August 27, 2025 • 34 mins
Senator Byron Pelton (R-1) joins Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, in for Dan, to discuss Colorado's crisis of rough roads for drivers and a General Assembly special session that went nowhere.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis 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 Caplis Show. Here as well,
Canny Shaff Steve Raims. We are in our two of
two on day two of two, and it's always a
pleasure to fill in for Dan. I think he's out
taking a few days off for doing some trial prep.
Who knows, either way, he's not in the studio and
you got me today. I think tomorrow you have George Brockler,
which is always an entertaining listen because he's a little
bit crazy, but that's why we get along so well,
(00:36):
so I'm sure I'll be tuning in to listen to
him as well. And today our topic's kind of been
the unfortunate incident that's happened out in Minneapolis where two
kids were killed by an attacker who shot at a
Catholic school, shot through the windows the side windows of
a church. Basically that is a fixed to a school there.
(00:58):
Let me make sure I get this right the Enunciation
School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two kids were killed, ages eight
and ten, another fourteen injured, and I believe three adults
injured as well. The shooter ended up taking their own life,
and so we're never going to know for sure what
that motivation was, other than the information they left behind,
which seems to be a little more prevalent than one
(01:21):
I think we would ever have expected. Having said that,
we have Eric on the line from Castle Rock. He
wants to make a comment about the shooting or school
shooting is in general, Eric, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, As far as that goes, I think it's pretty simple,
which is I am one hundred percent for arming every
single member staff member in a school across this country. Sure,
and I'm also willing as a taxpayer to pay for
the weapon, the ammunition, and the training they should. You
don't hear of shooting that police station. That doesn't happen. Yeah, no, killing,
(01:54):
you're shooting at gun shops, It doesn't happen. People are armed, armed,
these two armed, these staffs. And to rest, you know, to.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That point, Eric, there are quite a few schools in
Weld County that have done exactly that. You know, we've
we've had Laura Carno on the show before. She runs
the Faster organization and she helps train teachers who choose
to be armed or staff members who choose to be armed.
It's not always a teacher. Sometimes it's a janitor, sometimes
it's a you know, it's a facilitator in the school
of some kind. Having said that, I think if you
(02:25):
have people in a school that are motivated to protect
their children, it's wise to allow those those those those
staff members to be able to do that. In addition,
in all of our rural schools in Weald County, the
boarder County commissioners and myself we kind of came to
an agreement that we would put a deputy, a school
resource deputy in every one of those schools. So there's
(02:45):
not that many schools an unincorporated Weld County, but we
have at least one school resource officer in every one
of those schools alongside a lot of those armed staff members.
And I'm not daring someone to come to the school,
but I have to tell you, I think that's a
much per target than a place that doesn't have arm
staff exactly. Your point is spot on, and you know,
(03:07):
I think the sentiment from the public is much like yours.
You know, if you want to spend my tax dollars,
spend it to protect my kids.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And lastly, as a follow to that, you know, I
think this term mental illness has become quite a loose term.
My mental illness when I went to a Catholic school
that had nuns was cured very quickly when I was
slapped on the wrist with a ruler and my parents
were involved with the disciplinary measures and it worked. We
didn't have mental illness back then. And this is all
(03:37):
part of the culture issues we're having now, where everything's okay.
You can turn yourself into a dog if you want
and run around the school with the tail, and you
wonder why we have this mental illness? Is now a
culture that's being bred into these children. I don't believe
this is all biological and it needs to stop. We
need to go back our old values and what worked
years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, I think it having Robert Kennedy's and you're involved
in the MAHA movement and kind of trying to boil
down to you know a few things on a federal
level and saying are we on point with some of
these diagnoses that we're seeing, and and you know, these
aspects across the country, whether it be you know, mental
health issues or just regular health issues. You know, getting
(04:17):
someone who's trying to look at things critically is probably
important for us. But you know, these are big issues
to tackle, and sometimes the best way to tackle one
of these big issues is the simplest one, and that's
having your parents and your school teachers snap a not
in your butt.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I couldn't agree with you more and again, I think
the answers are there. They're there, it's just people are
too afraid to do it. And lastly, without of course
saying my name, but you know what do I do
when I go to see my school and see my
child there and my children Thank god I'm in the
conservative county. But I exercised my constitutional right to carry
my weapon. That is the most important place for me
(04:55):
to carry it. And god forbid, if something happens, well,
you know what, find me, take my gone away from me.
But at least I will be in a position to
stop a shooting when I'm there. And again, that is
the last place someone should be afraid to carry their weapon.
It should be the number one place you carry it,
mister protect our children. With that, I leave you and
thank you so very much for everything you do too.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Thanks Eric, thanks for calling in. And you know a
lot of people use the philosophy of I'd rather be
judged by twelve than carried by six, and I think
that's what Eric's saying about carrying a gun everywhere he goes.
Some of the other texts here and again call in,
text in. You can text in at five seven seventy
three nine starts your text with Dan, or you can
call in just like Eric did three h three seven
one three eight two five five. I love having the
(05:38):
conversation and this is a topic that I think everyone
has an opinion on. We may not may not always
agree on those issues, but everyone's got a place that
they stand on this particular issue. Some of the texts here,
the most recent one. I'm not currently volunteering for this,
but as a retired guy who happens to have a
concealed weapon permit. But I even have a chance of
(05:59):
being a to be in a school, not my first
choice of how to spend my time, but a shift
now and then might help. And I think that goes
to the point where we were talking about with Eric
that hey, there are people that would volunteer for this duty.
And some school districts do allow parents to come in
and they'll they'll create basically what we used to call
when I was on a school board a dollar contract,
so you know, that school district will enter into a
(06:22):
a you know, a minimal contract with someone so that
they can come in and provide security to the school.
And of course they're going to want to vet you
and say, all right, can you handle a weapon? Can
you meet the safety requirements of this school? But there
are plenty of schools around the country that are doing that,
some right here in Colorado. And that's totally a policy
decision of a school board. That's nothing that's required by
(06:44):
state law. School boards can make that decision until you know,
the power is taken away from him in the state,
which wouldn't surprise me in any legislative session, But as
of right now, school districts can do that. You know.
It's It's one of those things where I truly believe
if you open it up to the right people that
(07:05):
that issue gets covered. And I'm one of those people
that would gladly go spend a little bit of time
in a school, especially in my kids school, and try
to make it safer. A couple other questions here, I
mentioned that I was from Emerald of Texas, and so
somebody says, hey, did you ever try the challenge at
the Big Texan. The range of our Texters is great.
We get people from all walks alive, from all over
(07:26):
from people that come from all over the country. And
the steak challenge at the Big Texan, for those of
you that have never heard of it, it's to eat
a seventy two ounce steak of fully loaded baked potato,
a shrimp cocktail, a picture of your favorite beverage bread salad,
and if you can do that all in under an hour,
you get the meal for free. And the answer to
(07:49):
that is no, I have never attempted it. I'm an eater,
but I mean that's a lot of food. I've seen
it attempted. I've seen it successfully done I think twice,
and it was never by the person that you would
think that would get it. And this is so off topic,
it's funny to me, but no, I'm not taking the
Big text and Challenge anytime soon. In fact, the last
(08:11):
time I went to visit my dad down in Texas.
We went out there and ate, and none of us
tried it. I think that meal would have fed my
entire family. Another textter here says, get fathers back in
the home and encourage intact families via the original design.
