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Recent episodes
No Nonsense: Prop NN Is a Tax Increase
Jun 22, 2026
Unknown duration
Unaffiliateds rising: When primaries decide Colorado elections
Jun 17, 2026
Unknown duration
Back Door Pay Hikes Slipped through Under Colorado’s Gold Dome
Jun 17, 2026
Unknown duration
Gov. Polis Rejects Multiple Bills, Brings Veto Total To A Dozen
Jun 9, 2026
5m 49s
Moderates are Not Our Salvation
Jun 8, 2026
5m 59s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/22/26 | ![]() No Nonsense: Prop NN Is a Tax Increase | On TABOR Talk we discuss how Colorado Legislators are trying to get you to give up your TABOR refunds forever. Will you let them have it? | — | ||||||
| 6/17/26 | ![]() Unaffiliateds rising: When primaries decide Colorado elections | It makes no sense to be a Republican in Colorado. Or a Democrat for that matter.On the day I turned 18, even before I bought my first legal 3.2 beer (remember 3.2 beer?), I went to the courthouse and registered to vote (remember registering to vote?). I joined the Republican Party.Even at 18, I knew not affiliating with a party diluted the power of my vote.Sure, everyone gets to vote in November. But one vote among millions isn’t nearly as powerful as a vote in a primary.Back then, unaffiliated voters were locked out of primaries. Republicans voted in Republican primaries, Democrats in Democratic primaries.The smaller the electorate, the more your vote mattered.As a Republican primary voter, my ballot was one of only a couple hundred thousand. As a delegate to the Republican state assembly, my vote was one of only a few thousand. At the county assembly it was one of hundreds. At my neighborhood caucus, I was one of fewer than 10.At one point, my vote represented more than 10% of all votes cast. That’s leverage.Rise of the unaffiliatedsThen came Proposition 108 in 2016, which I voted against.Now those smug, sanctimonious “independents” get both a Republican and Democratic primary ballot and can choose which one to return.Yet my desire to leverage my vote never changed. So I became unaffiliated.And like most Colorado voters, I never looked back.We unaffiliateds get to vote in either primary. This year I’ve decided to return a Democratic ballot.To my fellow independents, isn’t it nice having choices? Those poor schmucks still clinging to the romance of party affiliation, shackled to organizations that long ago wandered past the hey-guys-let’s-not-get-crazy zone, don’t have the freedom we do.The still-affiliated can enjoy the purity of party membership while checking voicemail on their flip-phone, insulting Democrats by fax and waiting for next week’s TV Guide to arrive.To those still registered with a party, investing in Beanie Babies while wondering where the local Radio Shack moved, let me explain why I left.First, I live in the People’s Republic of Boulder.If I were still a Republican, I’d have almost no choices in the primary election. Only three of the 15 races on my Republican ballot are contested. Eight races have no candidate at all.No Republicans in Boulder has finally trickled down to no Republicans running for office.And unless you’re in complete denial, which has become a permanent condition among many Colorado Republicans, you know absolutely none of the Republican candidates on my Boulder ballot are going to win in November.That includes, sadly, Barbara Kirkmeyer, the only sane Republican running for governor.Now, if you live in a conservative part of the state where there are meaningful local races and candidates who can actually win, maybe returning a Republican ballot makes sense.But here’s the point: you don’t have to be a Republican to do that anymore.The only temptation I have to return a Republican ballot is to help Kirkmeyer win the nomination.Yes, she’ll lose to the Democratic nominee in November. Those in denial don’t need to flood my inbox explaining how me saying so will somehow cause that loss — message already received.But Barbara won’t embarrass the party. She won’t frighten suburban voters. And marginally speaking, she’d help Gabe Evans and a handful of legislative candidates who actually have a shot.Primaries decide electionsI’ve weighed that consideration against another reality.The winners of the Democratic primaries for governor and attorney general will almost certainly be the winners in November.The primary is the election.Democrats should probably leave their party, too. Why voluntarily surrender half your primary choices?Why chain yourself to a party label when Colorado law now lets you shop both aisles?The only remaining reason to stay registered with a party is if you actively participate in caucuses and assemblies and want to help place candidates on the primary ballot without petitioning on.If you’re registered with a party but never attend caucuses, you’re simply limiting your options under the current rules.Me, I’m returning a Democratic ballot. Not because I’m a Democrat. But because that’s where my vote has the most influence.And the prospect of a Colorado run by Democratic Socialists Phil Weiser and Jena Griswold is terrifying enough to make me spend it there.Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver. | — | ||||||
