Local Control: News Miner 58
Housing policy, density, school failures, guns, racism, and religion.
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I realize I’m very behind on several important Colorado political matters, including the property tax fiasco. I’ve gotten personally very busy just as the legislative session is wrapping up. I’m sending out some notes now in the hopes of getting to more soon.
Local Control
Complete Colorado published my article, “What the housing debate says about local control.” Here’s part of what I write:
I want the state to continue to stop local governments from imposing rent control, and I also want the state to stop cities from imposing onerous zoning rules that strip individuals of their rights to develop their property as they see fit. In both cases, I advocate economic liberty. . . .
For me, the fundamental issue is not which level of government sets the rules; it is whether governments at whatever level protect people’s rights, including their contract and property rights. If, counter to fact, state government instead imposed universal rent control and the zoning regulations we now live with, I’d be all for reversing those rules or at least allowing cities to exempt themselves from them. My aim is to maximize liberty.
I am not saying that we should always favor that level of government which, on some narrow issue, seemingly would best advance liberty at the moment. I think there’s good reason for the Tenth Amendment to reserve those powers not expressly delegated to the federal government “to the States respectively, or to the people.” Even if the federal government on some one-off issue could expand liberty by overreaching its delegated powers, generally we need to distribute power among the federal and state governments as a means to protect liberty overall and in the long run. Of course, we can debate which powers are in fact delegated to the federal government, and which should be.
But I don’t think the same dynamics usually apply when we’re talking about state and local governments. I’m perfectly happy for the state to “preempt” local control, whether on rent control, zoning, or gun regulations, to protect the rights of citizens.
Read the entire piece.
Housing Policy Debates
Originally, Bill 213 would have rolled back some of the local restrictions on housing construction, but all such provisions were stripped out of the bill. Now House sponsors want to “add back in the requirements for local governments to zone for a certain level of density within specified distances from bus and train stations and routes,” the Colorado Sun reports. That’s . . . pretty pathetic, given the original intent of the bill.
The bill was made worse, from an economic liberty perspective, as Natalie Menten explains:
Two new “fees” are embedded in SB 213 under the affordability menu. . . . The first is a “linkage fee” on new developments [that] . . . would go to more subsidized housing. . . . The second is a “vacancy fee,” which as the bill describes could be applied when regulating vacant units, short-term rentals, or second homes. This is typical of heavy-handed government tactics. If the carrot doesn’t work, bring out the big stick. If you own property and you aren’t renting it out, pay up for your crime. The proposed fee would again go to more subsidized, government-controlled housing.
In other words, both conservatives and progressives are doing everything they can to ruin what started as a promising bill. This is shameful. Real people are suffering because of the government-created artificial scarcity of housing.
Housing Density
Jon Caldara also has an article out about 213, but some of his reasoning doesn’t hold up, I think:
[H]ow did we get here? “Here” being the ridiculously unaffordable Colorado home market. This will be a shocker. It all came from bad governmental policy—every last bit of it.
Colorado is one big, empty plot of land. Yet thanks to urban growth boundaries, growth control and central planners’ power-hungry lust for ever-increasing density, we all live on top of each other like rats.
In a state where 98% of the land that can be developed is yet to be developed, we all wonder why home prices are out of control.
I can see a couple of important problems here. First, it’s (obviously) not the case that a house built anywhere in Colorado is as valuable as one built anywhere else, other things equal. Location matters. A lot. Second, multi-unit housing buildings hardly have us living “on top of each other like rats.” Here is an example of a $4 million Denver “tower Penthouse” that has about three times the floor space of my single-family house:
So who’s the rat now? Density, by itself, is not an indicator of quality of living conditions. Some of the nicest places in Colorado are single-family houses on huge lots; and some of the nicest places are condos in dense towers. At the other end, you can find absolute dumps both in the single-family house and condo market. Other things equal, denser housing is more likely to be nicer housing, just because it’s less expensive to build per square foot of living space.
We can and should have a real debate about cities and counties buying up green spaces where building is disallowed. It’s not at all obvious to me that governments maintaining open space is a terrible strategy. I’d far rather live in denser housing and have easy access to green spaces than live in spread-out housing with only sidewalks to stroll. In fact, I live in a single-family house with easy access to open space, but that is a privilege that many people simply cannot afford these days.
Open spaces, parks, and natural areas count as extremely valuable amenities for many or most people, yet, due to external benefits, these might not be amply provided unless local governments provide them. I’m no longer highly confident that the strict libertarian position is in this case the correct position.
School Failures
It is worth revisiting the fact that Colorado schools have badly failed a large portion especially of Black and Hispanic students, both in reading and math (as I’ve written).
Quick Takes
Guns: April 28: “Today, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners [RMGO] filed two lawsuits against Jared Polis and the State of Colorado over HB23-1219, the unconstitutional minimum waiting period requirements surrounding purchasing a firearm, and SB23-169, which denies the constitutionally protected right to purchase, own, and possess a firearm to legal adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty.” For anyone who bothers read the state Bill of Rights, at least the case against the age restrictions is a slam-dunk. However, some judges make a career out of pretending that crystal-clear constitutional provisions mean something other than what they say.
Racism: The film This is [Not] Who We Are explores racism in Boulder: “Black families faced discrimination in housing, employment, education, health care, criminal justice, and social activities. By the 1920’s, Boulder had become a rallying point for the Ku Klux Klan.”
Religion: No, Colorado should not issue “In God We Trust” license plates. That’s just an obvious violation of the First Amendment. At the same time, the state probably should not have allowed any creative expression on license plates. That’s not something the state should be involved in. If people want to express themselves, they can get plate-holders and bumper stickers and the like.
On "local control."
When my rights are being recognized and defended, I prefer they be done so at the greatest level of "control."
Should they come under assault or be dismissed, I prefer it done by the most "local" of control.