John Rush sits down with John Hart of OpenTheBooks to talk about a new “citizen portal” approach to transparency—using AI and merged databases to help regular people search government spending, spot patterns, and hold officials accountable. The big idea: if people are worried about a surveillance state, the answer isn’t more tracking of citizens—it’s better tools that let citizens track government.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 16 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 13 :
Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 12 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 18 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for listening. John Hart joining us now. Open the books. John, how are you?
SPEAKER 05 :
I’m great. It’s good to be with you.
SPEAKER 10 :
I appreciate you joining us. Talk to us about your new citizen portal and your AI partnership.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, very, very exciting. So open the books just to give your readers, I’m sorry, your listeners, rather, orientation. We’re a transparency organization. So when I worked for Senator Coburn on the Hill, we helped put all government spending online. And the dream and vision of that wasn’t to just pass a law, but to create a norm and an expectation that all government spending at every level should be searchable. So we accomplished that on the federal level. And what Adam Andrzejewski built, which was ingenious, is he started to capture not just federal spending, but state and local spending. So Adam, unfortunately, passed away, as you know, unexpectedly, a year and a half ago. I took over. And we’ve got now the biggest database of government spending in history. So now Interp got a Paul Allen who runs a wonderful site called Citizen Portal. And this isn’t the Microsoft Paul Allen, but it’s Paul Allen who was one of the co-founders of a very successful site called Ancestry.com.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And… Paul and I were operating in different spheres around the time the Google search engine came on and it gave us access to this incredibly powerful tool called the internet where we could search anything. So what we’re doing, Paul and I are kind of collaborating on a project to help merge all of the key databases that are already available. And to use AI and technology to help discover patterns within the data. And the reason you want to discover patterns is you discover relationships. If you discover relationships, you can start to make predictions about future behavior and spending and the impact of things. And AI is such a fascinating technology. And what we’re doing that’s unique is is I’m making the argument that people are right to be very concerned about a surveillance state. In other words, where you’re using technology like the CCP to track individuals. So we want to give individuals the capability to track government.
SPEAKER 09 :
In the same way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. The best way to thwart a surveillance state is with a surveillance citizenry and to develop tools of technology to give citizens the power to hold government accountable and create super-intelligent citizens. That is the future that we have the capacity to create, and we’re very, very focused on building these tools.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s awesome. I mean, I have been one, John, you know me, critical of a lot of the spending that we have, not only from the federal level, I can go all the way down to a local, you know, municipality level whereby, and I’ve said this for years, I’ll continue to say it, and I am by no means any expert in finance. I run businesses and do things like that. But, John, I could go into any department in any organization, you know, governmentally speaking, I mean, whether it’s local, national, whatever, and minimally, minimally, cut things 10%, if not 20 or 30%, because it’s just not that hard knowing the waste that’s there. What I see you doing here enables an average citizen to then just go and look at, okay, what are we spending X money on? What is my local organization? What’s my local sheriff’s department? What’s my local school district? What’s my local city council spending money on? And find it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly, exactly. It’s the ability to find it, but what we’re going to be able to build, and the technology really exists to do this, we just have to do the work to create the tool, is to create what I call the Moneyball of politics. If you’re a sports fan, the book and movie Moneyball is all about Billy Bean, who was the general manager of the Oakland A’s. He was ingenious at using metrics, and what he did that was so important is he didn’t make up new metrics. He discovered metrics that were already there and always there but never applied. And that’s what we need to give citizens the power to do is to look at all of the results and consequences of government spending and how it’s affected education performance, economic growth, and so on, and let them decide for themselves which politicians to trust, which politicians to put more power in.
SPEAKER 10 :
And, by the way, and or which ones to pull back from.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think what’s important, too, is as a conservative, I’m skeptical of government at any level doing anything more efficiently than the private sector. But there are things that we want government to do. We want government to provide for national defense. We want government to provide some border security. Correct. And you can make the argument – I think there only ought to be four agencies instead of 400 in the Constitution.
SPEAKER 09 :
No comment.