| 6/17/26 | ![]() Back Door Pay Hikes Slipped through Under Colorado’s Gold Dome | I am personally responsible for helping overpay socialists to make Colorado unaffordable, overregulated and one windstorm away from a power blackout. I failed you.Colorado legislators already get automatic inflation raises. You know, just like your job (I’m assuming the sarcasm bled through that one).No private-sector worker has that kind of protection forever. Even union jobs eventually meet reality. Ask Spirit Airlines employees.And that’s the problem.What happens when lawmakers no longer depend on the private sector for most of their livelihood? They stop understanding the people they supposedly represent. They get disconnected.And has Colorado ever had more of a disconnected team of politicians?Part-timersIt wasn’t that long ago legislators made around $17,000 for their 120 days of meddling under the Gold Dome. The idea was simple: take a few months away from your regular job to represent your community.Back then, lawmakers lived in the same economy as the rest of us because they worked in it.Today legislators make more than $50,000 for their 120-day session, plus a hefty per diem ranging from $99 to $193 a day. That means many are pulling in at least $500 a day to pass laws making Colorado steadily less affordable.But can you really put a price on outlawing ketchup packets after giving illegal immigrants Medicaid during a budget crisis?And when legislators say they work year-round, understand the translation. They call it citizen “engagement.” The rest of us call it campaigning. Paying them our tax dollars to do so is the ultimate pro-incumbent scam.Naturally, all people want more money. Politicians are no different. They just have more power than you do.Now, they couldn’t just openly vote themselves a raise. That looks bad. Elections, optics — all that nonsense. Also, that would be direct, transparent and honest. They wouldn’t know how to do it.The commissionSo they did what politicians always do when they want a predetermined outcome without their fingerprints. They created a commission.I know. I served on it. The then House minority leader is a friend and pressured me to be on it. Then she quit the legislature to save her own sanity (I’ll get even with you, Rose Pugliese! Payback is a b****, lady).The Independent State Elected Official Compensation Commission — how Soviet sounding can you get? Along with the Senate minority appointee, we were basically the only two members who thought maybe performance should factor into compensation.Tiny detail: the commission was supposedly making “recommendations.” Except they really weren’t recommendations at all.Recommendations are given to people who later decide how to act on something. But the law creating our little salary-washing operation was designed so if the legislature did absolutely nothing, our “recommendations” automatically became law.That’s the game — no “action” required.Create a commission. Fill it with people who will give you what you want; in this case to recommend raises. Structure the law so lawmakers don’t have to vote for the raises. Then let “taking no action” become the action.If you’re getting flashbacks to “The Sting,” that’s understandable.My idea was we recommend the legislature cut their legislative session from 120 days to 90 days, but keep their salary the same. That would be a huge raise per day worked and free up another month a year to make money in the real, like their constituents.Lots of states have 90-day sessions or less, and some, like Texas, have 90-day every other year.The commission dismissed my idea.Another member proposed tying some portion of compensation to state performance. Not exactly commission sales, but at least some accountability for affordability, economic growth, or fiscal stability. Not quite working on commission, but definitely a bonus structure.That idea didn’t fly either.Back-door pay raiseInstead, the commission embraced government’s oldest salary justification: “Other governments are doing it.”So beyond their automatic inflation increases, legislators now get another 6% raise they never had to publicly approve.The next governor gets an 11% bump.The state treasurer gets 28% more.And the attorney general gets a staggering 45% increase.While we sit in a budget shortfall of their own “hey let’s put everyone including illegals on Medicaid” making, they get rewarded for it. So if you were giving them your annual employee review based on performance, would they get this raise?Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver. | — | ||||||
