“Democrats lay out plan to win supermajority in Colorado Legislature,” reads a recent headline from the left-leaning Colorado Newsline. So how might Governor Phil Weiser interact with the legislature, whether or not Democrats reach their goals for legislative seats? For that we can turn to his 109-page “blueprint”
Unsurprisingly, Weiser wants to be all things to all people. He talks about freedom, prosperity, and a business-friendly environment out of one side of his mouth while promoting tax and spending hikes and tighter regulations out of the other.
Housing affordability
Unaffordable housing exacerbates various other problems, starting, of course, with homelessness. It makes child care less available and more expensive, because people who otherwise would open in-home care centers are financially discouraged from doing so. Expensive housing makes it harder for businesses to attract employees and harder for households to make ends meet.
Last year, the Common Sense Institute found a substantial “housing unit deficit.” The governor’s office found the same problem.
The good news is that Weiser takes this problem seriously. And some of his proposals actually would help, starting with his push to streamline rules and speed up permitting.
Yes, housing costs rise with supply expenses and labor shortages. The core problem, though, is that local governments severely restrict the building and use of housing. It’s unclear to what extent Weiser would take on this problem; he has strongly signaled he would tend to defer to local control.
Weiser says, “I will work collaboratively with local governments, and push for legislation to offer incentives and partnerships to towns, cities, and counties to modernize land use, zoning, building requirements, and processes to support affordable housing development efforts.” This strikes me as all carrot, no stick.
Beyond that, Weiser seems easily distracted by marginal “solutions” that come at the expense of others’ liberties involving subsidies and controls on those who rent housing.
A growing economy
Weiser says he wants to “reinvigorate Colorado’s economy” based on “dynamism and growth.” And, again, he has some good ideas. He channels his inner Elon Musk (with the Department of Government Efficiency) when he says, “I will direct the Cabinet and each state agency to undertake a comprehensive review of all regulations, based on costs and benefits, removing unnecessary or outdated burdens that serve no safety value.” That’s all music to a libertarian’s ears!
But while Weiser would seek to reduce burdens on businesses with one hand he’d impose more with the other, starting with undue union power. “I believe we’ve got to change the Labor Peace Act,” the Sun quotes him. Voluntarily organized unions are an important aspect of a market economy. But Weiser favors changes that would allow unions to further force compliance from unwilling employees and employers. What Weiser in the blueprint calls the union “right to organize and bargain” is largely a “right” to impose outcomes through state coercion.
Generally, what Colorado businesses need is for government to back off and leave them alone, except to enforce contracts and protect people’s (actual) rights. Weiser clearly sees his role instead as Meddler in Chief. There’s a lot of “I will” in his blueprint (“I will partner with business”) but not much “I will not,” which is what we really need.
Gutting TABOR and other issues
“TABOR imposes constraints” on “state leaders” who believe they can spend your money better than you can, Weiser laments. Hold on to your wallets.
Overall I like Weiser’s emphasis on apprenticeships and skilled trades, although I would point out that the core problem is government screwing up college incentives. This is an area of government holding itself out as the solution to the problems it created.
One word that does not appear in the education section of Weiser’s blueprint is “choice.” Indeed, Weiser promises to bend over backwards to reward the teachers’ unions, expand unaccountable tax funding of schools, and block choice including “voucher programs.”
Channeling FDR, Weiser wants to create a “ColoradoCorps” to employ those left unprepared for real life by Colorado’s public schools (my characterization, obviously).
Because the 109-page blueprint is not sufficient space for Weiser to lay out his grand plans, he links to his “Healthy Colorado Plan,” which discusses his idea for “Primary Care for All.” This is yet another substantial step toward socialized medicine. To reiterate, in my view the problems with health care and insurance arise from the fact that they already have been substantially socialized, not that they haven’t been socialized enough.
Of course Weiser promises to sign “any” gun bill sent to him by our rights restricting legislature. Okay, he says such legislation must be “responsible,” but I doubt there’s any possible anti-gun bill the legislature could cook up that Weiser would not enthusiastically support.
In the energy section, the term that most struck me by its emphasis is “must.” Coloradans “must” do this and “must” do that. I too am worried about carbon emissions, and I look forward to the embrace of solar, geothermal, and nuclear power. But I’d rather approach the problem by building in the full costs of carbon, not through a more command-and-control style that Weiser seems to prefer.
Republican primary voters have greased Weiser’s path to the governor’s mansion. And Democrats might also win their supermajority. The rest of us can only hope that Weiser fulfills his promise to listen to all Coloradans and not just his big-government sycophants.
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.