Brian Eason
Brian Eason writes about the Colorado state budget, tax policy, PERA and housing. He's passionate about explaining how our government works, and why it often fails to serve the public interest.
Born in Dallas, Brian has covered state and local government in five different states. At the Indianapolis Star, his reporting exposed how local government agencies contributed to neighborhood abandonment by selling blighted homes to absentee investors. For The Denver Post, his reporting showed how policymakers had ignored warning signs for years that culminated in a financial crisis for the Public Employees' Retirement Association and its members. At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he investigated private equity's role in pushing homeownership out of reach in Black neighborhoods across metro Atlanta.
In 2021, Brian completed his master's in public policy while working as a fiscal analyst for the Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University.
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Local governments across Colorado face budget deficits in 2026. Some are tapping their reserves to keep people fed as SNAP benefits lapse. -
Over the last decade Medicaid spending has risen at a rate of 8.8% a year — about double what the state government is allowed to spend under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, according to the governor’s office. -
This is not the first time that income tax cuts passed at a time of budget surpluses squeezed the state’s finances shortly thereafter. -
There’s a lot of confusion out there about why the hole exists, how the state budget works, and what’s going to be done to address the gap. -
In the first comprehensive review of Colorado land use laws, the National Zoning Atlas found that you can build single-family homes almost anywhere. But apartments, condos and townhomes are widely prohibited. Listen to "Morning Edition" host Michael Lyle, Jr. discuss this story with Colorado Sun reporter Brian Eason and then read The Colorado Sun story at the link below. -
Democrats at the Capitol defied Gov. Jared Polis and took steps to push back against the Trump administration. A big slate of gun bills passed. Lawmakers tried to clear hurdles halting sex assault investigations. -
The Colorado Capitol News Alliance pored through the more than 600 measures debated at the Capitol this year to highlight the most notable ones that passed and failed. -
The measure, House Bill 1169, would have overridden local zoning laws, escalating a long-running dispute between the state and local governments over housing policy. It was a priority of Gov. Jared Polis. -
State lawmakers had to find more than $1 billion in savings in order to balance the state budget this session. -
The cuts will enable the state to absorb the rising costs of Medicaid and fully fund K-12 for another year. But they didn’t eliminate the state’s structural deficit, which will require ongoing cuts for years to come.
