Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams with Colo Senator Barb Kirkmeyer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Dan Capitalist Show. And if you're tuning
in and this doesn't sound like Dan Caples, it's because
it's not. You're back with Welb County Sheriff Steve Reims
filling in as a guest host once again. It's been
a few I guess weeks, maybe a month since I
filled in for Dan, but I'll be with you today
and tomorrow and we'll try to make the best of
kind of a short notice on fill in. But it's

(00:21):
not like there's nothing to talk about. I mean, I
just got back from a vacation in Sturgis, South Dakota
for a week and be happy to talk about that.
That was just a fantastic time. I think this is
my tenth or eleventh one of those to go to
not in a row, had a gap in attendance for
about fifteen eighteen years somewhere in there, but great time.

(00:42):
Anytime you go up to ride the Black Hills of Sturgia,
South Dakota or South Dakota period, the Greater South Dakota area, Wyoming, Montana.
Any of you that ride a motorcycle and you've been
up in that area, you absolutely know what I'm talking about.
But as far as news, you know, there's plenty going
on nationally and also here locally, we've got a state

(01:03):
that's upside down with its budget. Yet again forty four
billion dollars, I guess wasn't enough. Now they had to
figure out how to cut a billion or eight hundred thousand.
You know, who cares when you're talking numbers that big.
And then we have the federalization of law enforcement in Washington,
d C. By President Trump to try to bring law
and order. And you know, see what Republican politics look

(01:24):
like bringing order back to the streets of Washington, d C.
And as a law enforcement guy, I can't help but
look at that and say, all right, here's a great
example of can can this be an example for all
these states across the across the US where our cities
across the US, where you know, lawlessness reigns in many areas.

(01:44):
You know, you get Chicago used in an example a
lot of times, New York as of recent times, LA
with some of the riots that were going on just
a few weeks ago. Denver has its own issues. You know,
I don't think a lot of people feel safe going
to Denver or parts of Denver unless you're in a
big crowd and you've got someone who's watching your back
everywhere you go. You know, I haven't been down to

(02:07):
Denver for any kind of event in quite some time
because the last time we went there it was just
quite frankly disgusting. So this is going to be kind
of a good example, a good chance to see do
do Republican politics, Republican ways of doing business work better
at cleaning up an area than what we've seen with
the Democrats. And quite frankly of Washington d C has

(02:28):
been under Democrat control for quite some time, and today
was kind of interesting watching the back and forth on
the news. They had the police chief for Washington d
C on and a question was asked of her, what
does the chain of command look like? And I don't
think she understood the comment. I don't think she understood
the term because she kind of looked at the camera
and said, what do you mean? Or what does that mean?

(02:51):
And the mayor immediately stepped in and said, well, who's
answering to who? Essentially, and you know, she explained that
Pam Bondi was the assigned person that the mayor was
going to you're responding to and then sending orders down
through the Washington DC Police Department. So this is going
to be an interesting time. Last night was their first
night doing anything. I think they said they flooded the
zone with eight hundred and fifty additional officers, whether that's

(03:14):
National Guard or FBI, whomever. They're definitely getting out there
and making arrests and cleaning up the streets and getting
rid of the homeless population and forcing them into situations
where they seek treatment or go to jail. Essentially, either
go to a homeless shelter and seek treatment or suffer
the consequences of not following the law and go to jail.

(03:35):
And really what that comes down to is there has
to be a consequence for your action. And when we're
looking at what happens out in Washington, DC, I just
can't wait to see how this plays out.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I'm kind of wondering what you guys think if this
same philosophy of just enforcing the law, letting the cops
go out and do the things that they're hired to do,
would that work here in Colorado? More specifically, would that
work in Denver and Aurora? If you could take the
handcuffs off the cops, would that clean up this mess
that we're seeing that unfortunately, the whole state of Colorado

(04:06):
oftentimes gets painted with I think the rank and file
folks in Denver and Aurora great folks. They signed up
to serve, they want to do the job, and they're
handcuffed from the day go by their leadership. And I
say that in air quotes or by the state legislature
and the stupid law as they passed. But you know,
I'm sure you guys, as listeners have comments. You can

(04:27):
text in at five seven, seven three nine are call
in at three oh three seven one three eight two
five five. I love to have the exchange back and forth.
And of course the text wall is always fun to
read from. Like I've said before, you text it, I'll
read it as long as it doesn't contain certain words. So,
having said all that, Ryan, when I was driving down
here today, you were asking all kinds of rhetorical questions

(04:48):
about what it was like to be in Sturgis, and
I'm trying to answer through the radio, and you know that.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Doesn't work, so one way conversation.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, you know that's yeah. So I'm screaming at the
radio and you're not listening. So what are those questions
you had about Sturgis?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, I do know that when it was during COVID
and Christinomans the governor.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
You remember where I'm going on.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, it was deemed a super spreader event. Were you
at that one?

