going to wind up being one of the really hot topics in this upcoming legislative session.

You also have the issue of, people who are, having mental health issues who are not being prosecuted for that, that, and the couple in Fort Collins and Arapahoe County, they had they've had cases there.

And everybody is now, calling for changes to that law.

I expect you're going to see changes to, the kinds of issues that that Kyla is experiencing.

And yes, that was I, I read that her her her story and with with, with a stone in my stomach and just an awful, awful situation.

So I congratulate her for her bravery.

And I would not be at all surprised if we don't see her down at the Capitol talking about how this issue is not being taken seriously enough in some jurisdictions.

Well, I, I totally agree.

She's very brave to put out her story and more people who are victims of crime in Colorado I think need to do that when they feel comfortable, because we need to highlight the fact that, according to U.S.

News and World Report, Colorado is the second most dangerous state in the nation.

That's a 2025 ranking.

And it is because of things exactly like this.

Not only is it because of state laws where they prioritize criminals over victims way too often, but it's also because in some jurisdictions, DA's refuse to charge crimes that if you just lived, you know, a few miles down the road, it would absolutely get charged and prosecuted.

And then you also have judges that are another piece of the issue when you talk about PR bonds and violent criminals in Colorado and repeat offenders getting out on a 1 or $2 bonds or just PR bonds, which means you promise you'll show up and then they go right back out and and do the same offense or a worse one on right afterwards.

So a systemic problem across Colorado.

But I think one of the biggest issues with passing laws, like the one Marion is talking about, you know, may come to the Capitol, is the House Judiciary Committee.

We have a huge problem with a House Judiciary Committee stacked with far left Socialist Democrats, who and some of them were previous defense attorneys.

Some of them just literally belong to the Democrat Socialist Party and do not believe people should be put in jail or have mandatory sentences.

And so common sense laws that average people would absolutely vote for were not seeing get through the committee.

Well, we'll see because this is pretty alarming.

You know what some women are facing too many women are facing.

Howdy.

Let's talk about who's making it more dangerous here.

So Kohl's Whalen is a Colorado musician who was doing very well successful.

She wound up having a stalker years ago, started stalking her on the internet.

He went away for a while.

Then he came back and an investigator subsequently said a million contacts threats on different social media platforms.

Arapahoe County took this very seriously.

He the he Billy countryman, wound up going to jail for three years because of his threats to calls Whalen this musician who in the meantime left the state because she was so freaked out.

That's the other thing we have to remember is how the victims continue to feel victimized.

He appealed to the group that had done the 303 case and appealed.

They go to the Supreme Court.

Supreme court said these were not threatening enough for to constitute a crime against her and overturn that decision.

So let's remember, the Supreme Court is the one who right now is really defining what stalking is.

Okay?

And, Ed.

You know, we haven't weighed in on this issue particularly, but the current chamber believes that public safety is a key to enforcing any kind of good business atmosphere.

And frankly, that means any kind of good quality of life atmosphere, too.

So I just hope that as people look at these various cases, they think about how this affects the ability for people to go to work safely, have jobs and, and consider that and where they're going with these laws.

Okay.

All right.

A Denver International Airport is among other airports in Colorado and airports all across the country that are not showing a new video from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in which she blames Democrats for the federal shutdown of the government.

There are some airports that are showing the video at security checkpoints where TSA employees are there working without getting paid.

Christie.

We have seen, other videos of Christie gnomes at security checkpoints at different airports.

Congressman Boebert is saying this is completely unacceptable.

That Dia, she's pointing out is not showing this video.

They say they don't have the capacity to show the video.

Sure.

And I have no idea FDA has the capacity or not.

But I think what some people are objecting to on the Democrat side is saying that it violates the Hatch Act.

They're saying there's a Hatch Act that applies to all federal employees.

But that's a bad claim.

They're wrong.

It doesn't apply to Kristi Noem.

The video.

The Hatch Act specifically says you may not participate in campaigning or fundraising for political campaigns.

If you are like a member of the cabinet for the president.

My dad works for the FAA.

It applies to him as well.

But what it doesn't apply to is making statements about the other political party.

If you watch this video that Kristi Noem has put out, she's saying the Democrats are the one shutting down the government like they are the ones making the TSA agents work without pay.

That's what her video is saying.

And if we think back to other administrations, you commonly see the president themself or you see cabinet members often criticize the other party.

I mean, Pete Buttigieg was constantly on TV criticizing Republicans when he was transportation secretary.

Not a violation of the Hatch Act at all.

Like you're welcome to criticize the other party, and it doesn't violate any laws.

So her video is entirely fine.

Very proper, doesn't violate anything.

But whether or not it has the capabilities, I don't know.

So you're saying the video is okay, but the question is where it's being shown or where they want it to be shown.

No, it's totally fine to show it at an airport.

I mean, TSA works there.

The federal government has an influence over airports.

Perfectly legally proper to show the video there.

I'm just saying, I don't know about the physical capabilities.

What's wrong with have a nice flight.

Enjoy seeing the country.

I do know we broke the story about Denver, and here's why they can't show it in all those new fancy screens.

They don't have audio capability.

And Kristi Noem, this message is audio.

You've got to see it.

It's visual, but her message is audio.

So that's why it's not in Denver.

Colorado Springs rejected it because they said we don't put up those kinds of commercial political messages.

Aspen is not showing it.

Other people are.

But it was just why do we need it?

Why not just say, have a nice flight?

Thanks everyone for working hard and shout out to Dia.

I had three sisters flying out last Friday.

Everyone left on time and arrived earlier at their destinations.

Well that is good to hear.

It was shocking.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Your thoughts, Ed.

You know, my thoughts are I want to pull this out a little bit further because this is interesting.

