January 15, 2025 03:06 PM UTC

Senate Republicans Look to Save Coloradans Whole Dollars!

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• by: Colorado Pols

Democrats in the State Senate held a 23-12 majority in the state legislature from 2023-24. Republicans weren’t able to change that disadvantage in the last election — the margin remains 23-12 — so they’re taking a different approach toward legislating in 2025.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen convened a press conference at the State Capitol, where his members posed next to a tower containing $4,500 in disgusting, wrinkled bills that were definitely not acquired at a strip club. The purpose of this presser, as Nick Coltrain reports for The Denver Post, was to introduce a list of things that Republicans want to not do in 2025:

Colorado Senate Republicans on Tuesday named more than a dozen state laws they hoped to repeal as part of a package of reforms that they said would bolster affordability in the state.

The targeted laws include renter protections — which they say drive up costs for landlords that are then passed on to tenants — and limits on greenhouse gas emissions during construction. Others include state transportation fees used to pay for electric charging stations and emission reductions, fees on utility bills that pay for low-income assistance programs, fees on single-use shopping bags and more.

All the laws targeted for repeal were passed after Democrats won majority control of both legislative chambers in 2018, though several of the measures had bipartisan co-sponsors…

…But taken in total, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen said, the “crippling regulations and costly fees” add up to more than $4,500 that could be saved for Colorado families each year. That would be done either by eliminating costs passed on to them by businesses and landlords or through direct savings from fee repeals.

This $4,500 in savings that Republicans claim they can create through undoing prior legislation is dubious as best. As Coltrain explains:

Individually, Republicans note that some of the potential savings are relatively small. They expect Coloradans would save $1.40 annually by repealing a fee on new tires that’s used to pay for tire recycling and other disposal efforts, for example. 

Sara Wilson of Colorado Newsline dug a little deeper into the Senate GOP proposals — all of which are theoretical at this point after Lundeed acknowledged that they didn’t have a single Senate Democrat interested in any of their ideas:

Republicans calculate that repealing the shopping bag fee, for example, would save people $90 annually. That assumes an annual use of 900 non-reusable bags per year. The Legislature approved a plastic bag ban in 2021 and imposed a fee on paper bags, and it went fully into effect last year, with an exemption for smaller stores.

Wow! A savings of $90 if you use 900 plastic bags in a year! Think of the savings if you use 1,000 plastic bags!

Tell us more, Colorado Newsline:

A repeal of the delivery fee would save Coloradans $45, Republicans say, assuming about 166 deliveries through services like DoorDash and Uber Eats per year.

“It may seem like these fees only make a few dollars difference in the grand scheme of things, but these pennies really do add up,” Baisley said. [Pols emphasis]

You said it, State Sen. and gubernatorial hopeful Mark Baisley (R-Roxborough Park): The more money you spend, the more pennies you save!

This is obviously silly. If Senate Republicans wanted to make a difference in the lives of Coloradans, maybe they could, you know, propose some meaningful legislation instead of combing through archives to find piddly shit to eliminate. Someone should also remind these folks that Colorado is facing a serious budget shortfall in 2025; any money they remove from state coffers will just lead to more problems elsewhere.

Colorado Republican lawmakers, by and large, are not serious people. It’s not a mystery as to why they can’t seem to chip away at that 11-seat Democratic majority in the State Senate.