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I was not at that one, but you know, based
on those facts, there should have been no more rallies
because all the attendees should have been dead.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Right, Yeah. That and of course they excuse the George
Floyd riots and protests and gathering.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Because that was a noble cause, right right, because.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
COVID doesn't know, it knows when a noble cause is
in play, and it will not spread during that.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Kind of event. That's what Fauci told us.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, I would say, if you have ever attended the
Sturgis rally, you would understand that that is a very
noble cause. It's a very patriotic event, because if you
want to burn a flag, if you want to desecrate
the United States, you're probably going.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
To get stumped.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I mean, there's not a more patriotic crowd than a
bunch of Harley, our American motorcycle loving I'll say, Harley
enthusiast all together with maybe a beer under this.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
This brings me to my question, which is how similar
is it the gathering and Sturgis there to the biker
bar scene in Peewee's Big Adventure.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
All right, So depending on where you go, it could
be very very similar.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
All right.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
So here's the thing, Like, I've seen a few fights
break out in Sturgis, you know, I've seen the rough
and tumble guys, but typically that's that's the exception, not
the norm. And I think I've been there ten somewhere
between ten and twelve times over the years, and I've
maybe seen three fights. There are certain bars you walk
in where you know there's you know, there's a rough

(06:46):
I guess, a rougher crowd, but for the most part,
everybody there is just there to have a good time.
You know, you'll have guys wearing their quote unquote colors,
they're you know, flying a particular motorcycle club affiliation, but
that area is pretty much neutral turf, So everybody just
kind of walks past each other on the street. They're
all there to have a good time and it's it's

(07:07):
pretty mundane, to be honest, as far as you know,
anybody being threatened.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
What was the highlight of this particular trip for.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
You, Oh my gosh, Well we did nine hundred and
thirty miles of riding in four days. I love to ride,
but this time we went. We had some people with
us that had never been before, so, you know, getting
to introduce those folks to some of those those sections
of riding where I mean it's just good rolling hills,
curves and you get to open your bike up at

(07:36):
you know, seventy miles an hour because the speed limits
up there are are pretty decent, and it's not you know,
you don't have so much traffic, so you get great rides,
great scenery, and four days of that was just awesome.
Everywhere you go, you know, you can stop, you can
have a drink if you want, you know, responsibly, and
there's always some kind of party happening wherever you stop.

(07:57):
So it's just it's a great time. Everybody's everybody's there
to have a good time and nice. It's eight I
think they're going to predict about eight hundred thousand people
in attendance, so it's eight hundred thousand of the closest
fringe you never knew you had.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
So compare the roads in South Dakota to those here
in Colorado.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
So I was actually going to go through this process
because over the summer, I've traveled to Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana,
South Dakota, Idaho, Washington State, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, and Hawaii.
And you know what all those states have in common.
They all have way better roads than the state of
Colorado by leaps and bounds. Leaps and bounds, Colorado sucks

(08:39):
when it comes to the roads in Colorado. They're abysmal.
And Ryan, I know you travel a lot, Kelly, I
don't know if you do a lot of road trips,
but I don't know of anywhere where I've been where
the roads are worse.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Now.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I am going to go down to see my dad
in Texas again sometime pretty soon. I may take that
route through New Mexico, just so I can see if
New Mexico's roads might be worse than Colorado's.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Kelly, Well, I was going to say, I think I
shocked you earlier when I knew about Turkey.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, a little bit, but it was it was vicariously.
You didn't go there.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Personally, I did not, But when I mentioned Buffaloship, you
were like, Hey, that's a good place you're talking about.
You know, it's it's interesting. All the time. Our roads suck,
That's all I'm.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Going to say, sickly put yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Every time I drive down here, it's just a reminder
of how bad the state of Colorado is. And when
we come back from break, I'm going to break down
a little bit of why Colorado's roads are so bad,
because we're going to look at where our spending goes
in this state and where our forty four billion dollars
are dedicated to in our twenty twenty five budget.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
With that, we'll cut the break.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
When we come back, we'll get right to it and
discuss the state of the state's budget. You listening to
the Dan Caplas show on here on six thirty k
HO many times while I'm out riding my twenty twenty
two road Glide through the hills of Sturgis, South Dakota.
This song was on my playlist. So nice, A little
bit of Steppenwolf blastom through the speakers while you cruise
through the mountains. What more could you want? I am