SPEAKER 05 :
But if you – one could argue that you could have a Department of Interstate Commerce. The Constitution gave Congress the authority to regulate that, and like the interstate highway system. As a conservative, I would say that’s probably one thing the government did that increased what we call economic growth, and it was a positive multiplier effect. And so the conclusion to someone who’s going to be more of a progressive is to say, well, let’s use this not just to critique. government, but to find out what kind of government spending actually produces a good return.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 05 :
So we can do more of that and less of other things.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and you know me, I’m also a big states’ rights guy. I believe the states should have individual rights to do things they want to do, with the exception of, for example, I’ll throw something out at you that I think should be federalized and states shouldn’t have the ability and even local agencies shouldn’t have the ability to regulate things on their own, and that’s the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is written in the Constitution. That should be a federal thing, if you would, or laws, I guess you could say, that should be going coast to coast, just like we do with our highway systems you just mentioned a moment ago, and take all that power away from states and local municipalities, which, by the way, frees up revenue, because my point here, John, is they spend a lot of money on the very thing that I’m talking about right now that they wouldn’t have to if we did something like I just mentioned a moment ago.
SPEAKER 05 :
You got it. You got it. Yeah, and I always talk about transparency as a first principle. In other words, it was written in the Constitution before the Bill of Rights. But as you just pointed out, the Bill of Rights includes things like the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. And imagine if we applied the logic of a lot of the Second Amendment regulations to the First Amendment, where some states you have free speech and others you don’t. That’s unimaginable. We would never tolerate that, yet we tolerate those limitations with the Second Amendment. And I think transparency and the First and Second Amendment are all intertwined and interconnected.
SPEAKER 10 :
Agreed. And again, this is, by the way, great tool. Thank you, by the way, for doing what you guys are doing, because this is, in my opinion, this is probably bigger, John, and I’m not trying to say this just because you’re with me and pump you up by any means, but this is probably bigger than most people think, given what you’ll be able to bring as far as an outcome goes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. And look, we’re doing it not because we want any kind of recognition or notoriety, because we believe passionately in this idea of representative government, and that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish. That’s right. And it’s the responsibility of every generation to make the changes to ensure that that’s possible, and to create the tools to carry that experiment of freedom on.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. So talk to us about how do we do this moving forward? How can we help you get this done even quicker than what it maybe is being done right now? In other words, how do we help you with all of this?
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. There’s well, there’s a couple of things. One is that we’re working on in order to get better quality data. We need to we need to upgrade our transparency laws really across the country. As I mentioned at the beginning, when I worked for Senator Coburn, we put all government spending online through a bill called FFATA, which is the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act that created USA Spending. That’s been a wonderful tool. It enabled Open the Books to do most of what it does, except for the state capture. But there’s a delay. In other words, it takes sometimes 30 days or 60 days or six months for agencies to report the data. Every year that goes by, that those gains get eroded by bureaucrats and politicians playing hide the ball. In other words, they figure out new ways to not report, to slow down the process. And so you periodically have to upgrade the system. So the upgrade is going to be a new bill that will create what we call real-time transparency. In other words, when you walk into a store and you buy, if you go to Home Depot or any store, you buy a car, you immediately get something called a receipt. When you buy something, you get a receipt. And it’s expected. But in government, as taxpayers, we give money to the federal government, and then it goes into a black hole.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. We have no idea. Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s totally unacceptable.
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 05 :
No taxpayer should accept that. And the more we explain that, so this is what you can do, is make it plain that the technology exists to achieve real-time transparency. So we have a bill that a couple of members are working on. I don’t want to get ahead of their announcement, but it’s coming very soon. That will mark the 20th anniversary of this Coburn-Obama bill. That’s the FFATA bill I mentioned. That was passed in 2006. So an upgrade to that 20th anniversary in the 250th year celebrating our founding. So it’s going to be a big year for transparency. But then what we want to do is use that bill to promote state action all over the country. where people in Colorado and Kansas, Nebraska, everywhere start demanding that their states also improve and upgrade their transparency laws. And that’s an achievable goal that we’re going to be working hard on in 2026. Nice.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you guys are always welcome. Anytime there’s an update, John, please let us know. Love having you guys on. Open the Books. What’s the website, John?
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s good. Openthebooks.com. You can also go to openthebooks.com backslash substack, and you can see all of our latest reports.
