7-30-25 - 8am - Denver Jobs & Regulations

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you looking for something to do this weekend in
the Denver downtown area. Join the situation with Michael brown
Eyes Wide Open Tour Daily to go into the depths
of the downtown Denver area and see the exotic creatures
around every corner. We will tour crack attict Alley to
see how the elite live with the help of your
tax dollars. No tour is complete without a view of

(00:21):
the partially clothed homeless heroes on the many park benches
along the way, including multiple ten cities throughout the exciting voyage.
We can't let you finish the tour without getting your
complimentary used syringe with the City and County of Denver
logo so you can remember your trip. We hope to
see you soon. Bookings are going fast and if you
stop by City Hall you can pick up a buy one,

(00:43):
get one free coupon we Hope to see you soon.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Shows of the Rockeys where the sky the sky as
lost it sparkle now it's just a passers by.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Gold rush, vein and glory.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Our streets are cracked Denver. There's God, Tune and sin,
but there's no on left together. Oh crackdown Denver dreams
have slipped away. The lights still shine and hopees gone blind.
Their heart's just fade to gray Mayor Johnson's talking, but

(01:31):
his words just hit the crowd. Oh crackdown Denver. It's
a sorrow lad and sound. The homeless lines sidewalks their
stories in their eyes. The city it turns its back
on down beneath the different skys. The crime is like

(01:55):
a shadow.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
It creeps on every street.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Promises of bird of days, like crumble of changes coming,
They all said, the city's bleeding red. Oh crackdown Downver.
Dreams have slipped away. The lights still shine with hopes

(02:26):
gone blind, hearts just fade to great Maybe Johnson's talking, Bud,
his words just hid the crown. Or crackdown Denver's sorrow
laden sound. Homeless line sidewalks their stories in their eyes.

(02:47):
The city turns its back on down beneath in different guys.
The crime is like a shadow. It creeps on every street.
Pharmises of better days like crumbled at our feet, changes coming,
They are set, But the city's bleeding red. Oh crackdown Denver.

(03:13):
Dreams have slipped away. The lights still shine, with hopes
gone blind, hearts just page It's pretty Mayor Johnson's talking
bud it where it's just hit the ground or crackdown
Denver sorrow laden sound, the saxophones crying on and midnight Greeks,

(03:38):
while city whispers, traders on wounded indies, the jazz clots
are empty, the alley's.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Home to.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Up, the city lost in shadows unneath the broken moon.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Wow, uh huh you see where I teased it for
the top.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Of the Yeah, that's pretty dang good. So congrats to
our listener that put that together. And the great thing
about that is it ain't copyrighted. He made it so
I can posted on the podcast. That's right. You get
to listen to a little music on the podcast for once.
So as long as we're and then I got other
stories I want to move on to. I got a

(04:21):
ton of stuff here. But the Common Sense Institute, which
is the source for those statistics, has put out a
report Denver metro Area and perspective jobs, retail sales, population growth,
and of course they've got the key findings, but let
me just share with you some of the things that

(04:43):
stuck out to me. The metropolitan statistical area of Denver,
which is primarily probably I think it probably includes Longmont
down through it may or may not include Highlands Ranch.
I'm not sure, but that this general right here in
the front range the metropolitan statistical area. They point out

(05:08):
that our share of national jobs, job growth, it is
no longer growing, and our employment is not growing as
fast as cities that we compete with. Our share of
national retail sales boomed in the twenty tens, but is
now beginning to soften. You know, in economic terms, we

(05:31):
call that processionary. The softening they write at the Denver
MSA level has left a sizeable gap in the city
of Denvers msas would be revenue among and we you
know what's interesting about that statement. We know that because
what's the mayor and the city council doing. They're cutting back,

(05:53):
eliminating jobs at the same time that they're taking tax
dollars for the stupid, dumb ask climate change stuff and
engaging in a propaganda campaign. Now they call it a
marketing campaign, but I call it a propaganda campaign. So
while there is a sizeable gap, this is the exact wording.

