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In 2003, Colorado voters were asked to repeal the state’s so-called Gallagher Amendment. Gallagher’s approach to property taxes was already starting to show signs of inadequacy. Yet, the promise of a slightly lower property tax rate in the future was too compelling and voters turned down the measure in a landslide, 78-22% vote.
Kent Thiry, the architect behind DaVita’s 20-year growth, brings his village mindset to Colorado initiatives
After 20 years as CEO of Denver-based DaVita Inc., Kent Thiry has turned to a variety of local projects aimed at helping small businesses and workers recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Thiry heads the Energize Colorado Gap Fund, which provides loans for small businesses, using private funds and a $20 million in federal money earmarked for the program by the legislature with support from Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
These days in politics, there are few surprises. Party doctrine guides the votes of government.
Colorado has an independent streak as long and wide as the Continental Divide, as its largest bloc of voters are unaffiliated. While voters embrace Democratic candidates on the statewide ballot in Colorado, they rarely embrace tax hikes or brakes on oil and gas.
America is facing an unprecedented public health crisis. Thankfully, we are now acting with speed and resolve to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.
Quick and decisive action must be taken to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 and save people’s lives. That must always be our No. 1 priority. But COVID-19 has economic impacts, too. Millions of workers and business owners are in danger of losing their livelihoods.
A tectonic shift is underway in America’s political landscape. Disgusted by decades of dysfunction in Washington, voters – led by younger generations – are abandoning the parties and moving from political disaffection to political action.
All Coloradans, regardless of whether they are Republican, Democrat or independent, care equally about Colorado. Over a million voters demonstrated that on Tuesday, June 26th when they cast a ballot in our primary election –– eclipsing the prior mid-term record for participation which stood for the eight prior years. But what made this election truly historic was the 291,000 independent voters who joined the primary for the first time ever. For those who questioned whether independents would participate, they answered loudly, and their vote will echo through Colorado politics for decades to come.
In his farewell address to the nation in 1796, President George Washington provided what has proven to be a remarkably insightful warning about the influence of political parties. These parties, Washington penned, “serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community.”
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