SPEAKER 10 :
John, as always, I appreciate you guys. Again, anything that comes up in the future, please let me know.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’ll do, for sure.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, man. Appreciate you very much. Have a great night. And, yeah, his founder, Andrew Angioski, who used to be on here on a regular basis, yeah, he passed away suddenly about a year and a half ago. Those guys have kept that organization going, raising that torch up and moving forward, which we appreciate greatly because they do some fabulous work. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Listen to Al’s interview he did of late. If there’s anything you need when it comes to Al and Golden Eagle Financial, find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
TJ here with KLZ Radio, and again, I’m with Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. And some of you may not know that Al Smith has a couple of books out. Al, tell us a little bit about the books that you have for clients and what that informs folks on.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the two books are 18 Halls to Retirement, which is about a younger person and an older person who work at the same company they’re playing golf. And the book talks a lot about the younger person asking the older person about all of his preparation he’s made for his retirement. My second book is The Christian Path to Retirement. It’s sort of about how God can guide us toward building our nest egg and also helping build his kingdom as we make that transition from work to retirement.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s awesome. I love the financial connection to Christ because that’s all about our lives. Tell us a little bit about, is that something that folks can go out to Amazon to buy or do you give that to them?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it is on Amazon and I think it’s $10 or $11 or something. It’s not a long book, but for folks who come into the office and schedule a meeting with me, I can certainly give them that book for free. I’ll need to be ordering a few more copies for all the enormous influx I’m anticipating after this ad.
SPEAKER 11 :
There you go. We’ll tell folks how to get in touch with you for that meeting and maybe to get their free book.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you can reach me at 303-744-1128. And the book also has some things that go beyond financial things that can result in a more fulfilling retirement.
SPEAKER 11 :
Very good. And as always, you can find a little bit about the book at klzradio.com slash money. And on there is a form that you can schedule an appointment with Al Smith as well. And he’ll get you in shape and ready for your retirement. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you’re welcome, TJ. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. All righty. This one, I mean, folks, I know I’m going to be talking about a lot of these different bills coming out of our current legislature here in Colorado for most of the legislative session, no doubt, because it’s going to get crazier than it already is, because the left is in charge, Democrats are in charge, and they lack control. Talked about that during the first hour. I’ll continue to talk about that because they just continue to prove my point over and over and over again. And here’s what’s really funny. Maybe not so funny, but ironic. Whenever I talk about them in that way, I get no lefties to text in. And I know lefties listen because I get text messages on all sorts of other things that we talk about. But when I talk about them wanting to control things, I never hear a peep from them. And you want to know why, folks, I don’t hear from them? Because they know I’m right. There’s nothing they can text in about to defer from that or to counter that because it’s the truth. They like control. So here’s a prime example of a couple of bills. And I’ll spend a little bit of time on these because I want to make sure I’m giving you guys the right ammunition when these conversations come up. And I don’t know if these can be defeated or not. We will see. But there are two, quote, unquote, cost – Measure bills, I guess you could say. HB 26-10-12 and HB 25-10-10. So 25 means the year it was brought out. So 25 is 25, 26 is 26. So they’re dovetailing on top of one another in this regard. HB 26-1012. And let me see if I can’t actually just bring that wording up because it’s easier to explain it in that manner. This article, by the way, that I’m reading is coming out of Rocky Mountain Voice. But you can find these bills by literally if you just go type in HB 26-1012, you’ll actually get the wording of the bill. It’ll pop up. This was introduced January the 14th. In their 2026 regular session, it’s titled, Consumer Protections to Promote Fair Market Pricing. In other words, let’s get government involved in pricing, government control of pricing. That’s what it really should say is, how can government control pricing? or government-controlled pricing. That’s really what it should say at the end of the day. So what this bill says is, and this is the summary, in 2025, the General Assembly enacted House Bill 25-1090, which requires clear and conspicuous disclosures regarding the maximum total price charged for goods, services, and property. The bill adds a requirement that a person selling goods for delivery must disclose at that point of sale a comparison of the total price for delivered goods and and the total price for goods available for purchase at the store. The bill also prohibits a person from charging unreasonably excessive prices to a captive consumer and defines captive consumer as a consumer who is at a location at which a seller of ancillary goods or services does not have competitors regarding the ancillary goods or services being sold. A person that charges unreasonably excessive prices to a captive consumer engages in unfair or deceptive trade practice in violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. In other words… Let me spell this out. You are a retailer and you see that we’ve got a particular natural disaster