(06:16):
The softening at the Denver Metropolitan Statistical Area level has
left a sizeable gap in the city at Denver mssas
would be revenue. In other words, we are and I've
got my fingers right in front of my nose. We
are here. When taking my right hand and putting extending

(06:39):
it as far to the right as I can, we
could be here in terms of revenue growth. But we're not.
And it's not only stagnant, it's actually decreasing. Among similar
metro area areas. Denver's retail sales have dropped the farthest.
In the meantime, As I pointed out yesterday, consumer prices

(07:03):
in the metropolitan area have risen faster than both the
national average and our regional competitors. Now, if you're the
Denver Chamber of Commerce, or you're for that many of
you're the state chamber of Commerce, I don't care you
go one pick pick pick, pick one or the other.
Don't you want to ask your political leaders what are

(07:23):
you doing?

Speaker 4 (07:24):
Like?

Speaker 3 (07:24):
What are you doing to us? How can we compete?
When you're asking a company to move from well, let's
stay California. You're trying to get some company to move
out of Orange County, California to come to Colorado. Become
a beautiful color for Colorado. While you got skiing and hiking,
and you've got well, you've got mountain lions and wolves
killing the sheep and your pets and everything else but

(07:45):
you and you got the homeless, and you got crack addicts,
you all that, but you gotta, you gotta, you got
a wonderful bait base ba uh. Well, you got a
football team, and you got a hockey team and a
basketball team, and occasionally we play baseball. And at some
point we're going to play with women's soccer, isn't that right?
Women's soccer. We're building a whole stadium. We're building a

(08:06):
whole stadium for it, right where the traffic already sucks.
We're gonna build another stadium right there.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
It's not like we have another soccer field out you know,
no or or you know, we can rely on Douglas
County commissioners. They're spending four hundred thousand dollars on a
consultant to think about building an entire sports complex somewhere
which I to attract what.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
What I mean? I drive along County Line Road, a
lot and County Line Road near Holly. I forget. It's
called the Southwest something Sports Complex. It's this gigantic like
gigantic looks like a Sam's warehouse. It's that big. It's
probably larger than a Sam's warehouse. We got that. But no, no,
the Dugd's County commissioners want to spend four hundred thousand
dollars on a consultant to figure out a way to

(08:48):
do a public private partnership so we can build a giant,
big sports complex somewhere to attract I don't know what
they want to attract. You just want to spend the money. Oh,
by the way, that money that they're spending is part
of the sales tax designated for open space, trails and parks.

(09:14):
Did I say sports complex? Yeah, I don't think that's
what it's for, but that's what they're going to do
it for. See, it's not just dumbass Democrats in Denver,
it's dumbass republic is in Douglas Douglas County too. But anyway,
back to the point, against these indicators, they write, the
Denver MSA may not, as it currently stands, be able
to rely on in migration for economic growth. Denver MSA's

(09:38):
population growth is now similar to the national average, in
sharp contrast to twenty ten's trends. Instead of leading comparable
metro areas and population growth, Denver has fallen behind areas
like Austin, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Let
me just say, if you're looking at a place to

(09:59):
move to, and now Phoenix, I understand I like Phoenix,
don't want to live there, but I like Phoenix. Salt
Lake City. Well, I'm not Mormons. They wouldn't lie. I
don't have a Mormon passport, so I can't get in.
But Austin, Portland really the home of Antifa or Seattle.

