April 14, 2026 10:51 AM UTC

Transparency for Me? Senate GOP Moves Caucus Meeting to Independence Institute

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: From the “You can’t make this up” department, we were reminded that the Independent Institute is one of the main drivers of a 2026 ballot measure designed to…increase transparency in government.

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After much nonsense and time-wasting from House Republicans, the lower chamber in the state legislature is finished with its part of the annual budget process (also known as the “Long Bill”). The debate now moves to the State Senate, where the discussion begins with caucus meetings from each respective political party.

The legislature is constitutionally-mandated to balance the state budget every year; the budget has been a bigger issue than normal this year because a variety of causes have coalesced to force the need to make cut an astounding $1.5 BILLION in cuts. Caucus meetings, which serve as the first chance for each party caucus to sit down together and discuss the budget, are meant to be public gatherings for those who have an interest in this particular sort of political masochism. The meetings are conducted at the State Capitol and the discussion is live-streamed in the interest of transparency.

Well, for Democrats, anyway.

The Senate Majority caucus is meeting today in the Old Supreme Court chambers at the State Capitol, where the back-and-forth will be streamed online in the same manner as any other legislative committee meeting. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are holding their caucus meeting outside of the Capitol at the offices of the Independence Institute.

The Independence Institute is a conservative “think tank” that has long partnered with elected Republicans on a variety of issues, but the bigger point here is that the Senate GOP is holding what is supposed to be a transparent public meeting at an off-site location where the live-streaming system used at the State Capitol is not available.

This is unusual, to say the least. You can see from a list of public meetings that this is the first time in recent history Senate Republicans have moved a caucus meeting outside of the State Capitol. Moving this meeting to a private location also makes a mockery of the transparency demands that Senate Republicans make elsewhere.

This is the very first sentence of an Op-Ed from Assistant Minority Leader Lisa Frizell (R-Castle Rock) published on February 27 by the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

Coloradans have a right to expect transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility from public institutions.

The point of Frizell’s OpEd was to complain about a single-payer health care study that she insists is being produced in an opaque process. Here’s how she concludes her Op-Ed:

Transparency builds trust. Secrecy erodes it.

Coloradans deserve straight answers. They deserve transparency. And they deserve a legislature focused on real solutions, not relitigating costly and unpopular proposals.

Coloradans have a right to transparency! Just…not from Senate Republicans, apparently.