Are you persuaded by the politicians in Washington warning us the real victims of a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage will be single Moms struggling to raise their kids at jobs paying $7.25 an hour? We are asked to ignore the million-plus families that would immediately be pulled out of poverty and urged to take pity on the 900,000 workers who may lose their entry-level jobs over the next decade. Somehow, I doubt those disturbed they may have to pay another quarter for a burger have taken the time to discuss fair wages with the moms who flip them.

Evidence that financial rewards are more than a little daft in America, what should we make of Lady Gaga offering $500,000 from Rome, where she is filming a movie, for the return of her French bulldogs snatched by dognappers on a Los Angeles sidewalk? No questions asked about their provenance. In contrast, not a dime was pledged toward the arrest and conviction of the armed robbers who shot and wounded Gaga’s L. A. dog walker. There were good reasons why frontier justice relied on iconic “Wanted Dead or Alive” posters. As much as these likely offend legal sensibilities today, it seems predictable a criminal willing to shoot a dog walker may soon graduate to murder if not captured.

Closer to home, our legislature is once again discussing permission for Pinnacol, Colorado’s quasi-governmental, workers compensation provider of last resort, to reorganize as a private insurer, free to develop additional coverages and sell its plans to employers outside the state. In exchange for a bulging bagful of Benjamins totaling as much as $750 million, the only actuarial analysis currently available reportedly originated within Pinnacol. Republicans often complain government should operate more like a business. In the case of Pinnacol, the legislature accomplished this in 2003 and it now delivers low rates, superior medical care for injured workers and a financial reserve approaching two billion dollars.

Rather than showcasing this success, privatization legislation will soon be introduced by Republican Representative Matt Soper of Delta in a third attempt over the past decade to cash in what amounts to a winning lottery ticket. Why does this zombie keep returning? An explanation can be found in the provisions of Colorado’s TABOR amendment. This is a straightforward raid on the cash drawer at Pinnacol. It’s not precisely a theft since the leadership at Pinnacol Assurance has pulled the drawer open and said, “Come and get it!” This is neither illegal, nor unethical but remains dubious public policy.

There are numerous insufficiently funded and worthy causes in the state budget that might benefit from this one-time largesse, including K-12 schools and Colorado’s unemployment trust funds, which are nearly certain to be tapped out post-pandemic. Soper is proposing to funnel this cash windfall into a permanent endowment for the Office of Just Transition, currently unfunded, to jumpstart retraining programs for mining and power plant workers losing jobs. Whether they wish to move to the Front Range as coders is unproven. Another tranche would be sluiced into the state’s Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund for state owned buildings and property, both estimable initiatives. Soper can’t be faulted for attempting to grab the cash stash before a more sympathetic plaintiff beats him to the bank.

Colorado’s gaming towns engineered a similar fiscal maneuver by earmarking tax revenues from expanded betting limits to support the state’s community college system. It sounded like a clever way to kill two birds with one stone and voters approved but we can question whether it represented judicious public policy. There is a longstanding premise that some evident nexus should link a source of tax revenue to the activities it funds. Fuel taxes for road funding provides an obvious logic. Yet legislators have proven unable to persuade voters who loudly complain about the condition of Colorado highways to approve road use levies needed to improve them. Consequently, funding has become a Hobbesian competition for slices from the sales tax. Most of them have failed.

While explaining why Pinnacol was complicit in the attempt to carve up its Golden Goose 10 years ago I wrote, “…as Pinnacol becomes a privately held entity and begins to engineer an initial public offering, it would not be unusual for the officers to award themselves $50-60 million, or more, (a lot more in 2021) in stock options.” While managers may deserve bonuses, are riches, originally underwritten by taxpayers, really a good idea? Would a venture capitalist accept 17 years of 6% earnings? And, whose moneys are these anyway? Should they belong to the 56,000 employers who paid premiums over decades? And, who will be the insurer of last resort once Pinnacol becomes a mutual company. Wouldn’t a third-party evaluation audit make sense? Don’t some guardrails seem in order?