(10:23):
You're choosing to move to those crap hole cities instead
of our own craphole city, I would say the Chamber
of Commerce. That's embarrassing. That's actually pretty embarrassing. So let's
get into some of the stats from the report. Since
peaking at one point one eight percent in the fall

(10:45):
of twenty twenty three, Denver share of total jobs across
all metro areas in the United States fell from one
point one eight percent growth to one point one six
percent growth. The difference between a one point one eight
percent share to one point one six percent share may
appear small, but that's equivalent to Denver missing nearly twenty

(11:09):
seven thousand jobs. Let's stop and just think about jobs
for a moment. So let's just say it's a stereotypical
family of I would say family of four, but I
don't think that's typically anymore. Let's just say it's a
family of three, a mom, a dad, and a kid, mom,
dad and a rugrat, or maybe a mom and a
mom in a rug rat, or to be politically correct,

(11:31):
a dad and a dad in a rug rat. But nonetheless,
they they okay, I'm sorry, they in a rug rat. Hey,
they in a rug rat? Zz and a rug rat?
Wasn't that a band?

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Zz?

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Rug rat? Are they? They had the long beards? Yeah,
something like that, yeah, zz rugrat? Yeah, I remember, they
were great. Twenty seven thousand jobs. Now twenty seven twenty
seven thousand jobs equals twenty seven thousand taxpayers. It equals
twenty seven thousand consumers who take the money from the

(12:09):
job that they now moved here for, and then, oh,
I don't know, go to King Supers or Whole Foods
or Trader Joe's are somewhere and they buy groceries, which
keeps those people employed. Or they go to a car dealership,
or they go to my favorite place the garage to
have their current car repaired, or they might call, you know,
they buy a new home. They've used Frank duran to
buy a new home, so you know, Frank makes some

(12:30):
money on it. And then they realize, well, this is
a nice house and we're gonna have Frank sold it
to us, but we want to remodel the bathroom, so
we're gonna use Discount Bath. So, you know, Discount Bath
has a new client. Frank Durant has a new client.
And then their neck hurts, so they go to QC Kinetics.
And you know, if it's dad and dad, and you
know dad and Dad are having a hard time, well

(12:50):
having fun in the bedroom, they go to Rocky Mountain
Men's Clinic. So that keeps them busy. In other words,
the money explodes. Oh, those are twenty seven thousand jobs
that won't come here, that won't pay taxes, that won't
you know, patronize my sponsors, that won't do the things
that you need to have a growing economy. Now, twenty

(13:13):
seven thousand jobs, you're probably thinking to yourself, well, that's
not very many jobs. Really, a loss of twenty seven
thousand jobs is equivalent to the University of Denver, Lockheed Martin,
the United States Department of Agriculture, the Denver region, Southwest Airlines,

(13:37):
and United Airlines all moving out of the Denver area.
All of those move, du Lockheed Martin, ag Southwest, United
they all leave. That's a loss of twenty seven thousand jobs,

(13:57):
all from the Common Sense Institute. I think they you know,
they're aptly named because they are the only people have
common sense in the state of Colorado. And you can
read the report it, Michael says, go here dot com,
which I would encourage you to go do because it
gives you some perspective about you. You wonder why is
why is Denver short?

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Why?

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Why is the state budget short? Why do we have
a shortfall there? Well, it's a combination of two things.
It's incorrect, stupid, upside down, inside out priorities, and it's
a lack of growth. And then I add on that
the inflation numbers I gave you, we were what number
seven in the country out of the top ten highest

(14:40):
consumer price index indices month over month, Denver ranked number
seven out of ten. Yeah, well, at least we weren't,
you know, number one, We were in the top ten.
It's not exactly something to be proud of. As was
the case with jobs, her MSA share of consumer spending

(15:03):
typically rose over most of the past two decades. In
the past three years, however, saying you know this is true,
probably it's true in my home, consumption has shifted. With
Denver MSA's retail sales shares down from a high of
one point five percent in June of twenty one to

(15:24):
a mere one point zero one percent in March twenty
twenty five. That is a point zero four percent decline.
Oh well, Michael, that's not very bad. That's just, you know,
a four tenths of a percent decline in sales. In
retail sales, hey, you know what, that equals two point

