12-17-25 *INTERVIEW* Talking Policy Issues with Governor Jared Polis

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Rosskaminski on the News with Gina Gondek
and producer Dragon behind the Glass, and I am very
pleased to welcome back to the show, Governor Jared Polus.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
When I first asked Jared to come on, there was a.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Specific education issue I wanted to talk to him about,
and I still do. But there have been a lot
of things in the news since then, so.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're going to get to as much as we can.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Jared, welcome back to the show, and I will ask
you to give relatively brief answers so we can get
to a lot of things.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Okay, is that good?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, welcome, Welcome, It's good to be back. And I
make sure everybody be careful with the waite's out there
that should be picking up this morning, So just drive carefully, everybody.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Absolutely, I only want to spend a moment on this,
but I do want your reaction to all the stuff
the President has been saying about you, the names he's
been calling you, the Tina Peters stuff, anything you want
to I decided not to play that audio because I
just I really didn't like what he said. But do
you want to say anything about that?

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, you look the more.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
He focuses on, you know, me, rather than making life
more affordable and the issues people liked to him for.
The more popularity is gonna plumb it. I mean, he
does these personal obsessions and he needs to focus on governing.
And you know that's what I do for Colorado. Whether
you agree with your different disagreement, agree with me, and
we need a president that does the same, that focuses
on making life better.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
One very very quick follow up, he's really focused on
Tina Peters. Is there anything that's going to change regarding
Tina Peters's status in prison here?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, I mean, you know, first of all, I don't
think he has a great understanding of the American justice system.
She's not my prisoner or his prisoner. She's in the
custody of the state of Colorado, is an inmate because
she was convicted unanimously by a jury of her peers.
She was of course prosecuted by the Republican DBA in
a very Republican area of the state, and I talked
to Republicans there regularly, and they feel very wrong by

(01:44):
her because frankly, she risked throwing out election results that
were very favorable to Republicans. So I've tried to explain
that to the President as well. I don't think he
sees it that way. But you know, the type of
identity conspiracy, to commit identity fraud that she committed it
for the Data and insurance age A at Bank, the
county clerk.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Wherever it is. That's against alaw in Colorado, and she
was prosecuted.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
Governor's new news this morning the Trump administration moving to
dismantle en CAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder,
calling it green new scam research activities. Your overall reaction
to this and the future of what could take place
for en car's seven hundred and fifty employees that we
have in the Boulder area, Well, it's.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Really sad news, and it's sad for everyone because I think,
again he misunderstands what they do. I understand they don't
want people doing this direct climate signce stuff, which I
think people should we should always do increase, but they
do so much more. I mean, they literally support the
work we do around our fire plans and fire forecasts,

(02:46):
around flooding. I mean, this is an agency that puts
out very good scientific data that's absolutely critical for public safety.
So I mean, if that does get disbeled, we use
Colorado's and Americans will be less safe.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm hoping that what they'll do if they go
down that road is not stop all the science, but
you know, maybe put it in a house, it elsewhere,
so it's still so it still gets done.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I want to ask you, Jared.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
About the thing that I actually emailed you about several
days ago.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
The reason I asked you on the show.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Education So in the Big Beautiful Bill, I think it
was the Trump administration has created a tax credit that
some Democrats don't like, I think just because it's Trump.
Some teachers' unions don't like because they're teachers' unions. Give
us a moment on what this thing is and why
you are taking a different position than many Democrats are.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
And by the way, and I don't like as a
budget hawk. By the way, this single blow a hole
in the federal deficit. But that's not our problem. Here's
what this will do, not for the taxes you're preparing
next dayfol those are for twenty twenty five, but for
the following year. So we're talking about your twenty six taxes.
Every color On and every American, we'll be able to
donate seventeen hundred dollars to a charity of their choice

(03:59):
that helped kids and certain parameters, and they will get
literally that seventeen hundred dollars refunded to them by the
federal government one hundred percent. So with no out of
pocket cost. You can support you and your wife. Thirty
four hundred and one person seventeen hundred can support a
charity of your choice. And those are afors who activities,
scholarships for kids, summer programs, they can they have to

(04:20):
serve middle and low income kids.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
And it's great. It's got a free money.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
From the state perspective, and then to be clear, from
the federal budget perspective, I'm not for this. I'm again
states are one, but to this will blow the deficit
by several hundred million dollars because I think most people
will do it because they get the money back. But
of course we're going to take the money and do
what we can and support our kids.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Just one quick follow up to me, this seems obvious
to me, not as a partisan thing, but as a
as a governor, you have to say yes to this.
Why do you think you're getting pushback from Democrats? And
teachers unions about free money. This is not a voucher program,
which by the way, I support and you don't.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
But it's not that anyway.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
No, you know, I think everybody's going to get their ross. Honestly,
I think just stepping down as one of the first
it you know, sometimes takes a little bravery, a little strength,
and you take.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
A few arrows. But no, I agree with you Ross.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I think nearly every state and every governor will get there.
And I mean, for some reason one or two down't there.
They're really leaving free money that can help their kids
on the table.

