Colorado is in a monsoonal rain pattern, bringing daily threats of flash flooding, especially around the burn scars from recent wildfires.

Now, our state has asked for federal disaster recovery help.

And this week, more than $90 million was awarded for relief tied to earlier events, the ones before this summer's fires.

And that help is welcome.

But when it rains this hard and already saturated land, well, there's concern.

There is good news to celebrate as well.

From the start of Hispanic Heritage Month to Colorado start up week.

A lot has happened while I've been away from the desk, so it's time to get caught up with this week's Colorado inside out.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kyle.

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

We start with Patti Calhoun, founder and editor emeritus at Westword.

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

And Thomas Tafoya, community leader and environmental advocate and a past candidate for mayor of Denver.

And Jimmy Sagan Burger, investigative columnist with the Denver Gazette.

So I've been out for a week, but I was in Washington, where one of the big election stories of the week unfolded.

The U.S.

Supreme Court rejected President Trump's push to impose new restrictions on mail ballots for the midterms.

And here in Colorado, we're just two weeks away from ballots going out in the mail.

Meanwhile, campaign money is pouring in with questions about just how much is being spent, where some of that money is coming from and how it is being tracked.

Patti, since I've been away, fill me in.

Where do you want to start?

Well, last week at this time, the big news was that Trump had said he would pay 5000 to every American.

That's 1.3 trillion if the Republicans win at the midterms.

So.

And then he continued to talk about bribery.

And I don't know why we're worried about Mail-In balloting being flawed or, you know, the election deniers concerned about that.

When the president of the United States wants to pay you for your vote.

But certainly the Republicans want to save Colorado's Republican seats because we see money pouring in, especially in the eight to save gave Gabe Evans for many wrote.

Now that one is very, very tight.

It's one of the tightest in the country, but also, interestingly, there's money going into El Paso County, which hasn't had a Democrat representing it for maybe ever.

And that's becoming incredibly close.

And Jeff Crain could lose his seat.

Still really interested in the fourth with Boebert.

Will she maintain her seat because she's got a really tough candidate coming.

So Colorado could really make a move on this.

But the best news is the Supreme Court.

Thank you for coming down with your ruling.

Thank you for coming for coming down with the ruling that we hope he does not appeal again, especially because other states have already started sending out ballots.

And for us, two weeks today, Friday.

Right?

Yeah.

All right.

Marianne, I've been tracking campaign finance on the issue committees and surprisingly, the committee that's so far taken in the most money is the, ballot measure that would put hunting and fishing into the state constitution.

There hasn't been a whole lot of money that has come in since, since the ballot was finalized.

But that's that's one of the places where we're seeing a lot of money being poured in on the pro, on the pro side, the other issue, of course, is, Victor Marks.

And the last week they had the hearing, on his campaign finance violations, more than 100 of them, the the decision from the administrative law judge will be could be out sometime next week.

I believe that's what they're looking at.

The thing that really struck me about his testimony was that he threw his campaign finance treasurer under the bus.

And had he used somebody who's experienced in campaign finance, I don't think he'd be where he is right now.

It's just another sign of just how badly managed his campaign has been.

perhaps he didn't want to skirt around the rules.

It seems like this entire time think it was intentional.

I felt bad for the person who got thrown under and it just felt like excuse after excuse.

And I think that these attacks about, you know, flooding the zone as they talk about it in the media is really about putting it in the guise to make people question.

They knew they couldn't do these things, but they want to be able to make people question, is my ballot really going to get there?

And that's on top of what people are asking, does my ballot even really matter?

And I'm here to tell you it does here in Colorado.

Here in Denver, you have all sorts of ballot issues that you can vote on to use your voice.

I'm a believer in those.

I've used them myself.

We have at large candidates who are filling in for a seat.

I think there's ten candidates at this time, so, you know, get out there, learn about these people.

You only have a couple weeks to do that.

And, you know, create.

I want to talk about this because my wife and I have been watching the TV commercials and there's just some really great Spanish media content coming out from both of them.

You can see the money coming in.

And I think the producers coming from television, where we are here, there are a lot of people at work right now because of this money.

Okay.

All right.

On Victor Marx, I find it really interesting.

Last week, the Denver Post did their report on how his money has been going primarily towards fundraising something on the order of 90 plus cents for every dollar being spent.

I reported on this in my Denver Gazette column way back in, I think May, when already he was spending between 85 to 95% of his money on expenses.

And in addition or more specifically on fundraising firms.

And that doesn't get you very far.

I'm not seeing content from him on social media, other than people talking about him.

That often is earned media.

