He was the only GOP lawmaker in Colorado to vote for Medicaid expansion. Now...
Larry Crowder is a San Luis Valley farmer and rancher who represents a large rural swath of southeastern Colorado from Wolf Creek Pass to Kansas. The other day after a smoke break outside the Capitol...
View ArticleColorado’s biggest political battle hangs in legal limbo
DENVER — More than a month has passed since the Democratic governor here asked the Republican attorney general to help clear up a legal question involving what’s become this year’s biggest political...
View ArticleLawyers for two ex-Colorado governors say Hickenlooper hospital plan is legal
As Coloradans wait for an opinion from Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman over what’s become the biggest political debate in Colorado, two former executive branch lawyers are weighing in...
View ArticleHospital provider fee becoming a campaign issue in Colorado
CENTENNIAL, CO — Larry Crowder, a Republican senator representing a rural district in southeastern Colorado, is running simultaneously for re-election and straight into the year’s biggest political...
View ArticleColorado GOP Sen. Larry Crowder vs. Koch group on Twitter
Republican Sen. Larry Crowder has introduced a new word into the rhetorical battle against the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity, their state-based prime political arm in Colorado. You...
View ArticleColorado’s GOP AG clears key Democratic budget plan as legal
By saying a plan to reclassify a billion-dollar hospital program is constitutional, Colorado’s Republican attorney general today bolstered a key strategy by the Democratic governor to free up money...
View ArticleWhat’s Colorado’s hospital provider fee, who cares and why?
This year, three words have dominated the political debate under the gold dome of the Colorado Capitol: Hospital Provider Fee. It’s become a political battle, a legal battle, and has stretched from...
View Article5 reactions to Cynthia Coffman’s hospital provider fee bomb
Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman’s office dropped a news bombshell at the state Capitol on the eve of the Colorado caucuses— when most eyes are turned toward national politics not state...
View ArticleDemocrats gear up to fight for a hospital provider fee bill
Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman announced Monday that reclassifying the state’s hospital provider fee as an enterprise meets constitutional muster, restarting conversations among lawmakers...
View ArticleHospital provider fee negotiations are in the works — or are they?
Legal wrangling over the constitutionality of reclassifying a billion-dollar hospital program to free up money in Colorado’s budget might be over, but the political wrangling is not. At issue is...
View ArticleWhy GOP Sen. Larry Crowder sponsoring a hospital provider fee bill is a big deal
Well, it happened. Lawmakers in Denver finally introduced a bill that would reclassify the state’s hospital provider fee into a standalone enterprise. Doing so will keep the hundreds of millions of...
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How Colorado’s schools could see another $90 million in revenue
Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Todd Engdahl on March 29, 2016 The outcome of a high-stakes legislative fight over health care spending could increase education funding by $90 million next year, but...
View ArticleHouse panel advances hospital provider fee bill, Hickenlooper praises GOP...
A Democratically controlled House panel this week advanced a bill that would reclassify Colorado’s hospital provider fee into an enterprise, freeing up more money for state programs. “I believe this...
View ArticleColorado is in Americans for Prosperity’s ‘persuasion universe’
BRIGHTON, CO — It’s an unseasonably warm Wednesday in early April, and a handful of activists in green Americans for Prosperity T-shirts are reading addresses off an iPad and matching them with homes...
View ArticleHospital provider fee bill survives furious House challenge
With just 13 days to go in the 2016 legislative session, the House today held its long-awaited debate on whether to reclassify a billion-dollar hospital program into a standalone enterprise to free...
View ArticleJohn Suthers: I don’t understand some Republicans on the hospital provider...
COLORADO SPRINGS — Lawmakers wrap up their work in Denver next week, but the largest battle waged during the legislative session remains in a stalemate. That fight is over whether to re-classify a...
View ArticleDeath notice: The dramatic debate over the hospital provider fee is done
Debate over Colorado’s hospital provider fee fizzled Tuesday in a committee room in downtown Denver. Alamosa Republican Sen. Larry Crowder, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s budget director, and...
View ArticleWill Hickenlooper drag 100 lawmakers back to Denver?
DENVER — One of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s key budget strategies for 2016 — reclassifying the state’s hospital provider fee into a standalone enterprise like the state lottery, to free up...
View ArticleBusiness group asks Guv to reconvene lawmakers over the Hospital Provider Fee
The pro-business group Colorado Concern wrote a half-page letter in Sunday’s Denver Post encouraging Gov. John Hickenlooper to call a special session to reclassify a hospital provider fee as an...
View ArticleAmericans for Prosperity is spending thousands to thwart a special session
Colorado’s chapter of the free-market group Americans for Prosperity is spending at least $10,000 to try and stop Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper from calling a special legislative session. “We’re...
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