Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams fills in for Dan and has some fun with Ryan in Hour 2, as the latter reads a congratulatory post from Governor Jared Polis to Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift on their engagement announced Tuesday.
Senator Barb Kirkmeyer (R-23) joins the Sheriff with the latest from a grueling special session of the General Assembly designed to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, but coming away with no spending cuts and no long-term answers on how the matter is going to be addressed.
Senator Barb Kirkmeyer (R-23) joins the Sheriff with the latest from a grueling special session of the General Assembly designed to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, but coming away with no spending cuts and no long-term answers on how the matter is going to be addressed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Kaplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Kaplas Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to the Dan Caplas Show. Here with well
kind of shared Steve Reims setting in as your guest host,
and it's a pleasure to be here with you. In
that first hour, we were talking a lot about Colorado's
failed special session. That's the way I'm coining it. We'll
do a little bit more talk about exactly what was
done or what wasn't done in this special session. In
(00:35):
this hour when we have Senator Barb kok Myron, she's
going to come on with us a little earlier than expected,
and Barb usually brings the fire, so I'm assuming she's
wanting to come on a little earlier so she can
bring more of exactly what happened in this session. There's
nobody that probably knows the state budget any better than
she does. She is definitely a physical hawk when it
(00:55):
comes to watching where the state spinning is going and
knowing pretty much where every penny is spent, but I
would be remiss if I didn't cover this breaking news.
In an attempt for Cracker Barrel, the fine restaurant Corporation,
to not do a bud Light self spike, they have
decided that they're going to keep their old logo. They're
(01:18):
doing away with all the crap from their new CEO.
Yeah that's Ryan and Kelly chiming. And you know, I
love Cracker Barrel. I go there with my mom and
step dad from time to time, the one up and
love when we meet there for dinner. Yeah, you know,
it's a classic, right, Like if you want a chicken
fried steak that just oh yeah, fills your guts. That
(01:40):
is that's the place to go, you know. And there's
all the games and fun stuff you can buy. It works.
And granted there's probably ways to make more profit off
of Cracker Barrel, but it wasn't through what they were doing.
So I think when the president weighs in and says,
you made a mistake and the CEO is probably going
to looking for a job, probably with bud Light, who
(02:01):
knows fit in there. Yeah, wow, that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
But I think Cracker Barrel learned from that example, heard
the people probably saw what the president posted, realized this
was a tremendous self own error. There's no upside to it,
there's none. Are you going to bring in a bunch
of libs to Cracker Barrel all of a sudden when
you sanitize the logo and the core of the establishment. No,
(02:25):
you're just going to lose people like Sheriff, Steve Reams
and yours truly and our listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah and again, I love that place. It reminds me
of growing up in Texas. You know, it's got a
little bit of Southern flare to it. The food is
always consistent. You know, could every restaurant do a little better. Sure,
Cracker Barrel's probably got some room for improvement. They can
probably figure out how to do business a little different.
But that doesn't mean to throw the baby out with
the bathwater, which is exactly what they were doing in
(02:49):
throwing their their logo out and just trying to become modern.
It doesn't fit with what the restaurant is all about.
Simply said in our first hour going into again that
special session, and I asked you, guys, is is there
a way in Colorado you'd like to see this state
cut one point two billion, eight hundred million, whatever that
(03:10):
moving number is. You know, if you got some ideas,
text men at five seven seventy three nine. Start your
text off with Dan and you guys have brought the fire.
There's you got plenty of ideas. But you can also
call in at three o three seven one three eight
two fivey five. I love the back and forth with
the callers, especially on this particular topic, because there are
quite a few things in this state that infuriate me.
(03:32):
We spend money on some of the dumbest stuff, and
then you can drive on virtually any road in the
state of Colorado and just about wreck your car because
the suspension is taking a beating. Your fillings are probably
trying to fall out. So we don't fund the things
that are needed every day, but you know, we'll make
sure that we give healthcare to illegals that are in
this state, because you know why not. I mean, that's
(03:52):
so beneficial to all of us as taxpayers. And it'd
be different if I were choosing to dedicate some of
my fund to help these people that have come here illegally.
But when the government says we're just going to do
it for you, we're going to make that decision for you.
It just ticks me off and I can't help, but
I think that it takes most of you guys off
as well. And granted, there are some people that get
(04:15):
here and they really need help, and I'm compassionate for that,
but I'm not compassionate for trying to figure out how
to give benefits to illegals that are here representing Trende Aragua.
You know, that's an extreme, but those people probably fit
the bill for where some of our funding is going.
Reading through some of the texts here and again, you
guys have been great, there's definitely a theme. You're not
(04:37):
fans of the wolf program, the wolf reintroduction program in Colorado,
but we'll go with this one. How about the funding
of most of the registered thirty four thousand charities slash
NGOs in the state. Some are legit, but with eighteen
thousand and five oh one c threes, those are tax
exempt groups. They need an audit. You know, there's so
many things in this state that need an audit. There
(04:58):
was a suggestion of a Doge like intervention in this state.
It would require the Democrats having wanting to do that,
but that being said, they can't even figure out how
to cut one point two billion out of a forty
four billion dollar budget. This one. How much did the
stupid governor spend on that stupid wildlife bridge they're building
(05:22):
down by monument. I have no idea, but I have
to assume it probably costs more than what his proposed
ten million dollar bridge to nowhere was down at the Capitol.
And maybe there's a there's a reason to have a
wildlife bridge, but not at the expense of not paving
a road in the state of Colorado. There's another one here.
(05:44):
Guess who took me to the cracker barrel at one
hundred and twentieth. I have no idea who sent that in,
but I'm sure I'll get a response to that one.
Let's see cut one percent from all budgets of state
funded universities and schools. That's a start. I would a
zero to that number and maybe change the first one
(06:05):
twenty thirty percent of funding to these universities because the
more tax dollars we give them, the more they raise
tuition and just say, well, you know we're going to
get more from the state if we charge more. That's
my personal opinion. Let's see here, Why don't we sell
the governor's mansion or require the governor to live in
the affordable housing he is so proudly spends money on.
(06:26):
And we'll finish with this one. We could cut the
lieutenant governor's double salary and a lot of the NGO money.
You guys, you know you got great points here. And
ultimately you're thinking like Republicans. You're saying, hey, let's quit
wasting the spending that keeps going on in this state.
And I just wonder, does the other side of the
(06:47):
aisle at some point have a reckoning. Do these same
people who have to pay bills just like us, who
have to go to the pump and buy gas, who
have to go to the grocery store and bag their
own groceries because you dare get a plastic bag anymore
unless you pull Ryan's trick and just you know, not
report them. Do these same people get tired of the
(07:07):
process that happens in the state of Colorado where the
Dems can't control their spending, they just keep asking for more.
They just keep pinning their ears back and saying, you're
youse a taxpayer, you're too dumb to check in with us.
And hold us accountable. So we're just going to keep
asking for more and more money. We're going to grow
to a forty four billion dollar budget. And when you're
(07:30):
driving around the state of Colorado, you really don't have
anything to show for it. Your road stink, your road
signs are in disrepair, there's trash everywhere, there's homelessness. We
have an overwhelming illegal immigration problem in this state and
virtually every community of size. At what point does this
(07:51):
state tip and say, all right, we see this. This
experiment hasn't worked. I would hope this special session would
bring would bring them to light. I don't know that
it has. I guess we'll find out in the next
few weeks, months, years, whatever. But I do know this.