Maybe that helps stop some of these crazy school shootings
and people who are just have a propensity for violence.
(08:32):
And then this last one here Sheriff fly on God's
green Earth? Is it so hard for people, especially Democrats,
to see that these things happen in the most liberal
places where guns are not likely to be I just
don't understand how the answer is not more guns. And
you know that's to the point we're talking about arm
the staff and let them protect themselves. We're going to
get back onto the topic of the special session when
(08:54):
we come back from break. We're going to have State
Senator Byron Pelton on with us, and he's going to
talk special session. But he's also school going to talk
about the condition of our roads in the state of Colorado,
because he's been beating that drum, and we know that
there was no there's no funding to the roads in
the state of Colorado already, So these two things are
bound to be interesting coming from a state senator that's
(09:15):
been down there, fight in the fight, day after day.
So we'll cut the break. When we come back. We
have Senator Byron Pelton on with us. You're listening to
Dan Capless Show here on six point thirty k HOW
with Well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams as your guest host.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
And now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Welcome back to the Dan Capleas Show here with well
Kenny Shriff Steve Raams as your guest host. And with
this we're going to switch right back to another topic
we were talking about earlier, so we can kind of
get back on that special session topic. But we've got
Senator Byron Pelton on the line from Senate District one,
and Byron's kind of been doing something a little bit different.
(09:51):
He's been beating the drum about the condition of the
roadways in Colorado prior to the special session. So we're
going to talk about that first and then we'll talk
about the shenanigans that went down down at the state Capitol.
But Senator Pelton, thanks for being on with us, and
how are you doing this evening.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for having me Steve, it is
an honor to be here with you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, you're obviously not driving, because we can hear you
without a bunch of rattling from your truck and all
that kind of stuff. Out on those county roads are
state roads out in out in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, that is true. They're they're these these highways are terrible.
I took a couple of reporters out here and when
they we we took. I took them the four different counties,
because I have seven counties that I represent, and I
took them to four different counties. I took them to
here in Logan, I took them into Washington, and I
(10:42):
took them into Yuma, and I took them into more
Wild County, and I just drove them all over the
place and said, look at these conditions of roads. I mean,
we we hit one section of roads along between here,
Sterling and Akron, and they were they were just completely
just in awe about that. We are traveling on a
(11:03):
road that is almost turned back to gravel. That's how
close it was with the condition.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well, if you would, maybe the listeners don't know you,
you do represent Senate district one one of the largest
coverage areas in the state of Colorado. But what all
what all counties are in Senate District one? What do
you encompass?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I encompass Logan County, Morgan County, Phillips, Sedgwick County, Logan
or I'm sorry, Uma, Washington and the majority of Weld.
Senator Kirkmeyer and I always argue about which which part
of Well County that we represent makes the most money.
I think it's mine, but it's always hers because I
have all the egg and the and oil and gas,
(11:41):
but she does have that as well. But I represent
a large chunk of Well County over there in your
neck of the woods. In fact, I think Steve you,
I think you're a constituent.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, you are my senator, and which is great because
we have a great relationship. I can call you and say, hey,
this bill that's going through the state Capitol not sobueno
for law enforcement, and you'll call me about issues and say,
you know, what do you take on this one? And
it's been a great relationship having you down there. I
really like what you're doing of trying to bring some
attention to the condition of the roadways in Colorado. And
(12:15):
I've said for a long time. If someone's campaigning statewide
here or even for a Senate, a Senate or House seat,
if you don't include the road conditions as part of
why you're running for a seat in Colorado, you're missing
a grand opportunity. And I don't think you can highlight
that more than probably one of the roadways. I'm assuming
you took these reporters down and that's I seventy six.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That thing's tray, that is trash, and I seventy six
is I mean when they drove it down, they're like,
we understand the how bad a condition, especially when you
go from Wiggins to Kingsburg that is a or not
King Yeah, Wiggins the Kingsburg, that section is really bad
right there around Rogen. In fact, both my wife and
(13:00):
and I have changed several flat tires in that section
of road coming home from volleyball games or just other
things that we go to, and that that section road
is terrible. But also Highway sixty three between Sterling and Akron,
Highway sixty one between Yuma and or Otis and Sterling.
(13:22):
I took them down Highway six between Sterling and Atwood,
and I took them down between Rogin and Kinger and
Cursey or not Rogen, but yeah, Wiggins and Curzy. And
then we g went back on Highway forty nine and
I said, this is the best or not highway sorry,
County Road forty nine the best roadway in my Senate
(13:46):
district because it's a county road. The counties know what
they're doing. It's because set doesn't have the jurisdiction and
they're not stealing our money from rural roads and putting
it to the Chu Chu train like Overner Poulis wants
it to go.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
To Well County roads. A four lane county maintained highway
through Weld County to try to divert truck traffic. And
that was done with you know, oil and gas taxes
that the county was benefiting from. And they said, well,
we're getting this money off the oil and gas industry,
let's figure out a way to route the trucks up, up,
and down this roadway and decongest some of the other
(14:22):
roads that the state refuses to address. And it's a
it's been a game changer for Weld County and for
commuters going north and south through Weld County. And again,
you're right, it works because it's not done by the state.
What got you so fired up about? Hey, how do
we bring attention to this? And having said all that,
is there any room to see improvement in the roadways
(14:43):
in the state of Colorado? And I know this special
session definitely didn't address that. But do you see any
desire from the legislature or the governor to actually get
on this point and start fixing some things. These roads
are falling apart?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Oh, they are. And I would say that I have
some of my colleagues across the aisle who who are
very interested on fixing roads because they tell me it's
in their district, it's their number one issue that they're
hearing from. And these are mostly rural legislators, they're just
Democrats on the western slope. But for the most part,
(15:17):
they they tell me all the time it's the number
one issue that they're hearing about in their districts, and
and they want to fix it. But every time we
do something or come up with a bill like I'll
give you a great example, Sea Dot was trying to
force broadband companies to pay extra money to use the
(15:40):
right away in uh in Sea Dot's right away and
I said, Hey, how about we just fix our roads
first and not worry about the right ways here and
let the let the broadband folks use it like they
use the right ways and counties. Let's let's get that done.
And they were like, no, absolutely not. And then then
finally I was like, well, if you're going to charge
extra money, that money needs to go to the roads,
(16:01):
and they're like, no, we're going to have it sent
to transit. So here we are again going to transit
and focusing on climate change. Then we are fixing our roads.
And that's where my colleagues across the aisle are coming
around to it is like, if we I mean, if
they want to have their roadsick, they're going to have
to come to terms with climate change and where the
(16:24):
priorities have to be.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, I have to assume, I know out in your
district there's not a train coming out there. There's no
there's no mass transit going to Sterling or or to
Fort Morgan or anywhere in Weld County. There's certainly not
any going over to the western slope. There's no no
bus share services that I'm aware of that are that
are available to the state senators or the reps. UH
(16:45):
in the rural areas of Colorado. So it's got to
be frustrating to see the money is just getting you know,
prioritize the wrong way each and every session. So very
very grateful for you bringing this to the attention of
at least your call and hopefully maybe a new a
new administration focuses a little differently. I want to switch gears.
