Colorado
Opinion: Democrats, don’t break Colorado’s 81-year-old labor ceasefire
A coalition of Democratic legislators has announced plans to drop a political nuclear bomb the first week of Colorado’s legislative session, breaking an 81-year-old ceasefire between Colorado businesses and labor.
This move is bad for Colorado’s economy and the battle it starts may quickly spiral out of control.
Since 1943, Colorado has been a red state, purple state, and blue state, and during that time Colorado’s Labor Peace Act has held the middle ground, successfully governing workforce unionization in a harmonious way that may be the best such law in the country.
On one end of the political spectrum are so-called right-to-work states that prohibit mandatory union membership and the payment of union dues as a condition of employment. These laws, usually in red states, ensure employees’ rights to make their own choices regarding union affiliation. Right-to-work laws do not prevent workers from unionizing the shop floor, but the workers are not compelled to join the union or pay dues.
For many companies and site selectors looking for a new location, a right-to-work state is often among the top criteria. Today, roughly 26 states have right-to-work laws, with six of these states coming onboard within the last 14 years.
And, importantly, seven of Colorado’s top 10 competitor states are right-to-work states.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, are “union shop” states that do not have right-to-work laws in place. In these 23 states, employers and unions require workers, where applicable, to join the union or otherwise to pay union dues as a condition of employment, even if they were not union members when hired. In these states, workers may be compelled to become union members or contribute financially to the union, even if they do not want to join. These laws strengthen the union’s bargaining power and influence in the workplace.
Colorado is a unique outlier, a compromise state. It is neither a right-to-work nor union shop state. Under Colorado’s Labor Peace Act, workers can form a union with a simple majority vote, but to permit union security, which allows organized labor to deduct fees from their checks to fund the union work and bargaining activities, they must obtain a 75% vote of members.
Colorado’s balanced approach has promoted the state’s economy and brought us good jobs with good wages. While 75% is a higher bar, it seems appropriate that a higher threshold should be met before requiring all employees to pay union dues and belong to a union.
However, this coalition of politicians seeks to eliminate that second, higher-threshold vote, making it much easier for workers to unionize and fund union work and bargaining activities. Make no mistake, this is a pro-labor, anti-business bill, that will galvanize both sides and spill over to other issues with potentially adverse consequences for all.
While I was a Democrat in a Republican-controlled legislature in the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans came together to defeat right-to-work legislation. And, in 2007, when the legislature sent a union shop bill to former Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter’s desk, he vetoed it. The peace was maintained.
This is a dangerous time to tinker with Colorado’s economy. A recent 2024 CNBC analysis ranked Colorado 39th for its cost of doing business and 32nd for business friendliness. There is strong evidence from respective leaders and experts that becoming a union shop state will make it more difficult to recruit and retain Colorado businesses. Attracting companies to Colorado draws fierce competition amongst states.
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s press release in response to this proposed legislation aptly noted that, Colorado “risks losing critical opportunities for job creation and economic growth” if this legislation passes. In fact, that was the primary reason why Governor Ritter vetoed it in 2007.
Between 2018 and 2023, Colorado’s average annual employment growth rate of 1.5% was more than three times that of union shop states and over 20 years was double that growth rate.
Bringing this issue forward now may also be a risky political miscalculation. In response, business leaders will likely decide to take their case directly to Colorado voters, launching an expensive and protracted right-to-work ballot measure that could succeed. It’s a real gamble that shouldn’t be ignored and would be on the ballot in 2026, a critical election year.
Rather than break this 81-year-old ceasefire, business and labor and our political leaders should sit down together, roll up their sleeves and find an appropriate off-ramp. Perhaps rather than eliminate the second vote altogether, they could simply agree to lower the threshold from 75% to 66.6% for the second vote.
Colorado law has long protected the right to organize as well as provided a path to strengthen unions through union security agreements. That’s the Colorado way and there’s no good reason to break the ceasefire here.
Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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Originally Published:
A Boulder County man was sentenced to 48 years in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in 2024.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said Christine Barron Olivas’s body was discovered in a remote area of unincorporated Boulder County on Sept. 14, 2024. She was last seen leaving the neighborhood with her boyfriend, Carlos Dosal, the week prior.
