As the 2024 session approaches, Colorado’s job creators have been pleading once again with the Legislature to back off the state’s economy.

The appeals have been polite, almost gentle, because the business community has to tread lightly. It knows it has fairly few true friends among the deep-blue Democrats who control the House and Senate.

The message has been clear, though: Colorado is facing a comeuppance for wave after wave of laws and regulations that put the squeeze on key economic sectors and are outright hostile to the state’s oil-and-gas industry. More such heavy-handed policies likely will be proposed when lawmakers reconvene next month.

Last week, it was the Colorado Chamber of Commerce calling for legislative restraint.

“Colorado is one of the most desirable places to live in the country, but our competitive advantage is slipping,” chamber President and CEO Loren Furman said upon the release of the chamber’s legislative priorities for the coming session.

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“On the surface, Colorado’s economy might appear to be on a strong trajectory,” Furman noted in remarks accompanying the list of chamber priorities.

“… But digging into the data reveals Colorado’s weaknesses, particularly when it comes to the business climate. Recent national rankings placed Colorado near the bottom of the pack in terms of cost of doing business (36th), cost of living (36th), housing affordability (45th), and legal climate (21st). Our competitive advantage is slipping, and we can’t afford to get complacent.”

The chamber’s initiative paralleled last week’s report by the Common Sense Institute, which crunched numbers showing Colorado is losing its competitive edge against other states, particularly given mile-high housing costs.

Among the chamber’s priorities are fighting “new mandates and regulatory burdens on employers”; opposing “attempts to interfere in employer-employee workweek schedules,” and an effort to “educate lawmakers on regulatory impact.”

Translation: Please stop trying to strangle the creators of Colorado’s jobs.

It has become a nervous reflex of the Legislature’s growing radical fringe to heap not only scorn but also blame for all of society’s woes on the backs of business. And with the scorn and blame come a presumed responsibility to set things right from the Legislature’s perspective – enforced by law.

It’s voodoo economics. It amounts to pounding a square peg into a round hole, with the inevitable outcome.

Good sense has prevailed on previous versions of some of the legislative overkill the chamber fears. An attempt to micromanage scheduling of employees, for example, was turned back last spring after an outcry from restaurateurs, whose industry hinges on flexibility in scheduling wait staff.

And in the same session, a bill that would have allowed local governments to cap rent – a stick-it-to-the-landlord measure that would backfire big time on affordable housing – was stopped in a Senate committee.

But dodging the bullet in such instances is short-lived relief.

A rent-control proposal by all indicators will return this coming session. There probably will be reiterations of other bad ideas that couldn’t find quite enough votes in previous sessions. The Legislature’s steady shift to the left almost assures a repeat performance.

As we noted here last week after the release of the Common Sense Institute report, lawmakers bent on pleasing or at least appeasing the ruling party’s radicals seem oblivious to the consequences of their lawmaking. And the rest of Colorado is paying for it.

The Common Sense report and the chamber have pointed to yet more signs the state is approaching a tipping point. Will the Legislature heed their warnings in time?

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board