(15:45):
eight billion dollars in sales annually. At one hundred and
forty five million dollars in sales tax revenue, a large
portion of the missing retail sales across Denver would be
in the city at Denver, enough to make a material
difference in the City of Denver's two year budget shortfall
of two hundred and fifty million dollars. And I just

(16:09):
I can't help but laugh. What's the political leadership in
the state doing. I'll tell you what they're doing. They're overregulating.
They decided that what we need to do in Colorado
is over regulate. Now, I know that's subjective, and it's
politically charged, and it's going to be criticized by you know,

(16:33):
groups like the Colorado Chamber of Commerce and you know
other places, you know, which may argue that excessive state
and well they will argue I think that excessive state
and federal regulations impose really significant economic burdens. Well, what
are those burdens? Imagine trying to operate a small business

(16:53):
where you have all the compliance costs, you're faced with
all the reduced economic growth that I just described, job
losses the light, you know, and those job losses also
represent something else that I hadn't thought about. So just
now the employment base. You want to hire workers, they're
not coming here. They're going to Seattle. They're going to Portland,

(17:16):
what to join Antifa, or they're going to Phoenix because
you know Chop in Seattle, Yeah, exactly, Chopper Chaz or
whatever it was. And they're going to Phoenix because we're
told here that when it's one hundred degrees would actually
only reach ninety eight or ninety nine. But that's scorching,
So rather than live in scorching weather in Denver, they're

(17:37):
going to go to Phoenix, where it's one hundred and
fifteen degrees, where it's scorching, squared coll we. I mean,
I just sometimes I just I question myself, what the
hell am I doing here? You know what that actually
deserves an answer. I'm here because I love what I do.

(17:59):
I love what I do.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
But who we work with, that it's a different story.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Well I didn't. I said I love what I do.
I agree, not who I work with, but what I do.
And if I could just take this earbud out of
my ear so I wouldn't have to hear whatever that
noise is, it's fine. He'll just think he's talking to
you guys. Well, sometimes I think I'm just talking into

(18:27):
the ether anyway, So it doesn't make any difference. Now,
government sources and economic forecast they'll try to highlight colorouse
overall growth four point four percent projected job growth in
certain sectors for this year. But is that really true?

(18:51):
Are you? For example, in maybe you don't have your
own company. In my company, do I expect four point
four percent growth for iHeartMedia large? All over the country? No,
probably in pockets around the country, but maybe not in
this market. Well fly, he gets back to what we

(19:15):
started the entire program with. Look around, just look around
you and then say, oh, you know, a tourist light
lands at DA They get the rental car after a
wait forever and they finally make it up I seventy
and they get into the mountains. They don't see this crap. Well,
they don't see it. They think it's gorgeous state. Hey,

(19:39):
just go talk to Jerris over the Retirement Planning Center
of the Rockies. How you doing, Jerifs?

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Hey, I'm doing great, Michael, thanks for asking.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
So it's the one big beautiful bill, but I call
it ob cubed. So there's all this talk about ob
cube and the changes that brings the tax policy, which
I think sometimes we're not getting the entire truth about it.
But retirees or somebody that's approach your retirement, what does
the bill really mean and what does that mean for
them planning for the future? Yeah, can you have fifty seconds? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Look, got it? Well it makes a big difference. How's that? Okay?

Speaker 3 (20:15):
All right, bingle, got it? Did you benefit the retirement
planning sure of the Rockies. Guess you're gonna spend all
day learning about how this bill is going to affect you.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Goodness gracious, and we're still learning about new ways as
bill effects folks. But as we've talked before, Michael, there's
we cover five areas with our clients, income, investments, taxes, healthcare,
and legacy. And what this bill does is it hits
it directly on a couple of these areas, indirectly on
a bunch of them. For example, with taxes, which obviously
there's a lot of tax law on this bill. One