(10:13):
a product of my dad's raising when it comes to
my music. This was something we listened to on eight
track when we were cruising the roads back in the
day and exploring the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico
up from Texas.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
So that's a good throwback there.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
But you're listening to Dan Kaplas show, you got well
Kenny Sheriff Steve Riams here in the guest seat today,
trying to keep the trying to keep the wheels on
the show, if you will. And before we went to break,
we were talking a little bit about, you know, crime
in Colorado, what's happening out in Washington, d C. With
President Trump federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department there in Washington,

(10:48):
d C. And this just kind of being like a
really good study about what's it going to look like
when someone with the will to change the narrative comes
in and fixes it. We saw how that worked on
the southern border. We were told for for weeks and
well for years, well Congress is going to have to
change the law before we can do anything. And then
Donald Trump comes in and about I don't know, it

(11:08):
felt like twenty four hours the border was secure and
we didn't have people coming across the border anymore. I
know it probably took, you know, slightly longer than that,
but really not that much longer. So last night, you know,
they flooded the zone, if you will, the area of Washington,
d C. With eight hundred and fifty additional troops, officers,
whatever you want to say, in Washington, d C. And

(11:29):
they made a ton of arrest for a litany of things.
And I'm just curious how that's going to work out.
You know, night after night after night, they basically have
thirty days to make the city safe and you know,
get rid of the disaster declaration or emergency declaration has
provided for under.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
The way Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Was set up. So we'll see, I mean, we're going
to find out does that work. And having said that,
there's a bunch of texts already coming in. I appreciate
you guys doing that, and you can continue to do so.
Text five seven seven three nine, text out with Dan
or call in three h three seven one three eight
two five five. But a really good one here says,
with the killings in Austin at the target by someone

(12:08):
with a mental health problem, any chance our idiot politicians
in Colorado will realize that the law that now allows
people like Solomon Gallaghan to be released with no or
minimal time and a mental health facility is a very
bad idea. How many people will suffer in Colorado before
this is fixed, And that's by our loyal listener, Alexa.
And you know, there was a there was a provision
a couple of years ago that basically said, hey, if

(12:30):
a person is deemed mentally incompetent, you have to release
them from jail as soon as possible and get them
out of your facility and put them, you know, put
them in some kind of other facility, or release them
to the streets. And the de facto for most of
these people has been to release to the streets. And
Colorado's not the the novel idea on that concept. There's
been in several states. Obviously, it looks like Texas has

(12:51):
adopted something like that in the past. And the problem is,
when these people are incompetent to stand trial, you have
to also believe they're probably incompetent to function society. I mean,
that's why they were in jail, that's why they were
facing charges for something violent. And now suddenly, oh, well,
you know they're not competent to be held accountable for
those actions, so let's just release them. Well that's stupid,

(13:13):
and that's exactly what is happening with Solomon Gallaghan and
many others in the state of Colorado. There's a there's
a fender in my jail right now that he's due
to be released in very much the same fashion because
he's mentally incompetent and he beat someone almost to death,
and he's probably going to get released to some former fashion,
and you know, before long he'll probably face another victim.

(13:36):
He'll go through all these these same steps again to
try to prove whether he's mentally competent to stand trial,
and that process will continue to repeat itself. Even what
you saw with the King super shooter down in Boulder.
I think he went through four or five mental competency
hearings before he was finally deemed competent enough to stand
trial and then obviously found guilty of what he had done.

(13:59):
You know, it's just it's terrible. And then another text
here says it really sucks that some police departments and
politicians fludge their crime numbers. Mayor Mikey says crime is
down in Denver, maybe for parts of Denver, but crime
is up in downtown Denver. We also see crimes being
downgraded from felony now to misdemeanor. Then the lies where
criminals are not they're not characterized exactly as they are.

