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State Issues
Colorado Wasteful Spending (FY 2024-25)
Department of Corrections: $ 7,995,411 Increase 28.3 FTE
● Transgender Unit and Healthcare
- $2,677,911 to create two transgender living units totaling 148 beds.
- $5,317,500 for “gender-confirming surgical care.
●Clinical Staff Incentives
- $6,312,464 General Fund to provide incentive payments for certain DOC clinical staff up to $25,000.
- The bill includes an increase of $6,312,464 General Fund to provide incentive payments for certain DOC clinical staff up to $25,000.
●HB 24-1389 School Funding 2023-24 for New Arrival Students (immigrants): $24,000,000
- The bill provides $24,000,000 to be distributed to school districts and charter schools for new arrival students. It increases state expenditures and school district funding in the current FY 2023-24 only.
● Office of New Americans Expansion (immigrants): $119,029 General Fund and 1.5 FTE
- $119,029 General Fund and 1.5 FTE for an administrator to manage ONA grants, coordinate with other entities, and identify opportunities for new migrant career pathway enhancement and a full-time program assistant to support the ONA Director.
-This office has had difficulty expending grants.
●SB 24-182 Immigrant Identification Document Issuance: $ 122,855
- The bill changes certain requirements for the issuance of driver licenses or state identification cards to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States. The bill increases state expenditures for FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 only.
●HB 24-1280 Welcome, Reception, Integration, Grant Program:
$ 2,436,862
- The bill creates the Statewide Welcome, Reception, and Integration Grant Program to provide assistance to migrants. It transfers funds in FY 2024-25 only.
●Immigrant Legal Defense Fund: $ 350,000
- Long Bill budget amendment
- A doubling of the fund for FY 2024-25 making a total budget of $700,000. This funding is used for public defense for people facing immigration legal issues. Sponsored by Rep. Mabrey and Sen. Gonzalez.
●Office of Health Equity and Environmental Justice: $ 2,840,715
- Funding for the Office
- Mission: Build partnerships to mobilize community power and transform systems to advance health equity and environmental justice.
- What this office does to advance their mission:
1. Build relationships with communities and across sectors to address root causes of health disparities.
2. Use equity in decision-making and partner with all sectors of government to embed health and equity considerations into their decision-making process.
3. Use data to support the narrative of the social determinants of health and tell the story of what creates health.
4. De-center communications from the English language or any one dominant language, and prioritize language justice when engaging with communities.
5. Develop, implement, and provide guidance on health equity training, practice, and policies within CDPHE and across the state of Colorado.
6. Focus on upstream determinants of health, guided by the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative.
●HB 24-1197 Department of Public Safety Supplemental: $ 9,800,000
- Funding for Community-based organizations providing service for migrants.
- Funds to provide grants to community-based organizations providing services to people migrating to Colorado.
●Department of Education: $ 56,100,000
- Expanding Healthy Meals for All Program.
- Adds $56.1 million total funds for the Healthy School Meals for All Program, including $40.6 million from the Healthy School Meals for All Program General Fund Exempt Account and $15.5 million from the General Fund. This includes an increase of $56.0 million for meal reimbursements and $100,000 for consulting resources.
●HB 21-1318 Department of Public Health & Environment: $ 198,192
- Outdoor Equity Program
- This bill injected identity politics into access to the outdoors.
●Department of Public Health & Environment: $2,840,715 total funds and 8.3 FTE
- Creating the Office of Health Equity and Environmental Justice by combining two offices.
- The bill includes an increase of $2,840,715 total funds and 8.3 FTE, including a reduction of $11,349 General Fund, to join the Environmental Justice Program with the Office of Health Equity to form the Office of Health Equity and Environmental Justice (OHEEJ) for the purpose of centralizing environmental justice staff. OHEEJ is responsible for ongoing environmental justice work, including administration of environmental health mitigation grants through the Community Impact Cash Fund.
●Department of Revenue: $714,515 total funds and 8.3 FTE
- GENTAX & DRIVES SUPPORT FUNDING: The bill includes an increase of $714,515 total funds and 8.3 FTE, comprised of $442,906 General Fund and $271,609 cash funds from the Colorado DRIVES Vehicle Services. Account, in FY 2024-25. Funds will address the backlog of upgrades and system enhancements to the DRIVES and GenTax systems stemming from legislative, user experience, and system operational demands.
Trump’s Pardon of Tina Peters:
Fully Enforceable Under Article II
On December 11, 2025, President Trump issued a full pardon to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk serving nine years in Colorado state prison. Peters’ actions, preserving 2020 election records to expose potential vulnerabilities in voting machines tabulating federal ballots, directly implicated the integrity of presidential, Senate, and House elections under Article I, § 4 and Article II, § 1. This constitutes an “Offence against the United States,” placing her case squarely within presidential clemency authority. And quite frankly, as we will see below, this is not the definitive authority in which the Pardon is valid.
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 grants the President power to pardon “Offences against the United States.” Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 74 emphasized its breadth to mitigate excessive severity. The Supreme Court has affirmed this as “unlimited” except for impeachment (Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1866)), extending to every offense and restoring innocence “as if he had never committed the offence.” Ex parte Grossman (267 U.S. 87 (1925)) held pardons reach offenses attacking federal dignity, even in non-federal forums. Ex parte Wells (59 U.S. 307 (1856)) upheld commutation absent federal statutory crime.
Historical practice confirms nationwide effect:
• Washington pardoned Whiskey Rebellion leaders for Pennsylvania violations.
• Lincoln and Johnson amnestied Confederate crimes prosecutable by states; none defied.
• Grant pardoned New York election officials and Susan B. Anthony for state voting offenses tied to federal elections.
• Ford’s Nixon pardon barred state prosecution for Watergate conduct.
Courts cannot “fetter or embarrass” this power (Schick v. Reed, 419 U.S. 256 (1974); Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915)).
In November 2025, Trump re-pardoned J6 defendant Dan Wilson, erasing a federal firearms sentence discovered via J6 investigation, treating it as “fruit of the poison tree.” Peters’ convictions stem solely from securing federal election evidence.
Colorado's Secretary of State and Attorney General are an embarrassment to the law and Colorado!
Colorado SOS Jena Griswold stated: “Tina Peters was convicted... for state crimes in a state Court. Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon her. His assault is not just on our democracy, but on states’ rights and the American constitution.”
CO Attorney General Weiser claimed: “One of the most basic principles... is that states have independent sovereignty... The idea that a president could pardon someone tried and convicted in state court has no precedent... and will not hold up.”
Griswold and Weiser ignore Grossman, Wells, and unbroken history where pardons bound states for dual offenses. Peters endures solitary confinement since early December after filing a grievance, strip searches and forced evaluations.
President Trump should order U.S. Marshalls to go into the Colorado Prison and retrieve Tina Peters immediately. If there are any who resist, they should be arrested immediately. The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution demands this action.
Tina Peters is a Political Prisoner, one that was tried and convicted because she dared to expose the corrupt Colorado Governor, Secretary of State and others within our state government. This is not about State Sovereignty, it is a test of wills. The precedent has been established and Governor Polis, SOS Griswold and AG Weiser are all on the wrong side of the law and Constitution.
Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB”
Michael is a father of five, grandfather of three, United States Air Force veteran, international recording artist, and Editor-in-Chief of the Colorado DOGE Report. He is passionate about the United States of America and the founders’ genius in crafting the Constitution.