That isn't the kind of earned media that you want the Supreme Court made exactly the right call on this.

There is no authority for the president of the United States, whoever he is, to impede states when it comes to mail ballots or otherwise.

He doesn't have the authority.

the danger for both sides is the minute they open the floodgates to the federal government micromanaging states like Colorado on elections, even through Congress, which has more constitutional latitude than the president is the minute the other side takes power and they are able to do what they want.

I think, broadly speaking, the federalization of elections is something both sides need to be extremely wary of.

Okay, Well, while there is so much talk about who might be Colorado's next leaders in the new year, there is one certainty and it is not very good.

Colorado's top expense in the budget.

Medicaid ran over budget last year by $158 million.

And next year, that number is expected to be more than double that.

Medicaid provides health care to low income residents, the elderly and people who are living with disabilities.

Marianne, our top legislative expert, has been tuned into this all week.

Yeah.

On Thursday, the Medicaid Commission met and got some incredibly grim news, from the, health care policy and financing department leader and from Art Farentino, who's the head of the governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

And they, Farentino, in particular, pointed to the fact that between now and maybe 20, 43, if they don't reign in Medicaid, the only general fund money the state will have will all have to go to, Medicaid.

That means no money for education corrections, which is 100, almost 100% funded by general fund dollars.

Higher ed, you know, any agency that is reliant on general fund, there will be no money left for them and Medicaid will suck up all of it.

what are the solutions?

One is to cut provider rates, which they they've already done.

Two is to cut the number of services that are provided, and three is to cut the number of people who are covered and what you get from all three of those, no matter which one you pick or all three of them, which is seems very likely.

You're going to drive people to hospitals for basic medical care because the providers won't provide services if they don't get paid anymore.

People kicked off a medicaid, they're going to head to the hospitals And hospitals are already in trouble, especially in rural Colorado.

You've got several that have only that have less than 30 days cash to operate.

So, you know, we're already in a crisis situation.

This just blew that up exponentially.

as a person who is an executive for a nonprofit, we saw our own health insurance go 58% in one year.

And we were like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?

How are we going to make up for this revenue?

We ended up having to change providers.

It impacts people's ability to access health care, just like you're talking about.

And in rural Colorado, I mean, you're lucky if you even have a hospital.

You're lucky if you even have a general provider to be able to give you resources when you're sick.

And so I think this is going to result in, of course, people not getting care, which leads to death.

Let's also talk about Medicaid in the sense that there are people being exposed to toxic pollution all over the place.

This is part of the Maha movement, right?

Make America Healthy again.

I think there are people on both sides saying, hey, look, there's industrial pollution is impacting people.

This is a conversation we've been having in North Denver of trying to understand is the tax base from industry outweighed by what people are paying in Medicaid, in particular for cardiovascular?

For pulmonary issues.

And these are real conversations are going to have and I will say that this grim news, I don't know how that's going to impact these votes that people are about to take when they get their ballots, about our budget.

Are we going to De Bruce, change Tabor, raise more revenue, or are we going to set a flat tax that's going to lock us into a place that perhaps we're going to have to cut so many services as a result?

it comes to Medicaid, I think about, first of all, the reporting on $158 million over budget for the Medicaid program.

I mean, in 20 since 2019, the Common Sense Institute found that 182 bills on health care were passed by the legislature, leading to an expansion to $858 million in spending annually on the program.

And this is the result of a government that has decided to expand that program.

We've seen the number of enrollees go down, yet the program's expenditures continue to grow.

And at the same time, I look at it and say, this is just the nature of a government program.

When the federal government, when the state government goes and says, we are going to expand, for example, Colorado accepting years back under Obamacare, Medicaid expansion that opens up Pandora's box.

And so it's no surprise that you will continue to see growth in expenditures and otherwise with these programs when you don't put those constraints in place in the beginning.

And so I think that this is a problem that the legislature has brought to itself more than anything, and I expect it to get worse beyond that.

Well, it's going to get worse because it's not just Colorado that has this problem.

It is a national problem.

I don't know if there are any states that aren't facing the problem, but it's something the feds are not going to be able to get everybody out of it.

It's just really catastrophic as we see what could happen to people who don't have health care.

Whenever the hospitals, which have no money.

And here at home, we will have to see what's going to happen with our budget.

With all the different out of, I can't remember how many the initiatives out of the 13 will affect the budget, but most of them will, and they're going to be really critical.

And we don't know which way we'll go with the graduated tax or not.

For a budget here in the city, in the state of Colorado right now, you have to be panicking.

But let's also remember, even as it's government growing, it's the health care costs that are growing too that's outside of government for the most part.