(14:19):
You know, they're identified as white when they're obviously not.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on these shenanigans. Do
police and politicians really care more about themselves and letting
the community know the reality of where they live is
safe or crime written And so I've talked about this before.
I think that's the difference between having elected law enforcement
officials and appointed law enforcement officials. There's a huge difference.

(14:40):
I answer to the citizens. A police chief answers to
a mayor or to a city council, and that directs
his line of his or her line of thinking. And
that's again, that's what you're seeing in Washington, d C. Yes,
I think people do want to create a narrative that
they're city safe because they want people moving to their city.
They want people coming to their city, and it's you know,

(15:01):
it's hard to say, hey, you know, this isn't necessarily
the best place for you to come, although that's probably
the legitimate thing to do. But while we're on this topic,
I can't tell you enough If you've never been to
the website for Common Sense Institute.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
You should.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
They have some amazing resources on their website, and one
of them is this Colorado budget then and now. It's
pretty easy to find, but you can go back as
far as twenty twenty versus twenty twenty five and look
at the state's budget. So in twenty twenty five, Colorado
adopted a forty almost forty four million dollar budget. In
that budget, they have dedicated to about two billion dollars

(15:40):
to transportation and seven hundred and twenty nine million to
public safety, but almost sixteen million to healthcare policy and financing.
So I think that's probably Medicare, Medicaid. If you go
back to the year two thousand, you will see public
safeties at fifty one million, and exportation was only two

(16:01):
hundred and two hundred and seventy three thousand at that time,
which seems incredibly low. And education topped the board back then.
But the total state budget was five billion, just over
five billion dollars. So in twenty five years we've gone
up thirty nine billion in a state budget, with fifteen

(16:21):
sixteen billion of that going to healthcare policy and financing
and very little to transportation, very little to public safety.
I mean it drops off precipitously when you look from
that healthcare policy and financing the next largest driver's education
at almost eight eight billion, but those two eat up
the lion's share higher education another six billion, and then

(16:44):
everything just drops off after that. And the reason I
bring this up is because we're going to have a
guru when it comes to dealing with this information up
right after our break, and that's going to be Senator
Barb Kirkmeyer. Barb Kirkmeyer's on the JBC, the Joint Budget Committee,
and I asked her come on because we need someone
to break this down, help us make sense of what
all we're seeing. Stick with us through the break. I

(17:06):
think you're going to love what Barb Kirkmeyer brings to
the table. She's been warning us about this for quite
some time, and now she's going to be able to say,
not only did I tell you so, but here's why
it's so broken. Stay with us here on the Dan
Caplis Show with Wellkeunny Sheriff Steve Riams here on six
thirty K how Steve Riams And when we went to break,
I was kind of going over a little bit of
the state budget for twenty twenty five and I we're

(17:28):
just under forty four billion dollars that was budgeted. And
if you are a loyal listener listener, you'll remember that
I had Senator Barb Kirkmeiron probably about a month and
a half ago to talk about this very topic, and
that was where the Joint Budget Committee was coming down
on this particular issue. And she warned us at this
time that this was not the fix, that there was

(17:49):
likely going to be problems with the budget that was
being adopted, and lo and behold, she was absolutely right.
So I don't want to waste any more time. Let's
get right to Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, who is our state
senator from Senate District twenty three and on the Joint
Budget Committee and a fiscal hawk. And I know this
for sure because I worked with her quite a while

(18:11):
when she was a commissioner in Weald County. So Barb,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
Hi, Sureff, how are you doing.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I'm doing great?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
And as I was just saying, you've been kind of
ringing the bell that the state budget was not fixed
and there was going to be problems, and low and behold,
here we are. You know, I could go through all
the different issues that I see with the budget. But
you're down on the ground and you're in the Joint
Budget Committee. Give us the down and dirty what's happening.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
Well, here's where're at right now. I mean, there's actually
kind of two distinct issues going on. The first one
is we had our forecast meeting back in June. I
think when we talked before and through our forecast, we
know that when we start the twenty six twenty seven
budget year, which we'll start in the next session and
start doing implementing, we already are seven hundred million in

(19:02):
the whole We're starting seven hundred million dollars short because
of this constant one time spending, you know, one time
money that we have, and then they put it into
new programs and new departments, new offices. They've hired over
seven thousand new employees just you know, state employees in
the last six years. And then wonder why we have
a structural deficit, I mean a structural deficit that started

(19:24):
all the way back in twenty twenty one.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
So restate that just a little bit. Restate that just
a little bit. You said the state is constantly spending
one time funds to start new programs that correct.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, so when.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
You started news started new administrations.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Offices, yea, the logic obvious that you start a new department,
you're going to have to continue to fund that new department.
You can't do that with one time funds exactly.

