Colorado faces several major challenges, including rising crime and illegal drug use, soaring local property taxes, homelessness and questions about the quality of our kids’ education. Instead of facing these issues head on – which is hard work – our legislature has instead introduced irresponsible bills that either worsen these challenges or create entirely new problems on their own.

Here is my “Top-5 List of Losing Legislation.” There are, unfortunately, many to choose from.

$3,000 payments to criminals

Colorado is one of the top states in the nation… for crime. Our state has had the nation’s worst rate of auto theft; our property and violent crime rates have soared. We’re even first in the nation for bank robberies. Our recidivism rate is the fourth-worst in the nation, with criminals placed back on our streets only to reoffend again at high rates. One reason is violent criminals serve only 43% of their sentences, on average, before being released early.

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All these serious problems cry out for common-sense bipartisan solutions to make Colorado communities safer. Instead, liberal legislators proposed – in legislation subsequently killed – that the state pay criminals $3,000 of your tax dollars upon their release – on top of what you have already paid for their stay behind bars. Victims? They get nothing. It’s a sweet deal: a “Get Out of Jail” cash grant as criminals exit prison, and based on the stats, they will soon create new victims.

Taxing your pet

Though owning a pet can be taxing, that’s not what progressive Rep. Regina English had in mind. Believing Coloradans aren’t taxed enough, Rep. English introduced legislation requiring pet owners – including owners of gerbils, rats or fish – to pay an annual pet tax and register a “caregiver” for your pet with the government. If you ever had a fire or other emergency at your house, dispatchers would be required to let firefighters know whether your pets were in a cage so your hamster could be liberated from its wheel and rescued. Once we at Advance Colorado called out Rep. English’s pet project, the bill died a rapid death, most likely of embarrassment. Leave it to out-of-touch liberals to find more ways to tax you and complicate the already dangerous work of our first responders.

Colorado Ministry of Truth

Getting information government leaders would prefer you didn’t have is central to a free society. But some in the Colorado legislature have the opposite view, introducing a bill to give state government the ability to censor “misinformation and disinformation” on the internet. Though most of us are worn out with fake news, it’s our job as citizens to weed out the real from the phony. That’s not government’s role. For example, they might crush a story critical of paying criminals $3,000 when they get out of jail, or a story about taxing your lizard. In Colorado, we value free speech rights, and politicians are not qualified to tell us what we can and can’t say.

Shutting out citizens

If they can’t censor your opinions, then why not shut you out of legislative business entirely? Colorado has an open meetings law so politicians can’t secretly meet, hide their conversations from voters and avoid transparency.  Legislators have proposed gutting this law and allowing themselves to have secret meetings. This comes on the heels of a court victory Advance Colorado won over a legislative secret voting system. What are they trying to hide in the darkness away from Colorado’s bright sunshine?

Quadrupling taxes and targeting TABOR

Tens of thousands of Coloradans own properties they rent out on a short-term basis which boosts their family income – and supports the state’s tourism economy. It is a win-win, but tax-loving liberals want to make short-term rentals a lose-lose by socking these properties with a 400% tax hike, illegally reclassifying these homes as hotels. This boosts the property tax rate from 7.15% to 29%. In addition to pricing average people out of making a little extra money, economists estimate it could cost thousands of tourism jobs. It also violates your TABOR rights to vote on tax increases.

These are just five bills that would push Colorado sharply away from our 150-year pioneer tradition of common-sense, open and limited government. Our communities and our freedom to live our lives and keep our hard-earned money are under attack from bills that are costly, needless, silly – and dangerous. And they aren’t even halfway through the legislative session.

Kristi Burton Brown is executive vice president of Advance Colorado.