(17:07):
I want to switch gears. But we're going to We're
going to take a quick break because on the other side,
we're going to get into that special session that you
just got out of, and we're going to talk a
little bit about, you know, the difference between the Senate
and the House. We've heard from some of the House
members about how ugly things got, but it's my assumption
that some things were pretty pretty salty on the Senate
side of this this equation as well. And so we
(17:30):
want to hear from you. We want to hear exactly
what your take was going into this session, and you know,
did you get out, did you get out of it
what you thought you were going to If you would, Byron,
just stick with us. When we get back from this break,
we'll get right into that and we'll finish up with
some of that road conversation as well. For those of
you that are listening, stick with us. We'll be coming
(17:51):
back with Senator Byron Pelton from Senate District one right
after this break on the Dan Caplis Show with Low
Unny Sheriff Steve Reims as your guest host.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Welcome back to the Dan capless Show here with Glow,
Kenny shar Steve Reams and you know Ryan's always good
at fining finding theme music when we come back to
come back from a break the road to nowhere. That's
perfect if you were listening when we went to break,
we have Senator Byron Pelton with us on the line.
He was talking about the conditions of the roads in Colorado,
or we'll say the horrible conditions of the roads. But
we're gonna switch gears and get into this special session
(18:39):
that just ended down at the Colorado State Capitol. We've
been talking with some of the House reps, but Senator Pelton,
I have to believe that the take from the Senate
side was maybe just a little bit different. What was
your experience during this special session? It's been referred to
as a lot of things. I'm going to call it
the six days of Hell. What's your take?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I think its a colossal waste of time, to be
honest with you, because it was just a constant barrage
of raising taxes without going to the taxpayers. And following Taber,
it was we're going to add more money to Omni
Salute to pay for illegal immigrants to get to get
(19:22):
health care. And then the most kicker was is that
this wouldn't even have taken that long if the governor
wouldn't have added AI to the call, because that's where
the majority of the negotiation was going. It was already
cooked and ready to go. And I have to tell
you myself and several of them senators including Senator Kirkmeyer,
(19:45):
just hammered them on just raising taxes on the backs
of small businesses throughout the state. And it just is
absolutely ridiculous. So that we that that Governor Polis called
this special session. It was an I Hate Trump show
that they put on as what they did well.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So, I mean the concept coming in was you got
to figure out how to reduce the budget by one
point two billion. I've also heard that heard it as
low as eight hundred million. Whatever. Those are big numbers.
But when the call went out, you guys were told
there was no there was no funding cuts that could
be made. You guys weren't looking at trying to figure
out how to reduce the budget, which would infer that
(20:25):
you're trying to figure out how to raise taxes. But
ultimately we talked with Representative ty Winter earlier. Isn't this
something that the governor has the authority to do? Anyways?
I mean, calling this special session? What was he trying
to accomplish? Was he trying to other than just bashing Trump?
Was this a was this a method to try to
blame someone and not take responsibility. I just I don't
(20:47):
understand what the end game was with this special session.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Absolutely, that's what it was all about, is just blaming
Congressional Republicans. And that's that's what they They would get
up and talk about that all the time, about how
the Congressional Republicans blew a one point two billion dollar
hole in our budget. Well, you know what the Congressional
Republicans did. They gave us tax relief. That's exactly what
(21:12):
they did. And what they wanted to do is they
want to punish those businesses and those citizens of Colorado
that got the tax relief, and that is exactly what
they're talking points for that every time, was that we
need to figure out a way to fill this hole,
and we're going to raise these taxes, and we're going
(21:33):
to take away this fee that that small businesses get
for collecting the sales tax on behalf of the state,
and we're going to take away all this stuff and
and just raise the cost of living and the price
to do business here in the state of Colorado for
one year.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And that's it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Because the following year, all this money that they just
raised with all those taxes and everything else and fees
they have also just that they're all going to be
subject to tabor and just refunded to somebody else in
the following year.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So we're just shifting funds. And I think for the
listener out there, it's important to understand that when tax
code changes are made at the federal level, oftentimes those
things get adopted in the state of Colorado without specific
legislation because our tax code mirrors the federal tax code.
So if a tax cunt is done at the federal
level from congressional Republicans or congress in general. Then that
(22:29):
trickles down to the state and it reduces the taxes
that the State of Colorado is going to get in.
Is that the accurate way to describe that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
That is completely correct. It's called rolling conformity. That's why
it's so easy to do our taxes here in the
state of Colorado. And whenever there's a change in tax policy.
Article can Section twenty of the Constitutional of Colorado is
the taxpayer Bill A right says if there's a change
(22:58):
in tax policy to raise revenue, they must go ask
the citizens of Colorado if that is correct, if that's
what they need to do, and and they must take
it to a vote. And all at least three of
the bills that were passed in the in the in
the legislature in this not so special session is what
(23:19):
I've been calling it, is that they needed to ask
the citizens, and they just bypassed them and went around
it to ask for a blank check to with no
accountability to spend in this next legislative session.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, so we know not much was accomplished in this
special session other than maybe bringing to light, how I
guess how irresponsible the Democrat control is down at the
state legislature. Do you guys have anything teed up for
when the next session starts? I asked the same thing
of Representative Winner, But does the Senate have anything teed up?
Do you have any key bills that you say these
(23:54):
are things that are going to resonate with the voters
of Colorado. Maybe roads is something there has the Senate
Republican said, Hey, this is the this is the hill
we're going to try to conquer. Have you gotten to
that point yet? Are you guys still in the planning stages.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
We're still in the planning stage. We're still talking about
some stuff. I will tell you that I am looking
at a bill and I've actually got some great help
from the Well County Assessor on this bill too. But
looking for a bill to help cut some taxes on
property with when it comes to feed lots and dairies
(24:30):
and that sort of thing, because the land evaluations are
just going up so high. It's getting harder and harder
for these guys to compete on the marketplace when it
comes to agriculture. So there's something I'm looking at now now, Sheriff.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I don't know if it's going.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
To get pass because it is a tax cut, and
for some reason, the Democrats or my colleagues across the
aisle really hate the fact that I love cutting taxes
because I mean, I bring a bill every year to
do that. But I mean that's something I'm looking at
doing for my district. And I know that there are
some discussions on finding a way to do some cuts
(25:07):
to where we can actually afford to fix our roads,
especially out here in rural Colorado. One of those cuts
would be busting and that's something that we're talking about
right now.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, get rid of the things that aren't working. We'll
wrap up with that. And what I'll just finish up
by saying the comment that I've heard from many people
is that Colorado doesn't have a revenue issue. It has
a spending issue, and you just highlighted that once again.
Senator Pelton, thanks for coming on with us. Keep fighting
the fight. We're looking forward to when that next session starts,
even though I know you're not, but make sure that
(25:40):
you're down there representing your Senate district and me too.
And again, thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Thank you, Sheriff, thanks for having me as an honor
to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Thank you, sir. That was Senator Byron Pelton, and with
that we'll cut to a break. We'll come back and
finish out this last segment. I'll read off your final
text and if you want to send one in before
we go to break, you can do so at five
seven seven three nine. Start your text out with Dan.
