EDITORIAL: Three cheers for Polis and his veto pen

Jun. 8—Wednesday's deadline for Gov. Jared Polis to sign or veto the bevy of bills sent his way by the now-adjourned 2023 General Assembly had him working overtime to make or break the legislative agenda of ruling Democrats. It was a reckless agenda that tried to outflank the governor — well to his left — and he deserves credit for swatting down at least some of it.

Polis, a Democrat of course, doesn't wield his veto pen very often against his party — certainly not as often as he should. So here's kudos for a couple of well-placed vetoes as well as an imminent executive order, all of which push back at a Legislature increasingly bent on lawmaking from the political fringe.

This year's irresponsible and, often enough, irrational legislation needs reining in, and it's refreshing to see Polis put his foot down. He vetoed:

* House Bill 23-1190. It would have given any Colorado municipality the right of first refusal in purchasing any apartment complex. A building owner who put their property up for sale would have been required to sell to city hall regardless of other offers. Cities would take title to those properties and run them — or, that's how it was supposed to work. In reality, picture dilapidated rentals where no one could be evicted. Think of the housing projects in inner-city New York or Chicago. The bill would have undermined Colorado's rental market and set off an alarm for investors nationwide to avoid building more rentals in Colorado.

* House Bill 23-1258. It would have created the "Evaluating the Costs Associated with Enforcement of Drug Laws and Incarceration for Drug Crimes Task Force," which would submit a report to the Legislature. The task force's mandate stacked the deck. It aimed to calculate the "costs associated with enforcement" of drug laws — but not the costs of decriminalization. So, the task force's work would have been a foregone conclusion. The governor's veto letter acknowledged as much, noting widespread, "concerns that the bill is designed to produce recommendations solely on reducing drug crime enforcement, without evaluating any savings or benefits associated with drug crime enforcement."

Our third cheer for the governor recognizes his pledge in that same veto letter to issue an executive order resuscitating some version of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. The commission was an obscure but influential panel of experts from Colorado's legal and criminal justice communities who reviewed proposed legislation to assess its strengths and weaknesses.

The commission also could vote to endorse legislation. Until, that is, just before the end of the session. That's when radical "justice reform" Democrats in charge of the House Judiciary Committee voted at the eleventh hour to kill the commission, when no one was looking.

The Judiciary Committee majority apparently viewed the commission as a hurdle to their most outlandish justice-reform bills. As Gazette columnist and former 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler wrote after the committee's sly and move, "Gone is the last impediment to the introduction of even more bonkers legislation."

This week, the governor came to the rescue. He stated in his veto letter on HB 23-1258 that, "The work that this legislation aims to achieve underscores the importance of the state having a multidisciplinary commission with broad representation from across the spectrum such as the CCJJ. Shortly I will be taking executive action to continue some of the work of the CCJJ ..."

Take that, House Judiciary. And good for you, Gov. Polis.