Speaker 5 (19:50):
And what happened is we got all of these federal
funds in during COVID, and you know, it's like wow,
it's like it's a spending frenzy, right, and they just
kept spending money everywhere, and they got in a really
bad habit. It's like, I tell people, we don't need
a special session, we need an intervention because they're addicted
to spending and they've hired more employees and like I said,

(20:12):
start a new programs. And then on the way back
in March of twenty twenty one, they knew we were
in a structural deficit and that they needed to curtail spending.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
And I think.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
Curtail spending, I mean like stop spending on those things
that are not core functions of state government, you know,
like K through twelve education. I mean we were underfunding
and not funding education as we carded into the constitution
until in twenty twenty three when I pushed through that. No,
we're going to start doing what the constitution says. So
you know, so you know, funding, funding, education, funding, health

(20:43):
care funding, you know, Medicaid, funding, corrections, those things that
are core functions of government that people can't do for themselves.
The government is supposed.

Speaker 6 (20:51):
To be doing.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
But no, they've I mean, we've created so many not me,
but them, have created so many new offices and different
things and new programs that it's like we can't afford
them anymore. And as the governor's budget director told us
at nauseum, well we can't pay bills right now. So
there's that issue that's going on. But then also what

(21:14):
happened is, you know, the federal bill passed HR one,
the big beautiful bill passed it back in Washington, D C.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
And gush.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
You would think the Democrats are like, oh my god,
this guy is falling because now our revenues are impacted,
and our revenues are impacted because the republic is in
Congress gave us tax relief. They gave us tax cuts
to individuals and to businesses, small businesses and large businesses, corporations,
but they gave tax cuts. And because our revenues, our

(21:44):
tax income tax system is tied to the federal income tax. Yeah,
the federal you know income, federally taxable income that you get.
It's our states tied to that. When they cut taxes
at the federal level, it cuts taxes at the state level.
And that's our revenue. Our revenue is taxes from the
people in the state of Colorado.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
So it's created.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Essentially about somewhere between a seven one hundred and eight
hundred million dollars shortfall because our revenues are getting cut
because of tax belief, and the Democrats are upset over it.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
I can't help but hear a little bit of joy
in your voice over all this, Barb, And I know
it's not because you're you know, you're you're glowing with
the fact that the Dems were just wrong here. But
it's good policy to cut taxes and for people to
not reckon that. Oh gosh, this couldn't see this coming.
Republicans are back in office and they want to lower

(22:37):
taxes and we didn't predict that coming.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
It's it's shocking. I mean, it just it slaps you in.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
The face, it is.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
And the thing is, so the Democrats, let me just
explain their playbooks for the last seven years. Please do
you know are so?

Speaker 6 (22:51):
So?

Speaker 5 (22:51):
In twenty twenty one, they shut down our economy. Police
did I mean you and I both were there in
the county done economy. They started the overspending because they
were getting all these COVID dollars in everything that happened
in twenty and twenty twenty one, they blamed on COVID.
Then for the next six years, they hired over seven
thousand new state employees, They started new programs. They continued

(23:15):
their overspending till we get to twenty twenty one where
they're like, whoa, we're going to head for a structural deficit.
But they didn't do anything until last year when we
were told we're overspent by the tune of one pointy
two billion dollars that were short in our budgets. And
so you know what they did.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
They didn't blame.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Themselves for their overspending. They blamed Taper and then lo
and behold, here comes this, you know, tax cut at
the federal level. And their answer is, well, we're going
to have to increase taxes now, you know, we're going
to have to They they passed legislation in the twenty
five session that will add back on taxes on overtime pay. Seriously,
that's what they did. And now we're having a special session.

(23:54):
It's the Democrat special session to raise taxes. And you know,
we've been getting this whole gas lighting from the governor
about how he's saving us money. I don't know what
money he's saved us, but anyways, we're having a special
session to raise taxes and our budget crisis is now
they're blaming Trump instead of looking at themselves.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
You know, I was referencing a chart that's on the
Common Sense Institute's page, and it talks about of the
forty four billion dollar budget, about sixteen billion of it
is dedicated to healthcare policy and financing. What all is
encompassed in that? I mean, you're talking over a third
of the state's budget is in that category of healthcare
policy and financing.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
What all does that encompass?

