03/29/2026
There is a great new FB Group you need to join called Wellington CO Voter and Candidate Info. They are asking each candidate to weigh in daily on some thought-provoking questions. I thought I would share yesterday's questions and my thoughts on this topic with a larger group.
STATE VS LOCAL CONTROL (HOME Act)
1. What do you believe is the proper balance between state guidance and local control?
2. How should Wellington approach growth and housing opportunities while protecting community input?
3. The recently passed HOME Act removes local discretion in certain housing developments and limits public input. Do you support this legislation, and how will you work to protect Wellington’s ability to make decisions that reflect our community’s values?
1. I am a strong advocate for local control. As a statutory town, Wellington can only exercise the powers and authorities enumerated in Title 31 of the Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS). What people may not be aware of is that the statutory town designation was created for newly incorporated towns with a population of less than 2,000. The powers and authorities for statutory towns are very limited because these new towns typically do not have the population, revenues, or expertise to provide more than the most basic level services to their community. Once the population reaches 2,000, the town can choose to become a statutory city, which has greater powers and authorities than statutory towns. Fortunately, Article 20 of the Colorado constitution acknowledges that all communities are not the same, so Colorado communities have the constitutional right to switch to home rule, which allows the municipality to enact laws and ordinances to best meet the individual needs of the local community. Home rule is the epitome of local control, however, if the state determines that a matter is of state-wide concern, even home rule communities must comply. This is the proper balance between local control and state guidance. From my experience working as a city manager in Colorado, home rule offers Wellington the best opportunity to meet the needs of our wonderful town.
We are a community of 13,000 and growing. Our growth projections see Wellington reaching 25,000 within the next ten years. We cannot remain a statutory town. We need the freedom and flexibility to determine our own path and not follow the statutory model that was never meant for a community of our size. We need more local control, and we need to switch to home rule to make that happen.
2. Wellington’s growth is unbalanced. We have created a local economy that depends on residential development. Think about this: we depend on impact fees to fund infrastructure improvements, and we depend on use taxes (the tax developers pay on building materials used for home construction in Wellington) to fund the town’s General Fund. This is not sustainable. Any slowdown in housing caused by rising interest rates, increased transportation costs resulting from uncertainty in the oil markets, increased material costs, etc., creates a slowdown in housing, and a decrease in town revenues.
Tabor created an environment where local governments must depend on sales taxes to provide the majority of revenues to support town operations. Wellington is losing almost $4 million dollars a year in sales tax revenues because our residents have to drive to other communities to purchase the goods and services they need because these good and services are not available in Wellington. Timnath generates 8 times more sales tax revenues than property taxes, and Fort Collins generates 5 times more sales taxes than property taxes. Wellington’s sales taxes barely surpass property taxes. Wellington is quickly losing its ability to support our growing population.
We need to slow housing and prioritize commercial growth. Every subdivision adds increased demand for law enforcement, road and park maintenance, and infrastructure. It increases traffic, creating more wear and tear on town roads. It puts more students in our schools, creating increased need to provide school resource officers to keep students safe. But without increasing commercial development and generating sales taxes revenues, we will have no choice but to start cutting town services. You want a swimming pool or recreation center, then we need commercial development. If you want a new interchange on I25, then we need commercial development to create revenues that will get CDOT’s attention and move us to the top of their list.
3. The Home Act is bad legislation because it reduces local control to enforce density and land use legislation that best fits the need of our community. I fought against this legislation last year when it was called YIGBY (Yes in God’s Back Yard) as Wellington’s representative on the Colorado Municipal League’s Policy Committee. This is another example of liberal policies emanating from Denver that attacks local control.
Wellington cannot make its own decisions as long as the liberal Colorado legislature keeps passing laws that diminish local authority and puts added burdens on taxpayers to pay for programs that are not in our town’s best interest. Home rule has been adopted by 108 Colorado communities for a reason… it’s time for Wellington to follow suit and graduate from a small town to a vibrant, thriving community with a strong local economy, and take our place as a leader among north front range municipalities.
