I'm Alton Dillard in for Kyle Dyer this week.

It's Halloween and there are a lot of scary things going on right now.

What's scary for you?

Is it the doubling of health insurance premiums for Coloradans insured through the individual marketplace?

The potential expiration of Snap benefits this weekend, or that the federal government has been shut down for a month?

Maybe it's the fact that voter turnout for this current election is hovering around 40% as of the end of this week.

Lots to cover with our insider panel.

So let's unpack the issues on this week's edition of Colorado Inside Out.

Let's get right to our insider panel for this week.

Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

David Koppell, research director at the Independence Institute.

Elena Alvarez, reporter with Axios Denver.

And Jesse Paul, reporter and editor at the Colorado Sun.

There is a perfect storm forming that will cause health care premiums to skyrocket for people who are insured through the individual marketplace.

And the Colorado Division of Insurance is sounding the alarm.

Consumers are understandably spooked by this.

Patty, how did we arrive at this point?

We know that health care was not exactly a bed of roses before all this dilemma.

I was on a panel last week with PR people and journalists and the worst PR disasters, and we did a sweet 16 bracket out of all the disasters.

And there have been plenty in this country over the last year.

United healthcare beat out everyone 16 disasters.

United Health Care on top.

Just because of how bad health care is in this country, how hated health is in this country, how much United has denied claims.

And now you go with where the funding is going to be.

You've got the Medicaid Medicaid cuts coming from the Congress, which are throwing so many families completely out of health care, they're not going to be able to afford to go buy these individual plans, which are going to at least double and in some cases triple.

We've got the Affordable Care Enhancement Act, which is expiring at the end of the year unless Congress does something which is also going to add to costs.

There's no way Congress is going to be able to do anything before the end of the year.

It's amazing they even made it all go out.

David, the problem is the federal government has totally ruined the health care insurance market.

Think about like when you buy automobile insurance you were buying for insurance against unusual catastrophic events, an accident.

A tree falls on your car.

You don't use automobile insurance to pay for filling up your tank, because if you did, insurance premiums would be crazy, partly because of all the paperwork processing costs of all those claims.

Yet health insurance is exactly forced by Congress on the opposite model, where you have to buy these comprehensive things, that cover everything.

Except they really don't because they have so many deductibles.

So you end up paying huge premiums and often not getting much back.

It's actually illegal under the so-called Affordable Care Act to buy a policy like auto insurance, which just covers the exceptional high expense kinds of things.

Additionally, the Affordable Care Act, has created tremendous pressure for hospital mergers, which reduces competition.

And it's also driving small, independent medical practices out of business.

Again, less competition.

So the effect of the Affordable Care Act has been to make health insurance more and more unaffordable.

And we're not going to solve that problem until we get the federal government out of micromanaging health care, health care and thereby distorting it.

Elena.

Again, perfect storm, perfect storm.

We heard.

I can't get over the 101% increase.

Patty mentioned the doubling.

That's the average.

So it could be higher, for premiums.

And that's expected to impact 300,000 Coloradans, which is just staggering.

We heard from state officials this week that that will mean Coloradans forgo health insurance altogether.

Which is huge increase.

And compensated care for providers, something they've been struggling with for a long time.

And this really matters a lot when you look at the demographics of the state.

Colorado is aging fast.

We had a recent report from the Colorado Fiscal Institute that found that Coloradans age 65 and older are projected to, increase nearly 30% over just the next decade.

These are people who are really going to need health care affordably.

So, and we also heard from state officials that these price spikes aren't going to play out evenly.

Families in rural areas are expected to be, especially impacted.

And so, you know, the bottom line, as Colorado's insurance commissioner said, is that these premium increases are going to create impossible decisions for families across the state.

Jesse, is there any type of legislative fix that may be forthcoming or what is going on at the dome?

Well, the state has no money as we know.

So that that's not really an option.

During the special legislative session, they tried to do some kind of, fancy budget maneuvering in order to try and prevent the increases from being worse than they actually are.

But as Elena pointed out, they're still pretty awful.

And I think people are going to be making some tough decisions.

The interesting thing here, right, is this this entire government shutdown hinges on this question.

Democrats want these enhanced, premium tax credits to come back, which would drive down the cost of the folks car insurance cost for people who run the individual market.

It doesn't look like Republicans want to do that.

I think the interesting thing here, though, to look at is, is, you know, Republicans have had a chance.

They've had they've controlled both chambers of Congress for a while now.

Yes, there's a filibuster.

