Freedom Unaffiliated

DENVER–The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) quarterly oil and gas lease sale in Colorado generated over $8 million, the most successful such sale the federal lands agency has enjoyed in recent years. The BLM, as well as energy policy experts credit the successful lease sale in large part to the Trump administration’s pro-energy production policies.

According to its recent press release, the BLM on March 31 leased 68 parcels of federal land for drilling in Colorado, generating $8.1 million. Over 42,000 acres were leased across Weld, Jackson, Routt, Arapahoe, Delta, Mesa, Rio Blanco, Gunnison, and Garfield counties.

This sale was conducted with lower royalties embedded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act(OBBB), which reduced the royalty rate of onshore oil and gas production on federal lands to a minimum of 12.5%. Previously, the royalty rate sat at 16.67% under former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reduces the cost of doing business on public lands, making oil and gas development more economically attractive to industry,” the press release reads, predicting that the sale will spur on additional leasing and drilling.

The BLM sale is also congruent with Trump’s day-one Executive Order 14154 ‘Unleashing American Energy,’aiming for energy dominance and increased domestic drilling.

Amy Cooke, Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver (as well as publisher of Complete Colorado) says that the surge in Colorado leases is a sign that energy markets are responding well to energy friendly policy.

“The size and scope of the lease sale are a clear signal that markets are responding to both stronger price conditions and the shift in federal policy toward energy abundance under President Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,” Cooke told Complete Colorado. “For the first year of the Trump administration, an abundant supply kept oil prices low for consumers. As prices have risen, producers are doing what markets are designed to do: invest in new production.”

Cooke predicts the new drilling will help Colorado’s energy sector back on its feet, as production has declined over the last several years due to significant new restrictions on energy development put in place by a Democrat-controlled legislature and Gov. Jared Polis.

“What’s important to note in Colorado is that all these leases are on federal land. It’s where investors are comfortable putting their money,” said Cooke. “That’s because state regulation has made it increasingly difficult to permit new wells on private or state property, effectively stifling new production.”

Governor Jared Polis on April 6 signed Senate Bill 26-004, dramatically expanding those eligible to petition courts to confiscate guns under Colorado’s “red flag” law.

DENVER–A series of gun rights restrictions are at various stages in the Colorado’s legislative process, with some bills awaiting action by Gov. Polis, others still in the committee process, and a heavily negotiated gun barrel regulation bill held up in its final reading in the House.

Senate Bill 26-004 ‘Expand List of Petitioners for Protection Orders’ passed third reading in the House on March 20 with a 39-24 vote and is awaiting action by Gov. Polis.

The Democrat sponsored bill dramatically expands those eligible to file for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) under Colorado’s so-called ‘red flag’ law, to include teachers, health care providers and “institutional petitioners.’

If signed into law, health care facilities, behavioral health treatment facilities, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions will all be eligible to petition courts to seize the guns of those believed to own firearms and who might possible be a danger to themselves and others.

A University of Colorado School of Medicine study found a high rate of rejection for ERPOS filed by non-law enforcement petitioners under the existing law, with a majority of applications filed by family members or romantic partners eventually being rejected after court scrutiny. In total, the data shows about 20% of Colorado petitions result in wrongful confiscation.

Under existing Colorado law, Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) must also have a state permit to sell firearms. House Bill 26-1126 requires dealers to obtain a separate permit to transfer forearms. The bill also extends dealer training requirements and prior license violation laws to ‘responsible persons’ of the dealer. This includes anyone who handles, sells, or has access to a firearm as part of their business duties.

Dealers would be required to keep record of all transactions involving a firearm and requires gun stores to implement new security mandates including extended surveillance and a new comprehensive security plan.

Under this legislation the Department of Revenue can heap a $75,000 fine on dealers upon a second or subsequent offense if any section is violated.

The bill passed the House with 27 amendments on March 20 on a 34-28 vote and is scheduled for it’s first hearing in the Senate on April 7.

House Bill 26-1302 would allow the Colorado Bureau of investigations (CBI) to determine their own hours of operation, rather than functioning every calendar day for 12 hours. Gun rights advocates worry this could lead to a slowdown in transmitting background checks for firearm purchases.

The State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee passed an amendment on March 23 requiring the CBI to process firearm background checks immediately upon obtaining them, despite any waiting periods.

The bill was introduced in late February and passed its third House reading on April 2. The bill now heads to the Senate.

House Bill 26-1144 prohibits the 3D printing of firearms and firearm components. The final bill was watered down to appease Gov. Polis, with a provision to criminalize the selling or distributing of the digital instructions to 3D print a firearm removed.