Speaker 5 (24:33):
That's essentially Medicaid. Wow, it's our Medicaid and it's our
health care. It's an insurance. It's the state's insurance department.
Basically that offers insurance people and we offer it through Medicaid.
But we also have programs that are called covering on
Colorados that are Medicaid like. In other words, we don't
get federal matching dollars for Medicaid cannot be used for
folks who are not US citizens.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
But if we don't ask him if they're US citizens,
do we really know?

Speaker 5 (25:00):
So medicaid Medicaid like programs, or for what we call
the expansion population, or you know, for people who are
undocumented immigrants, and so if funds, that's where that that's
where that majority of that funding goes. But really, when
we're talking about a one billion dollar shortfall or seven

(25:20):
hundred million, eight hundred million dollars shortfall that we need
to make up, it's in our general fund revenues. It's
you know, not in the federal funds, it's in our
general fund. And so the general fund budget is about
a seventeen billion dollar budget, and you know, we need
to find seven hundred and fifty million approximately right now
in this year, in this in this session. And again

(25:42):
instead of the governor, you know, putting forward a special session,
you know, he makes it sound like this is a
pantasy and we're going to fix this issue. Got to
go in, We've got to fix this issue. He puts
a special session out there that the only thing on
the call is how do we raise taxes? There's nothing
on the call put a bill in, to put a billain,

(26:02):
to stop spending, to cut spending someplace. So is that
in a special session?

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Where do you see the low hanging fruit? And we
don't have a lot of time left, but where do
you see the low hanging fruit where the state could
come in and say we don't need this. I mean,
what are the top two or three, four, whatever? Where
could that money just go? Take it away from there?

Speaker 6 (26:20):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (26:21):
Well, right now, what's happening is because of the lack
of revenue coming in, we're now falling below our taber cap. Well,
we have two point three billion dollars of tax credits,
so maybe we should be putting on pause some of
those tax credits and saying, like, you know, you're not
going to get this tax credit relief because you've got
this other tax relief and we're below we're below. I mean,
it's a good thing to be below the cap. That

(26:42):
means government is not expanding, right right, that's our taber cap.
So but I think, quite frankly, and I've had this
discussion somewhat with the governor's budget officer at the Joint
Budget Committee. Is back in two thousand and one, when
you know, after nine to eleven, we had a severe
budget shortfall and a revenue shortfall, and Governor Owns used

(27:05):
his executive executive powers, his executive order. And he's because
I was working for him at the time, and he
said things like, you will cut your spending by four percent,
you will cut your spending by another ten percent. I mean,
in that first year in twenty twenty one, we cut
our spending by sixteen percent. There's no reason why this
governor isn't doing his job. He is the administrator, he's

(27:27):
the executive. I'm in the legislative side of the of
the branch. You know, we have to budget to current law.
He doesn't have to spend a current law. He could
tell his departments to make cuts. He could tell him
to stop spending. In fact, he has it in law
where he can suspend spending and he can discontinue programs
and functions and services in state government. He is neglected
to do any of that, even though his budget director

(27:49):
is told him, well, we can't pay our bills. It's like,
what's he doing? I think he should do his job.
And he should look at cutting across the board, the
same as what Governor Owns did in two thousand and one,
the same as what Governor and Loper did during the
Great Recession, right, and then then we should look at
pozzing these test credits and solve our immediate problem right
now instead of increasing taxes.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, he hasn't done his job, in my opinion, in
the eight years he's been the governor, so I don't
know why you would start now. But Senator Kirkmeyer, thank
you for coming on the show and breaking that down.
You always bring some very insightful comments, and we'll be
sure to have you on again when we get a chance,
especially when the session gets gone, because I'm sure there's
going to be some Shenanigan, so we'll keep you in
our hip pocket and keep fighting the fight because Lord

(28:30):
knows we need more of you down there holding their
feet to the fire. So thanks for being on the show,
and we really appreciate the time.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
Thank you, appreciate you, Sheriff, and thanks for all you're
doing for Colorado as well.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
You bet my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
That was Senator Barb Kirkmeyer kind of breaking down where
we're at in the state of the state with our
mess of a state budget. If you will, we're going
to go to break and we come back. We're going
to clean up a few of these texts that you
guys have been sending in but keep sending them in
five seven, seven, three nine started with Dan, and we'll
try to clear those out before we get to our
number two. You're listening to the and Caples show here
on six thirty K How we've been on the topic

(29:03):
of policing in Washington, d C. How that translates to
Colorado and just how screwed up our budget is here
in Colorado and where the priorities are. But we've had
a guy waiting for quite some time and he's Tim
from Trinidad. He's got some comments on policing. Tim, what
do you got for us?

