Governor Polis will Veto Rent Control Laws in Colorado

[Jacob Mueller]

Super glad to see our governor taking a sensible stand on rent control in the state of Colorado! We need more sensible politics like this!

"The rent control veto threat was probably easy. As a businessman — and a somewhat wayward protégé of Reaganomics architect Art Laffer — Polis has a more sophisticated grasp of economics than his fellow Democrats. He plays Monopoly, they play Candy Land...

...Rent control is no different than any price control. When authorities restrain the value of a good, service, or commodity we get less of it. Former Republican President Richard Nixon inadvertently proved this by capping oil prices and causing fuel shortages in the 1970s.

Rent control has forever had the same effect. If we restrain the value of low-end housing, fewer will provide it. Restrain the value of mobile homes or the lots they sit on, and the owners eventually sell the parks to developers of strip malls and McMansions."

Colorado Politics

[Steve K.]

@Jacob Mueller Colorado has had a statewide ban on rent control laws since 1981. In order for local municipalities to pass rent control the state would first need to lift that ban (which has been proposed several times but has always been voted down). What Polis threatened to veto was a bill to stabilize rent in mobile home parks, which capped rent increases. He said he would veto it unless that cap was removed. I think it sends a good message regarding any efforts to lift the statewide rent control ban.