The bill passed its final reading in the Senate on March 30, with amendments reviewed and approved by the House on April 2.

HB-1144 is awaiting Polis’s signature.

Democrat sponsored Senate Bill 26-043 ‘Record Keeping and Regulation of Sale of Firearm Barrels,’ requires all firearm barrel sales or transfers to be conducted in person, only by a federally licensed (FFL) dealer. The bill criminalizes private or online firearm barrel transactions, or any non-FFL with the ‘intent to offer or sell’ a barrel.

The bill creates a new age restriction and requires all FFLs to keep and maintain record of all barrel transactions for five years.

SB-43 successfully passed the Senate on March 2, and is currently awaiting its third and final reading in the House. However, the final vote has been continuously pushed back since March 20. With 34 amendments thus far, the legislation has been the source of ongoing negotiations under the Gold Dome in an apparent effort to make the bill presentable to Gov. Polis.

Polis’ office did not respond to Complete Colorado’s request for comment on the barrel bill.

Though most of us celebrate “No Kings Day” on July 4, the Trump-deranged got a head start last weekend with rallies around the state.

Attendees bravely fought oppression by blocking traffic for people with jobs. Rally-goers demanded freedom from tyranny, many right after voting to ban all but beige house paint at their HOA meetings.

After pausing briefly to DoorDash something gluten-free, they returned to the barricades to secure democracy in Colorado for one more day.

They risked everything, except mild discomfort, to call the guy who won both the popular vote and the electoral vote a tyrant.

Yes, I’m having fun at their expense. And yes, they have a point. When you build a country on principles instead of a person, it’s fair to get twitchy when the “person” starts talking like a “regime.”

But all the screaming about President Donald Trump being a “threat to democracy” leaves me with a question:

While we’re obsessing over Trump stealing our democracy, are we distracted from noticing Colorado’s power elite doing the same?

What’s the old magician’s skill? Distract them with one hand, lift the wallet with the other. Does Colorado’s elite fight Trump’s desire to be king with one hand, while working to become king with the other?

Take speech.

Many at these rallies are convinced Trump is shredding free speech. Yet just after the protests, the Supreme Court slapped down Colorado’s law banning certain conversations between therapists and their clients. It was an 8–1 decision. Even the Court’s liberals weren’t buying it.

Our own state also passed a law against “misgendering.” Strip away the buzzwords and you get the same thing: government deciding what you’re allowed to say. That’s not edgy. That’s old-school authoritarian.

Then there’s transparency.

Colorado’s lawmakers exempted themselves from our open meetings law to rule from smokey back rooms — I mean, likely pot smoke, since Denver recently banned Swisher Sweet Cigars.

Tyranny doesn’t kick down the front door. It quietly pulls the blinds.

Still not enough?

Let’s talk about dismantling elections.

Colorado lawmakers just introduced Senate Bill 150, which guts the elected board of the Regional Transportation District, Denver-metro’s transit government. RTD controls $2 billion of your money and serves more than 3 million people. Right now, it’s governed by 15 elected members.

SB-150 cuts that to five, a cut of two-thirds.

Then it adds four appointed seats. Not elected. Appointed.

Let’s review: shrink representation, destroy elected government, install loyalists to tax billions from millions of citizens and spend it as only loyalists can.

This is a ploy only Donald Trump could love.

Colorado legislators can practice his voice: “You’re too stupid to vote for the RTD Board. Really, you’re a very stupid person. Fortunately, I am very, very smart. Some say the smartest official ever. I’ve heard many people say that. So, of course I know who should be on the whatever board.”

Somewhere in a history book there’s a line about taxation without representation. It didn’t end well for the people doing the taxing.

If Donald Trump proposed SB-150, every one of those “No Kings” protesters would be chaining themselves to the Capitol doors.

This isn’t left versus right. It’s about whether voters get to choose who governs them.

Because once you accept you’re too stupid to elect a transit board, it’s a short trip to being too stupid to elect anything else.

Like most unaffiliated voters, I believe the state is spinning out of control. You can hate Donald Trump and still think Colorado is over-taxed and over-regulated. You can support a woman’s right to choose and still believe Colorado government is going too far.

That’s why my friend Erin Brantley and I are launching Independent Majority Colorado, our attempt to create a home for those of us who are politically homeless.

Most Coloradans aren’t Tina-Peters Republicans or government-knows-best socialists. We’re just regular folk who want to be left alone.

