The primary race for Colorado governor has been, uh, entertaining, between the exorcisms, the antisemitism, and the extravagant claims.
Here’s a tidbit from Cory Hutchins to give you the flavor: “[9News’s Kyle] Clark told [850 KOA host Ross] Kaminsky that [candidate for governor Victor] Marx, who is a ministry leader, had offered to perform an exorcism on him [Clark] while at his training center around the time of the interview.” Many of us share John Oliver’s reaction to this mess: “Holy S***!”
But, as much fun as we’re having, at some point we should remember that the Republican candidate, whoever it turns out to be (and if it’s not Barb Kirkmeyer I’m signing up to help the Democrat), has about as much chance of winning the general election as the Denver Nuggets have of winning the Stanley Cup. Though, come to think of it, watching the Nuggets try that would be about as hilarious as the GOP primary has been.
Thus, we should turn our attention to what really matters, the legislature, and how the legislature is likely to interact with the new Democratic governor.
Every year the legislature takes on so many issues that no normal person can hope to follow all the details. I think this hypercomplexity is itself a barrier to effective “government of the people.” So there is no way I can review anything other than a tiny slice of what the legislature did to us this year. I’ll hit just a few highlights.
Union bill vetoed again
One of the most important bills of the session is one that Jared Polis vetoed again, following his rejection of a similar bill last year. House Bill 1005 would have made it easier for unions to impose mandatory dues. Government should of course recognize people’s rights to organize however they like but should not give unions any special privileges to impose their will on others.
Polis, however, signaled support for a different “long-term and durable agreement,” quotes Jesse Paul. During their June 4 debate, Phil Weiser and Michael Bennet expressed support for some measure further empowering unions. Weiser said he’ll look for some substitute of current law, while Bennet said he favors making it easier for unions to impose the fees.
Asset forfeiture reform
Here’s a bill I totally missed through the session: One to substantially reform Colorado’s asset forfeiture rules, involving when and how government may take people’s property.
I will let the Institute for Justice speak about this bill: “Polis signed HB 26-1250 into law, taking a significant step forward in protecting Coloradans from having their property unjustly confiscated by law enforcement agencies. The bill, which passed with near-unanimous bipartisan support, closes a loophole in the civil asset forfeiture statutes that allowed property to be forfeited without a criminal conviction and provides counsel to low-income property owners facing the forfeiture of their property.”
This is fantastic, and I applaud the bipartisan team that ran the bill, including Representatives Jennifer Bacon and Ken DeGraaf and Senators Scott Bright and Katie Wallace. Good job!
The Tamale Act
Just about everyone can agree that expanding the Cottage Foods Act by “allowing for the sale of homemade foods that require refrigeration and foods that include meat and meat products” was a good idea. This is the so-called Tamale Act, enthusiastically signed by Polis.
In his media release, Polis said, “This is a big win for Colorado cooking entrepreneurs! This important bill expands Coloradan’s access to tasty homemade foods while supporting small kitchens and empowering Colorado’s cooking entrepreneurs and small business owners.”
Red-flag expansion
I’m for red-flag legislation in principle, but often the due-process-denying devil is in the details. The idea is that if someone expresses or demonstrates clear intent to commit harm, and there’s solid evidence backing that up, there should be a process for government to at least temporarily take that person’s guns.
We already had a red-flag law, which itself raised important due-process concerns. The new bill, Senate Bill 4, expands the pool of people who can initiate a complaint. Back in January, Dave Kopel reasonably worried that this would exacerbate the problem of people filing complaints with little firsthand knowledge of the party in question.
In general, the legislature has been slowly eating away at the constitutional right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Although the courts have offered substantial protections in this area, the legislature’s restrictions are far outpacing the courts’ safeguards.
Wage and price controls
Polis vetoed House Bill 1210, to “Prohibit Surveillance Price and Wage Setting.” Wage and price controls never end well. The legislature should simply recognize people’s rights to freely negotiate prices. However, I will concede that there might be a case for government stepping in if companies are collecting data beyond what people have intentionally authorized. If so, the legislature (or the courts) should address that problem directly rather than try to band-aid a symptom. I doubt that the next Democratic governor will share Polis’s sometime-libertarian leanings on such matters.
There is no ‘right to repair’
Following passage of so-called right-to-repair laws, Senate Bill 90 attempted to carve out some exceptions to those laws. The bill failed.
There is no “right to repair.” What people mean by such a “right” is forcing businesses to provide consumers with materials that businesses do not wish to contract to provide. What people actually have a right to do is contract freely. Government has no proper business interfering in such negotiations.
Although both Weiser and Bennet claim to be sensitive to business owners, I doubt that either takes any serious stand for their rights when it comes to such matters.
Legislative overload
There is so much more. I’m still angry that the legislature imposed major changes to homeschool enrichment programs through floor amendments rather than the normal legislative process.
The huge bill is the ballot referral to raise net taxes, Senate Bill 135 (about which much has been written).
House Bill 1223 effectively raised taxes on software by repealing exemptions.
I was pleased that House Bill 1001 made it slightly easier to build housing. I was pleased that Gov. Polis vetoed the idiotic bill to regulate “single-use food serviceware distribution.”
I think there’s a great argument for restricting how many bills legislators may introduce in a year. Obviously that bunch has a hard time prioritizing. We can’t effectively have a “government of the people” when no one, not even the legislators, can effectively track all the bills that wind through the legislature.
But I doubt we get reforms along those lines. Instead, what we are likely to get is a Democrat-controlled legislature even more keen to press a new Democratic governor with ever more tax-and-regulate legislation.
Still, we should celebrate Polis’s veto of several liberty-infringing bills and the legislature’s passage of some pro-liberty bills. These days, liberty-loving Coloradans need to take their victories where they can.
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.
