Proposition 123 Cuts Expose Colorado Housing Failures

Proposition 123 was always a government fairy tale with a taxpayer price tag.

The sales pitch was simple enough. Throw public money at “affordable housing,” call it compassion, and trust the same people who make everything slower, costlier, and more bureaucratic to somehow fix the housing mess they helped create in the first place. It was a bill of goods sold to Colorado voters who were asked to feel first and think later. And plenty of them did.

Now here comes the punchline.

The state is preparing to cut $130 million from Proposition 123, roughly a 40% haircut overall, with most of the pain hitting the programs used to build low-income rental housing. Suddenly the folks who got used to this stream of public money are out here warning that the sky is falling, projects will stall, and the problem will get even worse. Of course they are. That is what happens when government creates dependency and then acts surprised that people dependent on the money panic when the tap gets turned down.

That is the real story here. Proposition 123 was never some elegant market solution. It was wealth redistribution wrapped in a moral sales brochure. It did not fix the underlying disease. It fed a whole ecosystem of developers, nonprofits, consultants, and advocates who learned to build their plans around taxpayer subsidies. Once that happens, the subsidy stops being “help.” It becomes the business model.

And if the business model collapses the second public money dries up, then maybe it was never a real model to begin with.

The article basically says the quiet part out loud. These developers and housing groups now describe Prop 123 money as “fundamental” and “structural” to how affordable housing gets built in Colorado. There is your confession. Government stepped into the middle of the market, distorted incentives, and made itself indispensable. Then when the budget crisis hit, the whole thing started wobbling like a folding card table at a church potluck.

That is not stability. That is political cosplay with a finance spreadsheet.

And let’s not ignore the insult layered on top of the stupidity. Voters approved this in 2022 without any new tax revenue attached. In other words, the state made a promise without a durable way to pay for it, then acted shocked when the math quit cooperating. That is classic government. Promise heaven, fund none of it honestly, then blame reality when the check bounces.

Meanwhile, the actual barriers to housing affordability still sit there like a brick wall. Regulations. Permitting delays. Land-use nonsense. High construction costs. Labor shortages. Interest rates. Bureaucratic meddling. Government cannot solve a problem it keeps helping create, especially when its favorite tool is shoveling around other people’s money and calling it progress.

This is the cycle. Government virtue signals. Activists cheer. Developers adapt to the subsidy stream. Politicians brag. Then the budget tightens, the money gets cut, and everybody screams that things will now be worse. Yes, because government did not solve the problem. It made the problem dependent on government.

When will voters learn that government ruins nearly everything it touches? Probably right after the next glossy ballot measure arrives promising compassion, fairness, and economic miracles for the low, low price of common sense. Narrative first, truth if there’s room. fileciteturn2file0

Source: The Colorado Sun