We want government out of our businesses and out of our bedrooms. And we’d like it to stop quietly rigging the system while everyone’s busy yelling about Washington.

Our first fight is stopping this very un–“No Kings” Senate Bill 150. Go to IndependentMajority.CO if you want to join your voice with ours.

Because if you’re going to chant about kings, you might want to notice the ones being crowned right here at home.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

Obviously, the outcome of the war with Iran remains to be seen. The best outcome is a US military victory followed by regime change freeing Iranians from the tyranny of their government. With that may come a more peaceful and stable Middle East removing the existential danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of religious fanatics who have plagued the region for the last 47 years.

In 1979, a revolution deposed an oppressive unpopular monarch, the Shah of Iran who, at least, was a pro-western modernist. It brought Ayatollah Khomeini to absolute power as Iran’s Supreme Leader. Protected by his loyal religious army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Khomeini declared Iran to be an Islamic Republic and abolished the Family Protection Act, enacted under the shah, which extended basic rights to women. Khomeini’ s mosque-based bands, the komitehs, were unleashed to patrol the streets enforcing strict Islamic codes of dress and behavior. They beat women and other “enemies of the revolution,” with brutality and killings vastly exceeding any oppression by the shah. Most Iranians who supported the revolution hadn’t planned on trading one despot for far worst ones.

Throughout their reign, the ayatollahs have proclaimed death to the Little Satan and the Great Satan (Israel and America). Their first attack on America came abruptly in 1979 with the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran taking 66 hostages and holding them for 444 days, despite President Carter’s botched rescue attempt. It was no coincidence that the Ayatollah finally released the hostages literally minutes after President Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981, no doubt fearing his wrath. The ayatollahs have waged one-sided terrorist warfare against the “two Satans” and other nations through proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis killing thousands of civilians and soldiers. Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden appeased the ayatollahs sweetening the pot with the gift of billions of dollars, and doing little or nothing to fight back imagining the ayatollahs would honor their promises and be peaceful. That was delusional.

The ayatollahs aren’t simply Muslims, they’re the most radical “Islamist” faction (only a fifth of all Muslims) who devoutly believe that all “infidels” must be converted, subjugated, or exterminated. So-called infidels are most of the world’s eight billion people, only two billion of whom are Muslims, along with 2.5 billion Christians, one billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists, 16 million Jews, and of 4,000 other religions.

Isarel has defended itself and counterattacked for decades. Trump is the first president with the fortitude to fight back using overwhelming force starting with the June 2025 US-Israel joint attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons complex and now taking the war to Tehran directly, wisely capitalizing on the opportunity to attack a much-weakened Iran before it could rearm itself. This war has been inevitable ever since the ayatollahs came to power.

By a military victory, I mean the destruction of Iran’s defenses, military forces, missiles, launchers, drones, and the elimination of the IRGC and the Basij, the ayatollahs’ militia for domestic control, moral policing, and protest suppression.

By regime change, I mean the end of Iran’s theocratic form of government in which the head of state is an all-powerful Ayatollah, the Supreme Leader (selected by other ayatollahs), divinely guided and answerable to no mortal, with complete control of the military, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, and the media. In its place, and to the desire of most of its people, Iran could become a secular democracy with free and fair elections. Leaving the ayatollahs in charge would make the war almost pointless, with the only long-run option being bombing Iran every few years to keep it defanged.

Some critics on the left and right who oppose yet another “forever war” are like the cat that steps on a hot stove and will never step on a hot stove again. But it will never step on a cold stove either. This war is nothing like the quagmire of Afghanistan. This is a long overdue big-time counterattack that will end an ongoing war. True, regime change isn’t always successful, except for when it is, like in Germany and Japan after allied victories in WW II and the greatest ever regime change: the American Revolutionary War.

It’s a sad commentary on the state of our nation that patriotic Americans, Republicans, Israel, and at least some of our allies are wishing for a decisive victory while many Democrat politicians, progressives, the liberal media, leftist academics, their indoctrinated students, and America-haters like Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are hoping we lose to ensure a Democrat wave in the midterm elections.

Years ago, I interviewed a Canadian health-care broker whose job was helping his countrymen escape their own failing system.

When their “free” health care turned into “free to wait until you die,” he’d save his clients by routing them to doctors in the U.S. who’d accept cash and rescue their lives.

I asked him what advice he had for Americans. His answer terrified me.

“I hope the U.S. won’t do what we’ve done with health care,” he said. I thought his reasoning was that he didn’t want to see Americans suffer and die because of medical socialism. But that wasn’t it.