Thanks for listening, and we'll be back in just a
few minutes.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Welcome back to the Dan Kapla Show. In the last
segment of day two here and you know, you guys,
just continue to blow up the text line. You can
still do so through the end of the show. You
can text Dan at five seven seven three nine. Probably
don't have a lot of time for calls, so we'll
stick to the text. But this is kind of the
time where we always clean up from the day's events,
and today's a tough day. I mean, nobody wants to
come on and talk about a school shooting, but it's
(26:32):
kind of the thing that you have to do, and
especially when the victims of this shooting are all you know,
they're young kids. You had an eight year old and
a ten year old kid killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota at
the Annunciation School, which is a Catholic school there and
fourteen other kids injured. I think three adults injured as well,
and I'm sure those numbers will go up, you know
(26:53):
how this always goes. The shooter took their own live life,
and the shooter turns out to be a transgender individual
who obviously not because of their transgenderism necessarily, but because
they just had some mental breaks. Definitely not happy with
where our country was sitting. Uh comments on their on
(27:15):
their weapons such as kill Donald Trump, and this one's
for the kids. I mean, it's just a sick individual,
you know. I don't pray for anybody to take their
own life, but someone's got this, this intent there in
their heart. I wish they would take their life before
they go take the life of others. And just a
really sad situation, you know, it's just it's it's tough.
(27:37):
I don't know what do you say other than time.
Time has a way of healing things. As a person
who went through one of these school shootings, thankfully nobody
in my school was killed, but many were injured, it's tough.
I mean, when school was dismissed, we didn't have I
shouldn't say school was dismissed when all of us kids
just decided, hey, we're not going back into a classroom
where they don't have things figured out yet. We just left.
(28:00):
Back then, you know, there wasn't a lot of and
there wasn't a lot of practice for school shooting events.
This is again nineteen ninety two. I remember driving home
and my mom's like, why are you here. I'm like, well,
we had a school shooting. And it's like, oh my god,
what happened. Then I remember calling my dad a little later,
my parents are divorced and saying, hey, I just want
you to know I'm okay, and he's like, well, that's great,
but from what. But now, in today's world, you know,
(28:23):
there's you have one of these school shootings and within
moments we all know about it, and we all, you know,
we all feel that pain in our hearts for the
for the victims of those incidents and their families and parents.
You know, it's just a tragic thing, and you know,
you kind of just you wish these things didn't happen,
and hopefully at some point our society figures out what
(28:45):
the fix is and we don't have these problems anymore.
Some of the text here. I don't know Sheriff Raams.
We sure hope you. I wish you could fill in
for tomorrow, but we'll put up with George. He thinks
he's funny, just kidding. I can't wait for September ninth.
That's going to be epic and that's Alexa. Hey, George
is great. I love listening to the guy. We're good friends.
(29:07):
We agree on a lot of things, mostly that in
an arm wrestling match at Killing. Here's another one, Dan,
Colorado roads are the worst. I have proven that the
last are We have proven that the last few road trips.
We proved it again on a road trip through the
Upper Peninsula Peninsula of Michigan. Every straight between US and Florida,
every state between US and Tennessee, and every state between
(29:28):
US and Missouri have way better roads. Here's a topic
that relates directly to so many others issues in Colorado,
especially the roads that I don't hear people talk about.
The Colorado state budget increased by five hundred percent over
ten years from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty three. It's
a disgrace the shape of our roads. Yeah, that's true,
and that just shows that funding for roads did not
increase exponentially. The funding for roads has gone away. I mean,
(29:54):
just drive out well, even if you're driving through the
Denver metro area. Roads suck in this state. Here's another one.
In twenty eighteen, we had two initiatives to fix our roads.
One was fix our damn roads. The other was for
more rural roads. Can't remember the name of that one.
Both initiatives were voted down. Colorado's are not always the
smartest voters, hence the recent special session. You know, Texter,
(30:16):
you're right on point there. We get what we vote for,
and in that particular instance back in twenty eighteen, maybe
the roads weren't bad enough. I don't know. The roads
are a disgrace in the state. And you know, sometimes
the county roads by county by county are in better shape. Well, county,
the roads that the county maintains are generally really good.
It's the roads that the state's responsible to maintain that
(30:38):
absolutely suck. Here's another one. Why not give teachers this
new burn a gun that we hear advertise so they
don't have to shoot a real gun. You know, if
they're adverse to doing so, you know, I'm all for
doing whatever you got to do to protect students, protect staff.
Let's just make schools not be a soft target. Let's
(30:59):
make them a hard time are hard target. Another one here,
through the last year in mass shootings teenagers young adults,
it was found that they were on antidepressants or barbituate
drugs for anxiety. Oftentimes, while these drugs can help many people,
is known that these drugs increase the risk of suicidal
behavior actions which lead to violent and homicidal homicidal actions.
(31:20):
I wonder what they know about combining combining antidepressants and
anti anxiety drugs with hormones for these teenagers and young adults.
How many studies have been done for that. That's a
great question. You know, that's probably something that you know,
Robert Kennedy might dive into and try to figure out
exactly where our country's off the rails. And two more here,
we've got a retired cop of age fifty one would
(31:40):
be an arms school security officer if they were paying
forty dollars an hour, but in this particular person's town
they only pay twenty three dollars an hour. You know,
there's an issue with school spending and what they can
afford and how you know how much they're willing to
keep kids safe, you know what can they spend to
do so? And then the classic text after a full
day of working the microphone. You know you always got
(32:03):
the one negative Nelly here and it says, oh my god,
where is Dan? I hope he's okay. Trying to listen,
but I can't. The sub is subpar. Take a shot
at me. I don't care whatever. You know how much
I'm getting paid to do this zip not a zero.
So while Dan's out with his feet on the beach
asking us to fill in, I'll take the criticism, and
(32:23):
I agree with you. I hope Dan's totally okay. I
hope he's enjoying a little bit of time off and
not just doing trial prep the whole time. And if
you didn't like the show I gave you today, eh,
tune in tomorrow. Maybe Jorge I'll have a better one.
Maybe George Brocklan will be more entertaining for you. In
the meantime, I apologize if you found today's programming boring.
And it's always the critical ones that we focus in on.
(32:46):
But you know, despite all that, I've got two great
people that keep me on the rails. Here Ryan Kelly,
thank you for you know, humoring me while I'm down here.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
Absolutely, and I know that the people out there find
you to be in good humor on the program.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You know, what do you do on a day where
you're talking about school shootings? I mean, is there any
way to make a day like today fun? It's difficult. Yeah, No,
it's just not It's not appropriate to do so. Like
you know, this is this is the world that we
live in. And you know, I don't even know if
tomorrow's the day to make things fun. I mean, these
things suck and it's just it's the thing that you
(33:21):
got to deal with again. You know, I work in
law enforcement. I've lived through one of these, one of
these school shootings personally as a student. It's no fun.
And if there was a better fix for addressing this,
I'd be all for it. We could talk about on
the show. We could celebrate the facts the fact that
we fixed it. But I don't think we could ignore it,
and it would be it would not be appropriate for
(33:43):
us to do so.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
No, well said, And like you said, having been through
it yourself, and you've been to so many crime scenes
that you've had to process and handle yourselves. I think
people lose sight of that fact that you know today
there were law enforcement officers that had to happen upon
that scene with these deceased and children that were shot,
and that takes a lot to process.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
In the handle, there will be officers from that scene
that will end their career based on what they saw today.
I promise you that happens every time. For those of
you that were able to tolerate the show today, thanks
for staying with us and listening. You'll get a different
guest host tomorrow, and I'm sure at some point in
the near future I'll be back with you again. But
thanks for listening to Dan Kapla's show here with Will
(34:23):
Kenny Sheriff Steve Riems as your sub subpar fill in.