But even when they wait, they had the votes to get rid of it.

They didn't get rid of the ACA.

So, you know, the Affordable Care Act is the law that is that the circumstance that we all live in.

And they're making a conscious decision not to extend these premium tax credits.

And they've got their reasons to do it.

But ultimately, you know, I think, this is the the world we live in, right?

And it's a decision that's being made by Congress to not, you know, drive down costs.

I was going to say to add to what Elena said.

It's the world we live in here.

But in the rural areas, the world is much worse, where the hospitals may have to close because they're not getting the reimbursement they need from the feds.

So rural Colorado is even worse off than urban Colorado.

And that's saying a lot.

You can have people go to the emergency room.

Who's going to pay for that when they're when their case could have been handled much earlier?

Well, like you said, perfect storm.

And we'll see what happened because again, the government shutdown still continues because of that issue.

It's election time.

There are only two statewide ballot issues, and voter turnout is looking a little low heading into the weekend before the election.

Even though Colorado is probably the easiest place to cast a ballot.

David, what are your thoughts on the issues and people up in the 2025 coordinated election?

Well, let's focus on the two statewide issues.

Everybody will be voting on L and M. These are both, doubling down on a dumb idea that already isn't working.

Ever.

For decades, since the 1940s, for lunches in the 1960s for breakfasts, we funded free food at school for poor schoolchildren, Then in 2022, something new was enacted in Colorado to say, let's give free food to everybody, And so the legislature and the, has now discovered that giving away stuff, free stuff to everybody is actually quite expensive.

and now these these geniuses are saying, well, we already raised taxes heavily on people making over 300,000, but now it's costing too much.

So we're going to raise taxes even more.

First, with l l, we're going to take away the tax refunds from everybody at every income level.

And second, we're going to raise taxes even more on people making over 300,000.

But they got a little poison pill in there because of inflation and bracket creep.

Somebody who's making 190,000 now a family will, a decade from now, be in the extra high punitive tax bracket.

Well, Elena, I'm focused on Denver's ballot, especially the vibrant Denver bond package that the mayor is pushing.

As of Wednesday, only about 9% of Denver voters have turned in their ballot.

So looking pretty low.

You know, we expect that, lower turnout during an off year election.

But Mayor Johnson right now is looking for every vote that he can get to get this bond package pushed through.

And that's proving, it's likely to prove a little bit trickier now, because in the last week, he has had a lot of bad press.

Come out about some you know, secret decisions that he's made behind closed doors, outright false claims that he's made.

And there's really a growing sense of distrust between him and the city council, him and the community.

And so not only will, you know, Tuesday's election, be a test of whether voters, you know, believe in his bond package, but it will also be a test of whether voters believe in him and trust him and want to give him $950 million, to spend on 60 ish projects.

So certainly something to tune in for.

But right now, his credibility has come, into question, that a really critical time.

Jesse, what are you following?

I'm interested in the statewide ballot measures.

I think it'll be interesting to see what voters do on those.

I haven't seen any polling on them, but given the passage of of the underlying question a few years ago on school meals, I think they should, cruise through.

There's an interesting ballot question up in Vail that I'm following.

That would, increase a tax or impose a specific tax on short term rentals.

And basically, this is a way to get around the question that has been looming kind of over the state in recent years about increasing property taxes on short term rentals, because they act more like a commercial, you know, property than they do, a residential one.

This, question up in Vail would raise money for affordable housing projects, which we all know is an issue in the mountain communities.

So if this passes, I think it could be an interesting way for, interesting example for other mountain communities to follow.

On the interesting side of things that the follow the money kind of thing.

Airbnb has spent a bunch of money against the ballot measure up there, so we'll see what it ends up coming out.

Obviously.

I think there's a difference between people who vote up there and or homeowners and the people who own the short term rentals.

I'm not sure that the same people who are voting, so, so it's a kind of a weird dynamic and an interesting, policy question for the for the communities up in their high country.

I think in Patty, what are you keeping an eye on in this quote unquote off year?

Well, almost everything and not very efficiently at that I think.

And.

Are going to pass for a very unusual reason, which is people are mixing it up with snap, which is about to stop.

So if you haven't voted yet you are going to think anything we can do to help feed people.

And I think that will help a lot.

Cruz David's argument notwithstanding, they're just going to say let's beat kids and they're not going to go into the details.

Elena's also right that people are in Denver are feeling not secure about this current administration.

Being able to see a project all the way through.

We're going to talk more about Park Hill.

But we have the Denver Post building.