He said, “Because if you do, we’ll have nowhere to escape to.”

That stuck with me. We are Canada’s health care lifeboat.

Every bad system needs an escape hatch. Otherwise, you’re trapped.

Which brings me to the un-Colorado. Thank God for Wyoming.

From energy to fiscal policy, civil liberties to tech laws, Wyoming is becoming Colorado’s lifeboat. And it is so much more than sneaking north to buy fireworks and gun magazines.

Wyoming is becoming the gold standard, quite literally.

In December the state purchased some 2,312 ounces of physical gold. Understanding printing money out of nowhere and constant debt spending eventually ends badly, they’re planning ahead.

A new law requires 10% of their cash reserves be kept in physical gold. While the rest of the country debates modern monetary theory, Wyoming is quietly saying, “Maybe we should own something real.”

For those of us who see Bitcoin as digital gold (like gold, Bitcoin has a limited supply), Wyoming again has the advantage.

The Cowboy State was early in building a legal home for cryptocurrency companies. While Colorado chases away tech heavy-hitters like Palantir, Wyoming wants them.

They passed laws to clarify crypto is private property, legalized both crypto banking and even Decentralized Autonomous Organizations — companies run by code instead of shareholders. The state even considered their own stable coin.

Wyoming doesn’t want to repeat its biggest mistake. It invented the LLC, Limited Liability Corporations, in 1977 — and then watched Delaware steal the idea and become the business capital of America. They won’t let that happen with crypto.

Colorado’s political class has been on a decade’s-long crusade to make energy more expensive, less reliable, and — if we’re really lucky — occasionally available.

We’re shutting down always-available power to bet everything we have (and everything our kids have) on weather-dependent energy.

We’re regulating oil and gas out of existence like they’re chemical weapons. And doing it all with the moral certainty of a vegan Boulderite lecturing a lion.

Meanwhile, just north they’re doing something radical — keeping the lights on.

Wyoming is actively developing next-generation nuclear power, including advanced modular reactors, backed by serious investment. They’re continuing to drill for oil and gas like a state that understands staying alive requires energy. Not slogans. Energy.

And here’s the punchline: as Colorado makes it harder to produce power, we’re going to need more of Wyoming’s.

They become the battery. We become the extension cord. We’ll virtue signal. They’ll power it.

Take data centers — the physical backbone of everything from AI to your email to the movies you stream — they require massive, reliable, always-on electricity. Not “when the wind feels like cooperating” electricity.

So where are they going?

Not Colorado. Denver Mayor Mike Johnson even bragged he would not allow data centers to be built in his city. What a man!

That’s like me saying I refuse to date leggy supermodels. None were going to date me anyway, so why not turn it into bravado.

They’re heading to places like Wyoming (data centers, not supermodels), where policymakers haven’t declared war on electrons.

But data centers will still be used by Coloradans. So, it doesn’t reduce energy use. It just exports the jobs, tax revenue and opportunity north.

And oh, they’re not chasing gun owners or entrepreneurs out of their state via laws that treat them like Nazi used-car salesmen with leprosy.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Colorado still has incredible advantages — talent, beauty, lifestyle and a long history of innovation.

But advantages can be squandered. Canada already proved that.

Because if we didn’t have Wyoming, we might have nowhere to escape to.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

I’ve lived in Colorado since 1970. And you know what Colorado had back in 1970? High winds blowing down the Front Range.

I moved to Boulder in 1984 and have been there ever since. And you know what Boulder has had all that time? A freakin’ lot of high winds.

I remember as a college kid walking around the CU campus after windstorms, stepping around uprooted trees and massive broken branches that made the sidewalks impassable.

I’ve seen rooftop shingles go flying off Boulder buildings, signs ripped down, and semi-trucks overturned.

All of which is to say that for the last 55 years I have personally witnessed a crap-ton of high winds in our mountain state.

But only in the last few months have I witnessed our power utilities preemptively turning off electricity during high winds to “prevent fires.”

Apparently the windstorms of the last few months must be the worst in Colorado history. Because this is the first time anyone has decided the solution is to turn off grandma’s lights.

Is Colorado suddenly windier than it has been during my entire life? Unless our eyes have been lying to us, the answer is comfortably: no.

Yet, I type this under an official warning that my power might be turned off because of another rather normal day of high winds.

Is it too tinfoil-hat to wonder if this is really about preventing fires?

Is it too “QAnon” to think they might be conditioning us for Colorado’s future of intermittent electricity?

Are these power shutoffs more about behavior modification than fire prevention?

