Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
The Great Colorado Extraction
From Alex at Somebody Should Do Something
“Colorado is losing businesses and jobs at an alarming rate.”
Bold strategy, Cotton—let’s see if it pays off. But honestly, what did anyone expect?
It’s not just a “tough” regulatory environment chasing companies away. It is a systemic preference for extraction over production. As in – how much rent, metro district fees and real estate fees can be extracted from the residents? For nearly two decades (or longer), Colorado’s leadership—a revolving door of real-estate-industry lackeys, municipal bureaucrats, and the “useful idiots” yapping about “affordable housing” and virtue signaling – has bent over backward to prioritize real estate developer margins at the expense of actual economic development.
Colorado’s “leaders” have sent loud, repeating signals to companies of all sizes: “We don’t want you here; we just want to collect taxes from you.” (Even if those taxes were over-collected illegaly, in case of Lakewood).
The signals are too numerous to count, but let’s look at the highlight reel:
1. A Transit Parody: We have a horribly mismanaged joke called the RTD that hardly qualifies as public transit. It is a case study in administrative bloat and misspending with no utility for a working professional.
2. Crumbling Infrastructure: State and local governments have misspent hundreds of millions with nothing to show for it—all while reflexively blaming TABOR for their own fiscal incompetence.
3. Educational Decay: A degrading K-12 system is a “keep out” sign for young families. Why move a headquarters here if your employees can’t find a decent school for their kids (yes, some individual schools are still holding up, but look at the state of the major school districts overall)? Ever try to ask a local school board member is they know what OECD and PISA are?
4. The Daycare Tax: Colorado now boasts some of the most expensive childcare costs in the nation. This isn’t just a “family issue”; it’s a massive barrier to labor force participation.
5. The “Affordability” False Flag: We obsess over “affordable” housing (government-subsidized units) instead of attainable housing (market-driven supply). True attainability requires fostering localized, well-paying jobs—the very thing our leaders seem to nearly despise, if not downright ostracize those with a decent income as “wealthy land owners” to be pitted against those with lesser means. While failing to acknowledge that Colorado’s leaders are in part responsible for fostering policies that created thousands more rent slaves.