We talked about here last week.

We it is just not looking like a very efficient administration.

Do you want to give permission to spend $1 billion to them in this case, the other one that really is getting rancorous besides the school board, which we don't have time for, but 310 the favor of that flavored tobacco argument.

Bloomberg has put in over $1 million.

You have the tobacco companies putting in some they it's ugly and it's kind of the small mom and pop versus the you know, we've got our little vape shop.

If you don't buy it from us, you go into Aurora, you're going to Lakewood, Denver, lose the money.

But you also have the health people who are very concerned about what's happening to kids.

So 310 I think is the toss up.

I feel vibrant.

Denver could be in trouble, at least some of those five.

Really.

Because that to what you mentioned, that, bond is broken up into different segments.

So do you think that voters may do some picking and choosing within the A3?

Well, they've done it before.

They did vote down one.

You know, Denver voters love to vote for two for bonds and to tax themselves.

So normally they're all about improving the city.

But in this case, I think if they really look at the first one, they might say Burnham Yard.

We don't need to help fund.

About half of that would help the Broncos stadium.

I think some people, if they figure that out, might not want to go with it.

Just say that the Bronco owners pay for everything and the Park Hill one might have some trouble already.

In these times of ever tightening budgets, the care and feeding of our children is at risk.

Snap benefits could run out this weekend due to the government shutdown, and now Head Start funding is in jeopardy.

Additionally, the Common Sense Institute has raised the alarm that Colorado is facing an escalating child care funding crisis, which in turn could stabilize working families in the state's economy.

Add to that the spike in the number of people 65 and up experiencing homelessness and Colorado is becoming a place where it's getting harder to be young or old.

Elena, I want to focus on snap for a moment because it's obviously extremely timely.

We know of the 600,000 Coloradans who benefit from snap half our children.

And so the state, this week has taken some, some actionable steps to fill the gap.

not going to solve this, but it will help a bit.

So, Governor Polis, just got the Joint Budget Committee to approve, $10 million to help food banks through mid-December.

So that gives them a little bit more, flexibility, funding was also extended for the nutrition program that supports food access to nearly 100,000 women and children.

So that was really important.

Meanwhile, this week, Attorney General Phil Wiser also joined, two dozen other states in suing the Trump administration you know, the state is doing what it can to snap up.

At the same time, they're also asking the community to step up, donate to food banks.

But the reality of what's ahead looks pretty grim.

You know, we heard from the CEO of the food Bank of the Rockies, just at the end of last week, telling reporters that they are facing a crisis unlike anything they've ever seen.

And that really puts this all into perspective.

Jesse.

Yeah, it's interesting because the $10 million is an example of one thing the legislature can do.

Whereas they can't kind of solve with magic wand and solve the health care issue, the health insurance problem.

But that $10 million, as you mentioned, isn't going to go very far.

And there was an interesting discussion in the JBC about where the money should come from.

Right now, they're kind of digging into some existing pools of funding and redirecting it, but there was a push from some Republicans in the JBC to get the governor to declare a disaster emergency, to tap disaster funds for it.

I thought that was pretty interesting, because what we're facing right now is really a political disaster.

Not not, you know, a wildfire or flood or something like that.

But I think the the recognition of the, the breadth of the problem is really interesting.

Right?

This is kind of a disaster for a lot of families, 600,000 Coloradans who rely on Snap benefits and $10 million going to food banks is really trying to address the effects of the problem.

But it's not getting them food.

It's saying, hey, you can go to a food bank and we'll give you, some extra funding there.

That that is just a really dire situation when you think about it.

The what is good is, you see the amount of community people who are stepping up and saying they want to help like their programs.

Unlike what David said, about 56,000,056 for the school program, $6 a day, if you donate $6, you're going to feed someone for a day.

So you see campaigns like that, you see these food banks working hard.

But to get back to health care wasn't a bed of roses before.

It's not like the food banks were in a good situation before.

They have been strapped really since Covid and it's going to get worse and worse.

They are working as hard as they can, as fast as they can, but $10 million is really going to be a drop in the bucket to get food to people when they're going to start needing it, which will be this weekend.

something that is being underfunded is by the Common Sense Institute's report is called the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program.

And it's focused on low income people.

And it says, you know, maybe you're a single mom with a three year old.

We will subsidize some of your child care so that you can participate in the workforce and build your skills and get on your feet.

Great idea, but drastically underfunded.

And the problems getting worse because our progressive Colorado legislature won't make any prioritization because they keep throwing welfare money out in every direction.

