If You Don't Want Growth, Don't Subsidize It. I was asked me to come here and talk about a column I wrote regarding growth, more specifically, the idea of government subsidizing private sector growth and then turning around and using issues associated with growth such as rising home prices, traffic congestion and sprawl as a basis for more government intervention.
Clearly growth is a hot topic at the moment.
Ever since the defeat of amendment 24 at the polls in November, the legislature has been under a lot of pressure to do something about growth in Colorado. And it seems pretty certain that some kind of legislation is going make it through this year. And while there is a lot of debate about what government can and should do about growth, there is little talk about government s involvement in using tax dollars and tax dollar backed financing to help subsidize the very growth they are now tasked with doing something about. I m actually here to talk about Denver. I live there and am more tuned into local growth issues there than other cities in the state, but what is happening in Denver can also be applied to other local governments.