The governor's popularity is decreasing with each day that this
(08:14):
state goes into more and more of a decline. And
that couldn't be more highlighted by his by his social
media accounts, where every time he posts something, he just
gets ratioed into into an abyss the guy he just
goes away. Ryan. I don't know if you have it
available where you could potentially read that posting online. I
(08:36):
would be glad to do that. Yeah, Well, you were
talking about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. You know, gag,
but it does give us the segue. Let's read that
post if you would, about Governor Poulis's love for this
new relationship.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, here it is and it's it's both a post
on X through his account at Gov of Colorado, of
COO and looks like maybe this is on Instagram too.
Congrats Taylor and Travis. I always knew you two were endgame.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
It's Taylor Swift song.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Your love story is so high school and Colorado Swifties
are down bad with excitement over your engagement. Skip Florida
and exchange your paper rings in the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Jared Polis, Colorado governor, certified Swifty wedding officiant. So he's
(09:33):
offering to officiate the wedding.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What better thing could you imagine?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You know?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Very simple, very simple, very simple, Mattam speaker, It could.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Only make that wedding more disgusting to me, So yeah,
go for it.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Who is more politically anathema to us in this audience,
Taylor Swift or Jared Polis?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
The same? Oh the same?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Can we save Travis maybe from this? Well he can run.
He can leave at this This is the point, man,
save yourself, run for the hills, go find somebody else.
This is never gonna end well in my opinion. Oh,
I'm just giving the guy good advice this this woman's
maybe I don't see it being I'm going with Kelly
(10:22):
on the over under. This thing ain't gonna last. But
you know you got two terrible personalities. How can that
maybe two negatives make a positive.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I don't know. Regardless, let's end this, this disgusting conversation
and our disgusting governor's attempt to try to suck up
to these two individuals and go to break. When we
come back, we'll have Barb Kirkmeyer with us on the line,
and she can get down to get into the down
and nitty gritty, the dirty that happened down at the
(10:52):
state Legislature in this special session and really tell us
what happened and how are we going to feel it?
Here listening to the Dan Capla Show here on six
thirty KHW with Well Kenny Shriff Steve Raams as your guest.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Host, and now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Welcome back to the Dan capless Show here with well,
Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams filling in as your guest host
today and we've been talking. Our topic today has been
the special session and what did or didn't happen And
we will have Barb Kirkmeyer up, Senator Barb Kirkmeyer from
Senate District twenty three here in just a few minutes.
But before we get to her, we'll get into just
a couple more texts that came in through the break
(11:28):
and again, you guys are killing it. You can you
can text in at five seven, seven three nine, start
your text off with Dan or you can call in
at three oh three seven one, three eight two five five,
although after Barb gets on the phone, it'll be just
a little bit before we can get to the before
we can get to the phone lines. But this one
was just good. If if Jared married the two Taylor
(11:49):
and Travis, would he tell them to wear a damn mask?
And that's Patty, Patty being Patty. Yeah, I just thought
it was good. So before we bring Barb on it,
I want to give a little bit of background because
Barb and I work together myself as the sheriff or
as the captain out of the patrol Division for the
(12:09):
Weld County Sheriff's Office. Barber as a county commissioner, and
I can tell you that she was a major pivotal
point in taking Weld County through the Great Recession in
two thousand and eight two thousand and nine, when everyone
across the nation was struggling with how are we going
to make our budgets meet? You know, it was a
rough time. Barbara's a county commissioner, she definitely led Weld
(12:29):
County through that process where the taxpayers in Weld County
really didn't see a drop in service, they didn't see
an increase in taxes, and we continue to get the
job done. And I think Barb's time as a Weld
County Commissioner has pivoted well into her being a State
Senator and ending up on the Joint Budget Committee. But
I want to set that up a little bit because
Barb's background is well suited as to what she's doing
(12:52):
right now down at the State Legislature. Commissioner Kirkmeyer, Senator Kirkmeyer,
thanks for being on the show with us, and how
has this special session gone in your opinion? Well, first of.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
All, thanks for having me, Steve, I greatly appreciate. It's
always always fun to be able to talk to you.
And we had some really great conversations. I called them
robust conversation, Yes, ma'am, were good.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, you know you did something. I think you drove
this at a time back in Weld County. And let's
let's just get into it a little bit because most
of the listeners don't know this. During the two thousand
and eight, two thousand and nine, even twenty ten timeframes,
you know, it was it was tough sledding. There was
not a lot of money coming in revenue coming into
the county in welld County. You know, we didn't want
(13:36):
to see a drop in services. And you kind of implemented,
or you led the process of implementing a line by
line review of the budgets as a Well County commissioner
and said, no, we're going to check spending. We're going
to figure out can we do better? And those were
tough discussions. And I can tell you, as a captain
in the Sheriff's office, you weren't necessarily the most popular
person with a lot of a lot of folks, but
(13:59):
you were doing that on behalf half of the citizens
and I got to tell you, I think it worked
out in the end. Your opinion on that.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah, it did. I mean, going all the way back
to even when I was a county commissioner in the
late nineties, I mean that's when we started the whole
drive to lead our county to zero debt. And then
after that the commissioners that followed up to me were
able to even start reducing the mill levee. And even
in two thousand and eight, we didn't go back. We
didn't increase the mill levey. We made we funded those
(14:27):
things that you have to do that government should be doing,
core functions of government. Things you know, government does because
people can't do them for themselves. They like build roads,
like do the jail, you know, and take care of
the jail and all that. But we got down to
what's the most important stuff we're supposed to be doing,
and we funded it, and we made cut to other
places and everybody. You know, we had a great team.
(14:48):
It wasn't like it was just me. Had a great
team on the board, in our department heads and our
other elected officials just really working together understanding like, look,
we're not gonna be able to give salary increases, but
we are going to pay for more on your health
insurance and things of that nature. And I can remember
coming out and talking with Sheriff's department folks, and you're right,
(15:10):
they weren't happy, but they started talking about with if
you just made these changes to our insurance plan, this
would really help us out. And we made those changes
midyear kind of thing. So there are things I think
it's a little bit more flexible at the county level,
especially being on the border county commissioners, you know, because
county commissioners wear all three hats executive, legislative, and quasi judicial.
(15:30):
It's not the same at the state. There's the legislative branch,
and there's the executive branch and a judicial branch right,
and we have other elected officials down there as well,
and it's just not the exact same because as legislators
we only have power. Even as the Joint Budget Committee,
we only have power literally to do things and get
stuff done while we are in session. When we're out
(15:53):
of session, we don't have power. When even during a
special session, the JBC didn't carry any bills, by I
mean because we couldn't not unless they gave us special
permission to do so, and you know, leadership Democrat leadership
one party control said oh no, why would we all
like kirk Meyer have control.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, that would be about that would not have been
very popular amongst their own caucus. No, no, not at all.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
But so, you know, it's really up to the executive branch,
I mean, in the in the legislative branch, I mean
the sixth member Budget Committee. We write the budget for
the state of Colorado, and but we're setting policy. I mean,
you know what a budget is. It's a policy document.
It sets our goals and our vision for how we're
going to spend the tax revenues that come in throughout
(16:41):
the next year and the next year's afria. I mean, really,
we are governing for years out, not the year that
we're in kind of thing. So, and you know, the
Governor's obviously like to tell him, like at the Drug
Budget Committee, we have to budget towards current law. Doesn't
mean the governor has to spend the current law. And
he has authority to come in and make spending cuts.
(17:01):
He doesn't have authority to change law, but he can
make spending cuts and he can tell people stop doing
things at those programs. So the special session. To me,
I just have to tell you, I'm tired. I am tired.