We could fund the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program and probably have more money to help poor people with with food.

If we didn't give cash payments through the tax system to people who are illegally in this country, if we didn't have to choose, like most states don't or many states don't, to pay for Medicare for able bodied adults So when you put the loafers on Medicaid ahead of the people who are trying to work with the child care program, then you can't fund everything.

And this legislature has it backwards.

It gives food welfare to the rich and free medical care to people don't even want to work.

Well, that's old school in that I hadn't heard the term low for in a few years, so thanks for that.

Wow.

All right.

The Park Hill Park, formerly the Park Hill Golf Course, is partially open, so that puts an end to that issue, right?

Well, in the words of legendary sports announcer Lee Corso, not so fast.

Turns out that due to a fiber line under the Dia land that was part of the land swap in the Park Hill Park agreement, 20 additional acres of land were added to the deal after it closed.

Also, $70 million is on the line for the park if Denver passes to be of the aforementioned vibrant Denver bond once again, Jesse the Devil seems to be in the details.

I still miss the park Hill Golf course.

That was the one place where I could shoot a decent score wide and short.

But look, you know, Atlanta kind of mentioned this earlier.

This is another issue for the for the mayor in terms of credibility issues.

The 20 additional acres of land.

I don't think anybody knew about that until recently when some colleagues, reported on it.

And Axios had a really interesting story.

I think kind of examining this, this issue that that the mayor has wanted to say, governor, this is a city issue, that the mayor has, you know, with, with credibility problems and kind of saying things that don't add up.

There's a few different examples of that in the story.

I think heavily back to when he talked about property taxes in a way that wasn't true and then ultimately cost him, I think in part, his sales tax increase a few years ago.

And in the I think the vibrant Denver question is going to be a really real referendum on whether people trust the mayor to kind of carry out, the things that he wants to do.

And this is just another kind of chip away from that credibility, the trust that the that folks might have in him and Patty, you all have been on this issue pretty much since day one.

So what do you think of the evolutions going on right now?

Well, no one anticipated this twist.

I mean, it was one thing, we had the conservation easement on it.

So either people had to vote to lift that or it was going to stay open space or maybe be able to have some park amenities.

And Denver approved that.

And then we had to come up with the money then to continue making it useful, open space.

And then you had the trade on property so that Denver could afford it.

And that was with the West Side.

And I wasn't really sure what West Side wanted with the property out by the airport, but it looked like a great deal.

It was taking a while to close on October 2nd, the city says, oh, it's all done, we're going to be Great Park Hill.

We're ready to have the party on the 28th.

In the meantime, just a few few days later, executive session.

And this is where the story started.

They discovered the appraisal wasn't coming in right on the airport swap land and that the city would have to come up because of this underground fiber optics.

The city would have to come up with more land and almost $1 million to make it a fair swap deal, and that took two weeks to come out from when the executive session was.

Their city was stonewalling channel four.

They stonewalled us on it because I think they wanted to have the big celebration on Tuesday before the people found out, oh, it's not that smooth.

And now we have the FAA saying, even though they've kind of fixed the swap, maybe there's still some problems we're not going to know till November 21st if the FAA is going to allow the swap.

David, lots of government in this.

I love to hear your perspective.

Well, the the Johnston administration has lied, even, about the $900,000 extra they had to pay to the developer, and claiming that they, they didn't have to do it.

But then Westword caught them on that this vibrant Denver bond, the way you can think of it as a homeowner, is imagine you finish paying off your mortgage.

Well, if these these bonds pass, you get to make two extra months of about the size of your mortgage payment just to pay for these particular bonds.

Never mind all the other property taxes, that Denver imposes.

So with this Park Hill thing, it reinforces the question is, do you really trust this current administration to spend $1 billion in an open, fair, non crony, transparent way?

Or do you think that there might be a whole bunch of other side deals, that get cut with all this, money?

That would be billion dollars that would be put in the administration's hands.

as Patty mentioned earlier, we've got $70 million in question to be that would go towards redeveloping the Park Hill golf course, turning it into a park.

I think you, Patty, you mentioned the FAA, scrutiny that that was just reported yesterday, which is huge.

The fact that number one, he, Mayor Johnston secretly gave 20 more acres then the FAA comes in saying this deal is is messier than already the secrecy that that fueled it.

It's they noticed numerous abnormalities.

I think that was their quote.

That they're now going to have to look over for the next month.

They asked for an extension, I think, for about a month, to really review what this deal is all about.