Thanks again and we'll catch it next time.
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis 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 Caplis Show. Here as well,
Canny Shaff Steve Raims. We are in our two of
two on day two of two, and it's always a
pleasure to fill in for Dan. I think he's out
taking a few days off for doing some trial prep.
Who knows, either way, he's not in the studio and
you got me today. I think tomorrow you have George Brockler,
which is always an entertaining listen because he's a little
bit crazy, but that's why we get along so well,
(00:36):
so I'm sure I'll be tuning in to listen to
him as well. And today our topic's kind of been
the unfortunate incident that's happened out in Minneapolis where two
kids were killed by an attacker who shot at a
Catholic school, shot through the windows the side windows of
a church. Basically that is a fixed to a school there.
(00:58):
Let me make sure I get this right the Enunciation
School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two kids were killed, ages eight
and ten, another fourteen injured, and I believe three adults
injured as well. The shooter ended up taking their own life,
and so we're never going to know for sure what
that motivation was, other than the information they left behind,
which seems to be a little more prevalent than one
(01:21):
I think we would ever have expected. Having said that,
we have Eric on the line from Castle Rock. He
wants to make a comment about the shooting or school
shooting is in general, Eric, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, As far as that goes, I think it's pretty simple,
which is I am one hundred percent for arming every
single member staff member in a school across this country. Sure,
and I'm also willing as a taxpayer to pay for
the weapon, the ammunition, and the training they should. You
don't hear of shooting that police station. That doesn't happen. Yeah, no, killing,
(01:54):
you're shooting at gun shops, It doesn't happen. People are armed, armed,
these two armed, these staffs. And to rest, you know, to.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That point, Eric, there are quite a few schools in
Weld County that have done exactly that. You know, we've
we've had Laura Carno on the show before. She runs
the Faster organization and she helps train teachers who choose
to be armed or staff members who choose to be armed.
It's not always a teacher. Sometimes it's a janitor, sometimes
it's a you know, it's a facilitator in the school
of some kind. Having said that, I think if you
(02:25):
have people in a school that are motivated to protect
their children, it's wise to allow those those those those
staff members to be able to do that. In addition,
in all of our rural schools in Weald County, the
boarder County commissioners and myself we kind of came to
an agreement that we would put a deputy, a school
resource deputy in every one of those schools. So there's
(02:45):
not that many schools an unincorporated Weld County, but we
have at least one school resource officer in every one
of those schools alongside a lot of those armed staff members.
And I'm not daring someone to come to the school,
but I have to tell you, I think that's a
much per target than a place that doesn't have arm
staff exactly. Your point is spot on, and you know,
(03:07):
I think the sentiment from the public is much like yours.
You know, if you want to spend my tax dollars,
spend it to protect my kids.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And lastly, as a follow to that, you know, I
think this term mental illness has become quite a loose term.
My mental illness when I went to a Catholic school
that had nuns was cured very quickly when I was
slapped on the wrist with a ruler and my parents
were involved with the disciplinary measures and it worked. We
didn't have mental illness back then. And this is all
(03:37):
part of the culture issues we're having now, where everything's okay.
You can turn yourself into a dog if you want
and run around the school with the tail, and you
wonder why we have this mental illness? Is now a
culture that's being bred into these children. I don't believe
this is all biological and it needs to stop. We
need to go back our old values and what worked
years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well, I think it having Robert Kennedy's and you're involved
in the MAHA movement and kind of trying to boil
down to you know a few things on a federal
level and saying are we on point with some of
these diagnoses that we're seeing, and and you know, these
aspects across the country, whether it be you know, mental
health issues or just regular health issues. You know, getting
(04:17):
someone who's trying to look at things critically is probably
important for us. But you know, these are big issues
to tackle, and sometimes the best way to tackle one
of these big issues is the simplest one, and that's
having your parents and your school teachers snap a not
in your butt.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I couldn't agree with you more and again, I think
the answers are there. They're there, it's just people are
too afraid to do it. And lastly, without of course
saying my name, but you know what do I do
when I go to see my school and see my
child there and my children Thank god I'm in the
conservative county. But I exercised my constitutional right to carry
my weapon. That is the most important place for me
(04:55):
to carry it. And god forbid, if something happens, well,
you know what, find me, take my gone away from me.
But at least I will be in a position to
stop a shooting when I'm there. And again, that is
the last place someone should be afraid to carry their weapon.
It should be the number one place you carry it,
mister protect our children. With that, I leave you and
thank you so very much for everything you do too.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Thanks Eric, thanks for calling in. And you know a
lot of people use the philosophy of I'd rather be
judged by twelve than carried by six, and I think
that's what Eric's saying about carrying a gun everywhere he goes.
Some of the other texts here and again call in,
text in. You can text in at five seven seventy
three nine starts your text with Dan, or you can
call in just like Eric did three h three seven
one three eight two five five. I love having the
(05:38):
conversation and this is a topic that I think everyone
has an opinion on. We may not may not always
agree on those issues, but everyone's got a place that
they stand on this particular issue. Some of the texts here,
the most recent one. I'm not currently volunteering for this,
but as a retired guy who happens to have a
concealed weapon permit. But I even have a chance of
(05:59):
being a to be in a school, not my first
choice of how to spend my time, but a shift
now and then might help. And I think that goes
to the point where we were talking about with Eric
that hey, there are people that would volunteer for this duty.
And some school districts do allow parents to come in
and they'll they'll create basically what we used to call
when I was on a school board a dollar contract,
so you know, that school district will enter into a
(06:22):
a you know, a minimal contract with someone so that
they can come in and provide security to the school.
And of course they're going to want to vet you
and say, all right, can you handle a weapon? Can
you meet the safety requirements of this school? But there
are plenty of schools around the country that are doing that,
some right here in Colorado. And that's totally a policy
decision of a school board. That's nothing that's required by
(06:44):
state law. School boards can make that decision until you know,
the power is taken away from him in the state,
which wouldn't surprise me in any legislative session, But as
of right now, school districts can do that. You know.
It's It's one of those things where I truly believe
if you open it up to the right people that
(07:05):
that issue gets covered. And I'm one of those people
that would gladly go spend a little bit of time
in a school, especially in my kids school, and try
to make it safer. A couple other questions here, I
mentioned that I was from Emerald of Texas, and so
somebody says, hey, did you ever try the challenge at
the Big Texan. The range of our Texters is great.
We get people from all walks alive, from all over
(07:26):
from people that come from all over the country. And
the steak challenge at the Big Texan, for those of
you that have never heard of it, it's to eat
a seventy two ounce steak of fully loaded baked potato,
a shrimp cocktail, a picture of your favorite beverage bread salad,
and if you can do that all in under an hour,
you get the meal for free. And the answer to
(07:49):
that is no, I have never attempted it. I'm an eater,
but I mean that's a lot of food. I've seen
it attempted. I've seen it successfully done I think twice,
and it was never by the person that you would
think that would get it. And this is so off topic,
it's funny to me, but no, I'm not taking the
Big text and Challenge anytime soon. In fact, the last
(08:11):
time I went to visit my dad down in Texas.
We went out there and ate, and none of us
tried it. I think that meal would have fed my
entire family. Another textter here says, get fathers back in
the home and encourage intact families via the original design.
Maybe that helps stop some of these crazy school shootings
and people who are just have a propensity for violence.