I just I'm tired, and I'm frustrated. I'm tired of
Democrats saying they're going to do things to save people
money and to help out small businesses and then do
(17:21):
the exact opposite. I mean, literally, Steve, you.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Know, sheriff.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
They were just upset because the federal government gave us
tax cuts that rolled into more tax cuts at the state.
That means less tax collections right that come into the state.
And their answer is, gosh darn it, we need to
raise taxes. Their answer, that's just unbelievable to me.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, and we only have about thirty seconds before we
have to go to a break, So if you will
hold on through this break, and Barber, when we come back,
I really want you to peel that onion back and
tell us exactly what happened in this special session because
it sounds like to me, we got the rule pulled over.
Ice stick with us. We'll be right back in just
a few minutes. We have commissions or we have Senator
(18:08):
Barb Kirkmeer on the line with us, and she's really
going to break this down right when we come back.
You're listen to the Dan Capless Show here on six
point thirty k how with Well Keunty Sheriff Steve Riams.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Welcome back to the Dan Caples Show here with Well
County Sheriff Steve Rireams filling in as your guest host.
And we went to break. We had we have Senator
Kirk Meyer on with us kind of breaking down the
details of this special session. Barb, thanks for sticking with
us through the break. And before we go back, I
just want to read a couple of texts that came in.
One's an idea. There's a bunch of ideas, but this
one I really like. It says we should triple the
(18:49):
vehicle registration costs on suber Rus because that's probably going
to target most of the Dems, likely an equal a
ten billion dollar surplus. And then this one, I'm sure
you're going to like it, says Sheriff Barb's awesome. Thanks
for having her on. Oh that's nice. Yeah, you know,
you get quite a bit of fan mail whenever we
have you on, so give us the lowdown. I mean,
(19:09):
what did we accomplish here. We had Representative Baronna and
Representative Dusty Johnson on and they basically said, hey, all
they did was kick the can down the road and
took away a few tax breaks that some small business
owners might be able to utilize. But what what is
the resident of Colorado? What is the taxpayer of Colorado
going to benefit from in this special session? If anything?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Oh my gosh, nothing. I mean, you know, I said
when we started the special session and I said, you know,
we're going to walk away from this session with Democrats
will have increased taxes, which they did. So they increased
taxes on individuals and small businesses. I mean, they just
don't understand how taxes work. I guess you know, you
on a small business and your tax more on it
that in fact impacts your taxes that you pay in
(19:57):
as an individual. So they ended up increasing taxes like
like I said they would, by somewhere around two hundred
and fifty maybe three hundred million kind of thing. They
did tax credits, which all that it does is make
our budget worse. That's where it just kicks the can
down the road. We literally are selling two hundred and
fifty million dollars of tax credits. That's what they're valued
(20:20):
at at face value. But we're selling them for two
hundred million. That's a fifty dollars short fifty million dollars
shortfall that we're going to have in a future year
like twenty six twenty seven, when we already know we're
seven hundred million. That's seven hundred million dollars in the
hole in the red as we begin the twenty six
twenty seven budget year. So it's just crazy. And I'm
(20:43):
looking at it and thinking what are we doing here?
And and some of the tax credits are selling go
to the general fund. Another one hundred million goes somewhere else.
If we don't sell them all, we're going to back
up the expenditures with taking money out of our reserves,
I mean reserves. That's like saying, gosh, we need to
pay our credit card off because we keep over spending it.
So we're going to go take money out of savings.
(21:05):
I mean, you know how much that lasts? I mean
how long that lasts. That's just bad financial management. So
again we raise taxes, you know, on individuals, small businesses,
and we gave tax credits to large corporations and insurance companies,
you know on these tax credit premiums that you know
we're asking them. You know, hey, you can come in
(21:27):
and get a tax credit and uh, you know, seventy
five cents on the dollar, and it's I don't know.
I'm just like, here, we are one time money for
what should be one time spending, and they think it's
going to start helping us with our ongoing general fund problems.
The worst thing that we did, one of the worst
things that happened down there, is the impact on small businesses, retaillers,
(21:49):
people who collect sales tax.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
You know that coffee shop on Main Street and Yuma,
or the mechanics store in Fort Lupton, or maybe a
clothing store over and Grand Junction, right, they collect sales tax.
And what we do in this state is we pay
a fee to the vendor, to the retailer to collect
our sales tax.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Well, what I.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Found out in committee is and I knew this kind
of anyways because I used to own a flower shop
and collect sales tax, is they don't pay it. The
fee doesn't cover the cost of the collection. We turned
our retailers into debt collectors or tax collectors. Basically, and
so we were paying a fee you file most most
retailers file about one a month, and it's one thousand dollars.
(22:35):
We'd cacked it at a thousand bucks. We're going to
pay you one thousand dollars from the state to collect
our sales tax and remit that back to us. And
if you screw up, we're going to give you a
penalty and make you give us more money than what
you collect it. I mean, it's crazy, right, So they
told us it costs them. There's much of small business.
People came in and said, it's like four times. It
costs us four times the amount. So we're getting one
(22:57):
thousand dollars for something that's costing us four thousand. Right,
they took that away. They ran a bill and took
that away. We literally impact businesses that are trying to survive,
trying to survive in this state, you know, challenged by
all the regulations because they were the six months regulated
state in the nation, and we literally took twelve thousand
(23:17):
dollars out of their pocket. And here's the kicker, we
take it out. It'll help us in this discal year,
and next year we'll refund that back to someone else.
That's how stupid it is. It is absolutely stupid. And
here's the worst part to me. Actually, I know I've
said that's like three times now, but there's so many
bad parts. But the worst part is this, we totally
(23:40):
are not being held accountable for the Otah office we
take to uphold the constitution. There is a requirement in
the constitution. Everybody knows about TABOR that we're supposed to
go to a vote when we increase taxes. You know,
I tried on several bills to do a referred make
them into referred measure, and say, let's go ask the taxpayers.
You think what you're doing is what they want, and
this is such a good idea, Go ask the taxpayers,
(24:03):
you know, and they said no. Well, so they disregard
the voters. They disrespect the voters, they disregard the constitutions.
It's obnoxious to me. It's just obnoxious to me. So
I hope voters start looking at this and start saying, hey,
we're going to start holding you accountable, because that's what
needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I have to ask. Because our Texters have been
blowing up about the wolf program and about these wildlife bridges.
Was there any Was there any discussion that was actually
moved forward in any way about, hey, let's get rid
of this Wolf program, let's let's quit throwing money at
this or for that matter, was there any program that
the dem said, you know what, we'll ratchet this one back.
(24:43):
Was there any appetite for that.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
There was nothing in the call that would allow us
to carry any legislation to cut spending. This was not
a budget session. This was a tax session. Let's increase taxes.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
That's it. We had no ability to cut the budget none.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
That's how bad it is. That's the fake news out
there coming out of the Democrats one party control. With
regard to the Wolves, there was a bill they tied
it into somehow tied it into the call. It had
a Democrat sponsors on it, so nobody was going to challenge.
I mean, it doesn't matter if a Republicans challenge or not.
