Naomi Riess has a guest commentary out this week. It ran in the Durango Herald, Rocky Mountain Voice, and the Silverton Standard. In it, she makes her case for affordability, accountability, and balanced representation in House District 59, drawing on more than three decades of work alongside Southwest Colorado families, farmers, ranchers, property owners, small businesses, and local governments.
The piece lays out what she hears from people across the district. Housing, insurance, property taxes, utilities, food, and health care all cost more than they used to, and families and seniors are feeling every bit of it. Small business owners and producers are absorbing higher labor, energy, and compliance costs while working around rules that keep getting more complicated. Lawmakers can’t set inflation or interest rates, she writes. But they do decide the state’s budget, taxes, fees, and mandates.
She points to how fast state spending has grown. The total operating budget ran roughly $27 billion in fiscal year 2016-17. For fiscal year 2026-27, it’s about $49.7 billion. Taxpayers deserve to know whether an increase that size has delivered results they can actually see in affordability, public safety, education, health care, and infrastructure.
With one party setting the agenda, Riess argues that Southwest Colorado needs an independent voice. Someone willing to question rapid budget growth, push back on one-size-fits-all mandates, and make sure rural communities get heard before new rules land.
Read the full commentary:
The Durango Herald may require a subscription. You can read the whole thing free at Rocky Mountain Voice.