Author: The Gazette Editorial Board
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EDITORIAL: Downgrading murder equals justice deformed
It might sound like an overstatement to say Colorado’s offender-friendly legislature is hellbent on decriminalizing crime itself. But, really, what else could you make of House Bill 26-1281, introduced just the other day at the state Capitol? Get ready to blink in disbelief. Members of the “justice reform” fringe among ruling Democrats at the legislature…
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EDITORIAL: Colorado — where wolves come to die
The latest news on Colorado’s precarious and dwindling wolf pack was unsurprising. As reported Sunday in The Gazette, yet another of the wolves relocated to Colorado from Oregon not long ago has died. It happened amid an attempt by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to capture the animal, the state agency confirmed. Enthusiasts of returning the…
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EDITORIAL: Colorado’s Medicaid quagmire
Last summer, the General Assembly convened a special session to make quick fixes to an $800 million budget shortfall. Lawmakers put Band-Aids on the problem, which is back again in the current legislative session. A sizeable part of that fiscal crisis stems from health-care costs, particularly Medicaid — the result of legislative social engineering, not…
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EDITORIAL: Courting Colorado for national defense
Relations haven’t been the warmest lately between President Donald Trump’s White House and the Centennial State. So, it was good to see Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visit Colorado last week — with encouraging words for our state’s defense contractors. The same goes for a visit the same day by Air Force Secretary Troy Meink,…
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EDITORIAL: Ban on hiring ICE would backfire on Colorado
We get it — ruling Democrats at Colorado’s state Capitol deplore the Trump administration’s yearlong crackdown on illegal immigration. They’ve gone to just about every length to make that clear, in their rhetoric and in their policymaking. In making their point, they’ve taken a lot of potshots at the president over the issue and have…
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EDITORIAL: Good intentions, poor accountability at Caring for Denver
In 2018, Denver voters authorized the Caring for Denver Foundation, establishing a 0.25% city sales tax increase for mental health and substance abuse services — and entrusting the foundation with distributing those funds responsibly. A city audit released last week found something very different. Rather than responsibly stewarding $40 million in annual taxpayer funds, the…
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EDITORIAL: Palantir’s exit is Colorado’s wake-up call
Much already has been written about Palantir Technologies’ abrupt and troubling announcement on X last week it was exiting Colorado. The high-profile artificial intelligence and software company, co-founded by tech and venture capital VIP Peter Thiel, had moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to Denver only six years ago. Now, it will decamp for…
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EDITORIAL: A bad bet for the Colorado Lottery
Since its authorization by voters in 1980, the Colorado Lottery has raked in over $4.5 billion in total proceeds for parks, trails, open space and school construction. And because no one is forced to play, it long has been deemed a win-win way to raise revenue. It beats asking the public to fork over more…
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EDITORIAL: Keep Colorado’s public business public
A statewide ballot initiative to augment Colorado’s constitutional Bill of Rights would overturn a 2024 law passed by the legislature to hide some of its key deliberations from public view. Arguably, that would be reason enough to embrace the pending proposal to voters next fall. The citizens initiative in fact would go a lot further.…
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EDITORIAL: Legal prostitution? A new legislative low
Colorado Democrats have introduced a bill to decriminalize “commercial sexual activity” — i.e., prostitution. And Senate Bill 26-097 isn’t just legalization. It provides no limits on prostitution, solicitation, businesses, patronizing or public displays. That goes far beyond even Nevada, where prostitution is legal but extensively regulated and limited to licensed brothels, with licensed employees. And…