headed our way. And again, you can’t predict tornadoes and things like that. But let’s say that there’s pretty good reason to believe that something’s coming, some sort of a natural disaster, a huge blizzard or something along those lines. And I gave the example even back in the day in my particular case with my store where I was reading a bunch of things on what I thought the next winter was going to bring and so on. And I happen to have automotive stores. And in that time, I had off-road stores. And we sold a lot of tire chains. And given the fact that we sold a lot of tire chains, I felt like, man, this is going to be a year where I think I should stock up extra when it comes to tire chains because I just have a gut feeling that it’s going to be a rougher year and I might want to have extra in stock. Because if I don’t have it, you know, there’s an old saying, you can’t sell what you don’t have. That’s a number one rule of retail. You cannot sell what you do not have. So you want to make sure you have inventory. So that year I ordered up. In fact, at that time, my wife thought I’d lost my marbles. I’m ordering up double, triple in some cases of certain particular sizes that we were carrying at that time. And the idea with tire chains is you want to get rid of all of them by the end of the year so you’re not carrying much over because you don’t sell tire chains in July. So you want to get rid of as many of those as you possibly can by the end of the year. But this particular year, I stocked up. Well, fortunately for me, it doesn’t always work this way because I’m not the luckiest guy on the planet. I can tell you that right now. Ask my wife. But it just so happened that my predictions came true. We had a rough winter year. In fact, there was one particular storm whereby it was bad enough that people were coming in to buy chains. And because I had limited supply… I raised my prices to almost double on certain types of chains. So if a set of chains was $125, it was now $250. And some of you are thinking, geez, John, that’s highway robbery. That’s probably what these people that wrote this bill are thinking. That’s just highway robbery. No, it wasn’t. It was my… in having inventory that, by the way, a lot of other shops in town, even folks that sold tire chains, didn’t have because they didn’t foresee what I saw coming. So I had inventory when no one else did. So people were coming into my place, driving lots of distance, miles if you would, to come into me because I had them when no one else did. So what I did was I overnight raised my prices. Not only did I make more money, in turn, I controlled how many of those people bought when they came in the store. Because if I would have left them at the same price where some people might have only bought one set, they’d buy two or three. In fact, in some cases, they’ll buy them and go resell on themselves because the price is cheap enough. Well, I was smart enough to go ahead and have inventory, raised my prices, made extra money, controlled the market in the process. Nobody bought any more than they needed. And guess what? Everybody was happy at the end of the day. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Well, according to Colorado law, I would have been in violation of the Consumer Protection Act of Colorado during that time, according to the new law that came out last year. Because essentially, I had a captive audience. I had basically no competition because no one else had what I had. And I upped my prices. And these politicians would have felt like I was price gouging and I shouldn’t have been able to do that, when in fact I should have been able to do exactly what I did, and I did. You guys know my feelings on this whole price control and government getting involved and so on. And anytime government gets involved in something, they screw it up, including this. So that, by the way, is… Thank you for having me. As to who’s violating it and who is not. Now, I get it if all of a sudden there’s a hardware store in town and a tornado comes through and people need plywood to go board up their windows and doors and so on because the tornado that just popped through, you know, blew everything out or even a high windstorm here in Colorado. Again, my feeling on that is if that particular store, lumberyard in this case, brought in extra material and they have more than the next person or the next… merchant down the road has and they want to double or triple the price so be it they should be able to well these folks in colorado don’t think that that’s the case they don’t think that that should be the case i mean they think that we should not be allowed to do so merchants should not be allowed to do so so again because democrats believe in control as i stated They’re going to now enact upon merchants what they can and cannot do in regards to fair market pricings. Now, in this particular case, there’s some other additions to this I want to make sure that folks are aware of. And this is more in the article because they delved into things more so than even I did in the actual bill. But basically, they’re wanting merchants to not even be over a certain market price. How should I say this? Price, a certain market price in an area. I used chips from DIA earlier. You could think of it that way. They want to make sure that merchants are within a certain percentage of other merchants around them. In other words, you sell pretzels in a drink and it’s $5. But yet everybody else around you is selling that for $2.50. You’re going to be in trouble because you’re 50% higher than they are. That’s what they’re talking about here. So bottom line, they’re trying to get involved in the pricing of goods, which is not, not, not, I keep repeating myself, not the proper role of government at all. This is not something that government should be involved in. And I guess lastly, here’s the other thing. This kind of goes back to our conversation we just had a moment ago with Open the Books. What does this cost to run? I get it. They’ll fund this out of the fines and things that they levy upon businesses that they find violating this particular law, and that’s how they’ll fund