Colorado Affordable Housing Crisis—Part 2

I have been absent for some time since my last article on the “Housing Crisis” as I have descended from my ivory tower of intellectual contemplation and exposition on the thorny issue of housing policy to actually get down in the dirt with the political insiders and common folk to oppose our Governor’s housing bill as it winds its way through the legislative process.

How it is supposed to be.

I know that many have gone through the middle school social studies unit on “How a Bill Becomes a Law.”  A refresher… someone has a bright idea that they wish to become a law.  It is introduced in the state legislature, in this case (without much fanfare actually) and is assigned to a legislative committee.  This committee holds a hearing at the State Capital. The good people of Colorado and their paid lobbyists provide their insights to this select group of legislators who then vote to adopt, adopt with amendments or reject the bill.  If it is rejected, it is done for the session and either stays dead or is resurrected like a zombie in the next session. Bad ideas never seem to die.

If successful in committee, and the bill requires the State to spend some money as opposed to a bill where the State just makes other people pay money, it goes to the Appropriations Committee where those folks have a hearing, take a whack at it and pass it on to the full floor for second reading.  Debate, blah blah blah, amendments, blah blah blah and then a vote. If it passes (which it usually does on a party line vote), then it is scheduled for third reading in case somebody changes their mind which they rarely do.  When it passes, it goes off to the other chamber to go through the same process. If successful there, the two houses work out any differences they may have and then it off to the Governor who calls a meeting to have a lot of people stand around him watching him sign the bill with a bunch of pens.

What really happens.

Now one might think that this process has so many steps that could go wrong, how can a bill ever get passed? Well, you are presuming that before a bill gets introduced no one has heard of or thought of this great idea, but that instead there are lots of behind-the-scenes philosophical serious policy debates, and the legislators really care what you think.  Could be…, but now the truth.

Before any bill is introduced, the proponents, if they want to be successful, grease the skids well before bringing anything to the legislature. These skids include lobbying the “stakeholders” which we used to call “special interests.”  Back in the good old days, special interests were all about corporations trying to get favorable treatment from the government so they could make obscene profits and oppress the common man. Now there are many other special interests such as those that want to free criminals (justice reform), take our guns (Moms Demand Action), or rid the planet of CO2 (environmental groups) … and oppress the common man.

Now bills introduced by the political party in the minority are usually introduced to pimp their opponents by making them vote against what the minority party believes is God’s true word on earth to embarrass them for the next election.  They know that their bills have virtually no chance in hell of being passed.

In fact, in Colorado, the death of the minority’s bills take place in what is called informally “the kill committee”, officially the State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee in the House and the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee in the Senate.  These committees in both Houses are where the leaders of the Majority Party send all the bills to which they object to die as quickly and quietly as possible with the least amount of embarrassment. 

Now to be fair, of which I would point out I am not required to be since this is my column, some bills are sponsored by members of both parties (bipartisan), and they ordinarily pass since they usually aren’t very important.  And before some of you spazz out, this process of subverting full debate is done equally by both parties, with the party in the minority squealing like a stuck pig in indignation as if it had never done exactly the same thing just the year before when it was in the majority.  You should get 3 college credits toward your Poli Sci degree for the above explanation, but let’s get back to housing. 

Can it be different this time?

The housing bill (SB 23-213) just happens to be our Governor’s signature policy initiative for the 2023 legislative session.  Why he picked this I do not know.  I can only surmise that since he has already seized control of the oil and gas and utilities industries in prior legislative sessions, he saw housing as another conquest to expand his empire for State control.

Anyway…housing it is.  He and his minions are referred to as the “Governor’s Office” as in the “Governor’s office had a meeting” as if an “office” can meet with anyone. Well, his “office” met with the usual “stakeholders”/special interests. Prior to having his bill introduced in the legislature, he lined up the Greens and the Progressive groups and convinced the chambers of commerce to generally shut up.  His team also met with the representatives of the cities and counties to attempt to gain their support to seize their zoning authority. The counties were excluded from the legislation so they did not have a direct interest, but the cities were not willing to give up local control over zoning that that they and their citizens had exercised for the last 100 years, at least. The Colorado Municipal League, at the end of their “stakeholder” meeting with the Governor’s Office, was effectively told to stuff it. 