And we've seen just how as astronomically those have grown and how profits have grown for some of those companies, just to add a little, what the state will have to cover over the next over this budget cycle that we're in right now, and the one that they will start working on in January, $1.5 billion estimated in overspending.

And most of this is due to utilization.

People are just sicker, they're older and they're sicker.

And that's what's driving all a lot of this.

While Washington is sending money to Colorado for disaster assistance Washington and Colorado are moving in very different directions when it comes to energy and the environment.

The Trump administration, rolled back federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas fired power plants.

But Colorado says it plans to keep moving toward, with closing its remaining coal plants and toward its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

And then there's a debate that continues every day over data centers all over the country and here in Colorado, with questions about their environmental impact and the costs that come with them.

Ian, why don't you get us started on this?

Well, there's two sides to this, and they both benefit us by moving away from oil and gas as our main energy source.

One, it's cheaper per kilowatt hour to get clean.

Energy comes online faster.

If you're building solar, every unit you put on can generate power immediately as compared to building a plant that takes years to build.

And then you have this pollution side of it that people are being exposed to.

And I this is personal for me.

I grew up here, not far from the studio, where I can literally see the Cherokee gas smokestack plant from my front yard, which used to be a coal plant.

Right now, these are heavily burdened communities who have the asthma, Harvey's Medicaid costs that we were just talking about.

And so we also know that climate change is real.

The UN is talking about it on a regular basis.

They're saying we're probably past the point of no return, and we're at a point of resiliency.

Well, how do we make ourselves more resilient?

We strengthen our grid by diversifying our grid from the short term and building a clean energy future, in the long term.

And so, you know, we talk about these coal plants being closed.

There's actually a case open right now with Xcel Energy in Pueblo, Colorado, where they want to keep the, coal plants running and ones that we paid for that were lemons, which is not fair to the rest of us ratepayers.

And I think what's even more unfortunate for our Pueblo is that it's almost this relationship where they get the pollution and they don't get the power.

And so when you look across the United States and certainly here in Colorado, most of these power plants, because of historical legacy zoning, are in redlined communities.

So black and brown communities have bared the cost for this for far too long.

Okay, Jimmy, this is where I'll depart, I think, a good bit from Ian.

First of all, I think the Trump administration is on point in scaling back the greenhouse gas standards and so forth, because I believe that there has been too much micromanagement from the federal government.

They all knowing all powerful federal government trying to step in and say, this is how you need to do things.

I think the Trump administration largely understands that we need to unveil and unleash our energy options within all of the above approach, especially Under Secretary Chris.

Right.

Although I will say that my understanding is the Trump administration is also impeded on, for example, wind energy product projects that are like at 80% completion.

That's the exact opposite of what the administration should do.

If it's genuinely approaching all of the above in that way and saying, we need to unleash America's, energy potential, I think that needs means including oil, natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear power, literally all of the above.

And I think what we're seeing at the state level is the the negative consequences of the government saying we know best because when we see these shutoffs, power shutoffs that have been increasing from Xcel Energy, that's only going to get worse as the grid is not able to sustain itself in the way that's needed when it comes to energy consumption.

which can also put lives at risk.

I mean, think about people who are on oxygen who may lose power during a power shut off for an extended period.

Those are consequences that government often doesn't consider.

Very well, I'd say Chris Wright, who is from Colorado.

It's all of the above, especially if it benefits my previous colleagues like the BLM leasing that just went up last week.

We talked about it a little bit, but they just sold, oil and gas drilling rights right outside of Aurora in Arapahoe County, near there were around a reservoir 50 years ago.

I just wrote about this.

We were at the forefront of solar.

You know, the Solar Energy Research Institute was awarded to Golden and Colorado in 1977.

Jimmy Carter came here.

We were on the cusp and solar and wind were really making big dense.

Now we instead see we have to go back to coal.

We have to go back to oil and gas drilling instead of pulling, pushing things that ultimately will make the world a healthier place.

And the people who live there healthier.

But we've seen all the money that the feds have pulled from.

Now it's that National renewable no longer the National Renewable Energy Lab, just the energy lab.

And has pulled from NPR.

We are losing the science that could really pull us out of this in the future.

Marianne, I want to pivot to the data center issue.

Okay.

Aurora, has put a is looking at a ban on evaporative cooling for data centers, because of the water risk.

And and I I'm rather fascinated by that.

They've been talking about this at the state capitol.

one medium sized data center could use 100 million gallons a year.

That's enough water to supply more than a thousand families.

So the policy question becomes whether whether to allow data centers at the cost of water for families and for agriculture.