The coroner’s office determined the cause of her death was strangulation.
In Feb. 2026, Dosal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as a crime of domestic violence in her death. On Saturday, the judge sentenced him to 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Leading the Way
Nate the Great
MacKinnon is tied for fifth in the NHL in points (10), while ranking tied for seventh in goals (4) and tied for ninth in assists (6).
All Hail Cale
Cale Makar is tied for first in goals (4) among NHL defensemen,
Toewser Laser
Among NHL blueliners, Devon Toews is tied for third in points (7) while ranking tied for fifth in assists (5) and tied for sixth in goals (2).
Series History
The Avalanche and Wild have met in the playoffs on three previous occasions, all in the Round One, with Minnesota winning in 2003 and 2014 in seven games while Colorado was victorious in six contests in 2008.
Making Plays Against Minnesota
MacKinnon has posted 16 points (4g/12a) in nine playoff games against the Wild, in addition to 70 points (27g/43a) in 55 regular-season contests.
Makar has registered three points (2g/1a) in two playoff contests against Minnesota, along with 26 points (6g/20a) in 29 regular-season games.
Necas has recorded five points (1g/4a) in two playoff games against the Wild, in addition to nine points (5g/4a) in 15 regular-season games.
Scoring in the Twin Cities
Quinn Hughes is tied for the Wild lead in points (11) and assists (8) while ranking tied for second in goals (3).
Kaprizov is tied for first on the Wild in assists (8) and points (11) while ranking tied for second in goals (3).
Matt Boldy leads the Wild in goals (6) while ranking third in points (10) and tied for fourth in assists (4).
A Numbers Game
4.50
Colorado’s 4.50 goals per game on the road in the playoffs are tied for the most in the NHL.
39
MacKinnon’s 39 playoff goals since 2020-21 are the second most in the NHL.
2.17
The Avalanche’s 2.17 goals against per game in the playoffs are the second fewest in the NHL.
Quote That Left a Mark
“It should definitely get you up and excited. It’s gonna be a good test. [It’s a] great building and [it’s] against a desperate team. It’s gonna be great.”
— Gabriel Landeskog on playing in Minnesota
Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs state budget, with Medicaid taking brunt of cuts to close $1.5 billion gap
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday, May 8, signed into law a $46.8 billion state budget that cuts healthcare spending but preserves funding for K-12 education.
The budget applies to the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, and caps months of work by lawmakers, who wrestled with how to close a roughly $1.5 billion gap that ultimately forced reductions to Medicaid funding and other programs.
“This year was incredibly difficult and challenged each of us in a myriad of ways that put our values to the test,” said Rep. Emily Sirtota, a Denver Democrat and chair of the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, which crafts the state’s spending plan before it is voted on by the full legislature. “It’s a zero-sum game. A dollar here means a dollar less over here.”
The state’s spending gap was the result of several factors.
The legislature is limited in how it can spend under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution approved by voters in 1992 that limits government revenue growth to the rate of population growth plus inflation.
Lawmakers are also dealing with the consequences of increased spending on programs they created or expanded in recent years, some of which have seen their costs balloon beyond their original estimates. Costs for Medicaid services, in particular, have surged, driven by inflation, expanded benefits and greater demand for expensive, long-term care services due to Colorado’s aging population.
Medicaid cuts
Medicaid recently eclipsed K-12 education as the single-largest chunk of the state’s general fund and now accounts for roughly one-third of all spending from that fund.
Lawmakers, who are required by the state constitution to pass a deficit-free budget, said they had no choice but to cut Medicaid funding as a result.
That includes a 2% reduction to the state’s reimbursement rate for most Medicaid providers. The budget also institutes a $3,000 cap on adult dental benefits, limits billable hours for at-home caregivers of family members with severe disabilities to 56 hours per week and phases out, by Jan. 1, automatic enrollment for children with disabilities to receive 24/7 care as adults.
The budget also cuts benefits and places new limits on Cover All Coloradans, a program created by the legislature in 2022 that provides identical coverage as Medicaid to low-income immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of their immigration status.
