By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
State Rep. Anthony Hartsook is concerned with the tsunami of bills he sees filtering through the legislature.
“Numerous bills expanding government control continue to flood the General Assembly, threatening businesses and economic freedom,” he wrote in a report to his District 44 constituency.
One example, Hartsook says, is Democrat-led House Bill 25-1010, which aims to protect consumers from “price gouging during a declared disaster.” Like many bills floating through the legislature, it does more than its title or brief description might indicate.
“This legislation hands unbridled power and authority to the governor to declare a disaster, based on an ‘imminent threat,'” Hartsook said. “We’ve seen this playbook before — for 16 months, the governor continuously extended his emergency powers during Covid-19.”
The bill summary defines consumer price gouging as a price increase on a necessity increased by 10% or more above “the average price that the necessity cost during the 90 days preceding.” Toilet paper during Covid-19 might come to mind, but so might the current egg price.
“I argued against this bill on the House floor and will continue to fight against the dangerous expansion of executive power,” Hartsook said.
In the 74th Legislature, Hartsook, a Douglas County Republican, and Rep. Scott Bottoms, an El Paso County Republican, ran HB23-1073, related to the length of a disaster emergency. It sought to allow the governor to declare a disaster for 30 days, but need legislative support for an extension. One reason to allow the governor to have initial declaration power would have been if the legislature is out of session. The measure failed on a 7-3 party line vote in the House’s State, Civic, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee.
HB 1010 narrowly passed the House’s Business Affairs & Labor Committee on a 7-6 vote and was set for a third reading Monday on the floor of the House, with a vote for final passage to the Senate.