All Entries in the "Consumer Issues" Category
Colorado Employment Situation — April 2025
8,400 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added in April; Unemployment Rate Unchanged at 4.8% Household survey data According to the survey of households, the number of unemployed individuals increased by 2,100 to 158,700 from March to April. Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged over the same time period at 4.8 percent. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.2 percent […]
American Dairy Coalition opposes new FDA Healthy Labeling Rule
American Dairy Coalition, an organization of advocacy by dairy farmers for dairy farmers, has filed an official comment at the Federal Register on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Healthy Labeling Rule and proposed Front-of-Package rating label for saturated fat, sodium and added sugar. The FDA recently extended the public comment period to July 15, 2025. The […]
City Sales and Use Tax March 2025 – increase of 5.62% over 2024’s March report
February Sales and Use Tax Collected in March 2025 2025 2024 Difference 2024 to 2025 % of Difference City Sales Tax Collected (3%) $358,690.09 $323,839.56 $34,850.53 10.76% Use Tax Collected $29,081.76 $43,440.70 -$14,358.94 -33.05% Other Collections (penalties, interest,licences, A/Rs) $1,677.77 $1,456.97 $220.80 15.15% TOTAL SALES/USE TAX COLLECTIONS $389,449.62 $368,737.23 $20,712.39 5.62% Vendor’s Commission […]
Colorado ranchers in uproar over feds’ high-voltage power corridor
Rancher Bob Bamber leans against his truck near a power substation across the road from his family’s ranch outside Lamar For Bob Bamber, the connection goes back to his great-great-grandfather, who homesteaded north of Pritchett, a tiny Baca County town of barely 100 people not far from the Oklahoma state line. So the 44-year-old rancher […]
3,900 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added in January; Unemployment Rate Rises to 4.7 Percent
Household survey data According to the survey of households, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point in January to 4.7 percent compared to the revised December rate of 4.6 percent. The number of unemployed individuals grew by 2,600 over the same time period to 152,800. The national unemployment rate decreased one-tenth of a percentage […]
Colorado Department of Revenue Announces Income Tax Processing Is Now Open, Shares Tax Benefits Information Hub to Help Coloradans Save Money
DENVER, February 21, 2025 — The Colorado Department of Revenue today announced that the state has started processing income tax returns from third-party services and shared a new, online tax benefits hub to help taxpayers save potentially thousands of dollars. Found at Tax.Colorado.gov/SaveMoney, the new online resource offers tax benefits information in an easy-to-understand format and […]
Colorado’s budget hole is now $1.2 billion, as Medicaid costs continue to climb
The rise in Medicaid costs, which have continued unabated since last spring, remain the single biggest driver of the state’s budget woes The Joint Budget Committee meets at the Colorado Capitol complex in Denver on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun) Colorado’s looming budget shortfall just keeps getting worse. In […]
Colorado unemployment rises to 4.4%, but state of job market murky due to data issues
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t release job numbers for Colorado in March as dramatic revisions have sparked concerns over state data accuracy. Colorado’s unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in December, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, up from 4.3% the month before. The state’s unemployment rate is more than a […]
ARPA Board adopts 2025 budget at December 2024 meeting
ARPA Board Adopts 2025 Budget: At its December 5, 2024, meeting the ARPA Board of Directors approved its operating budget for 2025 in the amount of $22,797,964. There will be an 8% rate reduction for 2025. This follows on the heels of two previous rate decreases, 3.57% in 2021, and 2% in 2019. The 2025 budget includes: Revenues of […]
Colorado’s new paid family leave program helps more than 135,000 hardworking Coloradans in its first year
Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) Division helped successfully provide and process more than 135,000 paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) claims in its first year of full operation. The FAMLI Division, part of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, announced Friday that the voter approved program distributed roughly $687 million in 2024 […]
City of Lamar November 2024 Sales and Use Tax
City of Lamar November 2024 Sales and Use Tax November Sales and Use Tax Collected in December 2024 2024 2023 Difference from 2023 to 2024 Percentage of Difference City Sales Tax Collected (3%) $391,079.54 $374,204.19 $16,875.35 4.51% Use Tax Collected $37,199.94 $18,681.55 $18,518.39 99.13% Other Collections (Penalties/Interest, Licenses, A/R’s) $2,210.66 -$959.00 $3,169.66 […]
Building a grid good enough to support thousands of new EVs and heat pumps will cost Colorado Xcel customers $5 billion
Visible power lines surrounding the Xcel Cherokee Power Station with the Denver skyline in the distance on December 4, 2024. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun) State’s largest utility wants new and improved substations to meet “a demand on the grid we haven’t seen since the advent of air conditioning” Xcel Energy, seeking […]
Colorado’s fiscal deficit picture less bleak than expected
Colorado’s fiscal deficit is just a little less bad than it was a few months ago. Meanwhile, there are signs that Colorado’s economy is slowing, even as unemployment is trending up. The December forecast from the General Assembly economists showed lightly improved revenues — the deficit for the 2025-26 budget year would be in the […]
New Colorado laws for 2025
You still might be getting used to the new laws that went into effect in 2024: the end of the U+2 residential occupancy rule, lane filtering for motorcycles, or the polystyrene and Styrofoam food container ban. Just around the corner, 2025 will bring more changes approved by the Colorado General Assembly. All eggs sold in Colorado must be cage-free […]
September 2024 City Sales and Use tax collections down while year-to-date collections show an increase of 6.34%
September sales and use tax numbers for the city were all down from the previous year, with the total tax collections 3.34 below what they were one year ago. When seen as year-to-date numbers, however, the total tax collections were up 6.34% from last year. The only year-to-date number that was down was the […]
