April 13, 2017
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DENVER, COLORADO
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State Senate to determine transportation bill’s fate HB-1242 would ask voters to approve sales tax hike for road funding BY KYLE HARDING KHARDING@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
From left, Dio Rivera, Monica Martinez, Maria Martinez, Nadeen Ibrahim, Devenn Martinez and Leon Martinez support the César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee outside Regis University Chapel. PHOTOS BY ANTONIO HERNANDEZ
Marching to ‘build bridges, not walls’ Hundreds gather April 8 to honor César Chávez, the late civil rights leader BY ANTONIO HERNANDEZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Denver resident Arnie Carter held a banner that read “Stop the deportations” as he and fellow activists gathered outside Regis University Chapel. “There’s nothing more violent than tearing families apart,” he said. Carter was among hundreds of
people who gathered April 8 for the 16th annual César Chávez Day march, organized by the César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee. From the Regis chapel at Federal and Regis boulevards, the crowd walked approximately 1 ½ miles to César Chávez park at 4131 Tennyson St., where dance, song and poetry honored the late César Chávez, an American labor leader and civil rights activist who worked to improve the treatment, work and pay for migrant workers. A migrant worker himself, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. SEE CHAVEZ, P2
Manuel Valenzuela, who fought in the Vietnam War, came to the march in Marine dress blues and holding the American flag in distress, to support veterans who face deportation because of their legal status.
State lawmakers are pushing to get a sales tax increase in front of voters this November to fund transportation infrastructure improvements. But while House Bill 17-1242 has widespread support among Democrats, who ensured its passage in the House, it has been met with mixed approval by Republicans. The bill would place a measure on the ballot to increase the state sales and use tax from 2.9 percent to 3.52 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2018 and lasting until 2038. It passed a House vote on March 31 by a 41-24 count and advanced to the Senate, where it would need approval before making its way to the governor’s desk. It has been assigned to the transportation committee. The bill was sponsored in the Democrat-controlled House by Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat Springs, and in the Republican-controlled Senate by Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, and Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs. The state transportation system faces a $1 billion per year funding shortfall, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. SEE LEGISLATURE, P2
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‘I was never a Boy Scout. I have no survival skills. I have a refrigerator.’ Craig Marshall Smith, columnist | Page 4 INSIDE
NEWS: PAGE 2 | VOICES: PAGE 4 | LIFE: PAGE 6 VOLUME 90 | ISSUE 25