September 13, 2022 03:06 PM UTC

Ganahl's Idiotic "Polis Tax" Campaign Embraces Predatory Towing

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• by: Colorado Pols

For some weeks now, Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl has kept up an irregular message campaign on social media they call the “Polis Tax”–examples of various things Gov. Jared Polis has supposedly made more expensive during his tenure. Having started with #100, Ganahl’s campaign committed to coming up with at least that many such examples, but we’re sorry to report that the effort quickly lost credibility–blaming Polis for global inflation, the cost of cleaning up the state capitol after 2020 racial justice protests, and even including measures to delay and offset fee hikes as an “election year ploy” instead of simply admitting they do the opposite of what Ganahl says.

But with today’s #56 on the list, the “Polis Tax” review backfires superlatively:

This year, Colorado passed House Bill 22-1314, making significant reforms to the vehicle towing industry to prevent widespread abuses that have resulted in thousands of Colroadans’ vehicles towed without notice and held hostage for confiscatory amounts of money by unscrupulous predatory towing companies. The legislation passed with bipartisan support, including a lopsided 31-4 vote in the Colorado Senate. The $24,000 Ganahl cites in “fees” that would “no doubt be passed to you” comes from the fiscal note estimate for the bill, citing an increase in staff time to support implementation and reporting requirements. It’s such a tiny fraction of the state’s total budget that most lawmakers would be thrilled to have their bill judged by nonpartisan staff to be so cheap to implement. It’s also not a fee, but if it were, each Coloradan would be on the hook for about one-fifth of a cent.

And when we’re talking about fees imposed by towing companies, what Coloradans get back in the bargain is fewer predatory towings. Politically, siding with predatory towing companies has to be on the same abysmal moral plane as standing up for loan sharks and Ponzi schemers–but in her zeal to come up with 100 individual examples of Jared Polis doing something dastardly, Heidi Ganahl just offered to drive the tow truck to relieve the next single mom of her grocery getter.

Only 44 more to go, folks!