Should Colorado lawmakers get a raise? It’s a politically thorny topic

About this episode

The episode discusses the contentious issue of whether Colorado lawmakers should receive a pay raise amidst ongoing budget cuts and political debates.

Colorado has a part-time, citizen legislature, driven by the notion that it’s important to have people from all kinds of professional backgrounds bringing their experience to lawmaking. So for four months every year, state legislators pause their regular lives to be at the Capitol. But the flexibility to do that can be hard to come by, and some say the pay — currently around $47,000 a year — makes things even harder. Now, an approach lawmakers hoped would take the politics out of the pay raise process could end up boosting their wages at the worst possible time. CPR’s Bente Birkeland and KUNC’s Lucas Brady Woods lean into the ongoing debate and tension around how much state lawmakers earn, what it means for the legislative process and the variety of fixes, from the financial to the fundamental, some have proposed. Catch up on our latest coverage: CPR News: How much are Colorado’s state legislators paid? CPR News: Amid budget cuts, legislators and statewide office holders set for pay increases next year The Independent Elected State Official Pay Commission’s 2025 Pay Report Purplish is produced by CPR News and the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado…

People in this episode

Host: Bente Birkeland

Guest: Lucas Brady Woods

Topics covered

• Colorado legislature
• lawmaker pay
• political debate
• citizen legislature
• budget cuts
• pay raise process

Keywords

• Colorado lawmakers
• pay raise
• legislative process
• budget cuts
• citizen legislature
• political debate

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Colorado Public Radio, KUNC, Rocky Mountain PBS, The Colorado Sun, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

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