this. But think about what a waste of money that is. And before any of you on the left come back and say, well, it’s just keeping things fair. No, it’s not. No, it’s not. This is just more government control is all this is. This is what Colorado is now doing. So those of you that are merchants that maybe didn’t even know these things are going on, pay attention. Pay attention. They’re going to come at you saying, well, we’re just trying to make things more affordable in Colorado. We want to make things more reasonable in Colorado. No, that’s not it at all. This is simply about control. And now, you know, they’re going to now have to figure out a way to increase taxes and other things to be able to even control these things. Because believe me, the compliance end of things doesn’t come free. So now as a state, we’ll be spending money on these things and adding layers of bureaucracy, additional workers and so on. People that end up with jobs working for government that never go away. You know, those jobs stay forever. It’s like a church committee. They never go away. In fact, they get expanded, not diminished over time. And at the end of the day, we suffer. So you can read more about this. You can actually just Google these particular bills. And at the end of the day, this is nothing more than government price control, which we do not want. That’s Marxism, folks. That’s Marxism. Controlling the means of production and the price of. That’s exactly what it is. So at the end of the day, not a good scenario. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. And again, this can apply to everything, including what Dave does as far as roofing and all that concern, you know, after there’s a storm and so on. But at the end of the day, protect your roof, make sure things are dialed in, extend the life of with the RoofMax product. Talk to Dave today about how that would work for you. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right, looking for a plumber of old, we have that. Plumberoos. I talked to our owner, Michael, earlier in the 3 o’clock hour, and again, he’s ready to help you with all of your plumbing needs, and it’s just like the plumbers of old. He’s not going to oversell you. He’s there to take care of your need and recommend other things that you would need and not just sell to sell. Plumberoos.com, 720-219-3908.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right, up next, it is Flesh Law 303-806-8886. Anything you need legal or criminal on either side of the aisle, Kevin is there for you. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 15 :
Here’s why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you’ve been hurt by someone else’s negligence. The idea is that you’re going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist’s perspective is that you’re going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we’re talking about six people that you don’t know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you’re the one who’s hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it’s worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don’t know and were witnesses to believe that’s what the case is worth? Kevin Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 03 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, another bill. Again, I told you guys I’d have more of these to talk about as we go through this session, and today I think I’ve had four total that we’ve talked about. I guess three, three total. This next one is, let’s see here, HB 26-1036. Again, Democrats do what Democrats do. Let’s add, let’s allow, I should say, let’s allow local municipalities… to levy taxes on vacant residential property. In other words, you’re not taxed enough. You’re not taxed enough with your current property taxes and so on. Let’s go ahead and allow cities and counties to go ahead and add additional taxes in the case of a vacant property. I mean, come on, guys. Really? Democrats? I mean, you just keep chunking away, chunking away, chunking away. I get it. You’re a bunch of communists. I understand. I get where you’re coming from. I fully understand. Those of you that aren’t communists, that do have a brain and do vote, I hope you’re thinking about who you’re voting for. Elections have consequences. This particular bill is from Representative Brianna Tatone, I think I’m saying that right, and Elizabeth Velasco. Again, I probably could look… I don’t even… I don’t have to. I could look up both of their resumes, and I would venture to guess, I’ll do this, I guess, as I am talking, my gut feeling is they’ve probably never worked a real job. I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that. I’m sorry to say, but I would be surprised if either one of them have ever worked a real job. Let me really quick, let me look up Brianna here really quick. Let me look up her Wikipedia. Hang on, give me one. I should have done this to begin with. I’m sorry. I’m doing this on the fly. Let’s see here. She is a politician and scientist. So let’s see, what has she done? Bachelor’s degree in geology and physics from the State University of New York. She’s earned a master’s degree in geochemistry and another master’s degree in information and communications technology. And let me see what she’s actually ever done for a job. She’s been a mining consultant and a software developer, and she’s been a volunteer firefighter. I appreciate that. Thank you for being a volunteer firefighter, but no offense, you haven’t worked a real job yet that enables you to decide what property should be taxed or not taxed. Sorry, you don’t have that history or that ability. So that’s the first one that has done this. Let’s look at our other one. Let’s look at Elizabeth real quick. Again, I think I have time I can do this if I can make this link work properly. Give me one second here. And again, I’m guessing. I don’t always know. I try to give benefit of the doubt that some of these people actually have some business experience and some experience in these particular areas. Now, not that this matters, but Elizabeth was born in Mexico, which is fine. I love immigrants. There’s not a problem there