And and this comes at a time when, in the West particularly, they're struggling with what to do about the Colorado River.

There was a meeting of the Upper Colorado River Commission on Monday with some very, very grim news.

They want to keep Lake Powell, which is that the, Nevada Arizona line, at 3510ft above sea level right now, it's at 3515ft above sea level.

If it drops another 50ft, there, there's going to be trouble with Glen Canyon Dam being able to provide minimum power.

And then it gets closer to what they call Deadpool, which is shutting down the hydropower at at Glen Canyon Dam.

And the same effects for Hoover Dam, down at Lake Mead, we can't have another year, another another snowpack here like we just had.

It was the worst in history.

Let's hope for rain Okay, let's turn the spotlight on Denver and the question of whether people are ever really coming back to the office.

New data shows Denver is dead last among the cities being tracked when it comes to office attendance, with visits still about 50% below where they were in 2019 before the pandemic.

And now, word that the 56 story Republic Plaza has defaulted on a $230 million loan is another sign of just how difficult it is to fill office space downtown.

So what does it take to bring people back to work in person?

And I'm curious, what role should our mayor or a future mayor or future governor have to get people back in the office?

Well, I think it's an interesting question in large part because since Covid, there's been far more of an increase in not just people working from home or remotely in other circumstances, but feeling more like that's the way it should be, especially younger generations, millennials and Gen Z now really breaking out into the workforce.

But the bigger thing is public safety and also parking and affordable parking.

The fact that we see fewer parking lots and available spaces, in part, I think, because there's been so much push to get people under the light rail.

And frankly, Coloradans love their cars and being able to be mobile and make those decisions for themselves.

And if you have to go downtown and pay $30 to park, if you're lucky to find parking even that cheap or otherwise, that makes it more of a disincentive.

So if Those are a bunch of problems that the city needs to work with.

And this stat is not just for downtown.

It's for all of Denver, really.

And it's interesting because that means that the tech center means Cherry Creek, too.

And so Colorado fans love their cars, but they also love being in Colorado.

So that is one of the problems you're fighting.

They would rather work at home and be able to go to a park at lunch, or maybe not be anywhere near their home where they're working, but downtown is fascinating because the we were talking about the oil, oil and gas, the bust in the 80s is when those last big skyscrapers were built.

Republic Plaza was built, finished right as the bottom went out of oil and gas.

So that's one of the problems.

Depending on which kind of energy is going to subsidize your town, because we are seeing the end results of 40 year old skyscrapers that are obsolete, that they can't fill.

The city of Denver requires people to work at their office three days a week.

City of Denver caught up that people would be upset because they hate the idea of having to pay more for parking.

The state doesn't have an official number of days.

You have to work downtown or work in your office.

Most of them are downtown, so those are some of the issues you'd have to deal with if downtown is going to really get people back there, employers would have to figure out, make them come in more days and subsidize their parking or their travel.

As far as the policy question that's involved, either for the city of Denver or for the state legislature, I've seen one little sign of of a solution that may be, and it actually fits in with other policy, discussions that are going on.

And that's housing.

And I have seen, some reporting on, turning some of these buildings into apartments and given the housing, that, that were 100,000 housing units short, that that may be one way to move that move that out, because I don't see companies demanding people go back to downtown or wherever their offices may be.

That scene that Covid seems to have changed, culturally changed how people approach their their work lives and and what they want to be doing.

I work from home probably about eight months out of the year, when the legislature is not in session.

Do I like working from home?

Oh, heck yeah.

If my employer demands I come and work downtown, I did find a cheap place to park.

But I sure wouldn't want to do that every day.

Okay, here.

Well, it's what Jim was saying about where the parking lots go.

They turned into towers of housing that are also empty because they cost so much for people to live in, and the cost of living hasn't kept up with that in Denver.

And so, like, that's the most heartbreaking part, watching my neighborhood gentrify and then watch the building sit empty.

And partly it's because it's easier for the people who own the buildings to take those losses than it is to lower, what they're charging for people.

There's a lot of financial games that are played around that, and that's heartbreaking.

I'll say.

I too work from home, and I used to work downtown, but I travel downtown a fair amount.

And one of the things is interesting, the partnership has shown that pedestrian traffic is almost back to where it was, and you can feel that when you're downtown.

So maybe the future of our downtown, I think, is where we're getting out with housing isn't necessarily the office grind, where people are getting paid to drive in traffic and getting car accidents and have the stress and not get paid for it.

Spend money at a lunch that they didn't really want to have when they can stay at home.

And maybe it's a matter of a destination and or a neighborhood.

I think that's the 2035 we need to be thinking about.

I'll say the last thing.

What I've been fascinated by this year is watching business improvement districts battle with each other for the Underground Music showcase to have a headquarters downtown or in Reno, all of those taxes.

We're going to go to Denver anyways, but we just incentivized millions of dollars for it.

Okay, let's go around the table and talk about some of the highs and the lows of the week.

Now, we've had a lot of low a lot of heavy stuff.

Well, so we're going to continue with that.

But we're gonna end on a really good note okay.

Patty will start with a low note.

I think the ongoing investigations with the city attorney's office in Denver over the massive legal bills that are going to Wheeler trade.

O'Donnell.

They they're it's an investigation right now.

Nothing's been proven, but it is a little weird that we're paying twice as much, $800 an hour for these legal bills, fights over, employee lawsuits.

Okay.

Marianne, I'm depressed about the Broncos.

That that Monday night game was what, a what a what a mess.

But there was one little bright side to it.

Kansas City drafted, or picked up an undrafted free agent who had played for Indiana.

He was a tackle and he was a rock star on Monday night.

So maybe the Broncos solution is start recruiting some of those Indiana players.

I guess some Hoosiers on the team make Marion happy in Michael.

The Denver Public Schools where once again, you open up the paper and you're like, dang more drama.

That sucks.

But also that more school closures are happening everywhere, a decline again in population, all while we're asking for more taxes and mills to pay teachers who legitimately don't make enough to live in their own city.

And so it's a complicated politics.

And just because more infighting just doesn't make me feel great.

When I read that in the paper, I'm sure people would agree.

Yeah.

This is going to tie in with My high, which is about Constitution Day is September 17th, 239th anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution.

But on the downside, my low is related to that and that is the distance that we've traveled, of the US Constitution or from the US Constitution as it was intended.

There's a lot of talk.

We talked earlier with the election stuff about President Trump and some of his excesses, shall we say, when it comes to presidential authority.

And I think we lose the fact that President Trump is not the first president by far to exceed presidential authority.

He's just really in-your-face about it.

I think Democrats get it now with Trump.

I think Republicans have gotten it in the past, but only when they're not the ones in the white House.

Everyone needs to recognize this cost.

Okay.

Something good please.

Patti, forget football Monday night, you could instead go to the Denver Botanic Gardens, which was giving away the SFD Awards honoring the people who won scientific and cultural facility District awards.

That is one of the great things that passed through the metro area back in 1988, that we support the arts so much.

And also that same night, you could go celebrate the restaurants that won Michelin awards.

So forget the Broncos, go out and experience the city where you could actually make a difference.

Okay, I want to wish a very happy 17th anniversary to my better half, Jeff, who we are hoping has beat cancer.

We'll know in a few days.

Happy anniversary, honey.

No happy anniversary.

I want to tell people to go out to the gem show.

It's still going on.

I had a chance to go to this last weekend.

You people don't know.

We have the second largest gem show in North America, behind Tucson.

And it's not just one show.

So if you go online and you look there's there's different hotels, different venues, all with a different flavor.

Some places have the kind of rocks that you can buy for your kids for a dollar.

The other ones are money I wish I had, but they're beautiful rocks to look at.

Okay.

All right.

Good.

As I said, my highest Constitution Day for seven years, I ran an educational nonprofit that helped educate fifth graders about the US Constitution and American government, including most especially in public schools.

And we had a saying at the Liberty Day Institute, there was the declaration, was the promise.

The Constitution is the fulfillment.

The declaration laid out the principles and why we should have liberty and government.

The Constitution took that and said, we are going to establish a framework of limited government protection for individual rights.

And to me, that is so critical.

As Frederick Douglass said in a probably one of the most important speeches in American history in 1852, what to the slave is the 4th of July?

He called the Constitution all caps a glorious liberty document.

Constitution day is a great time to give us that reminder.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, sir.

My high is that I'm still on a high from spending ten days surrounded by my family in Maryland, Delaware and DC, celebrating my mom's 93rd birthday, my youngest niece's wedding, and getting together with both my girls for the first time since Christmas.

My high is the happiness you can't shake.

And that kind of that feeling that kind of lingers when you show up for the people and the moments that matter most, and reconnect with the people who really know you the best.

So I loved it all.

And, even if I'm still feeling pretty worn out, actually, this is my first good day.

It takes a long time to recover from weddings as you get older.

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed her?

Mom?

You guys are young at the end.

Yeah.

Anyhow, thanks to Krista who filled in for me here last week.

Thanks to you all who are here this week.

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

I'm Kyle Dyer, I'm back for good now.

I'll see you next week here on PBS 12.

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