(08:32):
And then this last one here Sheriff fly on God's
green Earth? Is it so hard for people, especially Democrats,
to see that these things happen in the most liberal
places where guns are not likely to be I just
don't understand how the answer is not more guns. And
you know that's to the point we're talking about arm
the staff and let them protect themselves. We're going to
get back onto the topic of the special session when
(08:54):
we come back from break. We're going to have State
Senator Byron Pelton on with us, and he's going to
talk special session. But he's also school going to talk
about the condition of our roads in the state of Colorado,
because he's been beating that drum, and we know that
there was no there's no funding to the roads in
the state of Colorado already, So these two things are
bound to be interesting coming from a state senator that's
(09:15):
been down there, fight in the fight, day after day.
So we'll cut the break. When we come back. We
have Senator Byron Pelton on with us. You're listening to
Dan Capless Show here on six point thirty k HOW
with Well Kenny Sheriff Steve Raams as your guest host.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
And now back to the Dan Kapless Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Welcome back to the Dan Capleas Show here with well
Kenny Shriff Steve Raams as your guest host. And with
this we're going to switch right back to another topic
we were talking about earlier, so we can kind of
get back on that special session topic. But we've got
Senator Byron Pelton on the line from Senate District one,
and Byron's kind of been doing something a little bit different.
(09:51):
He's been beating the drum about the condition of the
roadways in Colorado prior to the special session. So we're
going to talk about that first and then we'll talk
about the shenanigans that went down down at the state Capitol.
But Senator Pelton, thanks for being on with us, and
how are you doing this evening.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for having me Steve, it is
an honor to be here with you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, you're obviously not driving, because we can hear you
without a bunch of rattling from your truck and all
that kind of stuff. Out on those county roads are
state roads out in out in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, that is true. They're they're these these highways are terrible.
I took a couple of reporters out here and when
they we we took. I took them the four different counties,
because I have seven counties that I represent, and I
took them to four different counties. I took them to
here in Logan, I took them into Washington, and I
(10:42):
took them into Yuma, and I took them into more
Wild County, and I just drove them all over the
place and said, look at these conditions of roads. I mean,
we we hit one section of roads along between here,
Sterling and Akron, and they were they were just completely
just in awe about that. We are traveling on a
(11:03):
road that is almost turned back to gravel. That's how
close it was with the condition.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well, if you would, maybe the listeners don't know you,
you do represent Senate district one one of the largest
coverage areas in the state of Colorado. But what all
what all counties are in Senate District one? What do
you encompass?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I encompass Logan County, Morgan County, Phillips, Sedgwick County, Logan
or I'm sorry, Uma, Washington and the majority of Weld.
Senator Kirkmeyer and I always argue about which which part
of Well County that we represent makes the most money.
I think it's mine, but it's always hers because I
have all the egg and the and oil and gas,
(11:41):
but she does have that as well. But I represent
a large chunk of Well County over there in your
neck of the woods. In fact, I think Steve you,
I think you're a constituent.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, you are my senator, and which is great because
we have a great relationship. I can call you and say, hey,
this bill that's going through the state Capitol not sobueno
for law enforcement, and you'll call me about issues and say,
you know, what do you take on this one? And
it's been a great relationship having you down there. I
really like what you're doing of trying to bring some
attention to the condition of the roadways in Colorado. And
(12:15):
I've said for a long time. If someone's campaigning statewide
here or even for a Senate, a Senate or House seat,
if you don't include the road conditions as part of
why you're running for a seat in Colorado, you're missing
a grand opportunity. And I don't think you can highlight
that more than probably one of the roadways. I'm assuming
you took these reporters down and that's I seventy six.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That thing's tray, that is trash, and I seventy six
is I mean when they drove it down, they're like,
we understand the how bad a condition, especially when you
go from Wiggins to Kingsburg that is a or not
King Yeah, Wiggins the Kingsburg, that section is really bad
right there around Rogen. In fact, both my wife and
(13:00):
and I have changed several flat tires in that section
of road coming home from volleyball games or just other
things that we go to, and that that section road
is terrible. But also Highway sixty three between Sterling and Akron,
Highway sixty one between Yuma and or Otis and Sterling.
(13:22):
I took them down Highway six between Sterling and Atwood,
and I took them down between Rogin and Kinger and
Cursey or not Rogen, but yeah, Wiggins and Curzy. And
then we g went back on Highway forty nine and
I said, this is the best or not highway sorry,
County Road forty nine the best roadway in my Senate
(13:46):
district because it's a county road. The counties know what
they're doing. It's because set doesn't have the jurisdiction and
they're not stealing our money from rural roads and putting
it to the Chu Chu train like Overner Poulis wants
it to go.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
To Well County roads. A four lane county maintained highway
through Weld County to try to divert truck traffic. And
that was done with you know, oil and gas taxes
that the county was benefiting from. And they said, well,
we're getting this money off the oil and gas industry,
let's figure out a way to route the trucks up, up,
and down this roadway and decongest some of the other
(14:22):
roads that the state refuses to address. And it's a
it's been a game changer for Weld County and for
commuters going north and south through Weld County. And again,
you're right, it works because it's not done by the state.
What got you so fired up about? Hey, how do
we bring attention to this? And having said all that,
is there any room to see improvement in the roadways
(14:43):
in the state of Colorado? And I know this special
session definitely didn't address that. But do you see any
desire from the legislature or the governor to actually get
on this point and start fixing some things. These roads
are falling apart?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Oh, they are. And I would say that I have
some of my colleagues across the aisle who who are
very interested on fixing roads because they tell me it's
in their district, it's their number one issue that they're
hearing from. And these are mostly rural legislators, they're just
Democrats on the western slope. But for the most part,
(15:17):
they they tell me all the time it's the number
one issue that they're hearing about in their districts, and
and they want to fix it. But every time we
do something or come up with a bill like I'll
give you a great example, Sea Dot was trying to
force broadband companies to pay extra money to use the
(15:40):
right away in uh in Sea Dot's right away and
I said, Hey, how about we just fix our roads
first and not worry about the right ways here and
let the let the broadband folks use it like they
use the right ways and counties. Let's let's get that done.
And they were like, no, absolutely not. And then then
finally I was like, well, if you're going to charge
extra money, that money needs to go to the roads,
(16:01):
and they're like, no, we're going to have it sent
to transit. So here we are again going to transit
and focusing on climate change. Then we are fixing our roads.
And that's where my colleagues across the aisle are coming
around to it is like, if we I mean, if
they want to have their roadsick, they're going to have
to come to terms with climate change and where the
(16:24):
priorities have to be.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, I have to assume, I know out in your
district there's not a train coming out there. There's no
there's no mass transit going to Sterling or or to
Fort Morgan or anywhere in Weld County. There's certainly not
any going over to the western slope. There's no no
bus share services that I'm aware of that are that
are available to the state senators or the reps. UH
(16:45):
in the rural areas of Colorado. So it's got to
be frustrating to see the money is just getting you know,
prioritize the wrong way each and every session. So very
very grateful for you bringing this to the attention of
at least your call and hopefully maybe a new a
new administration focuses a little differently. I want to switch gears.
