Affordability and the Legislature
Complete Colorado published my recent article about affordability and the legislature. I start off with a political point:
Thanks to the progressive legislature’s past bills, Coloradans are starting off the new year with grocery bag taxes (officially “fees”); a new payroll tax; taxes (“fees”) on online orders, ride shares, and deliveries; more-expensive housing and food due to regulations; coming costly recycling mandates; and more.
Then I talk about continued legislative efforts to “help” people facing high housing costs by imposing more taxes and regulations. What we really need is a freer market in housing.
I get into basic justifications for government intervention and write:
Rather than make a good-faith effort to solve real externalities, progressives tend to pretend than every problem, real or imagined, is one of externalities, and that any government reaction, however nonsensical, is justified as a response. And they steadfastly ignore how their own policies created many of the problems that they now wish to “fix” using the heavy boot of bureaucracy.
I close by making a deeper philosophic point:
Freedom is “affordable” in a deeper sense. The term “afford” originally meant something like to contribute, advance, or accomplish. An “affordance” is a possibility the environment provides. Freedom is affordable in the sense that freedom affords individuals and members of voluntary organizations the best opportunities to make the most of their lives and to make the decisions that work for them.
Read the entire piece.
Quick Takes
Taxes: “Two Democratic lawmakers plan to ask voters this November to divert TABOR refunds to primarily help pay, attract and retain teachers, making it third in line for TABOR surplus revenues,” reports Colorado Politics. See more from the Colorado Sun.
Criminal Justice: Alex Burness points out that one of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee is “an ex-prosecutor who has often opposed reform bills from progressives.” See Burness’s article on the topic.
Regulations: So far compliance is low for Denver’s inane licensing requirements for owners of rental properties, reports Westword.
Liability: The legislature is looking to further limit liability of property owners who allow others entry for recreational purposes, reports Jason Blevins. Offhand that seems sensible.
Guns: For once I agree with Kristi Burton Brown in her criticisms of a horrible bill to ban many semi-automatic guns. See also Dave Kopel’s backgrounder.
Ballot Access: David Aitken wrote a history of Colorado’s ballot access laws. Although at the time I supported easier ballot access for minor parties, in retrospect I think the changes were a mistake. Instead, the Libertarian Party should have promoted approval voting and equal ballot access to all comers regardless of party. See my 2018 Colorado Sun article on the general topic.
Snow: Jim Charlier argues that there are real trade-offs between plowing snow off of Denver roads and keeping the air clean: “Streets that have been plowed get icy at night from the day's snowmelt and have to be treated with sand and chemicals. The more miles of plowed street we have, the more particulate emissions we have—a result of both the increased use of sand and the reduction in snow cover.”