It's Time!

Barb's plan to build a better, safer, more affordable Colorado:

MAKE COLORADO

AFFORDABLE

Colorado has the 9th highest grocery prices, 6th highest median home prices, and 7th highest home insurance rates. The cost of government — propelled by runaway government spending and higher taxes, fees, and regulations on families, small businesses, and products -- is crushing Colorado families.

These high prices did not happen by accident or fate; they were a policy choice by one-party Democratic lawmakers.

BARB'S PLAN:

1. Lower Insurance by increasing competition, reducing mandates, and reining in lawsuit abuse.

2. Lower Grocery and Home construction costs by repealing onerous regulations and increasing water supply.

3. Create a “Regulatory Bill of Rights” that holds State Agencies accountable for the private sector costs from new regulations.

4. Pursue a “Best of the Above” energy plan that will lower prices and power new jobs. Leverage workers, land and transmission from decommissioned coal plants by co-locating “Best of the Above” sources of energy in the same area. “Best of the Above” means the most cost-effective, substantial and ready-to-go energy solutions for those facilities.

5. Stop the bureaucratic growth in government that’s leading to more taxes and fees. As a leader on the Joint Budget Committee, Barb has called for a 10% across the board personnel cost cut to every state agency, as well as the elimination of many new and ineffective state program.

MAKE COLORADO

SAFE

From 2013-2022, Colorado’s Violent Crime rate increased dramatically, while the US rate remained flat overall. Since 2022, Colorado’s crime rate has remained sticky, falling modestly but more slowly than the US in general.

BARB'S PLAN:

Law Enforcement.

Support law enforcement officers, who want to do their jobs but are threatened by recent laws holding cops personally liable while on the job.
Appoint Judges who will enforce strict sentencing.
No more cashless bail!
Require truth-in-sentencing to ensure that convicts serve at least 85% of their sentence.

Fentanyl.

Possession of ANY AMOUNT of FENTANYL should be a felony.
Felony possession charges should be increased for other hard drugs such as cocaine, meth and Heroin.
Audit recently-created drug treatment programs to determine effectiveness.
To get ahead of the “next Fentanyl”, Governors should be empowered to add new drugs to the felony possession list on a provisional basis.

School Safety

As a State Senator, Barb passed legislation to create the Office of School Safety to provide grants and resources for added security in schools.
Ensure every high school has a School Resource Officer on site, every school day.
Ensure schools have funding to equip school camera systems with AI weapons detection software, to speed up threat detection and reaction times.

Road Safety

Prioritize highway repair and maintenance over non-road spending, such as bike paths and sound walls.
Support Colorado State Patrol to strongly enforce traffic laws.

BARB'S PLAN TO

REBUILD COLORADO

Colorado is unravelling, both literally and figuratively. Colorado’s roads are crumbling. Our facilities and institutions are failing. Our schools lose students, and test scores remain low, but school district administrative ranks keep growing. Our insurance market is falling apart.

BARB'S PLAN:

Education

Require at least 65% of funding to be spent in the classroom.
Require evidence of improved learning before new programs can be continued.
Support school district efforts to ban phones in classrooms.

Institutions

Enforce strict safety and high staff performance standards at all state institutions serving youth, mental health patients, and developmentally disabled individuals.
Fully fund Colorado’s State Mental Health Hospital to ensure violent offenders do not walk free.

Roads

Implement a $6 billion plan over four years to build, expand, and better maintain Colorado's crumbling roads and highways. Read my plan here
Prioritize road repair and maintenance over non-road spending, such as bike paths and sound walls.
Improve local/regional prioritization of spending priorities, leading from the local-up, rather than top-down.
Restore full funding and accelerate construction of state and regional priority projects.

Insurance

Expand rural health care accessibility
Get government and insurance companies out of the middle of the doctor-patient relationship.
Allow Medicaid beneficiaries to use their benefits to “buy into” the private insurance market.
Ensure price transparency, so consumers and patients know the cost of any treatment or procedure in advance.