That it didn't fit under the call, it didn't matter,
(25:24):
so it got to go through. It was originally started
off and it was Senator Catlin who is Republican, and
Senator Roberts on our side. I don't know who was
on the House side. Senator Roberts is a Democrat. He
was one of the prime sponsors along with Senator Catlan,
And it was supposed to be to put a pause
on any introductions of wolves and any money, you know,
(25:45):
we were using general fund money to do that, and
any have Genier Fund savings would go through go to
the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, not to the general fund,
not back to the general Fund, but over to this
other enterprise. The governor said he was going to veto
the bills, so they changed it to say that we
couldn't use general fund money to introduce wolves, which just
(26:06):
means the governor will use some of his custodial funds
and they're still going to introduce role wolves. So I mean,
maybe you might have put a small pop on it. Maybe,
but I'm not counting on it, and I don't think
anyone else should either.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
All Right, we'll end with this. If you had to
give this special Session a grade, you know, A being, hey,
we got something done, F being we completely failed the taxpayer.
And I say we, I think we know what we're
talking about. The Democrats here, We as a legislative body
completely failed the taxpayers of Colorado. What do you give
this session?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Well, considering that we increased taxes on everybody. We did
nothing to cut the or to cut the general fund
and fix our spending problem that we have, and we
didn't balance rebalance the state's budget. We disregarded Tabor. I'm
on an F minus minus and we'll lay that right at.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
The feet of the Democrats that are done in the
legislature as well as Governor Polis. I think that's where
it deserves to be, to be late. Absolutely, Senator kirk Meyer,
thank you for what you do. You know, I know
that you've got some more, some more things in your future,
and we'll hope to hear from that in the near
the near days. But thanks for the work that you
(27:17):
did down there at the special session, and you're always
welcome on the show. Again. Thanks for sticking on with
us for a little extra time and go get some rest.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
We appreciate it absolutely. Thank you so much and always
great to talk with you.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Steve.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
You bet. That's Senator kirk Meyer from senat District twenty three,
wrapping up a six day special session where you know, unfortunately,
I don't think a lot got done other than exposing
that the Democrats really don't care about what we think
they're just going to keep spending money. We'll go to
break and we come back. We'll again finish up, clean
up this text wall. Some of these things I can't read,
(27:49):
but I'll read the ones that I can. You're listening
to the Dan Capitalist Show here on six point thirty
k how with well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raims as your
guest host, and.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Now to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Welcome back to the Dankaplas Show here with Welcomey Sheriff
Steve Reims filling in as your guest host for this
last and final segment. But I'll be back with you tomorrow.
And I have to think if Colorado had a million dollars,
Jared Poulis had just said it on fire. That's what
he does. Let's get to this caller that we have
on the line. We have Jennifer and Denver. She wants
to comment about the wolf situation. Jennifer, how you doing?
Speaker 7 (28:26):
Hey, Cher, great show today.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Hey, by the way, I love listening to you a
lot better than that guy yesterday.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
But on to the wolves.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I'll make sure here's Senator.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
Kirk Meyer said, go ahead, here's my cackle. Sorry, what
Senator Kirkmeyer said, is exactly right that Wolf bill would
have put a pause on the program and allowed all
the stakeholders, whether you're a rancher, a wildlife biologist, whoever
you are, to get on the same page about having
(28:57):
a successful movement forward.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
But no, Polis said he would veto the bill because
he didn't want to stop the will of the people.
And yet Tabor is constitutional by the will of the people,
and seventy percent of Colorado and support Tabor. But he
has no problem going after that, now, does he?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You know, you've hit the nail on the head. I mean,
this is picking your winners and losers, you know. I
think we all understand that the Wolf program is a
pet project, if you will, of Governor Polis's husband, and
so he's definitely not going to do anything to stand
in the way of that. And Tabor is not something
that Governor Polis is very supportive of. So yeah, why
(29:39):
not let's just keep wasting taxpayer dollars, keep jacking up
tax rates against the will of the people, and fund
a program that no one other than his husband is
supportive of.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
That right, is one party rule, all over it, all
over it. This is what you get with one party rule,
and the state needs to wake up and start voting
people into office who are going to make decisions based
on what's good for the people, not the wolves anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You know, if those wolves are so good there, there's
only go ahead, Jennifer.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
No, you I was gonna say, there's only one person
worse than Jared poul Is in my book right now,
and I bet you know who he is, but we'll
leave that to another day.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Thanks for calling in, Jennifer. I'm gonna I'm going to
take a wild guess that I do know who that
one person is because I do know Jennifer off air,
but we'll leave it there. I won't air Jennifer's laundry.
That's up to her to do. But you know, as
we're going through all these texts again, Jennifer, thanks for
calling in. As we're going through all these texts, the
wolf bill could not be more hated in the state
(30:43):
of Colorado with Republican voters if it tried. But I
think there is something that might be just as hated
in this state, and that's the pending marriage of Travis
Kelsey and Taylor Swift. Is so mean of you, Sheriff.
You know, so it's too personalities. I just can't.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Like, let me ask you this. You don't do any
patrol work anymore, do you. You're not out on the road, not.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Unless somebody is galactically stupid. But and that does happen
from time to time. But yeah, for the most part,
I'm pretty well relegated to just dealing with the office stuff. Okay,
let's just say, for sake of argument and just hypothetical,
purely hypothetical. Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift are in a
nice sports car and they're heading northbound and Will County
(31:30):
on that wide, open stretch of highway, you know, the
one I'm taking forty nine. That's the one.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Man.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's just like an open season kind of Autubon type thing.
And he's doing like thirty miles an hour over the
speed limit, and you, Sheriff Reames of willd County pull
him over.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
What happens, Oh, he's getting a ticket. He's getting a
big ticket, because thirty miles an hour over the speed
limit is not just that. He's getting a court date.
Oh okay, And so now we're gonna, you know, we're
gonna make it. I'm just you know, so here's the thing.
If anybody's driving like that, it's one of those where
I'm going to have to step in. But you know,
you know how this is going to play out. Body
(32:04):
camera's going to turn on and you're going to get
two people looking in the window, and they're going to go,
do you know who I am? You know it's going
to happen. I mean, I mean, that's what's going to
happen with those two. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Oh, the DA and Rhode Island. I know where you're going.
I'm an ET. How would you handle that one? I
think the police there handled it absolutely correct. I don't
give a blank. What they should have said is you're
also a moron and you're also going to be a criminal.
I mean I thought they handled that situation well. And
the listeners haven't seen it. Google Google, you know Rhode
(32:41):
Island a assistant assistant whatever, maybe maybe former.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
So my thing would have been in your shoes like, yeah,
you're an ag, therefore the bars higher not lower?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Right, I should know better? And her friend like the
frame goes even farther.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
No, she's a lawyer, like, oh my god, I want
to backhand.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
You right well, and then kicking the door, preventing the
door from being close. She's lucky she didn't know with
a broken ankle. But you know, regardless, that's just I
don't know what their political affiliation is. I can guess, yeah, yeah,
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Democrat.
But that's an embarrassment to public service at that point.
I mean, I felt bad for the cops because they're
(33:21):
dealing with a situation where they just want to go home.
They just want to deal with, you know, an average
day of work, and that kind of crap happens. But
you gotta you gotta admit, if Travis Kelcey and Taylor
Swift are speeding through Weld County or any part of Colorado,
there's a good chance that's probably the same behavior you're
going to see. I just I have to believe that's
(33:41):
the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
But wouldn't your bodycam footage It would end up like
TMZ wouldn't It would happen to somebody would.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Well, So you know, it's one of those things. They
could file a corps request, get the bodycam footage and
make trillions of dollars off of Wow, it could fix
the state budget. We just we just we just solved
a problem. I'm to Colorado, Travis. We have so much
room for activities now. I feel like we're gonna have
(34:09):
to build a bunk bed or something. You know what,
We could have fixed cracker barrel too, We just didn't
though we didn't happen. Yeah, it had breaking news all right,
so we got a little silly here at the end
of the show. Thanks for hanging in with us. It's
always a pleasure to fill in for Dan. Fastest two
hours I ever have in a day. It's a blast.