(17:07):
I want to switch gears. But we're going to We're
going to take a quick break because on the other side,
we're going to get into that special session that you
just got out of, and we're going to talk a
little bit about, you know, the difference between the Senate
and the House. We've heard from some of the House
members about how ugly things got, but it's my assumption
that some things were pretty pretty salty on the Senate
side of this this equation as well. And so we
(17:30):
want to hear from you. We want to hear exactly
what your take was going into this session, and you know,
did you get out, did you get out of it
what you thought you were going to If you would, Byron,
just stick with us. When we get back from this break,
we'll get right into that and we'll finish up with
some of that road conversation as well. For those of
you that are listening, stick with us. We'll be coming
(17:51):
back with Senator Byron Pelton from Senate District one right
after this break on the Dan Caplis Show with Low
Unny Sheriff Steve Reims as your guest host.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Welcome back to the Dan capless Show here with Glow,
Kenny shar Steve Reams and you know Ryan's always good
at fining finding theme music when we come back to
come back from a break the road to nowhere. That's
perfect if you were listening when we went to break,
we have Senator Byron Pelton with us on the line.
He was talking about the conditions of the roads in Colorado,
or we'll say the horrible conditions of the roads. But
we're gonna switch gears and get into this special session
(18:39):
that just ended down at the Colorado State Capitol. We've
been talking with some of the House reps, but Senator Pelton,
I have to believe that the take from the Senate
side was maybe just a little bit different. What was
your experience during this special session? It's been referred to
as a lot of things. I'm going to call it
the six days of Hell. What's your take?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I think its a colossal waste of time, to be
honest with you, because it was just a constant barrage
of raising taxes without going to the taxpayers. And following Taber,
it was we're going to add more money to Omni
Salute to pay for illegal immigrants to get to get
(19:22):
health care. And then the most kicker was is that
this wouldn't even have taken that long if the governor
wouldn't have added AI to the call, because that's where
the majority of the negotiation was going. It was already
cooked and ready to go. And I have to tell
you myself and several of them senators including Senator Kirkmeyer,
(19:45):
just hammered them on just raising taxes on the backs
of small businesses throughout the state. And it just is
absolutely ridiculous. So that we that that Governor Polis called
this special session. It was an I Hate Trump show
that they put on as what they did well.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So, I mean the concept coming in was you got
to figure out how to reduce the budget by one
point two billion. I've also heard that heard it as
low as eight hundred million. Whatever. Those are big numbers.
But when the call went out, you guys were told
there was no there was no funding cuts that could
be made. You guys weren't looking at trying to figure
out how to reduce the budget, which would infer that
(20:25):
you're trying to figure out how to raise taxes. But
ultimately we talked with Representative ty Winter earlier. Isn't this
something that the governor has the authority to do? Anyways?
I mean, calling this special session? What was he trying
to accomplish? Was he trying to other than just bashing Trump?
Was this a was this a method to try to
blame someone and not take responsibility. I just I don't
(20:47):
understand what the end game was with this special session.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Absolutely, that's what it was all about, is just blaming
Congressional Republicans. And that's that's what they They would get
up and talk about that all the time, about how
the Congressional Republicans blew a one point two billion dollar
hole in our budget. Well, you know what the Congressional
Republicans did. They gave us tax relief. That's exactly what
(21:12):
they did. And what they wanted to do is they
want to punish those businesses and those citizens of Colorado
that got the tax relief, and that is exactly what
they're talking points for that every time, was that we
need to figure out a way to fill this hole,
and we're going to raise these taxes, and we're going
(21:33):
to take away this fee that that small businesses get
for collecting the sales tax on behalf of the state,
and we're going to take away all this stuff and
and just raise the cost of living and the price
to do business here in the state of Colorado for
one year.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And that's it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Because the following year, all this money that they just
raised with all those taxes and everything else and fees
they have also just that they're all going to be
subject to tabor and just refunded to somebody else in
the following year.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So we're just shifting funds. And I think for the
listener out there, it's important to understand that when tax
code changes are made at the federal level, oftentimes those
things get adopted in the state of Colorado without specific
legislation because our tax code mirrors the federal tax code.
So if a tax cunt is done at the federal
level from congressional Republicans or congress in general. Then that
(22:29):
trickles down to the state and it reduces the taxes
that the State of Colorado is going to get in.
Is that the accurate way to describe that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
That is completely correct. It's called rolling conformity. That's why
it's so easy to do our taxes here in the
state of Colorado. And whenever there's a change in tax policy.
Article can Section twenty of the Constitutional of Colorado is
the taxpayer Bill A right says if there's a change
(22:58):
in tax policy to raise revenue, they must go ask
the citizens of Colorado if that is correct, if that's
what they need to do, and and they must take
it to a vote. And all at least three of
the bills that were passed in the in the in
the legislature in this not so special session is what
(23:19):
I've been calling it, is that they needed to ask
the citizens, and they just bypassed them and went around
it to ask for a blank check to with no
accountability to spend in this next legislative session.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, so we know not much was accomplished in this
special session other than maybe bringing to light, how I
guess how irresponsible the Democrat control is down at the
state legislature. Do you guys have anything teed up for
when the next session starts? I asked the same thing
of Representative Winner, But does the Senate have anything teed up?
Do you have any key bills that you say these
(23:54):
are things that are going to resonate with the voters
of Colorado. Maybe roads is something there has the Senate
Republican said, Hey, this is the this is the hill
we're going to try to conquer. Have you gotten to
that point yet? Are you guys still in the planning stages.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
We're still in the planning stage. We're still talking about
some stuff. I will tell you that I am looking
at a bill and I've actually got some great help
from the Well County Assessor on this bill too. But
looking for a bill to help cut some taxes on
property with when it comes to feed lots and dairies
(24:30):
and that sort of thing, because the land evaluations are
just going up so high. It's getting harder and harder
for these guys to compete on the marketplace when it
comes to agriculture. So there's something I'm looking at now now, Sheriff.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I don't know if it's going.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
To get pass because it is a tax cut, and
for some reason, the Democrats or my colleagues across the
aisle really hate the fact that I love cutting taxes
because I mean, I bring a bill every year to
do that. But I mean that's something I'm looking at
doing for my district. And I know that there are
some discussions on finding a way to do some cuts
(25:07):
to where we can actually afford to fix our roads,
especially out here in rural Colorado. One of those cuts
would be busting and that's something that we're talking about
right now.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, get rid of the things that aren't working. We'll
wrap up with that. And what I'll just finish up
by saying the comment that I've heard from many people
is that Colorado doesn't have a revenue issue. It has
a spending issue, and you just highlighted that once again.
Senator Pelton, thanks for coming on with us. Keep fighting
the fight. We're looking forward to when that next session starts,
even though I know you're not, but make sure that
(25:40):
you're down there representing your Senate district and me too.
And again, thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Thank you, Sheriff, thanks for having me as an honor
to be here.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Thank you, sir. That was Senator Byron Pelton, and with
that we'll cut to a break. We'll come back and
finish out this last segment. I'll read off your final
text and if you want to send one in before
we go to break, you can do so at five
seven seven three nine. Start your text out with Dan.
