John's Policy Priorities
For too long, politics has been a game of instant gratification. As Governor, John will reject "sugar rush politics" and look toward tomorrow and beyond - a vision that extends into the next 25 years. Benefits will translate to every Coloradan in a meaningful way and succeeding generations. A careful read will give every voter and policy expert reason to believe these ideas will create a lasting blueprint for preserving, protecting, and advancing a worthwhile cause which all Coloradans deserve. Safety. Security. Peace of mind.
Transportation
Today in Colorado we face growing congestion, roadways continuing to deteriorate, a variable tolling system that is significantly underperforming, and no plans to provide solutions for long-term sustainable mountain access. In the meantime, this mismanagement of projections and revenues has the state taking money from other places to cover costs of
transportation debt.
We will bring several innovative ideas and plans to rethink revenue models that will improve logistics revenues, create more sustainable models for certain state roadways, and ultimately meet debt obligations while also addressing often ignored or delayed transportation infrastructure improvements across the state. For far too long our transportation resources have not been planned and allocated in ways to meet the needs across the state, and projects take far too long to design, execute, and complete.
Long term planning and innovation will also address mountain access, with the development – and execution – of a mountain transit corridor that will increase revenues for those high-country economies and dramatically improve access for residents and visitors, while reducing our environmental impacts.
Driving our transportation innovation will be our own colleges and universities on Intern-to-Career opportunities, so Colorado transportation investments can stay within our state and our students.
Education
Today our Colorado schools are continuing to fail, despite a continual rise in per-pupil expenditures each year. Today Colorado ranks 35th in overall K-12 performance, while slashing school sports and arts programs, and revising models to eliminate Junior High Schools that were previously highly successful and produced less student risk. We will revisit the JHS
model.
Our education performance is not preparing our kids for international competitiveness, as foreign students and graduates are pouring into our country and competing for 6-figure jobs in tech, medicine, and other high-paying careers. Meanwhile, our higher education institutions have
exploded tuitions (and overall student debt) by 400% since 2002, while offering tenure and other expensive programs to staff.
We will return to student accountability, while growing industry internship opportunities to foster Colorado Minds for Colorado Careers. My administration will immediately instruct the Department of Education (and work with the State Board of Education) to focus on core
competencies, eliminate social-driven agendas and topics, and re-focusing emphasis on physical education, school sports, and arts. Our goal will be nothing short of Colorado education ranking as number 1 across all competencies nationally.
Fiscal Accountability
Colorado faces several fiscal problems that have created an escalating financial crisis for the state. Our current budget has a $2B shortfall from both lost revenues and increased structural costs. Federal programs that provide funding to Colorado agencies have released results of audits revealing major issues in Medicaid and social services programs in Colorado, where millions have been paid out fraudulently or in error and mismanagement.
Over the last 8 years our Colorado state government has been on track to put over 3,000 new laws on the books that have estimated costs of between $2B-$10B, on top of a total state budget of $45B, that is already in freefall.
How will we immediately address this? In my executive background I have introduced 24x7 fiscal oversite programs for hundreds of large corporations around the world, many having budgets 3-4 times larger than Colorado’s budget. We will digitize the state budget, so every Coloradan can see state money collected and where it is being spent. We will also deploy continuous, automated audits of all state services and offices and provide transparency. We will manage Colorado as an Enterprise and ensure no taxpayer or Federal dollars are ever at risk again.
Wildland Management
Wildfire threats grow each year in Colorado, and our persistent drought is compounding the problem. Proactive mitigation of wildland fuels is underfunded. The wildland urban interface is encroaching deeper into
forested areas, thwarting natural mitigation processes. Even mitigation of beetle-infested areas is far behind, as hundreds of miles of Colorado forests are being devastated.
My administration will take several immediate actions to improve the long-term health and vitality of our Colorado Wildlands. We will place a top priority on aggressive wildland mitigation, working urgently with private landowners, regional fire authorities, and COSWAP to dramatically reduce fuel loads and revitalize forests.
We will also enforce stricter building codes, structural hardening and defensible space management, impacting insurance premiums for all Coloradans. We will also work with utility providers to ensure infrastructure is modernized, hardened, and buried underground where possible. All of this should come at no additional cost to Coloradans. We will also ensure the insurance industry provides greater discounted rates to incentivize property protection practices.
Being a former red-card wildland firefighter myself, I understand the importance and urgency needed and how to drive the changes needed to make Colorado forests healthy and safe.
Public Safety
Rates of crime, especially violent crime, remain far too high in Colorado, with rates 32% above the national average. We are the 2nd-most dangerous state for violent and property crimes. Crimes in former “safe” places (schools) continues to be a problem. Legislators have passed bills that
significantly “water down” felonies and associated punishment, while some District Attorneys have single-handedly reduced charges on repeat offenders, returning them to the streets with little to no time served.
Our elected officials rarely support law enforcement, don’t support Federal law enforcement, and have created staffing and recruitment problems across most metro law enforcement agencies.
My administration backs the blue. We will fight every DA that uses soft-on-crime policies, while bringing public visibility to legislation that dilutes crime, so changes can be made to stiffen penalties.
Crime drops when the price to be paid is too great. We will increase penalties, while also increasing access to mental health services and improving inmate rehabilitation options. We also recognize that DoC (Corrections) needs staffing, training, funding, and reform.
We will also greatly improve community policing tools, combat bullying in schools and social media, and improve the overall safety of our most vulnerable populations.
Energy Growth
Our Colorado energy needs are projected to triple in the next few years, yet our current state government has put us on a path that will increase electric bills to $900 per month, per family. Priorities for energy need to focus on reducing financial burdens on families, not crushing them with higher costs, yet this seems to have been ignored.
We must meet our growing energy needs with a sensible plan that lowers costs, increases reliability, increases capacity, and protects the environment.
As your governor, I will immediately cancel the extreme and unrealistic policies that are rapidly increasing our energy costs now. We will put a plan in place that will increase energy production and reliability, modernize our transmission and storage capacity, lower costs to Colorado families, and retire fossil fuels. We will also introduce plans to revolutionize our transportation energy demands that will lower those costs to Colorado families while we lead the nation in innovation and improved affordability.
Rural Revitalization
Our rural and smaller communities form the backbone and foundation from which the rest of our state was built. These communities still boast the highest high school graduation rates, feed the rest of our state, and are home to some of the safest places to raise families. Today, however, our rural communities face significant threats, some of which are long-standing, while others are newer and increasingly urgent.
While initiatives have been introduced over the years to address these issues, none have cast the net wide enough to create long-lasting revitalization. Rural prosperity should never risk “bringing the problems of the big cities to our small towns”. We must protect the community identities that make those places sought after by our young families and growing industry partners.
Within our first 100 days my administration will put in place a deeply comprehensive approach to rural community revitalization. Our plans will weave together strategies that incorporate industries, resources, infrastructure, energy, education, healthcare, connectivity, and access into a canvas that creates long term growth and lasting prosperity within those communities.
Immigration
Illegal immigration has created a significant problem for governments and NGOs across the nation, where not enough resources are available to provide food, housing, education and healthcare. At the same time, criminal elements have also come into the country unfettered due to a lack of appropriate vetting policies, bringing increases in drugs, trafficking, and
other violent crimes to numerous cities.
This has further clouded an already challenging issue, as some states have openly opposed Federal immigration laws, and many local economies need labor resources.
As governor, I will support Federal law, however we will immediately work with surrounding states and DHS to derive a multi-layered solution that will:
- Support the apprehension and removal of criminal illegal immigrants
- Enhance seasonal and temporary visa access, to protect several
critical Colorado industries (H2A, H2B, etc.)
- Work with DHS and Congress to create a path to legal residency for
law-abiding DACA families
- Create digital pathways for those Colorado small employers and
industries to sponsor specific seasonal and temporary employee
visas
Foreign workers drive our economy, and rapidly providing tools and paths for those workers to continue to contribute is crucial for Colorado’s success.
Healthcare
Our government continues to fail at addressing healthcare costs, instead esorting to paying higher subsidies and settling for increased costs. Insurance rates are increasing 17%-44%, provider fees are growing quickly, and insurer risks are escalating overall industry costs largely
unchecked. As healthcare continues to squeeze metro area residents, our rural and smaller communities still have no good answers for a lack of care, especially specialty care. Our population age has increased, especially in those smaller communities, and obesity, diabetes, and hypertension have risen alarmingly over the last 50 years.
As governor, I will immediately eliminate recent regulations that have mandated insurance pay for expensive gender-affirming care. We will also work to repeal or repair several pieces of Colorado legislation that impose unnecessary fees, line pockets of big pharma, and alter drug
reimbursements in ways that drive up costs for families, all while working to end excessive risk costs that impact everyone’s rates.
We will increase non-metro healthcare access, develop innovative programs that increase the number of providers, expand preventative care for women, and add youth programs for physical health and fitness. We will work with Smart City technologies to expand digital care options and
improve Coloradans health overall.
Affordability
Looking across our state, Colorado has dozens, potentially hundreds of communities looking for Long Term economic stability. At the same time, most Coloradans are seeking Affordable and Safe communities to raise their families. Fortunately, there are growth drivers that make this possible all around us that aren’t being properly leveraged, and as a result these communities suffer.
Positioning Colorado for growth is a micro-strategy, community by community. Working directly with our local communities, my administration will build prospectuses that we will use to bring industries and investments into our state, building on goals and strengths unique to each community.
Colorado State Government has a responsibility to guide these efforts with our community partners. Economic growth translates into jobs, wage growth, affordable housing, local revenue growth, infrastructure growth, and supporting industry growth. This is a sustainable plan for long-term economic stability. This is what opportunity and prosperity look like. This is what executive business leadership looks like for our state.
Resource Management
Colorado has an abundance of some resources, and a scarcity of others, and all have been under attack for the last several years. With water, Colorado often uses less than our allocated shares of water (depending on the basin), we have not built enough storage capacity, and Colorado now
faces a deficit of at least 740,000 acre feet by 2050, just for urban water needs alone. Put more simply, we only have enough water for 25% of our growth over the next 20 years.
Other resources, including minerals and forestry, have been under constant regulatory and lobbying attacks, significantly damaging local economies while undermining healthy forest practices. Our mining industry is at a crossroads, where it could drive Colorado prosperity to help our depressed communities created by our current path.
As governor, I will immediately develop more aggressive plans which significantly improve water storage and conservation, to lessen impacts of dry years while keeping agriculture and fisheries protected. We will also revitalize our mineral and forestry industries, to service infrastructure industries (steel and construction) and energy (rare earth minerals). This will add tremendous economic stability and opportunity to our non-metro communities statewide.
State Revenue Reforms
Colorado needs to rethink revenue models across all state government. We have created an array of fee structures and enterprise models, yet our state government still cannot keep pace with infrastructure management and many other state services. Within the last eight years we have also seen a significant increase in expensive regulations, and cuts in vital services, especially in non-metro areas.
Colorado has added enterprise models to bypass TABOR, to now account for over 40% of state spending through at least 30 enterprises. Most, if not all these enterprises need simplified operations, modified fee structures, improve revenue flows, and ongoing audits. Initial examples
include revising HPTE variable tolling practices to meet revenue projections they have failed to meet to date, revise out of state commercial vehicle use revenues for Colorado highways (beyond IRP and IFTA), adding consumption-based revenue models that allow state services to be more
evenly spread to underserved areas, and audits of higher education to determine effective use and necessity of state grants. We will also slash regulatory burdens in business, healthcare, construction, and energy, which will bolster economic growth and state revenues. Fraud
detection will also be a daily practice within all state operations.