Polis Signs Warning on Colorado Business Climate He Helped Create

Colorado Politics has a pretty remarkable story here, not because the warning is new, but because the arsonist appears to be signing the fire report. In the April 14, 2026 piece by Mark Samuelson, the article reports that more than 200 business and technology leaders signed a letter warning that Colorado is scaring off corporate expansions and entrepreneurs, with the message aimed at the state’s political class. Notably, one of the signers is Governor Jared Polis himself. Boulder entrepreneur Dan Caruso, who organized the effort, said Polis reached out and offered to join in signing and presenting the letter.

The article ties the concern to a growing body of evidence that Colorado’s business climate is deteriorating. It cites a Colorado Chamber Foundation report showing 98 companies have either relocated out of state or picked other destinations since 2019, costing at least 13,600 jobs where impacts could be measured. The piece also points to Palantir’s exit to Florida and says Caruso singled out Colorado’s 2024 AI law as one of the clearest examples of policy choices sending the wrong message to investors and employers. Polis, for his part, says the larger problem is unpredictability and not knowing what comes next. Which is one way to describe the regulatory mess his own administration helped marinate.

The Bullet Point Brief

• More than 200 business and tech leaders signed a letter warning Colorado is damaging its own competitiveness. That part is not shocking. The shocking part is that Governor Jared Polis signed it too, apparently eager to join the protest against conditions created on his own watch.
• Dan Caruso said Polis reached out and offered to sign and present the letter. That is some world-class political yoga right there. First help create the problem, then elbow your way into the photo op for acknowledging the problem.
• The Colorado Chamber Foundation report cited in the story says 98 companies have gone elsewhere since 2019, with at least 13,600 jobs lost where that impact could be measured. So no, this is not some right-wing fever dream. Businesses are actually leaving, and jobs are leaving with them.
• The article points to Palantir’s move to Florida and says Caruso called Colorado’s 2024 AI law the most glaring example of a policy that scared companies and investors. Turns out businesses do not love being used as test subjects in the legislature’s latest innovation strangling exercise.
• Polis says the real issue is a lack of predictability and not knowing what comes next. Fair point. But after seven years of this regulatory confetti cannon, acting surprised by business anxiety is a little rich.

My Bottom Line

I have been a county commissioner as long as Jared Polis has been governor. That gives a man plenty of time to study the pattern. And the pattern with Governor Gaslight is always the same. He signs the policy, celebrates the policy, poses for the press conference, lets his party weaponize the policy, and then, when the consequences arrive, he suddenly wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people warning about the consequences.

That is this story in a nutshell. Business leaders had to draft a letter basically begging the political class under the Gold Dome to stop making Colorado more expensive, more hostile, and more overregulated. And then the governor, the same governor who helped create the very climate being criticized, decides he would like to sign it too. Seriously. Does anyone still buy this act? It is like a guy punching holes in the boat and then demanding credit for noticing the water.

And let us not miss the larger point. None of this is mysterious. Colorado is expensive. Colorado is overregulated. Colorado has spent years sending the message that productive people, risk takers, and employers are objects of suspicion to be managed rather than partners in prosperity. Businesses can respond to that by leaving. Families with deep roots usually cannot. That is the cruelty in all this. The people who pushed these policies can keep speechifying. The companies can pack up. The rest of us are left living in the slower, poorer, more brittle version of Colorado they helped build.

So when Governor Gaslight signs a letter warning about the business climate, do not mistake that for courage or self-awareness. It is branding. It is image maintenance. It is the same old disingenuous routine from a guy who wants to be both the author of the mess and the sympathetic observer of the mess. Sorry, Governor. You do not get to play “me too” on a warning label attached to the poison you sold.

Source: Colorado Politics