Month: April 2022

(Complete Colorado Page Two)

DENVER — A bill that would force local governments statewide to adopt costly building codes appears to have stalled in the Colorado House with less than 2 weeks left in the 2022 legislative session.

Opponents say House Bill 22-1362, Building Greenhouse Gas Emissions, would make the construction of new homes more costly and the goal of affordable housing harder to attain.

The bill requires the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) to adopt three model codes. Local governments would be required to adopt and enforce two of the codes — or any version that is more stringent — and encouraged to adopt the third.

The bill would also add more state spending by creating the “building electrification for public buildings” grant program, and the “high-efficiency electric heating and appliances” grant program. It would also establish an enterprise fund called the “clean air building investments.”

It is sponsored in the House by Democrats Tracey Bernett and Alex Valdez and in the Senate by Democrats Chris Hansen and Faith Winter. Second reading of the bill on the floor of the House of Representatives was supposed to happen April 26 but has been laid over daily since.

The bill requires the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) to identify three sets of code language:

• Model electric and solar ready code language.
• Model low energy and carbon code language.
• Model green code language.

The bill would require that the basic codes adopted by the CEO achieve “equivalent or better” energy performance than the 2021 international energy conservation code (IECC).

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Colorado hasn’t seen the last of Danielle Neuschwanger.

The Elbert County rancher who failed to win a slot on the Republican primary ballot at the party’s state assembly in the gubernatorial race is jumping ship to the Constitution Party hoping to be their candidate.

According to media reports, she’s still a member of the Republican Party but she’s courting the Constitution Party to be the uhm (checks notes) Republican running as a Constitution Party candidate.

From Colorado Times Recorder:

Yesterday during an interview on a conservative religious podcast, after claiming her former party rigged the assembly vote against her, Neuschwanger said she will be the Constitution Party’s nominee.

Reached for comment, Neuschwanger clarified her previous day’s comments, saying she’s only accepted an invitation to the American Constitution Party’s vacancy committee meeting and that the nomination process itself will take place this Saturday. Asked for more details about her political future, Neuschwanger declined to provide specifics, but promised that she’d have lots more to say at an event this Saturday in Parker.

Neuschwanger has been on a rampage since the GOP assembly claiming the party’s process was rigged.

She now says she received a voicemail from someone (claiming) they worked for the company that manufactured the handheld voting devices used at the assembly, and that the party purposely bought devices they could rig.

Never mind the whole system allowed for each delegate to self-audit their own votes in real time and no one complained their votes had been switched.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

For seven years, Colorado flirted with the possibilities. If only we had a system, managed by the State, to provide all workers the same paid leave benefits that highly skilled workers at large companies enjoy.

Proponents promoted a conflation of the most alluring options offered in private sector workplaces with a universal, all-encompassing, State-administered paid leave benefit. They built high expectations that a transition would be seamless. Activists targeted Colorado for passage and succeeded with the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program through a ballot initiative in 2020.  Now all employers are mandated to implement one rich, rule-laden standard that will lead to spreading consequences.

A gesture of support from progressive lawmakers is House Bill 22-1305, which concedes a discount to employers for this new program.  Instead, it is one more proposal that reveals a yawning gap in understanding between Colorado’s current leadership and the employers that must put their ambitious but deeply flawed solutions into practice.

Our exasperation is growing because they continue to assume that small companies are much like their larger competitors in every way except for size, making it clear that they do not understand the full arc of these policy initiatives.

The truth is that poorly understood policies raise costs and risks associated with labor that are hard to track. Many extend far beyond what is measurable. What’s more troubling is that, overall, the rollout rate of controversial regulations has become unsustainable at the same time that these fragile companies face a tentative recovery.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Many surveys have found that the vast majority of Americans, including Millennials, prefer or aspire to live in single-family homes. But surveys rarely ask whether they prefer that single-family home to be in a low-density neighborhood or if they would mind living next to a bunch of apartment buildings.

However, a polling firm called YouGov recently asked Americans whether they though low-density neighborhoods were better than high-density ones. Specifically, they were asked whether low densities meant more or less congestion, more or less crime, and were better or worse for the environment. Planning advocates, of course, claim that high densities mean less congestion, are better for the environment, and have less crime because there are more “eyes on the street.”

Those density advocates apparently haven’t been able to persuade most Americans that densities are better. According to the survey, 75 percent of Americans think that low densities are better for the environment, 60 percent think low-density neighborhoods are less congested, and 62 percent think they suffer less crime. I happen to agree with the majority on all three points, but whether you agree or not, it is clear that most Americans want to live, not just in single-family homes, but in low-density neighborhoods.

The survey also asked another question: should people be free to buy land and develop it as they please or should the government limit where they can build things?

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

The Republican primary ballot is set for the 3rd Congressional District where state Sen. Don Coram of Montrose will take on U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the well-funded incumbent who is the bane of every progressive’s existence.

Coram’s petition onto the GOP primary had already been accepted by Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

But four district (Democrat) voters challenged numerous signatures as invalid, and challenged the petition in a Denver District Court.

The judge only invalidated 19 signatures, leaving Coram with 1,544 signatures — well above the 1,500 requirement.

Colorado Politics reports:

Griswold is supposed to certify the primary ballot by end of day Friday so county clerks can send their ballots to printers. Ballots start going in the mail to most Colorado voters on June 7 and are due back by 7 p.m. (on) June 28.

Still unresolved is the final ballot for the GOP primary in the 7th Congressional District, where Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter is mercifully retiring. 

Candidates who have already secured their place on the ballot include Tim Reichert, Eric Aadland and Laurel Imer.

Brad Dempsey and Carl Anderson’s petitions came up short the required number of signatures. 

Both said they would challenge the decisions in court, but now it appears time may be quickly running out for either to make the ballot.

Stay tuned. 

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

If it’s springtime in the Rockies, then it’s time for the Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature to sneak in last-minute bills to make your life more complicated, more expensive, or both.

This year’s edition, House Bill 22-1362 involves forcing local governments to adopt expensive “green” housing codes, significantly raising the cost of new houses, especially new single-family housing.  This will be fine for the laptop class who can afford the extra costs right now, but it will drive the dream of home-ownership over the horizon for many more.

The bill comes at a time when housing costs – including rent – are already consuming more of Coloradans’ incomes.  Using 2019 pre-pandemic data, US News ranked Colorado 48th in housing affordability, behind only Hawaii and the progressives’ model state of California.  ATTOM’s Home Affordability Report for the first quarter of 2022 showed every one of the 11 counties surveyed with an affordability index of 84 or less (100 is the historical average), and 10 of the 11 at 80 or lower.  Almost all of those counties required 35% or more of median income to buy.  A widely-cited report from just a couple of weeks ago showed Denver to be the fifth-least affordable housing market in the entire country, breaking the bottom five for the first time.

Make no mistake – this is a supply-and-demand imbalance that has been made worse by regulations discouraging new building.  Active listings and days-on-market are highly seasonal,

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