If Colorado state House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar of Pueblo, and Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder get their way, taxpayers across the state will be on the hook when their county governments are forced to collectively bargain with unions under a new mandate. It flouts counties’ local control, benefits only organized labor – and counties and their taxpayers simply can’t afford it.

Esgar, Fenberg and the organization Counties & Commissioners Working Together – an entity that claims to be nonpartisan though its board is dominated by Democrats – continue to argue the need for the mandate after even more fanciful drafts were recently shot down in the legislature earlier this year. Now, with just days left in the 2022 session, they’ve introduced a version of the bill, Senate Bill 230, that whittles down the mandate from covering a broader array of public-sector employees, including college and universities, to just county-government employees. State government employees are already covered under a 2020 law.

There are two questions reasonable Coloradans should ask when considering this legislation, which would effectively cede power of local public funds to organized labor. One, of course, is whether it’s necessary. And, two: What are the worst-case ramifications for taxpayers and the localities they live in?

We agree with House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, Republican of Loveland, who said after the bill was introduced Monday that it “seeks a solution to a problem that does not exist.” McKean and other opponents, like Colorado Counties, Inc. – which represents 62 of the state’s 64 counties – point out county employees already have great wages and benefits. They’re not “hearing a clamor,” as McKean put it, from county workers to unionize, or hearing claims of mistreatment or a lack of representation.

Critics of the bill also point to the reality that counties that are eager to enter into collective-bargaining agreements with employees – Pueblo, Adams, Summit and Las Animas – already have.

And when you take a step further back and consider 38,000 county employees would be affected by the legislation, the math adds up quickly. Take tiny Phillips County as a sliver of a case study: with just 47 employees, the county would have to hire an attorney and a collective-bargaining specialist – a cost it can’t afford without layoffs and service cutbacks. As for the whole state, Colorado Counties, Inc., estimates the share of costs ranges from a low of $150 million to as much as $400 million just to implement the bill, and more than $600 million annually in higher wages and benefits.

That makes the bill the largest unfunded mandate for counties in state history, the group warns.

The bid to unionize more of the state’s workforce couldn’t come at a worse time – as counties are in dire need of stabilizing their workforce during a period of high inflation and economic uncertainty.

If this proposal passes out of the legislature, it is incumbent on Gov. Jared Polis to veto it. The governor threatened to do just that early in the legislative session, when a previous draft of the bill would have unionized not only county employees but all school districts and higher ed, as well. This bill as now written warrants his veto every bit as much.

Denver Gazette editorial board