I'll see you again tomorrow. You're listening to Dan kapla
(34:29):
show here on six point thirty k how with Well
Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams to see you tomorrow
This is Dan Kaplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Kaplas Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to the Dan Caplas Show. Here with well
kind of shared Steve Reims setting in as your guest host,
and it's a pleasure to be here with you. In
that first hour, we were talking a lot about Colorado's
failed special session. That's the way I'm coining it. We'll
do a little bit more talk about exactly what was
done or what wasn't done in this special session. In
(00:35):
this hour when we have Senator Barb kok Myron, she's
going to come on with us a little earlier than expected,
and Barb usually brings the fire, so I'm assuming she's
wanting to come on a little earlier so she can
bring more of exactly what happened in this session. There's
nobody that probably knows the state budget any better than
she does. She is definitely a physical hawk when it
(00:55):
comes to watching where the state spinning is going and
knowing pretty much where every penny is spent, but I
would be remiss if I didn't cover this breaking news.
In an attempt for Cracker Barrel, the fine restaurant Corporation,
to not do a bud Light self spike, they have
decided that they're going to keep their old logo. They're
(01:18):
doing away with all the crap from their new CEO.
Yeah that's Ryan and Kelly chiming. And you know, I
love Cracker Barrel. I go there with my mom and
step dad from time to time, the one up and
love when we meet there for dinner. Yeah, you know,
it's a classic, right, Like if you want a chicken
fried steak that just oh yeah, fills your guts. That
(01:40):
is that's the place to go, you know. And there's
all the games and fun stuff you can buy. It works.
And granted there's probably ways to make more profit off
of Cracker Barrel, but it wasn't through what they were doing.
So I think when the president weighs in and says,
you made a mistake and the CEO is probably going
to looking for a job, probably with bud Light, who
(02:01):
knows fit in there. Yeah, wow, that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
But I think Cracker Barrel learned from that example, heard
the people probably saw what the president posted, realized this
was a tremendous self own error. There's no upside to it,
there's none. Are you going to bring in a bunch
of libs to Cracker Barrel all of a sudden when
you sanitize the logo and the core of the establishment. No,
(02:25):
you're just going to lose people like Sheriff, Steve Reams
and yours truly and our listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah and again, I love that place. It reminds me
of growing up in Texas. You know, it's got a
little bit of Southern flare to it. The food is
always consistent. You know, could every restaurant do a little better. Sure,
Cracker Barrel's probably got some room for improvement. They can
probably figure out how to do business a little different.
But that doesn't mean to throw the baby out with
the bathwater, which is exactly what they were doing in
(02:49):
throwing their their logo out and just trying to become modern.
It doesn't fit with what the restaurant is all about.
Simply said in our first hour going into again that
special session, and I asked you, guys, is is there
a way in Colorado you'd like to see this state
cut one point two billion, eight hundred million, whatever that
(03:10):
moving number is. You know, if you got some ideas,
text men at five seven seventy three nine. Start your
text off with Dan and you guys have brought the fire.
There's you got plenty of ideas. But you can also
call in at three o three seven one three eight
two fivey five. I love the back and forth with
the callers, especially on this particular topic, because there are
quite a few things in this state that infuriate me.
(03:32):
We spend money on some of the dumbest stuff, and
then you can drive on virtually any road in the
state of Colorado and just about wreck your car because
the suspension is taking a beating. Your fillings are probably
trying to fall out. So we don't fund the things
that are needed every day, but you know, we'll make
sure that we give healthcare to illegals that are in
this state, because you know why not. I mean, that's
(03:52):
so beneficial to all of us as taxpayers. And it'd
be different if I were choosing to dedicate some of
my fund to help these people that have come here illegally.
But when the government says we're just going to do
it for you, we're going to make that decision for you.
It just ticks me off and I can't help, but
I think that it takes most of you guys off
as well. And granted, there are some people that get
(04:15):
here and they really need help, and I'm compassionate for that,
but I'm not compassionate for trying to figure out how
to give benefits to illegals that are here representing Trende Aragua.
You know, that's an extreme, but those people probably fit
the bill for where some of our funding is going.
Reading through some of the texts here and again, you
guys have been great, there's definitely a theme. You're not
(04:37):
fans of the wolf program, the wolf reintroduction program in Colorado,
but we'll go with this one. How about the funding
of most of the registered thirty four thousand charities slash
NGOs in the state. Some are legit, but with eighteen
thousand and five oh one c threes, those are tax
exempt groups. They need an audit. You know, there's so
many things in this state that need an audit. There
(04:58):
was a suggestion of a Doge like intervention in this state.
It would require the Democrats having wanting to do that,
but that being said, they can't even figure out how
to cut one point two billion out of a forty
four billion dollar budget. This one. How much did the
stupid governor spend on that stupid wildlife bridge they're building
(05:22):
down by monument. I have no idea, but I have
to assume it probably costs more than what his proposed
ten million dollar bridge to nowhere was down at the Capitol.
And maybe there's a there's a reason to have a
wildlife bridge, but not at the expense of not paving
a road in the state of Colorado. There's another one here.
(05:44):
Guess who took me to the cracker barrel at one
hundred and twentieth. I have no idea who sent that in,
but I'm sure I'll get a response to that one.
Let's see cut one percent from all budgets of state
funded universities and schools. That's a start. I would a
zero to that number and maybe change the first one
(06:05):
twenty thirty percent of funding to these universities because the
more tax dollars we give them, the more they raise
tuition and just say, well, you know we're going to
get more from the state if we charge more. That's
my personal opinion. Let's see here, Why don't we sell
the governor's mansion or require the governor to live in
the affordable housing he is so proudly spends money on.
(06:26):
And we'll finish with this one. We could cut the
lieutenant governor's double salary and a lot of the NGO money.
You guys, you know you got great points here. And
ultimately you're thinking like Republicans. You're saying, hey, let's quit
wasting the spending that keeps going on in this state.
And I just wonder, does the other side of the
(06:47):
aisle at some point have a reckoning. Do these same
people who have to pay bills just like us, who
have to go to the pump and buy gas, who
have to go to the grocery store and bag their
own groceries because you dare get a plastic bag anymore
unless you pull Ryan's trick and just you know, not
report them. Do these same people get tired of the
(07:07):
process that happens in the state of Colorado where the
Dems can't control their spending, they just keep asking for more.
They just keep pinning their ears back and saying, you're
youse a taxpayer, you're too dumb to check in with us.
And hold us accountable. So we're just going to keep
asking for more and more money. We're going to grow
to a forty four billion dollar budget. And when you're
(07:30):
driving around the state of Colorado, you really don't have
anything to show for it. Your road stink, your road
signs are in disrepair, there's trash everywhere, there's homelessness. We
have an overwhelming illegal immigration problem in this state and
virtually every community of size. At what point does this
(07:51):
state tip and say, all right, we see this. This
experiment hasn't worked. I would hope this special session would
bring would bring them to light. I don't know that
it has. I guess we'll find out in the next
few weeks, months, years, whatever. But I do know this.
The governor's popularity is decreasing with each day that this
(08:14):
state goes into more and more of a decline. And
that couldn't be more highlighted by his by his social
media accounts, where every time he posts something, he just
gets ratioed into into an abyss the guy he just
goes away. Ryan. I don't know if you have it
available where you could potentially read that posting online. I
(08:36):
would be glad to do that. Yeah, Well, you were
talking about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. You know, gag,
but it does give us the segue. Let's read that
post if you would, about Governor Poulis's love for this
new relationship.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, here it is and it's it's both a post
on X through his account at Gov of Colorado, of
COO and looks like maybe this is on Instagram too.