Speaker 6 (29:20):
Good afternoon, Sheriff, Thank you for taking my call. Yeah,
thanks for calling out kind Yeah, I just had kind
of a two part question, Okay, One, what is your
opinion on active policing? And two has the legislature pass
laws that make it hard for your officers to do
active policing?

Speaker 1 (29:41):
So my understanding or my definition of active policing is
where you're going out and you're trying to interact with
the community and kind of discover what's going on in
your community before it necessarily becomes a problem. So you're
interacting with potential problems before they get out of hand.
It's also a little bit of that community policing, knowing
the people who are in in and out of yourmmunity
and kind of knowing you know who the players are

(30:02):
and you know who the potential bad guys are. To
answer your question very directly, yes, that's become increasingly difficult
in the state of Colorado because of two bills and
at Built two seventeen and House Built twelve fifty, which
definitely it curtails officers from going out and doing what
I actually call proactive policing, where you're going out and

(30:23):
trying to interact with the community. Yeah, it's it's extremely
difficult in this state because everything is based on this
reactive model where a call comes into dispatch, the officer
goes out like a firefighter type scenario. You know, we
sit and wait in a station, which is not what happens.
Call comes in, we go out, We turn our body
camera on when we know what's a law enforcement contact,

(30:45):
and we record everything and we're the ones that are,
you know, trying to law enforcement as the ones that's
being watched, not necessarily the bad guy, because we're the
ones that might do the potential wrong and anything, any
mistake that a cop makes, they get held accountable for
to a degree that is unlike any other state in
the United States.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
So yeah, that's that's the quick answer.

Speaker 6 (31:07):
Yeah, and and and that's kind of what the take
I took on it, speaking just to the officers we
have down here and everything. Sure, there was a great
essay written by a law professor on Rudy Giuliani and
how he cleaned up Times Square with just active policing
or what you call community policing and everything, but also

(31:29):
just one last party thing. Thank you for that information.
I didn't know that Senate bill and the other legislation
was kind of handcuffing you guys, But just for your knowledge. Yes,
the roads in New Mexico are way better in Colorado.
They got to be right right down yeah here, and
I go, I go to San Angelo to visit my

(31:50):
friends and family. That's where I came from. And yeah,
they're way better in New Mexico.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Thank you for that information, Tim, And it doesn't surprise me.
Thanks for thanks for holding as long as you did.
We'll get to a few of these texts here. One
of these says, sheriff, how do we tax paying Denver
homeowners get barbs cut cost stop spending message to the
thick head of governor Polus. We homeowners are maxed out
with payouts already in Denver. Do we call his office? And?

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
The texter here, his name's Hugh, absolutely call his office,
email his office, inundate his office, post that number everywhere
that you know, so that so that your friends can
do the same, you know, he if you know, if
certain high profile influencers can call and change his mind,
hopefully his own constituents can do the same. But he's

(32:39):
proven that he's out of touch with the citizens of Colorado.
And I think the only way you get through to
this governor is through a lot of pressure and quite
quite frankly embarrassment at work through COVID and hopefully it
works through this issue. Another one here, The Dems have
controlled the state for what the last eighteen years now,
all financial heirs a Trump are Trump's. Yeah, so that's

(33:02):
Steven Littleton, a retired law enforcement officer and he's making
fun of what the Dems are saying. Well, you know,
Trump cut taxes, Trump cut federal funding. Trump's doing what
everyone should be grateful for, and that's tightening the belt
and putting money back in the pockets of our taxpayers.
That's the only way that you get this thing right.
And there's so many more texts we'll get to. We'll

(33:22):
do that after the break. You guys are great, keep
them coming.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
You can text d in five seven seven three nine,
start your text with Dan or call in three h
three seven one three eight two five five. We can
talk about whatever you want and I'll do my best answer.
You're listening to the Dan Caplis Show here with Well
Kenny Sheriff Steve Reams on six point thirty k how