This Park Hill Golf course story is never ending.

I don't know how many times we have talked about this at this table.

And the fact that if voters don't pass to be that, we would, Johnston says we would have to go back to the drawing board means that this story is going to continue for years to come, no matter if it passes or not, because you're going to have a ton of development if it does pass.

That goes into this.

So, you know, par for the course for this entire issue that that we're going to be looking at this for many more years to come.

Par for the course.

I see you.

Would you.

And now it's time to go down the line with each of you mentioning a high and low of the week.

We'll start with Patty and the low note.

Well, it was a great high if you happen to be downtown last weekend and went to Civic Center Park, which had a day of the dead celebration, there were day of the dead celebrations all over new one at National Western, but the day of the dead celebration at Civic Center made me particularly nostalgic because next year there's a big construction project starting at Civic Center, and I have suggested to the mayor and on this show, can we postpone that $50 million project?

So during Denver, Colorado's 150th birthday, people can go to the park at the heart of the city and actually celebrate.

We don't need another construction project there right now.

David, with the nanny Bloomberg.

Initiative referendum 310 to outlaw flavored tobacco in Colorado, in Denver, in Denver, you can buy marijuana and consume it.

In Denver, you can grow psychedelic mushrooms and consume them because it, after all, is your body and your choice.

But Michael Bloomberg, who knows better than everyone about what to do with their own bodies, wants to make it illegal for you to buy a cigaret that has a flavor in it to make it taste better, which doesn't make the cigaret any more dangerous.

And supposedly the reason for this is because of that children.

Well, it's already illegal for anyone, including adults under 21, to buy tobacco.

So that's just pretextual.

He's a prohibitionist.

It's your body.

Don't let Michael Bloomberg tell you what to do with it.

Elena.

I'm sticking with Mayor Johnston.

It was revealed this week by Nine news is great reporting that in defending his unilateral extension of a contract with FLoC, the controversial license plate reader system, he falsely claimed that the murder of a transgender hairstylist, which was a very, highly publicized murder that that was solved with FLoC.

And it came out that that's untrue.

The murder remains under investigation.

They haven't caught anybody.

And so has, The murder victim's mother spoke out.

She was shocked and appalled that he would make such a statement.

And his office subsequently had to apologize.

And it was just a pretty bad luck for the mayor.

Yeah, Jesse, the shutdown, I mean, continues on.

We're getting into a month plus now of this, and there's so much political back and forth, but not much progress being made.

And I have no idea how this ends as a political reporter.

But in the meantime, I just think it's a real shame all the people that are being affected by it, whether it's air traffic controllers or folks who aren't getting their food stamps.

Now, we're going to have such lasting problems from this, and I just hope people can maybe set aside the rhetoric, come to the table and figure something out.

All right.

And especially after this week, we need to really end this on a high note.

Patty, what you got?

Well, this might be a little hard.

No matter what the outcome of the election is, it's important that everyone still goes out and votes.

Denver and Colorado are still considered the gold standard.

Don't deny that the election works.

Voting works.

Your vote will be counted.

However you vote.

Be sure you take part in it.

All right, David, your high.

Well, this has not been a great year for Division one.

College football in Colorado.

However, in Division two, the Western Colorado Mountaineers from Gunnison are undefeated and in first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and additionally, the Colorado State University and Pueblo Thunder Wolves have six wins and only one loss, and both of those teams are nationally ranked.

Nice Elena, I have to give a shout out to CBS Colorado's reporter Brian Maass.

He has had scoop after scoop after scoop over the last week.

Everything ranging from Park Hill golf course stuff to Denver Post rents, to Mayor Johnston.

You know, the saga around him and Colorado is really lucky to have them shedding light on some very important issues.

Jesse, it's Halloween.

I used this last year at this table, I realize, but we get hundreds of trick or treaters at our house and, it's super fun, so enjoy it.

It's always.

It's always one of the best times of the year for us.

Oh, and my high is a shout out to my alma mater, Denver East High.

In addition to ringing in their 150th anniversary this year, they also won the state five, a speech and debate title this past spring and the state Boys Sevens Rugby Championship last weekend.

Plus, the JV rugby team won the Division two state title.

Like a lot of people I know, 40 plus year friendships were forged in the hallways of our high schools, and that is why Coloradans of all ages still talk about the high school they attended.

However, you should have been an angel.

Thank you all.

Watching along with this or listening to our podcast is available on Spotify and Apple.

I'm Alton Dillard.

Kyle Dyer will be back here next week on PBS 12.

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