Congrats Taylor and Travis. I always knew you two were endgame.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
It's Taylor Swift song.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Your love story is so high school and Colorado Swifties
are down bad with excitement over your engagement. Skip Florida
and exchange your paper rings in the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Jared Polis, Colorado governor, certified Swifty wedding officiant. So he's
(09:33):
offering to officiate the wedding.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What better thing could you imagine?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You know?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Very simple, very simple, very simple, Mattam speaker, It could.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Only make that wedding more disgusting to me, So yeah,
go for it.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Who is more politically anathema to us in this audience,
Taylor Swift or Jared Polis?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
The same? Oh the same?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Can we save Travis maybe from this? Well he can run.
He can leave at this This is the point, man,
save yourself, run for the hills, go find somebody else.
This is never gonna end well in my opinion. Oh,
I'm just giving the guy good advice this this woman's
maybe I don't see it being I'm going with Kelly
(10:22):
on the over under. This thing ain't gonna last. But
you know you got two terrible personalities. How can that
maybe two negatives make a positive.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I don't know. Regardless, let's end this, this disgusting conversation
and our disgusting governor's attempt to try to suck up
to these two individuals and go to break. When we
come back, we'll have Barb Kirkmeyer with us on the line,
and she can get down to get into the down
and nitty gritty, the dirty that happened down at the
(10:52):
state Legislature in this special session and really tell us
what happened and how are we going to feel it?
Here listening to the Dan Capla Show here on six
thirty KHW with Well Kenny Shriff Steve Raams as your guest.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Host, and now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Welcome back to the Dan capless Show here with well,
Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams filling in as your guest host
today and we've been talking. Our topic today has been
the special session and what did or didn't happen And
we will have Barb Kirkmeyer up, Senator Barb Kirkmeyer from
Senate District twenty three here in just a few minutes.
But before we get to her, we'll get into just
a couple more texts that came in through the break
(11:28):
and again, you guys are killing it. You can you
can text in at five seven, seven three nine, start
your text off with Dan or you can call in
at three oh three seven one, three eight two five five,
although after Barb gets on the phone, it'll be just
a little bit before we can get to the before
we can get to the phone lines. But this one
was just good. If if Jared married the two Taylor
(11:49):
and Travis, would he tell them to wear a damn mask?
And that's Patty, Patty being Patty. Yeah, I just thought
it was good. So before we bring Barb on it,
I want to give a little bit of background because
Barb and I work together myself as the sheriff or
as the captain out of the patrol Division for the
(12:09):
Weld County Sheriff's Office. Barber as a county commissioner, and
I can tell you that she was a major pivotal
point in taking Weld County through the Great Recession in
two thousand and eight two thousand and nine, when everyone
across the nation was struggling with how are we going
to make our budgets meet? You know, it was a
rough time. Barbara's a county commissioner, she definitely led Weld
(12:29):
County through that process where the taxpayers in Weld County
really didn't see a drop in service, they didn't see
an increase in taxes, and we continue to get the
job done. And I think Barb's time as a Weld
County Commissioner has pivoted well into her being a State
Senator and ending up on the Joint Budget Committee. But
I want to set that up a little bit because
Barb's background is well suited as to what she's doing
(12:52):
right now down at the State Legislature. Commissioner Kirkmeyer, Senator Kirkmeyer,
thanks for being on the show with us, and how
has this special session gone in your opinion? Well, first of.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
All, thanks for having me, Steve, I greatly appreciate. It's
always always fun to be able to talk to you.
And we had some really great conversations. I called them
robust conversation, Yes, ma'am, were good.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well, you know you did something. I think you drove
this at a time back in Weld County. And let's
let's just get into it a little bit because most
of the listeners don't know this. During the two thousand
and eight, two thousand and nine, even twenty ten timeframes,
you know, it was it was tough sledding. There was
not a lot of money coming in revenue coming into
the county in welld County. You know, we didn't want
(13:36):
to see a drop in services. And you kind of implemented,
or you led the process of implementing a line by
line review of the budgets as a Well County commissioner
and said, no, we're going to check spending. We're going
to figure out can we do better? And those were
tough discussions. And I can tell you, as a captain
in the Sheriff's office, you weren't necessarily the most popular
person with a lot of a lot of folks, but
(13:59):
you were doing that on behalf half of the citizens
and I got to tell you, I think it worked
out in the end. Your opinion on that.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah, it did. I mean, going all the way back
to even when I was a county commissioner in the
late nineties, I mean that's when we started the whole
drive to lead our county to zero debt. And then
after that the commissioners that followed up to me were
able to even start reducing the mill levee. And even
in two thousand and eight, we didn't go back. We
didn't increase the mill levey. We made we funded those
(14:27):
things that you have to do that government should be doing,
core functions of government. Things you know, government does because
people can't do them for themselves. They like build roads,
like do the jail, you know, and take care of
the jail and all that. But we got down to
what's the most important stuff we're supposed to be doing,
and we funded it, and we made cut to other
places and everybody. You know, we had a great team.
(14:48):
It wasn't like it was just me. Had a great
team on the board, in our department heads and our
other elected officials just really working together understanding like, look,
we're not gonna be able to give salary increases, but
we are going to pay for more on your health
insurance and things of that nature. And I can remember
coming out and talking with Sheriff's department folks, and you're right,
(15:10):
they weren't happy, but they started talking about with if
you just made these changes to our insurance plan, this
would really help us out. And we made those changes
midyear kind of thing. So there are things I think
it's a little bit more flexible at the county level,
especially being on the border county commissioners, you know, because
county commissioners wear all three hats executive, legislative, and quasi judicial.
(15:30):
It's not the same at the state. There's the legislative branch,
and there's the executive branch and a judicial branch right,
and we have other elected officials down there as well,
and it's just not the exact same because as legislators
we only have power. Even as the Joint Budget Committee,
we only have power literally to do things and get
stuff done while we are in session. When we're out
(15:53):
of session, we don't have power. When even during a
special session, the JBC didn't carry any bills, by I
mean because we couldn't not unless they gave us special
permission to do so, and you know, leadership Democrat leadership
one party control said oh no, why would we all
like kirk Meyer have control.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, that would be about that would not have been
very popular amongst their own caucus. No, no, not at all.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
But so, you know, it's really up to the executive branch,
I mean, in the in the legislative branch, I mean
the sixth member Budget Committee. We write the budget for
the state of Colorado, and but we're setting policy. I mean,
you know what a budget is. It's a policy document.
It sets our goals and our vision for how we're
going to spend the tax revenues that come in throughout
(16:41):
the next year and the next year's afria. I mean, really,
we are governing for years out, not the year that
we're in kind of thing. So, and you know, the
Governor's obviously like to tell him, like at the Drug
Budget Committee, we have to budget towards current law. Doesn't
mean the governor has to spend the current law. And
he has authority to come in and make spending cuts.
(17:01):
He doesn't have authority to change law, but he can
make spending cuts and he can tell people stop doing
things at those programs. So the special session. To me,
I just have to tell you, I'm tired. I am tired.
I just I'm tired, and I'm frustrated. I'm tired of
Democrats saying they're going to do things to save people
money and to help out small businesses and then do
(17:21):
the exact opposite. I mean, literally, Steve, you.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Know, sheriff.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
They were just upset because the federal government gave us
tax cuts that rolled into more tax cuts at the state.