I mean, why now?

For half a century windstorms were something you complained about while chasing your patio furniture down the street. Now they apparently require turning off the state.

Bureaucracy understands that behavior modification must be incremental.

Some 20 years ago, the City of Boulder changed its ordinances to remove the term “pet owner” and replace it with “pet guardian.” A silly, laughable change meant to modify our speech — and therefore our thinking — about property rights and animals.

And today there is proposed legislation to outlaw the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores statewide, those modern-day slave auction houses. Incremental.

The Transportation Security Administration is the grandmaster of incremental behavior modification.

They make airport security lines so long and inefficient that you’re willing to pay them — your airport captors — to get into the shorter “PreCheck” line.

Of course it’s not the cash that costs the most. It’s your autonomy and privacy.

Join TSA PreCheck and you essentially grant the government a detailed record of every flight you’ve ever taken or plan it take. No troublesome judge-approved warrant or subpoena needed.

They’ve trained you to trade sacred privacy for 10 minutes of convenience before getting groped by a stranger in blue gloves. (Which some of us just call “Saturday night.”) That’s behavior modification.

Colorado’s energy elite understands the math.

They know sizable power disruptions are in our future — because they ordered them. So, they’d better start getting YOU used to it.

Currently about two-thirds of Colorado’s electricity comes from fossil fuels. And already our power is becoming less reliable and more intermittent.

Thanks to state mandates, by 2050 — and the legislature is already flirting with moving that deadline up to 2040 — none of our power can come from fossil fuels.

This isn’t optimism. It’s fantasy.

Now add the fact that electricity demand will likely triple by then thanks to data centers and the forced conversion of appliances from natural gas to electricity. So: fantasy squared.

Remember how Denver Mayor Hickenlooper promised we would permanently end homelessness in 10 years? How Barack Obama promised if you liked your health care plan, you could keep it?

“All renewable energy in 15 years” belongs in the same museum of political fairy tales.

But the power outages as we stumble toward their fantasy — those are a lock.

Backup generators and home battery systems aren’t new. But have you noticed the explosion of interest in buying them? Have you noticed the flood of advertisements?

That’s not a coincidence. It’s a growth market.

Our leaders — and the corporate energy leeches who feed off them — know they need to prepare you for wildly intermittent, Third World energy.

So they normalize the outages. Welcome to the future.

Please keep a flashlight handy.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tan in Denver.

The governor and progressive Democrats that dominate the state legislature and every statewide office in Colorado have been masterful ― if not ethical and honest ― in devising devious schemes to circumvent the TABOR amendment in the Colorado Constitution. That’s the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, passed by a 1992 voter-initiated ballot measure that bypassed the legislature. It limited government spending and barred the legislature from increasing taxes or imposing new ones without the consent of the voters. Democrats have always despised TABOR.

Their favorite ploys have included misrepresenting taxes as “fees” and funding spending programs through tax credits. Because those credits reduce government revenues, they’re the equivalent of government spending but isn’t accounted for as such.

Now, the Democrats’ legislative super majority has presented a package of four bills championed by its Communist Coalition, the likes of Emily Sirota, Lorena Garcia, Mike Weissman, Julie Gonzales, and others. The bills “decouple” Colorado’s tax code from the federal government’s to “rebalance” Colorado’s tax code. Translating that into forthright language, “decouple” means denying tax deductions to businesses that the federal government allows. “Rebalance” means sharply inflating taxes and government spending.

This wording is too clever by half to have come from the progressive nitwits that run the legislature. The fingerprints of the Colorado Fiscal Institute (CFI), who “helped” write the bills are all over it. CFI spokeswoman and policy manager Caroline Nutter is stumping for these bills. CFI is the local affiliate of the State Priorities Partnership, a nationwide network of radical progressive policy groups that call for large-scale redistribution of income and social justice legislation. Nutter’s endorsement is not a plus; it’s a red flag warning. CFI has partnered with the left-wing Bell Policy Center, another local brain-trust for socialist Democrats, working to pass these bills as well as a ballot initiative to replace Colorado’s flat income tax with a soak-the rich graduated income tax.

The bills target Colorado businesses and President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) which averted huge tax increases for individuals and businesses, replacing that with tax relief. Instead, Colorado will get Four Big Ugly Bills (FBUB).

To make income-tax filing simpler for individuals, Colorado transfers your federal adjusted gross income onto your Colorado tax return, thereby passing federal tax deductions directly onto your Colorado tax return, lowering your tax bill. One of the FBUBs would ditch this principle and brazenly disallow businesses numerous federal tax deductions, thus raising their taxes. This scheme circumvents TABOR’s ban on tax-rate increases and enables the Democrats to disallow deductions, giving them a back-door tax increase.