Thanks for listening, and we'll be back in just a
few minutes.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Welcome back to the Dan Kapla Show. In the last
segment of day two here and you know, you guys,
just continue to blow up the text line. You can
still do so through the end of the show. You
can text Dan at five seven seven three nine. Probably
don't have a lot of time for calls, so we'll
stick to the text. But this is kind of the
time where we always clean up from the day's events,
and today's a tough day. I mean, nobody wants to
come on and talk about a school shooting, but it's
(26:32):
kind of the thing that you have to do, and
especially when the victims of this shooting are all you know,
they're young kids. You had an eight year old and
a ten year old kid killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota at
the Annunciation School, which is a Catholic school there and
fourteen other kids injured. I think three adults injured as well,
and I'm sure those numbers will go up, you know
(26:53):
how this always goes. The shooter took their own live life,
and the shooter turns out to be a transgender individual
who obviously not because of their transgenderism necessarily, but because
they just had some mental breaks. Definitely not happy with
where our country was sitting. Uh comments on their on
(27:15):
their weapons such as kill Donald Trump, and this one's
for the kids. I mean, it's just a sick individual,
you know. I don't pray for anybody to take their
own life, but someone's got this, this intent there in
their heart. I wish they would take their life before
they go take the life of others. And just a
really sad situation, you know, it's just it's it's tough.
(27:37):
I don't know what do you say other than time.
Time has a way of healing things. As a person
who went through one of these school shootings, thankfully nobody
in my school was killed, but many were injured, it's tough.
I mean, when school was dismissed, we didn't have I
shouldn't say school was dismissed when all of us kids
just decided, hey, we're not going back into a classroom
where they don't have things figured out yet. We just left.
(28:00):
Back then, you know, there wasn't a lot of and
there wasn't a lot of practice for school shooting events.
This is again nineteen ninety two. I remember driving home
and my mom's like, why are you here. I'm like, well,
we had a school shooting. And it's like, oh my god,
what happened. Then I remember calling my dad a little later,
my parents are divorced and saying, hey, I just want
you to know I'm okay, and he's like, well, that's great,
but from what. But now, in today's world, you know,
(28:23):
there's you have one of these school shootings and within
moments we all know about it, and we all, you know,
we all feel that pain in our hearts for the
for the victims of those incidents and their families and parents.
You know, it's just a tragic thing, and you know,
you kind of just you wish these things didn't happen,
and hopefully at some point our society figures out what
(28:45):
the fix is and we don't have these problems anymore.
Some of the text here. I don't know Sheriff Raams.
We sure hope you. I wish you could fill in
for tomorrow, but we'll put up with George. He thinks
he's funny, just kidding. I can't wait for September ninth.
That's going to be epic and that's Alexa. Hey, George
is great. I love listening to the guy. We're good friends.
(29:07):
We agree on a lot of things, mostly that in
an arm wrestling match at Killing. Here's another one, Dan,
Colorado roads are the worst. I have proven that the
last are We have proven that the last few road trips.
We proved it again on a road trip through the
Upper Peninsula Peninsula of Michigan. Every straight between US and Florida,
every state between US and Tennessee, and every state between
(29:28):
US and Missouri have way better roads. Here's a topic
that relates directly to so many others issues in Colorado,
especially the roads that I don't hear people talk about.
The Colorado state budget increased by five hundred percent over
ten years from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty three. It's
a disgrace the shape of our roads. Yeah, that's true,
and that just shows that funding for roads did not
increase exponentially. The funding for roads has gone away. I mean,
(29:54):
just drive out well, even if you're driving through the
Denver metro area. Roads suck in this state. Here's another one.
In twenty eighteen, we had two initiatives to fix our roads.
One was fix our damn roads. The other was for
more rural roads. Can't remember the name of that one.
Both initiatives were voted down. Colorado's are not always the
smartest voters, hence the recent special session. You know, Texter,
(30:16):
you're right on point there. We get what we vote for,
and in that particular instance back in twenty eighteen, maybe
the roads weren't bad enough. I don't know. The roads
are a disgrace in the state. And you know, sometimes
the county roads by county by county are in better shape. Well, county,
the roads that the county maintains are generally really good.
It's the roads that the state's responsible to maintain that
(30:38):
absolutely suck. Here's another one. Why not give teachers this
new burn a gun that we hear advertise so they
don't have to shoot a real gun. You know, if
they're adverse to doing so, you know, I'm all for
doing whatever you got to do to protect students, protect staff.
Let's just make schools not be a soft target. Let's
(30:59):
make them a hard time are hard target. Another one here,
through the last year in mass shootings teenagers young adults,
it was found that they were on antidepressants or barbituate
drugs for anxiety. Oftentimes, while these drugs can help many people,
is known that these drugs increase the risk of suicidal
behavior actions which lead to violent and homicidal homicidal actions.
(31:20):
I wonder what they know about combining combining antidepressants and
anti anxiety drugs with hormones for these teenagers and young adults.
How many studies have been done for that. That's a
great question. You know, that's probably something that you know,
Robert Kennedy might dive into and try to figure out
exactly where our country's off the rails. And two more here,
we've got a retired cop of age fifty one would
(31:40):
be an arms school security officer if they were paying
forty dollars an hour, but in this particular person's town
they only pay twenty three dollars an hour. You know,
there's an issue with school spending and what they can
afford and how you know how much they're willing to
keep kids safe, you know what can they spend to
do so? And then the classic text after a full
day of working the microphone. You know you always got
(32:03):
the one negative Nelly here and it says, oh my god,
where is Dan? I hope he's okay. Trying to listen,
but I can't. The sub is subpar. Take a shot
at me. I don't care whatever. You know how much
I'm getting paid to do this zip not a zero.
So while Dan's out with his feet on the beach
asking us to fill in, I'll take the criticism, and
(32:23):
I agree with you. I hope Dan's totally okay. I
hope he's enjoying a little bit of time off and
not just doing trial prep the whole time. And if
you didn't like the show I gave you today, eh,
tune in tomorrow. Maybe Jorge I'll have a better one.
Maybe George Brocklan will be more entertaining for you. In
the meantime, I apologize if you found today's programming boring.
And it's always the critical ones that we focus in on.
(32:46):
But you know, despite all that, I've got two great
people that keep me on the rails. Here Ryan Kelly,
thank you for you know, humoring me while I'm down here.
Speaker 6 (32:55):
Absolutely, and I know that the people out there find
you to be in good humor on the program.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You know, what do you do on a day where
you're talking about school shootings? I mean, is there any
way to make a day like today fun? It's difficult. Yeah, No,
it's just not It's not appropriate to do so. Like
you know, this is this is the world that we
live in. And you know, I don't even know if
tomorrow's the day to make things fun. I mean, these
things suck and it's just it's the thing that you
(33:21):
got to deal with again. You know, I work in
law enforcement. I've lived through one of these, one of
these school shootings personally as a student. It's no fun.
And if there was a better fix for addressing this,
I'd be all for it. We could talk about on
the show. We could celebrate the facts the fact that
we fixed it. But I don't think we could ignore it,
and it would be it would not be appropriate for
(33:43):
us to do so.
Speaker 6 (33:45):
No, well said, And like you said, having been through
it yourself, and you've been to so many crime scenes
that you've had to process and handle yourselves. I think
people lose sight of that fact that you know today
there were law enforcement officers that had to happen upon
that scene with these deceased and children that were shot,
and that takes a lot to process.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
In the handle, there will be officers from that scene
that will end their career based on what they saw today.
I promise you that happens every time. For those of
you that were able to tolerate the show today, thanks
for staying with us and listening. You'll get a different
guest host tomorrow, and I'm sure at some point in
the near future I'll be back with you again. But
thanks for listening to Dan Kapla's show here with Will
(34:23):
Kenny Sheriff Steve Riems as your sub subpar fill in.
Thanks again and we'll catch it next time.
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