Insurers' cash surpluses prompt calls for rebates or community spending
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Health care
The Denver Post: Insurers' enormous cash surpluses prompt calls for rebates or community spending
Nonprofit insurers Kaiser Permanente and Rocky Mountain Health Plans have built up enormous cash surpluses from higher premiums in recent years, prompting calls from consumer groups that it is time for the health giants to offer rebates or spend the money on their communities.
Family economic security
Denver Post commentary: Public assistance and a dose of humility
I applied for public assistance recently. I never thought I would do that. But I learned a lot along the way.
Colorado Springs Gazette: 'Homeless court' a chance to wipe record clean
Patterned after what are called diversion courts, the homeless court will allow homeless people facing nonviolent misdemeanor charges to have the charges cleared - provided they agree to get into case management.
Jobs and economic security
Colorado Springs Gazette: Springs nearly nation's worst in unemployment change over past year
Colorado Springs ranked second-worst in the nation for its rising unemployment rate last year, according to a report from the Brookings Institution ranking the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas on a variety of economic indicators in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Fiscal policy
Denver Daily News: Busy week ahead under the dome
Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, will present a resolution to the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in Room 353 that would declare opposition to tax increases.
Pueblo Chieftain editorial: Circle's fate
The legislature's Joint Budget Committee is expected to consider once more this week the fate of the Circle Program at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed closing the program to save $1.5 million as part of his $570 million budget-balancing package for fiscal year 2011-12.
Also: Aurora Sentinel editorial: A penny wise, a pound foolish on mental health services
Colorado News Agency: Pending prison closure: cutting costs vs. cutting jobs
Bent County is bracing for what locals say could be a back breaker-a decision pending before legislative budgeters next week over whether to close a prison in the area.
Boulder Daily Camera editorial via American Chronicle: Funding our future
What we would prefer is a permanent, not piecemeal, solution to our tax structure. DU's center will be releasing their suggestions soon, and the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, a project of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, is pursuing a measure that would establishing six income brackets with six rates -- state revenue would increase an estimated $1.5 billion, and we'd still be 43rd, instead of 49th, in state taxes per $1,000 income.
Sterling Journal-Advocate: State budget in the spotlight as session hits mid-point
With the legislative session now reaching its 60-day halfway point, setting the state's budget for 2011-12 is starting to take center stage and will likely dominate much of the General Assembly's attention for the rest of the session.
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