Such as this one: A FBUB end-run around TABOR is baring businesses from treating the salaries of high-paid executives as an operating expense, thereby raising a company’s tax bill. Government mandates minimum wages but has no power over salary maximums. That is up to stockholders, directors, and managers.

One more: Another FBUB disallows the deduction for interest expenses on debt for large corporations. That’s nuts, this is a legitimate expense. Yet others would limit the full deduction of carried-forward operating losses for established businesses and deny early-stage start-up enterprises tax deductions for losses that could help them survive. This kind of stuff is so idiotic only a socialist could dream it up. There’s no logic behind it; it’s just a desperate tax grab to enable tax-crazy Democrats to continue their budget busting, out-of-control spending spree.

Palantir Technologies, an artificial intelligence (AI) giant and Colorado’s biggest corporation by market capitalization came here in 2020 to escape California’s culture, anti-business taxes, and regulations. CEO Alex Karp has announced Palantir is relocating to Florida to escape the same problems in Colorado, which include the over-regulating of AI.

In response, the local president of the militant Service Employees International Union, declared, “Good riddance!” This mentality is self-destructive insanity. Colorado’s reputation as a business-friendly state is down the toilet. Many more companies will follow Palantir’s lead, costing Colorado jobs and tax revenue. Progressive Democrat policy like FBUB is economically suicidal, as the flight of businesses and upper income taxpayers from New York, California, and Illinois has demonstrated.

Driving out producers and coddling criminals, illegal aliens, and freeloaders is a bad formula for Colorado’s future.

The uninterrupted string of Democrat governors over the past 20 years has stacked the state Supreme Court with progressive justices who’ve blessed the Democrats’ deceitful tactics that violate TABOR’s limitations on taxation and spending without the consent of voters. This latest FBUB overreach is so blatantly unconstitutional under TABOR, it might be too much even for the Colorado Supremes. We can hope.

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.

At this point, if you hear beeping downtown, it’s not a construction crew. It’s a company backing out.

And look, I get it. Businesses relocate for all sorts of reasons: taxes, regulations, labor costs, office space, crime, commute times, the haunting feeling your chief executive is one city council meeting away from being declared a single-use plastic.

But Colorado’s political class has been turning “headquarters” into an endangered species.

Take TIAA, the financial services giant whose name has for decades been glowing atop a downtown Denver skyscraper like a Bat-Signal for retirement funds. They’re relocating to Frisco, Texas.

Texas? Of course, Texas. If Colorado is the place where we hold hearings on the carbon footprint of breathing, Texas is the place where they say, “Stop talking and go build something.”

We’re constantly assured Texas is a lawless, dystopian wasteland of deregulation and brisket. Apparently, dystopia pencils out better than Colorado.

Then there’s Palantir, our most high-profile (and secretive) tech company, which just moved its headquarters from Denver to Miami.

Miami! The city best known for hurricanes, cocaine kingpins yelling “Say hello to my little friend,” and the kind of consumer lifestyle that makes Boulder’s city councilors vomit into their reusable tote bags.

Why are they leaving? It must be the two medieval-poetry grad students who keep protesting outside Palantir’s Denver office.

Yes, congratulations. I’m sure it was your cardboard signs that chased them out — not the state becoming the first in the nation to roll out sweeping, pre-emptive AI regulations that require companies to document, audit, report, explain, disclose and apologize for their algorithms before they’ve even finished coding them.

Nor could it be Colorado’s energy policy that traded the reliability of “baseload power” for the whimsy of intermittent renewables. Businesses need predictable, stable electricity to make long-term investment decisions. That’s not ideological. That’s arithmetic.

Add to that the constant drumbeat of new mandates, fees and compliance requirements, and Colorado starts to look less like a tech hub and more like a regulatory obstacle course.

So, what’s the pattern here? It’s not just “companies move sometimes.” We’re building a list. A tracker. A scoreboard. The Colorado Chamber literally maintains a “Lost Opportunities” compilation of companies leaving, downsizing, or choosing to expand somewhere else. Nearly 12,000 jobs have moved away.

When you need a tracker for corporate departures, you’re no longer “a state with some challenges.” You’re a gate agent announcing final boarding for Flight 970 to Anywhere Else.

It’s not just big, finance-and-tech firms. It’s small slices of Colorado history too.