We're talking about this, but this is essentially the government trying to tell a business or business entity because Dia well, this is public facilities run as a business entity.

What to do.

And this is getting a lot of attention now, maybe more so than when the state government offered a bill earlier this year to tell, gas stations that it put warning labels on gas pumps, saying this product is bad for you.

This is a little bit different, but, getting more attention then when the legislature also earlier this year, tried to tell businesses who have workers working outside when it's 80 degrees or more that they have to provide them with 32oz of water per hour chilled to no less than 60 degrees.

So yes, this is a common habit from all kinds of governments.

They're telling businesses what to do.

People are kind of up in arms.

I like what you're telling the airport to do here, but the fact is, we've got to watch more closely and let business and business entities run on their own.

Without the government stepping in and telling them what to say or do.

Okay.

All right.

Marianne.

I think the thing that concerns me the most about this video is not that, it's a hatchback issue.

I agree with Christy.

It's not, the the problem I have with this is it's a one sided political message, and we don't, you know, there's no opportunity for anybody to say we disagree.

We think the Republicans are responsible for shutting down the government.

They're in charge of all three branches of government.

So why not, but to have these kinds of political conversations in an era in which the political rhetoric is just out of control, I don't think helps helps the issue at all.

And and so applies to Dia, Colorado Springs and all the other airports who won't engage, who won't engage and won't allow, their passengers to have to see one sided political rhetoric.

But on a happy note, something new for Saturday Night Live.

That is true.

That is true.

Tina Fey was something.

Okay, now let's go down and talk with everybody about their highs and the lows that they witnessed this week.

We'll start in the low notes.

We can end on a good note.

And I'll start with Patty.

I don't think we need swastikas up on the side of Lookout Mountain, which is where a swastika made out of plastic sheets wound up last Saturday morning.

We don't need that in Colorado, and we don't need that.

And signs for people running for the Elizabeth School Board, where it also showed up this week.

Yeah, yeah.

And we've passed six months now.

We're China is not buying us soybeans.

And while people might say, look, this is a product of the tariff war, let's remember who this really hurts.

Soybean farmers who are looking for a market, a lot of them who are in Colorado and have already suffered from a decreasing market in recent years, hope this can get resolved so that they can do what they do.

Yeah.

All right.

And Marianne.

I'm also going to have something of a rural, low note.

And this is Nebraska's continuing effort to steal land from six landowners up in Sedgwick County, near the state line, to build a canal that, in the end, will probably cost them billions of dollars.

And I'm hearing from sources that if this turns into an ugly legal fight and it's already in front of the U.S.

Supreme Court, he's not willing to pay millions and millions and millions of dollars in legal fees to to fight this.

And, the governor and attorney General Colorado yesterday held a news conference where they said this this is going to be a decade, if not more, of fighting with the Supreme Court.

Should the should the court decide to take this case on.

So, good, good luck to those landowners up in Sedgwick County and Nebraska.

Go home.

Okay.

All right.

Christy.

Okay, so we have a local elections here, but Virginia has statewide elections.

And I think the Liberal Democrat candidates response to Jay Jones that he's running for attorney general, his comments wishing murder on his political opponents, it should be a no brainer, as a fellow Democrat candidate out there, to say he has no place being the state's top law enforcement officer if that's how he's going to talk.

So I think that's a low and apparently there's no floor to it.

Okay.

All right.

Let's switch to something positive, shall we?

Another good reason to go downtown this weekend.

The biennial is back with lots of great events, exhibits based out of a writer's square.

Okay.

And anybody can go.

Anybody can go.

Most of the events are free.

Okay, that's even better.

In the past week, BNF Mountain Market reopened.

Why?

That's such a good thing.

That was the market in the Nederland shopping center torched by fire.

That is a terrible blow to the community and to the businesses there.

And every time we get to see someone reopening or doing business again means somebody's livelihood is being restored.

And that's good news.

Really good news.

Okay.

This Saturday is the Damon Runyon dinner hosted by the Denver Press Club.

The Press Club is honoring Ari Shapiro, who recently stepped down from the, anchoring desk at All Things Considered, the NPR evening show.

We anticipate a wonderful, fun evening.

It's going to be a casual conversation between Ari and Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio.

Chris Bianchi of, nine News Media meteorologist, is going to be the MC.

We anticipate a great evening.

You're going to have a great lineup.

Oh, yeah.

Good.

Good night.

Okay.

And, Christy.

So on Monday, all the living hostages were returned from Hamas to Israel.

I think it's an obvious high point, but I read a really great op ed written by Steve Wyckoff, son.

He's one of the special negotiators who made this happen along with President Trump and Marco Rubio.

I think anyone should go read it.

His son basically talked about how he took the death of one of his other sons, an incredibly low time in his life, and used it to build himself into a person who goes out and rescues people and helps people.

So well worth reading.

Wow, I just got the chills.

That's nice to hear.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

My high is a story about an exceptional survivor.

You may remember the name Michelle Wilkins, a young woman who survived a brutal attack in 2015 when she was seven months pregnant, and she was answering what she thought was a Craigslist ad for baby clothes.

There were no clothes.

Her daughter, Aurora, did not survive the vicious attack, but Michelle did.

By the grace of God.

And she is a woman who is extremely strong and has a lot of forgiveness.

And now she is working as a trauma therapist.

She no longer lives in Colorado, but she is helping people all over the world, and online with her videos about how she came through an ordeal and that in granting people grace and some insight as to how they can also, get through the worst times of their life.

So I just think it's amazing to see people who have gone through such a difficult time and turn it around and do such good for others and for the world out there.

So I think that's pretty amazing story.

Michelle.

Thank you, insiders, for joining us this week.

So appreciate it.

Thank you for watching at home or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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