Polis vs. Liberty: News Miner 18
Notes on Polis's tax-and-regulate side, police crimes, tax breaks, housing, and more.
Polis’s Tax-and-Regulate Side
The Independence Institute published my paper, “The Tax and Regulate Reality Behind Governor Polis’s Libertarian Image.” In my introductory remarks, I write:
As a Democratic governor working with a Democrat-controlled legislature, Polis has supported a wide array of measures inimical to personal and economic liberty. Although Polis does have a libertarian side, various claims about a libertarian Polis are wildly exaggerated. . . .
Polis (in conjunction with the legislature) has created new bureaucracies, imposed price controls in emergencies and for prescription drugs, enabled local governments to impose rent control and other controls on new construction, enabled local governments to impose higher minimum wages than the state imposes, imposed new delivery and transportation fees, interfered with employment negotiations and contracts, imposed costly “green” mandates for new buildings, loaded down insurance premiums with costly mandates, forced many businesses into a costly and bureaucratic recycling program, and initiated what may turn out to be the largest assault on the rights of gun owners in Colorado history. . . .
I discuss a wide number of policies under the categories Education, Employment Law, Energy and Industry, Gun Rights, Health Care, Pandemic, Property, Regulations, and Taxes and Fees.
Polis has done some things I like. As I mention in the report, he signed a police reform bill, a bill protecting sex workers when they report violent crimes, and a “free-range kids” bill. Also, as I mention in an endnote, he has taken strong action to protect women’s right to get an abortion (which most conservatives think is not a right). The report emphasizes the anti-liberty side of Polis as a corrective to widespread claims that he is a “libertarian.”
I’ve also written three columns in recent weeks criticizing Polis regarding his stance on TABOR refunds, the delivery “fee” that he imposed, and his support for price controls.
Police Crimes
Complete Colorado published my column, “Who should be in charge of investigating the police?” Here is the core of the piece, in the form of a question I asked the major-party candidates for governor and attorney general (who did not reply):
Who should be responsible for investigating allegations of crimes committed by police officers, and for prosecuting such crimes when warranted? Usually district attorneys are responsible for that. But people who work in DAs offices work very closely with police officers on a daily basis and often know many local officers personally. The work of a DA’s office depends radically on the cooperation of local police.
Hence, we should expect that DAs and their employees often (or even systematically) are biased against holding police officers to the same legal standards to which they hold everyone else. What is the proper solution for this problem? What do you think of the idea of creating a permanent, independent office, presumably staffed with lawyers appointed by the governor, attorney general, and legislature, to handle such investigations and prosecutions?
I also discuss the police killing of Christian Glass, which in my view was totally unjustified. You’re welcome to pull up the video yourself—if you can stomach it.
Murrey on Polis’s Tax Favoritism
Here is my general view: Taxes, insofar as they exist, should be evenly applied and as low as possible. Special tax breaks, usually put in to reward special interest groups or to promote politically-favored behavior, should be avoided, and, where they exist, should be phased out in favor of revenue-neutral (or revenue-reducing) general tax cuts.
Governor Polis has expressed support for something like this viewpoint, but he has not followed through in office. Ben Murrey reports in a very-long paper:
In 2018, Jared Polis campaigned on a tax reform agenda of reducing special interest tax benefits in Colorado’s tax code. He also pledged to make these reforms revenue neutral by using new revenues from reduced tax expenditures “to cut taxes for all,” specifically by lowering income tax rates. This report assesses Governor Polis’s performance on the first part of that agenda through quantitative and qualitative analysis of every bill signed into law by Polis during his first term that created, eliminated, or amended tax expenditures. It found: All bills signed into law by Polis during his first term had a net cumulative impact of increasing special interest tax benefits by approximately $640 million over ten years.
Colorado Politics wrote up a news report based on the paper. Team Polis was not happy. Per the news outlet:
“This report is seriously trying to call childcare and cost of living tax credits special interest benefits,” said campaign spokesperson Amber Miller. “We shouldn’t be surprised that this right-wing operation put out a bogus report that criticizes the governor for closing tax loopholes for corporate special interests and providing cost savings to hard working Colorado families, small businesses and so many other Coloradans instead.”
The Governor’s Office echoed the sentiment. . . .
“Governor Polis ended tax breaks for big insurance companies, oil and gas special interests, and big box retailers and passed the savings to the taxpayers of Colorado,” Conor Cahill, who speaks for the governor, told Colorado Politics. “This ‘report’ conducted by a wildly partisan group is nothing but another politically motivated attack Coloradans are sick and tired of.”
Murrey wrote in reply:
My detailed 66-page report is accurate and fully sourced. It relies entirely on official state documents to back up every claim. That makes it rather difficult to refute on its merits. So, they attempted to smear us instead. . . .
His office then criticized the report for listing tax credits for child-care centers and expenses as special-interest tax benefits. Good or bad, that is exactly what they are. The report is clear that it does not attempt to evaluate the merits of his policies but only identifies changes to tax benefits and their effects.
So what other sorts of tax benefits are we talking about? Murrey gives some examples:
He extended the electric-vehicle tax credit—a benefit which goes almost exclusively to higher earners. . . .
He created multiple credits and exemptions for homeowners whose homes use “decarbonizing building materials,” energy efficient heat pumps and residential energy storage systems. Those wealthy enough to both own a home and install a Tesla Powerwall will benefit.
He created a tax credit for businesses that provide their employees with alternative transportation like electric scooters and bikes.
Part of the problem with discriminatory taxes (as I accurately call them) is that they become perpetual political footballs—as we see here. It’s far better to phase out all the special exemptions and “nudges” and just have low rates applied evenly to all.
Disclosure: I get paid to write columns for Complete Colorado, published by the Independence Institute, and I also got paid to write the paper discussed above.
Polis on Housing
The fundamental cause of sky-high housing costs is government restrictions on the construction and use of housing (as I have argued).
Polis is partly on board. He blames “the ‘hesitancy’ of cities and counties to reform zoning rules and other policies that shape development,” CPR reports.
But Polis seems to think government should manage growth. He opposes “exurban sprawl” and wants to “get cars off the road,” he told CPR. Why not just free up the market and then let people decide how they want to live?
Quick Takes
O’Dea: Contra Newsline’s “news” editorial, there’s nothing at all strange or hypocritical about earning a good living via government construction contracts, as Joe O’Dea did, and calling on the federal government to cut wasteful or excessive spending. It’s a coherent and reasonable position.
Political Signalling: Krista Kafer cleverly likened (unsuccessful) efforts in Douglas County to ban a Pride Fest event to (successful) efforts in Denver to ban concealed handgun carry on city property as types of political “virtue signalling” (a misnomer, but still an apt comparison).
Auto Theft: I agree that stealing someone’s car should be a felony-level offense. John Kellner certainly is making auto thefts an issue in the race for attorney general.