Yes, even cowboys are looking at Colorado Springs and saying, “This place is getting a little… weird.”

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has been based in Colorado Springs since 1979, and now it’s moving its headquarters — and with it the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame — to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Wyoming — a state with more cattle than people. A place where regulations come in two categories: “Don’t set yourself on fire” and “Try not to get kicked.”

When cowboys rustle themselves out of Colorado, are we still Colorado?

At some point, we stopped being a place where entrepreneurs risk their time, treasure and talent to build things and became a place where entrepreneurs must apologize for themselves.

And it’s not just the cost — although yes, costs matter. It’s the vibe. The political posture. The governing style that says, “We want your jobs and tax revenue… but we’d also like you to feel lightly ashamed for existing.”

Since we keep treating businesses like the thief in a crime novel, maybe we should stop acting shocked when they quietly leave in the middle of the night.

Because that’s what’s happening. Not “moving.” Evacuating.

Like:

“Grab the servers!”

“Did you get the customer list?”

“Forget the Keurig, we don’t have time!”

“Is the legislature still in session?”

“Then GO, GO, GO!”

And the saddest part is Colorado still has everything going for it — talent, beauty, lifestyle, innovation. We should be an easy sell. Instead, creators leave because the policy climate feels like a never-ending HR seminar conducted by people who have never met a payroll.

Look, companies move for lots of reasons. But when the pattern keeps pointing toward states with lower taxes, lighter regulatory burdens, and more predictable policy environments, maybe — just maybe — it’s not coincidence.

Maybe it’s policy.

No, no. It was definitely the protesters with tambourines.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

This part will disappoint angry people on Twitter:

Relax. Put the pitchforks down. I am not relitigating the 2020 election or mail ballots or even Tina Peters.

But I am saying people don’t trust elections like they used to. And here in Colorado we can do a rather simple thing to reverse that. And progressives should want it most.

Saving democracy is all the rage now, and as far as political slogans go, it’s a pretty damn good one.

But saving democracy isn’t just about protecting Colorado from President Donald Trump, whatever that vagary means. It’s about fortifying our democratic institutions so the voters’ true will is clearly and verifiably stated.

This is where I’d usually rant about how the legislature going around our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is more of a clear and present threat to democracy than anything Trump is doing in Colorado, but why state the obvious? Those hell-bent on taking your money will do anything to make sure you can’t vote on it.

Again: Save Democracy, Protect TABOR!

Confidence in elections isn’t determined by how often some official says the system works. It’s determined by whether the public believes the system is beyond suspicion. Our republic depends on that.

And the Colorado Secretary of State’s office just insisting our elections are fair and honest? That’s not enough. Saying “trust us” isn’t proof. They need to prove it. And they don’t. Not really.

When you buy stock in a publicly traded company you have confidence the financial information is accurate because an outside, independent auditing firm checks the books and certifies them. Been the law since 1933. Apparently, elections didn’t get the memo.

Colorado’s voting system operates in a way publicly traded companies could never: it audits itself. That doesn’t engender confidence.

Now before the Tina Peters acolytes start pointing fingers, I am in no way saying any Colorado elections were rigged or tampered with. I am saying if you want people to believe the results the Secretary of State declares, her office shouldn’t be the one doing the auditing.

Or put differently, if Trump-hating progressives want to shut up election-denying MAGA die-hards, simply having outside election audits would go a long way.

Counties do the hands-on work, but the critical decisions are made at the top. Right now, the Secretary of State determines which races get audited, what statistical method is used, and what “risk limit” applies. That determines how many ballots get checked.

And here’s the kicker: the current system incentivizes auditing the “blowout” races.

If a candidate wins by 9,000 votes, you only must sample a handful of ballots to confirm the result. Easy peasy.

If a candidate wins by 30 votes? Now you must check a lot more ballots. That’s expensive, time-consuming, and annoying. Bureaucrats hate work.

So what does the SOS audit most? The landslides.

The current setup rewards picking races easiest to validate rather than races that most need validating. That’s not corruption. That’s human nature. And a little bureaucratic laziness.

And human nature is exactly why we use independent auditors everywhere else. An outside firm or office, with its reputation on the line, would likely choose differently.

Besides, it’s just terrible practice for the Secretary of State to audit the Secretary of State. Even Enron’s accountants would call that sketchy.

The beauty of an outside audit is you remove the political suspicion.

An independent commission, or maybe the State Auditor’s office, would decide which races are audited, the statistical methods, whether best practices are followed.

Nothing about ballots, machines, or voter IDs so the left can’t gasp “suppression.”

