
O’Toole: Transit doomed by changing work, travel habits
Those who hoped to save energy or reduce greenhouse gas emissions by getting people out of their cars and onto transit are doomed to disappointment.

Those who hoped to save energy or reduce greenhouse gas emissions by getting people out of their cars and onto transit are doomed to disappointment.

There is nothing “affordable” about taking $300 million of our TABOR tax refunds for a flawed housing measure.

The solution isn’t targeted programs that eventually involve the government in actively encouraging racialist thinking – it’s to increase supply to make housing more affordable for everyone.

This initiative gets the government even deeper into the real estate business.

The fundamental problem with sky-high housing costs is that government restricts the construction of housing and restricts how people may use their housing, as through occupancy limits.

The town council of Crested Butte is prepared to exacerbate the affordable housing problem in the name of going green.

Research has shown inclusionary zoning raises overall housing costs, as developers try to recuperate the cost of the mandated affordable units by raising rents on the market-rate ones.

Without tax dollar subsidies, these projects don’t make economic sense.

Vail Resorts wants to build affordable housing because they want to make money. It’s a textbook economic exchange, where both parties are better off.

Adding regulations to the construction of homes and other buildings boosts upfront costs, period.

“We say one thing about affordable housing, yet we continue to do something else that continues to drive the cost up”–Sen. Dennis Hisey

Many legislators wish to impose the sort of harms on others that they would decry as profoundly unjust if applied to them.
By Jon Caldara
Only about a month and a half ago I predicted the Denver Broncos will use the subtle threat of leaving Colorado to get taxpayers to build them a new stadium.
In other words, I predicted history will repeat itself. Football stadiums are on a rotating 25-year life cycle with taxpayers buying these playpens so the ultra-wealthy can let their boys concuss one another.
Apparently, Denver Broncos ownership wishes to make me look foolish, (not a high bar; watch me dance).
So, after my poorly timed column ran, The Denver Broncos announced their plans to privately finance a new stadium in the heart of the city.
If they are good to their word, it will be a refreshing and rare example of an ownership group respecting both taxpayers and fans. Their announcement caught me off-guard. Even I had to be impressed.
But until the entire deal is signed in permanent ink, I will take my lead from Ronald Reagan to “trust but verify.” In other words, let’s see the details
The joint statement from the Broncos’ owners, the governor and the mayor of Denver was, after all, a well word-smithed work of craftsmanship: “In the spirit of a true civic partnership, the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group will privately fund this investment and work with the community, city and state to reconnect historic neighborhoods — with no new taxes.”
The magic words of course being, “with no new taxes.” These words have been used before to lull voters into whopping tax increases. In fact, the Denver Broncos under its previous ownership used that very phrase to get us to pay for their current stadium.
After Coors Field was basically paid for, meaning the 0.1% sales tax was set to expire, voters were asked to continue that tax to pay for Sports Authority-Invesco-Empower-Acme-Explosives-and-Road-Runner-Traps Field at Mile High.
If you keep a current tax from sunsetting, can you with a straight face say that it’s not a new tax? Bond dealers can. But of course, it’s a new tax.
We can only hope the Broncos’ owners aren’t eyeing some expiring tax to continue. Remember what happened after George H.W. Bush broke his “no new taxes” promise. History was rightfully unkind.
Also, new tax is different from new debt. It’s one thing for the Walton-Penner family to take out a mortgage for their stadium, it’s another thing if we somehow pick it up.
Since money is fungible, we should be careful of the shell game where taxpayers don’t pay for a new stadium but instead pay for all the improvements and new development around it.
With all that as a warning, we all should show our gratitude to the owner’s group for their rejection of corporate welfare by at least forgiving their loss to the Colts. (Really, the Colts?)
Now let’s get down to the shameful, depraved and totally un-American issue with the new proposed stadium.
Football is a war. Maybe a battle performed for our amusement, but a war all the same. It’s war played out on the gridiron. There are aerial assaults, long bombs, crushing ground offensives fighting for every inch. It’s war baby. (For the uninitiated I recommend George Carlin’s classic take of football versus baseball.)
And war is not fought indoors; chess tournaments and ping-pong matches are.
Football. Isn’t. Played. Inside.
At least real football isn’t. Although now that breathing too hard on the quarterback is “roughing the passer” and kickoffs look like a pee-wee T-Ball game, we might need to prevent a little snow giving a linebacker the sniffles
I get it. The Walton-Penner family wants a stadium with a retractable roof to allow events like concerts to happen year-round. They’d like to land a Super Bowl here. All very understandable. And all an insult to everything that makes America, well, America.
The Buffalo Bills are building a new stadium without a roof. For a quick reminder, Buffalo NY makes Denver look like Pasadena. Colorado is home to dueling cowboys, towering, rugged mountain peaks where the battle of the fittest plays its life-and-death game and men don’t lift their little pinky when they drink coffee.
Are we going to be out macho-ed by, by, well, New Yorkers?
Maybe a tax subsidy to make the stadium open-air could fit into my libertarian mindset somehow. I’ll ask our “libertarian” governor for advice.

Growing opposition to new renewables infrastructure has raised some concern with their transparency. PowerGab Hosts Jake Fogleman and Amy Cooke discuss this and more.
Show Notes:
Site survey:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzyKJvaFjljacKHg-Okm9x7Jnvz_YWyD/view?pli=1
Mitch and Isaac – declining value of wind and solar.
CO Sun article:
https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/20/solar-siting-colorado-energy-office-housing-governor/

After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, what’s left of the organization he built into a political machine. Spencer Walker runs Turning Point USA in the Denver area. He sees opportunity to find common ground with his political opponents.