Protecting TABOR, Fighting Government Overreach, and Standing Firm on Trump’s Agenda

On the April 14, 2025 broadcast, Kim Monson welcomed former Congressman Greg Lopez for a wide-ranging discussion on Colorado’s fiscal future and his 2026 gubernatorial campaign, citizen watchdog Mike Rawluk with a legislative update on surveillance and land-use bills, insurance expert Roger Mangan on protecting against uninsured motorists, and American Thinker columnist Brian Joondeph on staying the course behind the Trump administration’s disruptive reforms. TABOR Under Siege and the 2026 Governor’s Race Start listening at 4:05 – Hour 1 Greg Lopez opened with reflections on his time in Congress, calling the experience a privilege rooted in humble beginnings. The conversation turned to Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, where Lopez warned that the legislature’s push to question TABOR’s constitutionality after 33 years is driven by a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, not genuine legal concern. He argued that TABOR remains the only mechanism ensuring taxpayers receive refunds when the state overcollects revenue, and that removing it would strip citizens of their voice in government spending. Lopez then announced his candidacy for the 2026 Republican gubernatorial race, framing his campaign around the motto “People Over Politics.” He emphasized his Hispanic heritage, noting that 22 percent of Colorado’s population is Hispanic and that 48 percent of eligible Hispanic voters remain unregistered because neither party has delivered for their communities. Lopez pledged a listening tour and vowed to address public safety, affordable starter homes, and rolling back the legislature’s aggressive social agenda on firearms, parental rights, and transgender policies. “The only way government can help people is for government to get out of the way, remove all these unnecessary regulations and restrictions, so that people can not only prosper, but they can improve their own quality of life.” Greg Lopez, Former Congressman and 2026 Gubernatorial Candidate Legislative Threats to Local Control and Privacy Start listening at 15:04 – Hour 1 Mike Rawluk delivered a rapid-fire update on several bills moving through the Colorado Statehouse. He reported that Senate Bill 25-011, which would authorize AI wildfire detection cameras across the state, appears stalled after passing through committees with no floor vote scheduled. Rawluk urged continued citizen engagement to prevent the bill from advancing, noting that third-party companies like Pano AI would collect the data and sell it to government agencies without transparency or citizen oversight portals. Rawluk also sounded the alarm on HB 25-1169, commonly called the “YIGBY” (Yes In God’s Backyard) bill, which would permit high-density development on church and school-owned land while stripping local building height restrictions, density limits, and transferring approval authority from elected officials to administrative case managers. Combined with last year’s HB 24-1107, which forces citizens to pay government attorney fees if they lose a land-use appeal, Rawluk warned that Colorado residents face a growing wall of barriers to challenging development decisions. He closed with a note on HB 25-1214, where citizen pressure successfully removed a provision for automatic parole, though concerns remain about compelling courts to apply a softer standard to Class 5 and Class 6 felonies, including human trafficking. “It’s a third-party company that will make the government a customer of the information. So they have the information, and then a government or fire protection district, what have you, would subscribe to that information.”<...