Speaker 5 (05:22):
Governor pol has lots to cover when it comes to
the world of AI, both on a national level local level.
President Trump issued that executive order to curb AI regulations
at the state level. Now, Colorado does have that AI law,
if I'm understanding this correctly, it's not going to be
implemented until June.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Of twenty twenty six. But my question is.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
What would you want to see from Congress in order
to better regulate AI.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And then if they don't, would.

Speaker 5 (05:48):
The state legislature continue to try to push for AI
regulations or is that a hard stop?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now from Trump's order, you.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Know, it's really the wrong direction for states to do it.
I mean, if you think about this from a small
startup or a small company's perspective, how can you comply
with fifty different compliance regimes. We need to have one
for the country. That's not something that the president can do.
Only Congress can do that. Obviously the president's signature. Congress
needs to preempt states from doing this kind of regulation,

(06:16):
and whatever types of protections we have as consumers really
need to be national. We do that with intellectual property
through the Digital Millennial Property Right Act. We need to
do it for AI and other technologies to encourage innovation
and better make sure the consumers are able to access
the technology that we want.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
So, if you are against states having all different regulations,
why did you sign the law from Colorado legislature just
starting with the AI regulations that we could see coming
up next year.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, in my study letter, I called for federal predemption.
We need the federal government does I mean it's not
a Colorado, California has that. There's Republican states, Texas, there
are dozens of states that are doing this, and Franklin,
I think it'll take a number of states doing wacky
things that hurt consumers for Congress to act, So that
pressure's building. There's a lot more states that are doing

(07:09):
it and congressmates act.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
But let me just follow up on Gina's follow up.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
You're you're about as tech savvy a governor there as
there is. You've been in tech for longer than many people.
So Gena's specific question to you was, why did you
sign that AI bill?

Speaker 3 (07:27):
I think to put additional pressure on the federal government
to make it invalid.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Interesting, Okay, I mean they're going to get there.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
They will, you know, whether they get there this year
or in three years. But like the sooner the better,
and frankly, the more states do stuff.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
That hurts consumers, the sooner they'll get there.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, all right, I mean I think that's a tricky one.
Signing a bill that's going to become law that's going
to have impact on Colorado to pressure the federal government
that may or may not do anything.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
It's pretty risky.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
Bet it's not just Colorado.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
If I thought it was just Colorado, Ross, I probably
wouldn't have signed it. But knowing there were dozens of
states doing this, that's the kind of pressure that Congress
responds to. And acts sooner rather than later.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Okay, last question for you on a completely different subject.
It's been some time since I've seen kind of significant
conversation from the state government about pine beetle, Like that
issue kind of declined for a while and totally go away.
You've sent out a tweet about and i'll quote a
proactive all hands on deck response to the growing pine

(08:28):
beetle outbreak across the Front Range.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Can you elaborate for us please.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, they're back in a big way.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
We release some maps.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
I encourage you to look at those that are on
our website, but effectively they're in the western Front Range
down so I think western Larimer, Jeffco, Boulder, al Paso counties.
They're a lot closer to population.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Centers than ever before.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's in the early stages of this outbreak, and there's
patches of infecta trees, but where there are patches, it
will likely be near universal for ponderosa pines, very close
to one hundred percent mortality for mature trees. So we
are starting early on this particular outbreak, given them as
close to the front range, given the fire risk, and
really subbling everybody together.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
To make sure that we can get through this.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Is there anything for individuals to do other than maybe
report to some government agency that hey, I think I've
got an infected tree, or is this you know, as
far as dealing with the problem, is it something that
government has to do?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
So you can't you can't deal what you can't help
on the problem on your own private property. But if
you have particular trees you like that are ponderos And
by the way, this is not going to affect aspens,
very rarely affects blue spruces.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
We're really talking ponderous is here. If there's a few.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Lodge poles in the area, affects them too. So if
there's a few trees that you want to keep, you
can protect them, you can treat them. There's no forest
level treatment because if we're talking, you know, this could
cost one hundred.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Dollars a tree.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
But if you, as a private property owner, have six
trees that you're really fond of, you can protect them.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
But that doesn't pencil out at a forest level.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
There's no there's no te eavenent for tens of thousands
of trees, hundreds of thousands of trees.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Governor Jared Polus, thank you so much for making time
for us as always, Thanks you, take care of you two.