Another layer on the regulatory onion. House Dems kill a bill strengthening sentencing for violent offenders. Lastly, House Dems vote down felonies for gun theft.
Another layer on the regulatory onion.
Another landlord bill and another series of regulations to follow. Another batch of paperwork that I either get to make sure I do or pay someone to do.
Another straw on the camel's back. Another letter and another time testifying.
If you're a landlord like I am and concerned like I am at the "death by a thousand cuts" from the Assembly, you'll find the latest installment below.
It goes to committee on the 27th in case you're interested in advocating. See the link below and then my email that follows the link.
My experience on testifying about bills like these is that the committee hearings take forever. Housing advocate after advocate after advocate.
So, if you plan to speak at the hearing, know that I'm planning it too and let's settle into our chairs and wait a long time to speak together.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-094
An open email to the sponsors of SB24-094, Safe Housing for Residential Tenants, and the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I am a lifelong resident of Colorado.
I and my wife are also landlords. We have been now for about 6 years since my wife got married. Renting her condo, in fact, allowed us to be free of needing her income so she could be home with our child.
We are both decent people. We both work hard and neither of us are rich. We keep her condo in excellent condition (as evidenced by the fact that over the course of 6 years renting it we've had two tenants) and let it at a reasonable price.
I am now getting to the point of wondering whether or not this is something we want to continue. Every year, every single year, there are more and more (and yet more) regulations that we need to comply with or be worried about.
Every single year new policy, divisive new policy that puts all landlords into the same group and all tenants into the same group comes out of this Assembly. I would like to remind you also that your efforts are on top of the efforts of the city and county of Denver.
When there are more regulations, it is smaller landlords such as my wife and I, that are affected in ways that the larger landlords are not.
In the face of yet more rules and inspections and things to be concerned about, I have a choice. I can take some of the precious little free time I have outside of work and family to try and deal with it, or I can take what precious little free money I have to pay retail to have someone else manage it for me.
All the while no one is watching from overhead to note that the list of things I have to manage or pay to manage just grows every year.
I'm sure there are bad landlords just as there are bad tenants. Perhaps you could be a little more thoughtful in your policy approach to do less harm to the decent hardworking landlords such as my wife and I in pursuit of helping those that have problems.
As it is now, you're just adding more burdens. Eventually, you will add enough that I and others will start to figure that it's easier to sell the condo and pocket the cash without the headache.
If the majority Democrats were indeed interested in maintaining more housing to help keep prices low, I would think you might pump the brakes a little on regulating it so much.
Thank you,
Cory
Brauchler was right: the House Judiciary Dems did indeed kill a bill requiring violent offenders serve more of their sentences.
I have written in the past about how our current problem with crime has multiple facets, one of which is the lenient bail, sentencing, and parole guidelines for violent offenders.
HB 24-1127, linked first below, would have required offenders to serve more of their sentences and it would have required repeat offenders to serve ALL of their sentences. To see the specifics, check out screenshot 1. This is from the bill's fiscal note.
And, as Brauchler predicted in his op ed (linked second below), the Dem's killed it. Quoting his op ed:
"I am writing this on the day this bill [HB24-1127] goes to hearing before a Democrat-dominated judicial committee, where it will likely suffer a fate worse than an inmate who jumps a prison guard."
A quick look at the bill's history (screenshot #2) shows that the bill did indeed get killed in committee and shelved permanently ("postpone indefinitely").
There is a bit of good news, noted in Brauchler's op ed (though he's a little off on his details): there is an initiative working its way through the process that would accomplish substantively the same things as the failed bill.
I took a screenshot of it so you could find it. That's screenshot 3 and this comes from the Secretary of State's Initiative Tracker page linked third below. It has a title set and, barring no other complications, might be out for signatures soon.
I'll update if and when I hear more on its progress. As we have had to multiple times in this state (e.g. income tax reductions), when politicians talk and don't deliver on what we need, it's up to us to set things right.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1127
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/make-violent-offenders-serve-more-of-their-sentences-brauchler/article_76cc43e2-cb80-11ee-afcf-b3fdb74e7934.html
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/
And on a related note, while House Dems can clamp down all kinds of new regulations, while they can vote no on a bill that strengthens sentencing requirements, they can’t quite bring themselves to vote to make gun theft a felony.
It’s now a more serious offense in this state to improperly store a firearm than to steal certain kinds.
Why you ask?
Well, according to some of the lawmakers quoted in the article below, there’s no evidence that a higher penalty would make a dent in gun thefts. This is, of course, opposed to the mountains about waiting periods, safe storage, assault weapon bans, the list goes on.
Would that a lack of evidence of effectiveness applied to all gun policy. Would that there was one standard. Would that the law-abiding gun owners in this state were treated as the non-criminals they are while criminals who actually use guns for violence would face stiffer penalties for their actions.
Oh, and good on Sun reporter Jesse Aaron Paul for pointing out that the “science” the Dems have used to justify their gun control efforts thus far is shaky at best.
Oh wait …
https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/21/colorado-gun-laws-criminal-justice-reform/