In the State of the State speech, the Governor highlighted his housing proposal as his number one priority promising essentially that the State would cut red tape and would provide housing for everyone in every community at a price they wanted to pay, affordable. The picture he painted was that with him at the helm, he would bend the rules of economics and solve the market shortage of affordable housing in every municipality and region for everyone including those experiencing homelessness. He also was going to stop the rise of sea levels.  Oh, no wait.  That was Obama.

The details of the actual bill wasn’t introduced until late March, but it didn’t look a lot like what the Governor had promised. Called “More Housing Now” it created a massive State Planning and Zoning Commission tasked to create a “model housing code” to be imposed on every municipality either with their agreement or not.  The Governor’s scheme would have the state bureaucracy craft zoning rules for housing but with certain required “minimums” that would result in cramming housing into established neighborhoods and mountain communities. The Cities were offered the option of crafting their own policies, but if they did not bend to the dictates of the State, the State would impose its own rules. Essentially, a Community could do whatever it wanted as long as it did exactly what the State wanted. There was virtually nothing in the bill relating to or requiring any type of affordability.

The Municipal League notified its municipal members, the cities and the towns.  The cities and towns got angry and notified their citizens.  Then the citizens got angry.

Last Thursday before the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee (remember how a bill becomes a law above), more than 250 people signed up to testify/complain at a hearing that lasted until 11 pm that night. It drew more people than even the recent abortion and gun bills which have always been perennial topics that have excited the masses.

Even before the Committee hearing began, learning of the growing dissent, the Governor’s “Office” having spent months to craft their 105-page land reform committed to make massive changes to its original proposal.  This led to a split in the testimony before the committee between those who were opposed the bill and those who were opposed unless there were significant amendments.

Opponents challenged the marketing theme of “More Housing Now” as results of the regulatory structure created would only be in place at the earliest by 2025.  Also the bill would be subject to a series of lawsuits challenging the State’s blatant unconstitutional seizure of local zoning authority which cities have maintained since the early 1900s. There was likely not going to be any affordable housing, and it wasn’t going to happen “now”. There were also complaints from the mountain/resort communities on the Western Slope that there would not have enough water to satisfy the State’s mandated density requirements.

Pulling back to regroup, the Governor tweaked the initial bill sending out 52 pages of amendments to the original 106-page bill.  Despite the length of its efforts, the proposed changes were well…underwhelming.  The bill which already had exempted the counties now effectively exempted the mountain resort communities to satisfy the objections of the Democrat Senator from the Western Slope on the Local Government and Housing Committee who was torn between his allegiance to the Governor and his political party and the opposition of his municipalities (Democrat and Republican) and their citizens.

In the meantime, opposition from the Front Range communities and its citizens became more solidified as disparate cities such as Colorado Springs and Denver joined forces to declare the bill “fundamentally flawed.”  All except one of Mayors in the metro Denver area, Democrat and Republican, signed on to oppose the bill.

Now the issue had turned from housing into power. The Governor who has been mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate in the 2024 election as a popular moderate alternative to Joe Biden had thought that with his super majorities of political allies in the state legislature, he could decree whatever he wanted and remain popular.  Now for the first time, there has developed a consolidated bipartisan group to oppose him and challenge his mythical superiority.

The vote from the Senate Committee on Local Government and Housing whether to move this bill forward will take place next Tuesday the 18^th. I suspect that pressure on the Democrats is intense.  If it survives this Committee vote, the bill must go to the Appropriations Committee where Democrats are also being fiercely lobbied for their vote, regardless of the merits of the bill.

This, my friends, is policy and politics in America and Colorado as of today. We already know that the passage of this bill will do little or nothing to expand the supply of affordable housing in the near future if ever but rather will destroy previously content single family residential neighborhoods.

Will policy, democracy and the people’s will prevail just this once? Maybe…. I’ll let you know.