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Fiscal policy
The Denver Post: Extra $149 million for Colorado could mean budget battle
Colorado will have up to $149 million more to spend in the fiscal year that starts in July, money that is likely to intensify a battle between Democrats and Republicans over restoring a property tax break for seniors. Editor's note: Find essential context for the state's brighter revenue projections on the Colorado Center on Law and Policy's Policy Matters blog.
Also: Denver Post editorial: First, roll back state budget cuts
Also: The Colorado Independent: Colorado gets good news on budget today
Also: The Durango Herald: Budget forecast calls for more cash
The Denver Post: Denver employees advise balancing budget with TABOR fix, de-Brucing, trash fees
About 150 Denver city employees today crowded into the Parr Widener Community Room on the third floor of the City and County Building to provide feedback for how the city can balance an out-of-whack budget.
Pueblo Chieftain editorial: Bright prospects
Prospects for the former Fort Lyon VA hospital near Las Animas in Bent County are suddenly looking very bright. Last week Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Gov. John Hickenlooper announced that $5.1 million in seed money would kickstart a new Fort Lyon mission as a housing and treatment center for homeless military veterans, vets who need treatment, and potentially other homeless Coloradans in need of medical treatment.
Health care
Health Policy Solutions: Consumers want live help with online exchange
Surveys of nearly 700 Coloradans found they support the state's new health insurance exchange, but found they want hands-on help to make sense of the online market slated to go into effect in 2014. Editor's note: The piece concerns a study issued yesterday by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy and partners, Exchange Implementation in Colorado: Engaging the Consumer Perspective.
Family economic security
Colorado News Agency: Lawmakers reject ban on use of credit histories in employment
A measure banning the use of a person's credit history when applying for a job was voted down today in a House committee by GOP lawmakers who said the ban would adversely impact businesses whose hands would be tied in hiring preferences.
Also: Colorado Pols commentary: Twilight Zone--How Would This Bill Have "Killed Jobs?"
Also: Denver Business Journal: Fiscal impacts bill, credit checks for job seekers get ax at Statehouse
Aspen Daily News: Unemployed affordable housing resident could lose her residence
A woman who has been unemployed since battling cancer could be forced to sell her employee housing unit for not having a job.
Miscellaneous
The Denver Post: Colorado House passes bill shifting power to try teens as adults
Colorado prosecutors are closer than they've ever been to losing their discretion over when to charge teenage defendants as adults in criminal court.
The national scene
Associated Press via USA Today: House GOP to release budget blueprint that slashes spending
Eager to draw a contrast with President Obama on taxes and spending, Republicans controlling the House are releasing on Tuesday an election-year budget plan that would impose sharp cuts on many programs in hopes of taming trillion dollar-plus deficits, but would still fail to reach balance over the coming decade.
Kaiser Health News: Some States Limit How Uninsured Pay For High-Risk Insurance
The "uninsurables"-- people with serious medical conditions who can't buy health coverage on the private market -- are supposed to have a safety net to rely on in the new preexisting condition insurance plans (PCIPs). These comprehensive plans, created by the federal health care law, take all comers who have been uninsured for at least six months. The premiums can be expensive, however, running several hundred dollars a month.
Think tanks
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: What You Need to Know About Premium Support
The budget resolution that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will unveil this week is expected to include a Medicare premium support proposal fashioned by Ryan and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Although billed as a kinder, gentler form of premium support, the Ryan-Wyden plan has the same basic features as earlier premium
support proposals.
CLASP: Weekly Round-Up: Adult Education Funding Cuts, Subsidized Jobs, and Early Childhood Systems
To the detriment of low-income, low-skill workers and their families, the national trend to reduce funding for adult education continues unabated. | 