whatsoever. She immigrated to Eagle County from Mexico when she was 16. Let’s see. Outside of… Politics. She has been CEO of Global Language Services, an organization that provides language interpretation. She served as a public information officer, and she’s worked in hotel management and food service. Sorry, folks. Again, neither one of these women have qualifications to talk about what you should be taxed on or not taxed on. Sorry, it’s not there. Those of you that are Democrats that are listening to me, neither one of these prime sponsors have any inkling of what this takes in this particular realm, but they’re sponsoring this bill. And I get it. They’re not the ones really sponsoring. This is all part of the big Democrat machine. They decide what bills they want to run. They find the lemmings out there that will actually sign on to these bills because I think in Colorado, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you only get two, Charlie, that you’re allowed to run in Colorado. I think that’s still a law today. I think they can only run two each. So you have to figure out which one wants to run on what and which one wants to be a sponsor and so on. So they basically find the lemmings that have the ability to do this, and off they go. These two ladies, trust me, these two ladies didn’t come up with this on their own. So concerning authorization for a local government to impose taxes on vacant residential properties and connection therewith allowing a local government to levy an excise tax based upon the characteristics of a residential property, allowing a local government to create a new property tax classification for vacant residential properties and levy an additional property tax on those properties and allow local governments to contract to form a local housing authority. Let me cut to the chase here. Here’s what this is really all about. You have an Airbnb, right? You rent that Airbnb periodically throughout the year. It’s technically vacant because it’s not your primary residence, and they consider it, quote-unquote, vacant. Even though you’re short-term renting it, you now will get an additional tax levied upon you. That’s what this is all about, folks. Trust me when I’m saying that. That is exactly what this is about. This isn’t about properties becoming blighted and things like that, and let’s figure out a way to tax those properties so that they’re not blighted anymore. No, no, no, no, no. That is not it at all. Trust me when I say that. This is all about short-term rentals, VRBOs, Airbnbs. ADUs even that you may have on your property that might even get classified differently and might even have a separate deed to depending upon the way your property is made and so on. But at the end of the day, this is about giving communities authority to impose special taxes upon those types of properties, collecting more revenue, and by the way, in a way, discouraging those from being there. Let me really get to the brass tacks here. This isn’t even really about revenue. It’s about eliminating short-term rentals. Because in doing so, they feel like they’ll open up more properties to be sold to the general populace and help out with this whole affordability thing. That’s what this is about. I’m not wrong, folks. I’m not wrong. That’s exactly what this is about. Because keep in mind, this is statewide. This will go into all areas, places in the mountains, suburbs, inner city Denver, where there’s, believe it or not, there’s VRBOs even in inner city Denver. And it’ll eliminate those people from having those because if you tax them enough, they’ll just sell them. They won’t be there anymore. And they’ll sell them off to Joe Schmoe, homeowner. And that person will then move in and that short-term rental goes away and that property is no longer quote-unquote vacant. I use air quotes around that because it’s really not vacant, but they would consider it to be vacant. And that’s what this is about. Now, at how much will they tax these properties? Well, that’s not lined out here. In fact, it doesn’t even put any parameters around that. All it says is you will have the ability as a local government to impose taxes on vacant residential properties. See, because right now you can’t do that. Now, I’m not an expert. I’m not a legal expert by any means. I’m guessing that because they’re allowing for an additional tax… In this case, it could be a property tax or something to that nature. I don’t think this can happen legally without a vote from the public, according to Tabor. Am I right on that, Charlie? Because they’re establishing a new tax. I don’t think they can do that without a vote from the populace. So this one may not matter, and they may even get shot down because of what I just said. But trust me, they’re poking at that end of things, and they’re going to do their very best to eliminate short-term rentals. That’s the idea here. Trust me when I say that. And any of you that are in that space, please correct me if I’m wrong. Tell me I’m wrong. And if anybody knows these two individuals, please tell me I’m wrong, but I’m not. That’s what this bill is about. And if they can get this passed, which, again, I don’t know in this case if Governor Polis is dumb enough to actually sign something that he knows is probably illegal, because I don’t believe they can establish this. I don’t think they can go in as a legislature and say, hey, communities, you can establish a new tax without that going through TABOR. But they’re going to continue to push the envelope, folks. That’s what the left does. They’ll push and push and push and push until they get what they want. That’s what they do. They’re very good at this. And again, this is another one of those where we really need to watch. And for some of you that are Democrats that are on that side of the aisle that maybe have a little bit of a brain, these are things that eventually are going to not get you reelected. Because everybody has rentals, VRBOs, Airbnbs, and so on. Not just Republicans. Democrats have them as well. So this isn’t just – this isn’t a right versus left. Everybody participates in that. In fact, I might go as far as saying in Colorado that