| 6/9/26 | ![]() Gov. Polis Rejects Multiple Bills, Brings Veto Total To A Dozen✨ | politicslegislation+3 | — | Complete ColoradoElectronic Payments Coalition+1 | ColoradoDenver | Jared Polisveto+6 | — | 5m 49s | |
| 6/8/26 | ![]() Moderates are Not Our Salvation✨ | moderate politicsgerrymandering+4 | — | ACLUAmerican Conservative Union+2 | — | moderategerrymandering+5 | — | 5m 59s | |
| 5/25/26 | ![]() Public School Teacher Strikes are Intolerable✨ | teacher strikespublic education+3 | — | Sheridan School DistrictNational Federation of Federal Employees+1 | — | teacher strikepublic school+3 | — | 6m 31s | |
| 5/13/26 | ![]() Colorado’s one-party rulers steadily chip away at democracy✨ | Colorado politicsdemocracy+3 | — | ColoradoRTD+2 | PuebloAspen | Coloradodemocracy+3 | — | 5m 44s | |
| 5/11/26 | ![]() The True Danger to Democracy isn't Trump, its Democrats✨ | democracypolitics+3 | — | Independence Institute | — | democracyTytler+5 | — | 6m 41s | |
| 5/7/26 | ![]() Flipping the script: Coloradans no longer run their government✨ | government controlstate constitution+3 | — | Independence InstituteUS Constitution+1 | Colorado | Coloradoconstitution+5 | — | 5m 30s | |
| 5/1/26 | ![]() Big changes to Front Range Rail Taxing Boundaries Proposed✨ | Front Range Railtaxing boundaries+4 | — | Independence InstituteComplete Colorado | DenverColorado+5 | Front Range Passenger Railtax hike+5 | — | 3m 27s | |
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| 5/1/26 | ![]() Senate Committee Rejects Gov. Polis’ CPW Commission Appointees✨ | Colorado politicswildlife commission+3 | — | Colorado Parks and WildlifeDepartment of Natural Resources+1 | Colorado | Colorado SenateCPW Commission+3 | — | 3m 23s | |
| 4/27/26 | ![]() Such Hubris Never Before Seen in Colorado✨ | political powerethics+4 | — | — | Colorado | Coloradopolitics+5 | — | 5m 49s | |
| 4/23/26 | ![]() Taking a Big-Picture View of the War in Iran✨ | Iran warpolitical commentary+3 | — | Independence Institute | Iran | Iran warTrump+6 | — | 5m 51s | |
| 4/23/26 | ![]() Senate Bill 135: Colorado Lawmakers Take Aim at Taxpayer Refunds✨ | taxpayer rightspolitical commentary+3 | — | Independence InstituteColorado Supreme Court | Colorado | Senate Bill 135TABOR+3 | — | 6m 00s | |
| 4/19/26 | ![]() Signs that Democrats have gone stark raving mad✨ | political commentaryTrump Derangement Syndrome+4 | — | DemocratsRepublicans+3 | — | Donald TrumpKamala Harris+7 | — | 6m 33s | |
| 4/17/26 | ![]() Let the State’s Narrative-Laundering Season Begin✨ | narrative controlpolitics+4 | — | Independence Institute | — | narrativepolitics+5 | — | 6m 03s | |
| 4/16/26 | ![]() Colorado Hates its Disabled Citizens✨ | disability rightsMedicaid cuts+3 | — | ColoradoMedicaid+1 | — | disabilityMedicaid+3 | — | 5m 56s | |
| 4/12/26 | ![]() BLM generates over $8 million in Colorado oil & gas lease sale✨ | oil and gasenergy policy+4 | — | Bureau of Land ManagementTrump administration+3 | ColoradoWeld+8 | BLMoil and gas lease+5 | — | 3m 03s | |
| 4/11/26 | ![]() Gun rights restrictions moving fast in Colorado legislature✨ | gun rightslegislation+4 | — | University of Colorado School of MedicineColorado+2 | — | gun rightsColorado legislature+6 | — | 4m 45s | |
| 4/8/26 | ![]() There’s plenty of Kings to protest right here in Colorado✨ | protestspolitics+4 | — | Supreme Court | Colorado | ColoradoTrump+5 | — | 6m 01s | |
| 3/31/26 | ![]() Why the U.S. must win the war with Iran?✨ | U.S. military strategyIran conflict+4 | — | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps | IranUnited States+2 | IranU.S. military+6 | — | 5m 56s | |
| 3/27/26 | ![]() Thank God for Wyoming , the Un-Colorado | 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.God Bless WyomingWhich 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.Keeping the lights onMeanwhile, 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. | — | ||||||
| 3/19/26 | ![]() Are our overlords normalizing power outages? | 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.”Behavior modificationApparently 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.Energy math not adding upColorado’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. | — | ||||||
| 3/18/26 | ![]() Democrat scheme violates TABOR and Constitution | Mike Rosen | 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.Four Big Ugly BillsNow, 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).End-run around TABORTo 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. | — | ||||||
| 3/11/26 | ![]() Colorado companies aren’t just leaving, they’re fleeing | 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.Adios, ColoradoWhy 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?It’s no coincidenceAt 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. | — | ||||||
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