That includes an end to long-term care services for new enrollees, a $1,100 limit on dental benefits, and an annual enrollment cap of 25,000 for children 18 or younger. The cuts come as spending on the program has grown more than 600% beyond its original estimate, going from roughly $14.7 million to an estimated $104.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
While the budget still represents an overall increase in Medicaid spending compared to this year, funding is roughly half of what it would have been had lawmakers not made any changes to benefits and provider rates, which total about $270 million in savings for the state.
Healthcare leaders say the cuts will exacerbate an already challenging environment for providers, who are bracing for less federal support after Congress last year passed sweeping Medicaid cuts and declined to renew enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
For rural hospitals in particular, Medicaid is one of their key funding drivers.
“While a 2% (Medicaid reimbursement rate cut) doesn’t sound like a whole lot, when we already have close to 50% of our rural hospitals statewide operating in the red and 70% with unsustainable margins, facing another 2% (cut) on top of that is just devastating,” said Michelle Mills, CEO for the Colorado Rural Health Center, which represents rural hospitals on the Western Slope and Eastern Plains.
If the state provides less reimbursement for Medicaid services, Mills said it will lead to fewer providers accepting Medicaid plans. That in turn will mean fewer care options for people, particularly in Colorado’s rural counties, where healthcare services are already more limited.
“I feel like all of the decisions and cuts that they’re making are hitting everyone,” she said.
Rep. Rick Taggart, a Grand Junction Republican and budget committee member, said cuts to healthcare led to “a lot of tears.”
“This was a tough budget, and nobody won in this budget, but we did what we had to do by way of the (state) constitution,” he said.
While Medicaid saw some of the biggest cuts, lawmakers also trimmed spending from a suite of other programs, including financial aid for adoptive parents and grants providing mental health support for law enforcement.
Preserving K-12 education
One of the brighter spots for Polis and lawmakers in the budget is K-12 education.
After years of chronically underfunding the state’s schools, lawmakers in 2024 rolled out a revamped funding formula and abolished what was known as the budget stabilization factor, a Great Recession-era mechanism that had allowed the state to skirt its constitutional funding obligation to schools for more than a decade.
The new funding formula went into effect this school year, and the state is set to continue delivering higher levels of K-12 funding in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget. The budget allocates roughly $10.19 billion in K-12 funding, an increase of roughly $194.8 million, though the specifics of that spending are still being worked out in a separate bill, the 2026 School Finance Act, which has yet to pass the legislature.
The finance act guides how state and local funds are allocated to Colorado’s 178 school districts on a per-pupil basis. As it stands now, the bill is on track to increase per-pupil funding by $440 per student for the 2026-27 fiscal year, for a total of $12,314 per student.
“We are not returning to the days of underfunding our schools and a budget stabilization factor,” Polis said.
Still, there are challenges on the horizon for some districts.
Combined with a proposed three-year averaging model for student counts instead of the current four-year averaging, recent dips in student enrollment across the state will weigh more heavily on how much funding is allocated to each district. The shift to three-year averaging advances the state’s plan to gradually phase in the new school finance formula by 2030-31.
With several districts seeing decreased year-over-year enrollment and rising operational expenses like healthcare, some Western Slope school districts are poised to see less funding compared to this year, while others are seeing their increases eaten up by inflation.
A note on wolves
The topic of Colorado’s spending on gray wolf reintroduction hasn’t gone away, and while Medicaid headlined much of the budget discussions, lawmakers also used the spending plan to send a message on the future of the wolf program.
While the budget allocates $2.1 from the general fund to Colorado Parks and Wildlife to spend on wolf reintroduction, it also contains a footnote from lawmakers asking the agency not to use the money to acquire new wolves.
Footnotes are not legally binding, but rather serve as a direction or guidance from lawmakers to agencies on how they want certain funds spent.
Under the footnote, the wildlife agency could still use gifts, grants, donations and non-license revenue from its wildlife cash fund to bring additional wolves to Colorado. Most of the agency’s wolf funding goes toward personnel, followed by operating costs, compensation for ranchers and conflict minimization programs and tools.
Education reporter Andrea Teres-Martinez and wildlife and environmental reporter Ali Longwell contributed to this story.
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