there might be more Democrat owners of VRBOs and Airbnbs than there are Republicans. I don’t know the ratio. I don’t know that anybody even has those statistics, by the way. But I wouldn’t be surprised – If there aren’t more Democrats that own them versus Republicans. So in a way, some of you that are on the left, be careful because some of these things that you’re looking at and trying to pass may come back to bite you on down the road. And I mean that. In other words, you get enough things like this going and you tick off enough people, even inside of your own party, you may not get reelected. So I’d be very careful of what bills I’d sign on to and how I try to proceed with some of these things because at the end of the day, these sorts of things are not going to end well for you guys on the left. And before some of you come back and say, well, we need this. There’s not enough housing. There’s too many owners, too many rich owners that have second and third homes that have VRBOs and this, that, and the other. Well, do you realize they’re serving a need? And furthermore, here’s the brass tacks of all of this. Personal property rights should not be infringed on. If they want to own it and let it sit empty, they should be able to do so. If they want to use it one day a year, they should be able to. If they want to use it no days a year, they should be able to. It’s none of your or anybody else’s business what they do with that property. As long as they’re not breaking any laws, running a meth house, things like that out of it, it’s nobody’s business what happens with that house. And no county, no city should have the ability to do some sort of a special tax on a vacant home because of that. This is absolute garbage, folks. I don’t know that you really understand the brevity of this, but this is a total infringement upon private property rights. A total infringement. And I don’t know that anybody’s looking at it that way. I’ve not seen very many comments on this, if you would. I did some digging even to find this particular bill, and there’s not a lot of talk about this, and there should be, by the way, because this is a total infringement upon private property rights. You own it. You should be able to do whatever you want to. And by the way, you shouldn’t be charged a higher price, a higher tax, because you’re not living in it versus your neighbor. That’s not how this works. That’s not how this country was established, right? So these are things that we need to continue to watch. I will. I’ll bring you more updates on them as they come around. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning is up next. Again, make your appointment online. Get that furnace fixed today. Find Cub Creek at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 03 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush. Bill, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
I guess just a shout-out to the idiot liberals in this state. Is this bad enough yet, or do we keep going?
SPEAKER 10 :
Bill, I’m convinced, and you taught me this years ago, these people are mentally ill, so to answer your own question, no, they haven’t had enough yet.
SPEAKER 08 :
Senator Bill from last year, Senate Bill 3, to get a prevent to buy a firearm. We can’t have grocery bags. The animals have more rights than humans do. Where does it end?
SPEAKER 10 :
It doesn’t. With these people, Bill, you and I both know, total Marxism means the end is when they’re in total control. They’re not yet. So no, the end isn’t here yet, Bill.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’ve got a lot of upset neighbors that, in my particular area, in District 12, They went and voted for another mill levy override. Now they’re all screaming, oh, my mortgage payment went up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, your property taxes went up, dodo head.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. And that’s going to trickle down to rents.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
It always does, Bill, as you know. Of course it does.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, yeah. They’re not going to absorb that. No.
SPEAKER 08 :
So there go your rents. There goes your cost of living. But I guess these – obviously these people went to public school and they don’t know how to do math. So – to figure out how all this works. They’re just completely insane. I just wonder at what is the breaking point for Colorado residents now. We had, what, since 2013, mail-in ballots. We had to vote Democrat. We worship Polis because we just love the guy, because he’s homosexual, and that helps justify my lifestyle, right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Right, right. Well, I mean, I guess, Bill, maybe another answer to this is, you know, I said it’s Marxism until total control is achieved, they don’t stop. But, you know, there might be a breaking point, financially speaking, for some of these individuals when they start realizing, well, wait a minute, I don’t have any money left. These guys have taken all my money. I’m broke now.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, then they’ll blame it on the rich guys. They’ll say, oh, those rich bastards. They took all my money.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, what’s funny, though, here, what’s funny about that, Bill, in Colorado, they’re all Democrats, too.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, I’m not joking. The majority of rich people in this state are Democrats, not Republicans.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. Go to Aspen. I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of… No.
SPEAKER 10 :
Aspen, Breckenridge, Vail. I can go down the list, Bill. The majority of them are Democrats.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, I mean, to your point, where is the breaking point? And unfortunately, though, again, you taught me this years ago, unfortunately, because they’re mentally ill, I don’t know if they even know what that answer is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Maybe they need to go to their own government health care and maybe get analyzed.