That means less tax collections right that come into the state.
And their answer is, gosh darn it, we need to
raise taxes. Their answer, that's just unbelievable to me.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, and we only have about thirty seconds before we
have to go to a break, So if you will
hold on through this break, and Barber, when we come back,
I really want you to peel that onion back and
tell us exactly what happened in this special session because
it sounds like to me, we got the rule pulled over.
Ice stick with us. We'll be right back in just
a few minutes. We have commissions or we have Senator
(18:08):
Barb Kirkmeer on the line with us, and she's really
going to break this down right when we come back.
You're listen to the Dan Capless Show here on six
point thirty k how with Well Keunty Sheriff Steve Riams.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Welcome back to the Dan Caples Show here with Well
County Sheriff Steve Rireams filling in as your guest host.
And we went to break. We had we have Senator
Kirk Meyer on with us kind of breaking down the
details of this special session. Barb, thanks for sticking with
us through the break. And before we go back, I
just want to read a couple of texts that came in.
One's an idea. There's a bunch of ideas, but this
one I really like. It says we should triple the
(18:49):
vehicle registration costs on suber Rus because that's probably going
to target most of the Dems, likely an equal a
ten billion dollar surplus. And then this one, I'm sure
you're going to like it, says Sheriff Barb's awesome. Thanks
for having her on. Oh that's nice. Yeah, you know,
you get quite a bit of fan mail whenever we
have you on, so give us the lowdown. I mean,
(19:09):
what did we accomplish here. We had Representative Baronna and
Representative Dusty Johnson on and they basically said, hey, all
they did was kick the can down the road and
took away a few tax breaks that some small business
owners might be able to utilize. But what what is
the resident of Colorado? What is the taxpayer of Colorado
going to benefit from in this special session? If anything?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Oh my gosh, nothing. I mean, you know, I said
when we started the special session and I said, you know,
we're going to walk away from this session with Democrats
will have increased taxes, which they did. So they increased
taxes on individuals and small businesses. I mean, they just
don't understand how taxes work. I guess you know, you
on a small business and your tax more on it
that in fact impacts your taxes that you pay in
(19:57):
as an individual. So they ended up increasing taxes like
like I said they would, by somewhere around two hundred
and fifty maybe three hundred million kind of thing. They
did tax credits, which all that it does is make
our budget worse. That's where it just kicks the can
down the road. We literally are selling two hundred and
fifty million dollars of tax credits. That's what they're valued
(20:20):
at at face value. But we're selling them for two
hundred million. That's a fifty dollars short fifty million dollars
shortfall that we're going to have in a future year
like twenty six twenty seven, when we already know we're
seven hundred million. That's seven hundred million dollars in the
hole in the red as we begin the twenty six
twenty seven budget year. So it's just crazy. And I'm
(20:43):
looking at it and thinking what are we doing here?
And and some of the tax credits are selling go
to the general fund. Another one hundred million goes somewhere else.
If we don't sell them all, we're going to back
up the expenditures with taking money out of our reserves,
I mean reserves. That's like saying, gosh, we need to
pay our credit card off because we keep over spending it.
So we're going to go take money out of savings.
(21:05):
I mean, you know how much that lasts? I mean
how long that lasts. That's just bad financial management. So
again we raise taxes, you know, on individuals, small businesses,
and we gave tax credits to large corporations and insurance companies,
you know on these tax credit premiums that you know
we're asking them. You know, hey, you can come in
(21:27):
and get a tax credit and uh, you know, seventy
five cents on the dollar, and it's I don't know.
I'm just like, here, we are one time money for
what should be one time spending, and they think it's
going to start helping us with our ongoing general fund problems.
The worst thing that we did, one of the worst
things that happened down there, is the impact on small businesses, retaillers,
(21:49):
people who collect sales tax.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
So thank you.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
You know that coffee shop on Main Street and Yuma,
or the mechanics store in Fort Lupton, or maybe a
clothing store over and Grand Junction, right, they collect sales tax.
And what we do in this state is we pay
a fee to the vendor, to the retailer to collect
our sales tax.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Well, what I.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Found out in committee is and I knew this kind
of anyways because I used to own a flower shop
and collect sales tax, is they don't pay it. The
fee doesn't cover the cost of the collection. We turned
our retailers into debt collectors or tax collectors. Basically, and
so we were paying a fee you file most most
retailers file about one a month, and it's one thousand dollars.
(22:35):
We'd cacked it at a thousand bucks. We're going to
pay you one thousand dollars from the state to collect
our sales tax and remit that back to us. And
if you screw up, we're going to give you a
penalty and make you give us more money than what
you collect it. I mean, it's crazy, right, So they
told us it costs them. There's much of small business.
People came in and said, it's like four times. It
costs us four times the amount. So we're getting one
(22:57):
thousand dollars for something that's costing us four thousand. Right,
they took that away. They ran a bill and took
that away. We literally impact businesses that are trying to survive,
trying to survive in this state, you know, challenged by
all the regulations because they were the six months regulated
state in the nation, and we literally took twelve thousand
(23:17):
dollars out of their pocket. And here's the kicker, we
take it out. It'll help us in this discal year,
and next year we'll refund that back to someone else.
That's how stupid it is. It is absolutely stupid. And
here's the worst part to me. Actually, I know I've
said that's like three times now, but there's so many
bad parts. But the worst part is this, we totally
(23:40):
are not being held accountable for the Otah office we
take to uphold the constitution. There is a requirement in
the constitution. Everybody knows about TABOR that we're supposed to
go to a vote when we increase taxes. You know,
I tried on several bills to do a referred make
them into referred measure, and say, let's go ask the taxpayers.
You think what you're doing is what they want, and
this is such a good idea, Go ask the taxpayers,
(24:03):
you know, and they said no. Well, so they disregard
the voters. They disrespect the voters, they disregard the constitutions.
It's obnoxious to me. It's just obnoxious to me. So
I hope voters start looking at this and start saying, hey,
we're going to start holding you accountable, because that's what
needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I have to ask. Because our Texters have been
blowing up about the wolf program and about these wildlife bridges.
Was there any Was there any discussion that was actually
moved forward in any way about, hey, let's get rid
of this Wolf program, let's let's quit throwing money at
this or for that matter, was there any program that
the dem said, you know what, we'll ratchet this one back.
(24:43):
Was there any appetite for that.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
There was nothing in the call that would allow us
to carry any legislation to cut spending. This was not
a budget session. This was a tax session. Let's increase taxes.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
That's it. We had no ability to cut the budget none.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
That's how bad it is. That's the fake news out
there coming out of the Democrats one party control. With
regard to the Wolves, there was a bill they tied
it into somehow tied it into the call. It had
a Democrat sponsors on it, so nobody was going to challenge.
I mean, it doesn't matter if a Republicans challenge or not.
That it didn't fit under the call, it didn't matter,
(25:24):
so it got to go through. It was originally started
off and it was Senator Catlin who is Republican, and
Senator Roberts on our side. I don't know who was
on the House side. Senator Roberts is a Democrat. He
was one of the prime sponsors along with Senator Catlan,
And it was supposed to be to put a pause
on any introductions of wolves and any money, you know,
(25:45):
we were using general fund money to do that, and
any have Genier Fund savings would go through go to
the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, not to the general fund,
not back to the general Fund, but over to this
other enterprise. The governor said he was going to veto
the bills, so they changed it to say that we
couldn't use general fund money to introduce wolves, which just
(26:06):
means the governor will use some of his custodial funds
and they're still going to introduce role wolves. So I mean,
maybe you might have put a small pop on it. Maybe,
but I'm not counting on it, and I don't think
anyone else should either.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
All Right, we'll end with this. If you had to
give this special Session a grade, you know, A being, hey,
we got something done, F being we completely failed the taxpayer.
