On this week's show, 9NEWS political experts Kelly Maher (R) and Ian Silverii (D) tackle a few hot topics, including:
The silence of Ken Buck
Freedom caucus member Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado) backed out of an interview on Next with Kyle Clark this past week. His office can’t tell us when he might be available again.
We've been trying to connect with him since his stunning reversal on the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, in which he claimed to support the bill the week after it failed, despite telling 9NEWS moments after the bill was pulled from the House floor that he wasn't sold on it when it died.
Both Ian and Kelly think Buck needs to take the tough questions on this one.
The Gallagher Amendment
We did a deep dive this past week on Colorado's Gallagher Amendment and how it, combined with TABOR, is hurting counties and fire districts in rural Colorado by ratcheting down property taxes.
The cliff notes version is that Gallagher adjusts the amount of your home that you have to pay property taxes on-- and TABOR never lets it adjust up so it can only ever decline. In 1982 you had to pay property tax on 22 percent of the value of your home. Today, it's just over 7 percent.
Is this something we could see bipartisan support for changing—especially since it tends to hit rural areas more?
The governor's race
With lots of people jumping into the Governor’s race, we ask Ian and Kelly who they'd most like to run against in the other party-- and who they think will actually win the nomination.
Balance of Power airs every Sunday at 8:50am on 9NEWS, right before NBC’s Meet the Press. Episodes and extended interviews are posted on Sundays to 9NEWS.com.