SPEAKER 10 :
They may. They may.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 10 :
It is, Bill. No, I appreciate it, as always. I’ve learned a lot from Bill over the years, and he’s the one that taught me that those that are on the left are, in fact, mentally ill. And, yes, they are. They suffer from mental illness because they can’t reason. They can’t look at things correctly. They can’t determine right from wrong. They can’t do math correctly. You know, they can’t determine that a mill levy is going to increase their property taxes. And for all of you listening, I haven’t talked about this much yet, but you got your property tax bill. They’re all high because the relief that was put in a few years ago is now gone. That hasn’t been reinstituted. They didn’t figure out a way to do that. And everybody’s taxes went up. Mine went up. I’d have to go check from last year to this year, but about a thousand bucks. Roughly. So, you know, think about that. Almost $100 a month. Roughly. An increase. For a lot of people, that’s a lot. Fortunately for me, can I handle that? Yes, I don’t want to, but I will. But at the end of the day, you know, everybody’s taxes, property taxes especially, are going to go up, and it’s not a good thing. In fact, at some point, like Bill just said, when is the breaking point? And I don’t know that answer. I really don’t. I mean, at some point it can’t continue on. It will have to stop because you can’t continue to do these things and continue to extract dollars out of people without having repercussions. The left hasn’t figured that out yet. I don’t know that they frankly, I don’t know that they care. To Bill’s point. Now, and I wish I could answer Bill’s question better, and I know it’s sort of a rhetorical question, but there’s some validity to that. At what point, where is the breaking point to where people start to wake up and realize, well, wait a minute, I voted for that? Yeah, you did, bozo. You did. You dodo head. You voted for it, and you got it, and now you’re upset over it. Now, you can reverse that. Elections continue to happen over and over again. You could reverse this trend if you want to, but you have to vote correctly. Now, all that being said, Nanny and I will talk about some of this tomorrow. I’ll close here the last couple of minutes with this. We’ve got to get our act together on our side. We’ve got to run better candidates. We’ve got to quit some of our stupid infighting that goes on and some of the knucklehead moves that we make and some of the bozos that we run for office. And I get it. People can run for office without having anybody prompt them, and I get that. We’ve got that going on right now in the governor’s race. We’ve got folks that have put their name in the ring that are absolute, utter morons. But their name’s there anyways. They’ll get shaken out, I do believe, when it’s all said and done. But we’ve got to figure out collectively how do we move the football forward. I know I talk about that a lot as far as an in-state problem we have with the Colorado GOP. And there’s many. But ultimately, and there was a great article that came out here of late about Dave Williams and the corruption and what he did to the party. And I said all along, I said from I was the first public figure to talk about Dave Williams and the way that I did and what a corrupt individual he actually was. And that only took about 90 days of him being Colorado chair, you know, the GOP chair here in Colorado. And the corruption that he brought, I said then it would take 10 years to get over it. And I’m not going to be wrong. It’s been a year, a little over that, and there’s a lot of work to do to overcome what Dave did. And part of that is because he left behind an organization called Rhino Watch that, yes, he helped form that is literally the scourge on the party. It’s a scourge to the state, by the way. And those of you that are involved in it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And another thing, you guys never talk about me in any of your newsletters or anything else because you never want to acknowledge that I exist because if people found out I did and what I talk about within reason of you and what you’re doing, you’d lose followers. But you won’t mention my name because you know that eventually you’ll be found out and so you won’t give me any credit. I know who you are. I know what you’re doing to the state. I know what you’re doing to the party. I know the selfish ambitions that you have. your power grabs and everything else, eventually it’ll come to a head. You’ll eventually lose that, trust me. You can’t do that forever. But, again, we have got a lot of work to do on our side of the aisle to get things moving forward, to counter some of the things that I’ve talked about today in regards to some of these bills and things that are trying to be done by the Democrats, which, again, this last one I’m talking about is a violation of private property rights. It’s that simple. All right. Veteran Windows and Doors coming up next. If you want a place whereby you can save money on windows and doors by going directly to the source, that is Veteran Windows and Doors. Find them today. Just go to klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Suck it up, buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, I will continue to bring you some of these bills and things that are coming up. And, again, they’ll be happening all the way through the legislative session. Trust me on that. Will all of these pass? No, some of them will, though. Some of these ones I talked about today, don’t be surprised if they don’t pass. They’ll pass. Now, whether the governor signs some of them or not, that’ll be the next question. But don’t be surprised if they pass. Again, Andy and I will talk more about that tomorrow, including what we need to change inside of our own legislature. Party. Jordan Goodman will join us in the 3 o’clock hour, of course, America’s Money Answer Man, so have your money questions ready. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow. You guys have a great night. Be safe out there. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