What changes is who verifies the work. And that matters.

If Democrats truly believe Colorado elections are secure, and they say they do, then an independent audit only strengthens that claim.

In fact, it’s politically brilliant. Imagine a Democratic Secretary of State saying, “Our elections are secure, and we’ve removed all doubt by putting audits in the hands of independent experts.”

That’s not voter suppression. That’s voter reassurance. And it beats the current line: “Trust the system. It audits itself.”

We don’t save democracy by telling skeptical voters to shut up but by making the system more trustworthy.

An independent auditor is not an accusation. It’s insurance.

Even for progressives. Especially for progressives.

If the legislature won’t make this change, it’s our responsibility to ask every Secretary of State candidate whether they will.

Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.

It’s worrisome enough that we have to live with the ever-present threat of nuclear war hanging over our head, the fiery extermination of humanity from global warming, a worldwide depression triggered by the U.S. defaulting on its $39 trillion national debt on its way to $50 trillion, to say nothing of an uptick in falls from Denver rent-a-scooters. On top of all that, yet another crisis has descended upon the American public: Donald Trump has ended the minting of our one-cent coin, affectionately known as the penny. Good grief!

Don’t panic, 240 billion of them are still in circulation. Actually, this is long overdue. “Seigniorage” is the revenue a government derives from the difference between the face value of a coin and the cost of its mintage. (Ignore paper currency.) The U.S. Mint stopped making quarters, half dollars, and dollars out of silver when inflation made the metal content more valuable than the face value of the coins. Minting a penny now costs 3.7 cents each. The penny is the only current U.S coin with negative seigniorage.

When I was a kid, a penny had some intrinsic value. You could actually buy something with it. Place one in a bubble-gum machine, turn the crank and a candy-covered gum ball would drop out. You could even put a 1-cent stamp on a penny post card. In 1857, the U.S. stopped minting half-cent coins, and the nation survived even though a half penny actually had some purchasing power; you could buy a half-dozen cigars for that.

The cumulative inflation rate of 370% over the last 270 years since then has rendered the penny virtually worthless. Today, it isn’t worth the trouble of picking up off the sidewalk (especially if it’s face down; that’s bad luck). Dimes or quarters have replaced pennies in kids’ piggy banks. And credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, internet electronic transactions, crypto currency, automatic ACH billing, and mobile sports-betting, to name just a few alternatives, are increasingly displacing purchases with cash in general (with the exception of stacks of hundred-dollar bills in duffle bags for big illicit drug deals). Most people don’t even bother to carry coins in their pockets anymore. If you try to give the kid at the checkout counter a $5 dollar bill and three pennies for a $4.83 purchase, hoping for two dimes back, his eyes cross as he struggles to do the math in his head.

The sentimental case for keeping the penny is fading away as penny-laden references in our language such as “a penny for your thoughts,” “penny wise and pound foolish,” “penny-ante,” “penny pincher,” “pennies from heaven,” and “penny stocks,” are disappearing with generational change. Even penny loafers are out of style. Abraham Lincoln won’t be forgotten; his face will still grace the $5 bill. Canada has already eliminated its penny in 2012 (mostly to stop unruly hockey fans from throwing them onto the ice).

In your shopping cart at the supermarket, each individual item will still be priced in 1-cent increments. If you’re paying with plastic or a check you’ll pay the exact price, with no rounding necessary. Making a mountain out of a mole hill, some people are afraid retailers will cheat consumers by always rounding prices UP (which would be the to the nearest nickel, not the nearest dollar). This is ridiculous. Rounding will only apply if you’re paying with cash, and it will be on the total bill (not each item) rounded to that nearest nickel. So, a total purchase of, say, $89.01 or $89.02 could be rounded down to $89.00, saving you one or two cents. And a purchase of $89.03 or $89.04 could be rounded up to $89.05, costing you one or two cents more. This is small change and in the long run, it’ll all even out anyway.

Anti-business progressives are also stricken with UP-rounding paranoia that greedy capitalists will oppress consumers. Coming to the rescue, the (NCSLSLTTF) National Conference of State Legislatures’ State and Local Taxation Task Force (whew!) is proposing a government mandate requiring that purchases ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents be rounded down to the nearest nickel, and purchases ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents be rounded up. Please. This is a solution for a non-problem.

I doubt Safeway will make it corporate policy to always round up. That would be terrible public relations giving Wal-Mart the competitive opportunity to advertise they always round down (perhaps raising prices a few cents to make up for it).

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.