(20:46):
of the more immediate changes we see is this new
senior tax deduction, which is a six thousand dollars deduction
for individuals over age sixty five. Trump originally wanted to
eliminate taxes on Social Security. What we got instead was
a six thousand dollars deduction which will which will eliminate
taxes for about eighty as they say, eighty eight percent
of seniors will pay no tax on Security.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
So I've been trying to explain it, and maybe I'm
explaining that wrong. Is that a separate like line item
deduction or is that an increase in the standard deduction.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's a separate from my understanding, Michael, it's a separate
line item deduction, and maybe I'm incorrect. I'm not a
CPA and haven't studied it fully.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Neither les really know what it is, right, Okay, somewhere
we get.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
But you know, it phases out at higher income levels,
so so it's not complete tax relief for everybody, but
people that are that have incomes under certain levels, they'll
get that and it'll help them. And it's not only
going to help increase, you know, the standard of living,
but if somebody was paying tax and now they're not,
they can go invest that and have more wealth, right right,
That's that's a good thing. Another another area that this

(21:51):
thing hit on was it made that the Trump tax
cuts permanent, as we all know, which which we're set
to expire next year, and so people that were going
to look at that a tax increase next year now
don't have to, which which extends our window when we
can do things with tax like like like roth conversions
or something like that. So we take fifty ye one hundred grand,
move it from an IRA to a ROTH, and we've

(22:13):
got we've got additional wealth that we can create less
taxes over time. One big area where this thing hit
is in the state tax planning area, where in the past,
people people with high net worth of states, the state
tax example, was just going to drop back down to
about seven million adjusted for inflation. They permanently set that

(22:33):
at thirteen million dollars now, which opens up a window
for people who might want to do some additional you know,
legacy planning where where they can save on a state
taxes over time. So you know, not all of these
changes are permanent, Michael. One thing that people need to
understand is there's expirations on some of those senior tax
deduction only lasts for another three years, right, you know,

(22:54):
so it helps now. But the important thing is that
that people out there are strategic intentional about the way
that they take advantage of these so that they don't
miss out on the opportunities that are.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
There, and also so you don't have to they really
should rely on my analysis of the bill. They really
are to come to some experts like you to get
the analysis of the bill.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
That's, of course, and that's exactly what we help people do.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Let me let me tell you one more thing, since
it's our time. Anyway, you've heard about Trump wanting to
eliminate capital gains on the sale of primary residences. I
imagine that would have a huge impact on retirement planning.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
That would be a gigantic, gigantic win for folks. Yes,
you know, and I've got a number of people who
are looking at selling properties right now that are faced
with those types of situations, trying to figure out how
to navigate that world. And you know, we sometimes we
have to take kind of a roundabout way to help
them accomplish that, and it's not always going to accomplish

(23:51):
exactly what they want. But if yeah, if they just
if they just attack that head on and we're able
to get that done, that would be a great thing.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Be wonderful. Yeah, I think act so I think it
helped the healthing market too.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
So oh yeah, win win for everybody.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Now listen, thanks, thanks for your time. So you've heard
everything that Jariff said. If if you're confused as confused
as I am about the old triple B, or you've
got questions about how it might affect your current plan,
or as I say, you you don't have a plan
and you want to start one, you need to call
Jarif's and his partners at the Retirement Plannings and other Rockies.
You call them today and tell them Michael Brown sent

(24:25):
you nine seven zero six six three thirty two eleven.
Nine seven zero six six three thirty two eleven, or
go check out their website rpcenter dot com. Resist asking
jerif's about the whole social Security thing, because as I've
tried to explain, everybody's all excited about that, and I
keep hearing about no taxes and social Security but a

(24:47):
six thousand dollars deduction and we're not even quite sure
whether that's a line item or that's an increase in
the standard deduction. And does that effect whether you you know,
whether you you itemize or you don't itemize. I mean,
this is this is why yes retirement planning some of
the rockies, and they'll get you a good CPA too.
So back to the regulatory burden, because I don't think

