By Jon Caldara

Something strange is happening in Colorado — strange enough that the political class should notice.

People are leaving Colorado.

After years of being one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, net in-migration has stopped and may be reversing.

According to Federal Reserve Bank data, the last time Colorado’s population took a dip was 1945. Congrats to our policy makers, who finally achieved something historic no one asked for. The Broncos haven’t won a championship in a decade, but what you’re achieving hasn’t happened in 80 years.

For the first time in 16 years, rents in metro Denver are actually going down. Not “slowing their increase.” Not “rising less quickly.” Going down.

Metro-wide rents are down nearly 5% over the last year. This should set off alarm bells under the Gold Dome. But it won’t.

Colorado is the most beautiful and desirable state in the nation. If people are no longer stampeding here, something has gone seriously wrong — and it’s not the lack of good snow this year. More likely it’s unaffordability, litter, crime and an anti-employer climate that treats job creators like parolees.

When new state law required posting of salaries, national want-ads for teleworkers stated, “not accepting applications from Colorado.” And thanks to the first-in-the-nation, and worst-in-the-free-world, regulation on AI, that same phrase is now appearing in tech company want-ads — which is quite an achievement for a state that claims to “lead innovation.”

People are still fleeing the high-tax, government-failure states of California, New York and Illinois. Those refugees used to pour into Colorado. No more. They’re finding sanctuary in low-tax, low-regulation states like Florida and Texas instead.

So give our leaders one victory. They’ve stopped the mass migration of Californians to Colorado — albeit by Californicating our laws. What perverse irony.

Graduated-income-tax states of New York and California top the list of exodus states, losing 1.7 million and 1.6 million people in a decade. The top states gaining population are the no-income-tax states of Florida and Texas (plus-1.6 million and plus-1.3 million).

When people leave a state, they don’t just take their dog. They take their money, their assets and their businesses.

Between 2012 and 2022 California lost more than 350,000 people and $21 billion in income to Texas alone. New York lost 380,000 people and $36 billion to Florida. That’s $57 billion of income those states can no longer tax.

There was a time when doctors practiced bloodletting to heal patients. It just hastened their deaths. If the first round of this year’s legislation is any indicator, our lawmakers are keeping the tradition alive.

They’re considering moving up the unreachable goal of 100% renewable energy by a decade. There’s also a bill to end eight decades of peace between unions and business by repealing the Labor Peace Act.

And the granddaddy of policy bloodletting is the effort to destroy Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights and emulate the progressive-income-tax models of California and New York — the same states people are fleeing.

Now rents are falling — not because Colorado suddenly learned how to build housing efficiently — but because people stopped coming. Demand softened. That’s not a victory. That’s a warning sign — the economic equivalent of chest pain.

Why is homeownership so expensive here? Because governments at every level treat new housing like a public nuisance. Zoning restrictions, growth boundaries, density caps, “affordability” set-asides, green mandates, impact fees, neighborhood vetoes and endless reviews all conspire to make housing scarce.

Young people aren’t asking for luxury penthouse condos. They’re asking for a starter home that doesn’t require four roommates and a GoFundMe.

Then there’s energy, where Colorado has chosen ideology over reliability. We’re banning and regulating affordable energy while mandating expensive electrification — even as our grid proves fragile during windstorms and cold snaps.

The young are told they must save the planet, while their utility bills rise and their power goes out. When you’re 25 and trying to build a life, “sacrifice more” is not a winning sales pitch.

People can read a paycheck. They see rent, utilities, gas, groceries and deductions. They also see litter, drug-addled vagrancy, neglected roads and bumper-to-bumper traffic next to empty bike lanes.

When the cost of living rises faster than wages, the view of the Rockies starts to look less romantic.

So when rents fall for the first time in 16 years and population growth stalls, it’s not a mystery. It’s the market delivering feedback.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts “The Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara” on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics.