Democrat gubernatorial nominee Jared Polis must think the power of Colorado Governor is akin to that of Supreme Leader of North Korea.
During a recently-unearthed SEIU forum with his then-competitors for the Democratic nomination in June, Polis promised to jail business owners for minor paperwork infractions. No, seriously:
While his comments received applause from SEIU attendees, most of whom fall somewhere between socialist and totalitarian on the political spectrum, what Polis proposed is actually quite dangerous.
Minor violations of employment law are currently civil violations in Colorado’s penal code. If Polis got his way and switched these violations to the “criminal” category, the courts would likely be flooded with small business owner defendants who lack the resources to have in-house Human Resources departments.
You can imagine the compounding effect this would have, not just in terms of the strain on the court system, but also the impact it would have on small business owners choosing not to hire people for fear that the Polis Gestapo would jail them for missing payroll by eight hours.
We’re all for workers’ rights. We are likewise entirely against the heavy hand of government at any level. By promising the latter, Polis will inevitably hurt the former.
This guy is really a lunatic.