(25:09):
we quite understand that the regulatory burden is imposed on
us by again, it's it's a mini version of Congress.
So the poly bureau out here, you know, POS has
some great grand idea about net zero, So he tells
his Climate office, he tells the legislature, and they're already

(25:29):
talking about you know new legislation for the next legislator session.
Let's let's let's accelerate getting to net zero. I guess
he wants said he can't have a bridge. Maybe he
wants that to be his legacy. Well, that's going to
impose costs. But the frightening thing about those costs that
it's going to impose is that those costs are going
to be imposed by unelected bureaucrats that make the rules

(25:52):
and regulations that businesses then have to comply with. Well
what's the impact? Does anybody ever stop and ask what's
that's the impact of these regulations? Well, the market Center
and others there. I've got other sources for this too.
Just a simple ten percent increase in regulations will lead

(26:16):
to huge negative effects. Let's just think about the overall
economic costs. And I'm talking about a ten percent and
I and I what I looked at last night was
Colorado specific, not naturally the specific, A ten percent increase
in regulations, the regulatory burden on businesses in Colorado annual

(26:40):
compliance and indirect costs up to two billion dollars. Two
billion dollars. That's the cost that businesses will take out
of expanding their business hiring new employees, whatever it is,
just to comply with the regulation in Colorado would cause
an additional two billion dollars. The cost then that you

(27:04):
would pay as a consumer for that good or that
service that that business provides would be a one percent
increase per year from that ten percent regulatory rise. Just all,
I mean a one percent. Oh, Michael, I can afford
a one percent? Yeah, well maybe you can, but a
lot of people can't. And then you got lost per

(27:24):
capita income that could be as high as thirteen thousand
dollars or higher if US regulations were frozen at even
nineteen eighty levels, let alone starting the increases. Now, for
every ten percent regulatory increase, you would get a thirty
six thousand job loss statewide, thirty six thousand jobs from

(27:48):
a ten percent regulatory increase. Now go back and talk
think about the twenty seven thousand jobs that we have
not gained simply because of the economic slow down in
this state. Whether that's directly or indirectly caused by regulations
is immaterial. The burden of doing businesses in this state

(28:12):
from whatever sources, has cost us a twenty seven thousand
job decrease. So instead of you know, instead of having
a one hundred thousand jobs, we've only had seventy three
thousand jobs. We've lost, We've not gained those twenty seven
thousand jobs. And every one of those jobs is the

(28:34):
loss of a taxpayer and the loss of the circulation
of that income that they make into the Colorado economy.
So a ten percent regulatory increase would add to that,
you would have a thirty six thousand job lost statewide
in addition to the twenty seven thousand. You already have

(28:56):
annual losses tens of thousands between twenty and twenty twenty
three after that surge with a seven point right seven
point one percent rise in state rules two three hundred
and fifty two thousand, three hundred and fifty nine jobs
per year from federal regulations. Because you know those are

(29:18):
going to occur regardless. So regardless of what the Colorado
Pulp Bureau does this Congress, unless Trump gets his way
and they start going on a regulatory you know, deregulation binge,
you're going to have those additional job losses too. I mean,
it's I know it sounds pessimistic. I'm not trying to

(29:39):
be pessimistic. I'm not trying to be optimistic. I'm trying
to be realistic loss productivity and growth calculations. I find
annual GDP growth reduction one to two percent when you
start adding just ten percent new regulations to the COLORADI

(30:00):
to me, that translates into a GDP growth reduction of
one point two of anywhere from one to two percent.
Think about the number of firms, just the number of businesses.
One estimate I read nine thousand fewer firms per ten

(30:20):
percent increase in regulations. Investment disposable income that decreases by
about two percent from environmental costs, slower growth, the regulatory rankings.
Where we are. Do you know that we are the
sixth most regulated state in the country, sixth most regulated state,