And I say we, I think we know what we're
talking about. The Democrats here, We as a legislative body
completely failed the taxpayers of Colorado. What do you give
this session?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Well, considering that we increased taxes on everybody. We did
nothing to cut the or to cut the general fund
and fix our spending problem that we have, and we
didn't balance rebalance the state's budget. We disregarded Tabor. I'm
on an F minus minus and we'll lay that right at.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
The feet of the Democrats that are done in the
legislature as well as Governor Polis. I think that's where
it deserves to be, to be late. Absolutely, Senator kirk Meyer,
thank you for what you do. You know, I know
that you've got some more, some more things in your future,
and we'll hope to hear from that in the near
the near days. But thanks for the work that you
(27:17):
did down there at the special session, and you're always
welcome on the show. Again. Thanks for sticking on with
us for a little extra time and go get some rest.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
We appreciate it absolutely. Thank you so much and always
great to talk with you.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
Steve.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
You bet. That's Senator kirk Meyer from senat District twenty three,
wrapping up a six day special session where you know, unfortunately,
I don't think a lot got done other than exposing
that the Democrats really don't care about what we think
they're just going to keep spending money. We'll go to
break and we come back. We'll again finish up, clean
up this text wall. Some of these things I can't read,
(27:49):
but I'll read the ones that I can. You're listening
to the Dan Capitalist Show here on six point thirty
k how with well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raims as your
guest host, and.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Now to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Welcome back to the Dankaplas Show here with Welcomey Sheriff
Steve Reims filling in as your guest host for this
last and final segment. But I'll be back with you tomorrow.
And I have to think if Colorado had a million dollars,
Jared Poulis had just said it on fire. That's what
he does. Let's get to this caller that we have
on the line. We have Jennifer and Denver. She wants
to comment about the wolf situation. Jennifer, how you doing?
Speaker 7 (28:26):
Hey, Cher, great show today.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Hey, by the way, I love listening to you a
lot better than that guy yesterday.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
But on to the wolves.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I'll make sure here's Senator.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
Kirk Meyer said, go ahead, here's my cackle. Sorry, what
Senator Kirkmeyer said, is exactly right that Wolf bill would
have put a pause on the program and allowed all
the stakeholders, whether you're a rancher, a wildlife biologist, whoever
you are, to get on the same page about having
(28:57):
a successful movement forward.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
But no, Polis said he would veto the bill because
he didn't want to stop the will of the people.
And yet Tabor is constitutional by the will of the people,
and seventy percent of Colorado and support Tabor. But he
has no problem going after that, now, does he?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You know, you've hit the nail on the head. I mean,
this is picking your winners and losers, you know. I
think we all understand that the Wolf program is a
pet project, if you will, of Governor Polis's husband, and
so he's definitely not going to do anything to stand
in the way of that. And Tabor is not something
that Governor Polis is very supportive of. So yeah, why
(29:39):
not let's just keep wasting taxpayer dollars, keep jacking up
tax rates against the will of the people, and fund
a program that no one other than his husband is
supportive of.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
That right, is one party rule, all over it, all
over it. This is what you get with one party rule,
and the state needs to wake up and start voting
people into office who are going to make decisions based
on what's good for the people, not the wolves anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You know, if those wolves are so good there, there's
only go ahead, Jennifer.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
No, you I was gonna say, there's only one person
worse than Jared poul Is in my book right now,
and I bet you know who he is, but we'll
leave that to another day.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Thanks for calling in, Jennifer. I'm gonna I'm going to
take a wild guess that I do know who that
one person is because I do know Jennifer off air,
but we'll leave it there. I won't air Jennifer's laundry.
That's up to her to do. But you know, as
we're going through all these texts again, Jennifer, thanks for
calling in. As we're going through all these texts, the
wolf bill could not be more hated in the state
(30:43):
of Colorado with Republican voters if it tried. But I
think there is something that might be just as hated
in this state, and that's the pending marriage of Travis
Kelsey and Taylor Swift. Is so mean of you, Sheriff.
You know, so it's too personalities. I just can't.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Like, let me ask you this. You don't do any
patrol work anymore, do you. You're not out on the road, not.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Unless somebody is galactically stupid. But and that does happen
from time to time. But yeah, for the most part,
I'm pretty well relegated to just dealing with the office stuff. Okay,
let's just say, for sake of argument and just hypothetical,
purely hypothetical. Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift are in a
nice sports car and they're heading northbound and Will County
(31:30):
on that wide, open stretch of highway, you know, the
one I'm taking forty nine. That's the one.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Man.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's just like an open season kind of Autubon type thing.
And he's doing like thirty miles an hour over the
speed limit, and you, Sheriff Reames of willd County pull
him over.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
What happens, Oh, he's getting a ticket. He's getting a
big ticket, because thirty miles an hour over the speed
limit is not just that. He's getting a court date.
Oh okay, And so now we're gonna, you know, we're
gonna make it. I'm just you know, so here's the thing.
If anybody's driving like that, it's one of those where
I'm going to have to step in. But you know,
you know how this is going to play out. Body
(32:04):
camera's going to turn on and you're going to get
two people looking in the window, and they're going to go,
do you know who I am? You know it's going
to happen. I mean, I mean, that's what's going to
happen with those two. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Oh, the DA and Rhode Island. I know where you're going.
I'm an ET. How would you handle that one? I
think the police there handled it absolutely correct. I don't
give a blank. What they should have said is you're
also a moron and you're also going to be a criminal.
I mean I thought they handled that situation well. And
the listeners haven't seen it. Google Google, you know Rhode
(32:41):
Island a assistant assistant whatever, maybe maybe former.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
So my thing would have been in your shoes like, yeah,
you're an ag, therefore the bars higher not lower?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Right, I should know better? And her friend like the
frame goes even farther.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
No, she's a lawyer, like, oh my god, I want
to backhand.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
You right well, and then kicking the door, preventing the
door from being close. She's lucky she didn't know with
a broken ankle. But you know, regardless, that's just I
don't know what their political affiliation is. I can guess, yeah, yeah,
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Democrat.
But that's an embarrassment to public service at that point.
I mean, I felt bad for the cops because they're
(33:21):
dealing with a situation where they just want to go home.
They just want to deal with, you know, an average
day of work, and that kind of crap happens. But
you gotta you gotta admit, if Travis Kelcey and Taylor
Swift are speeding through Weld County or any part of Colorado,
there's a good chance that's probably the same behavior you're
going to see. I just I have to believe that's
(33:41):
the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
But wouldn't your bodycam footage It would end up like
TMZ wouldn't It would happen to somebody would.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Well, So you know, it's one of those things. They
could file a corps request, get the bodycam footage and
make trillions of dollars off of Wow, it could fix
the state budget. We just we just we just solved
a problem. I'm to Colorado, Travis. We have so much
room for activities now. I feel like we're gonna have
(34:09):
to build a bunk bed or something. You know what,
We could have fixed cracker barrel too, We just didn't
though we didn't happen. Yeah, it had breaking news all right,
so we got a little silly here at the end
of the show. Thanks for hanging in with us. It's
always a pleasure to fill in for Dan. Fastest two
hours I ever have in a day. It's a blast.
I'll see you again tomorrow. You're listening to Dan kapla
(34:29):
show here on six point thirty k how with Well
Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams to see you tomorrow
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