(30:42):
we're number two, we're in the top ten again, so
we're in the top ten in terms of inflation, and
we're in the month over month CPI increase and we're
in the top ten at number six in the most
regulated key. I wonder if there's a correlation either, there
might even be a causation there, who knows, And of

(31:02):
course then you'll have an increase in poverty. One estimate
shows that a ten percent increase in regulations increases poverty
by more than eighty four thousand people hitting the poverty level. Now,
those are all estimates based on correlations from different economic
economic metric models and surveys that I'm put together from

(31:26):
the Colorado Chamber, from the Common Sense Institute, from the
Merchant Institute, and others. But the real world examples uber
threatening to exit Colorado over rideshare rules that would potentially
cost thousands of gig jobs, oil and gas firms relocating
or being bought up by larger firms because of emission mandates.

(31:47):
Everywhere you turn. What's the Colorado pollopbuera on Jared Polus
doing imposing more and more burdens on simply not just
doing businesses in this state, but is simply living in
this state.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Mourning Michael again, Hey, I am just livid. Oh Mayor's
gonna lay off a bunch of city employees so he
can continue supporting.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
His precious illegals.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
People need to people need to revolt, man, People need
to get up in arms.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
But if you do, the Denver Post will doct you.
I'd like to know what's going on in the editorial
rooms of the Denver Post right now? Hey, uh, people,
seem to be a little pissed off about something we
haven't even written yet. Speaking of pathetic, this is a serious.

(32:43):
This is another example of just how seriously incompetent this
state is. So I ran across the story in Westward.
I've heard something about we have a backlog of processing
rape kits, untested kits, a massive backlog. The current weight

(33:05):
imagine being or a rape victim. The current rate for
a rape kit to be processed by the Colorado Bureau
of Investigation five hundred and seventy days. For those of
you who are calendar challenged, that's more than a year now.

(33:26):
If you are a victim of rape and you can't
get your rape kit process analyzed, get the information, that
means that you probably can't get a restraining order, you
can't get a hearing, charges haven't been filed, so you're
suffering through all all the horrific things that go along
with being rape which, as Dragon and I were talking

(33:49):
earlier at our pre production meeting about, of all the crimes,
that's probably one of the most horrific crimes of all.
And here's a backlog. But here's the killer about this,
Colorado Puloit Bureau reallocated three million dollars so they could

(34:11):
try to catch up on the backlog by hiring some
private labs to process the kits that are languishing somewhere
at the CBI. Even with that three million dollars and
apparently some other piece of legislation they passed, it's still
going to be the end of next year before they

(34:32):
get the backlog caught up, and even then, it's still
ninety days three months to process a rape kit. Now,
I confess I have no benchmark and I haven't looked
for a benchmark to compare whether a ninety day wait

(34:53):
for a rape kit is reasonable or unreasonable. I can
tell you, as a lawyer who used to represent criminals,
I would consider a ninety day waiting period to get
a rape kit process to be absurd. Now, maybe I'm
totally wrong about that. Maybe that's just something we've come
to accept before the poor rape victims. That seems inordinately

(35:17):
long to me. So we spend three million dollars, we
pass a piece of legislation, and it's still going to
take us until the end of next year to get
caught up to where we only have a ninety day
backlog in the meantime, guess what's going on. There's a
go fundme trying a go fund me trying to raise

(35:40):
millions of dollars to clear this backlog of untested rape kits.
And the big news was an anonymous donor contributed fifty
two thousand, five hundred dollars to this go fund me.
How much more pathetic can we get than stot I

(36:02):
know he's not going to build a bridge, but he
wanted to build a bridge. When you have a shortage
of X number of dollars, even with a reallocation of
three million dollars, you're still short to catch up on
a backlog.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
How screwed up.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Can your priorities be? In Colorado? They're pretty eft up.
They they are totally eft up, to the point that, well,
it's started to go fund me, really really go