Big government stalks Centennial

What's conservative about beefing up government?  Some of my fellow Republicans out here in the burbs seem to have entered an alternate reality with their Reaganesque praise for a proposed Centennial home rule charter that only accelerates the city's flight from its founding vision of low taxes, minimal regulation, and virtual structure.

"Guarding against Grassroots Tyranny" was the headline editors gave my Denver Post column about this on May 18.  Apparent they felt the column's relevance extended far beyond one community's soul-searching; so do I.  It starts thusly:

"The era of big government is over," Americans were told by Bill Clinton in 1995.  If only.  Since then we've seen his wife run for President in pursuit of a health care takeover, his buddy Al Gore propagandize for massive intervention on global warming, and his successor George Bush balloon the budget deficit.

States and localities have continued to fatten as well, multiplying budgets, payrolls, and new government entities at "an astounding rate," according to Clint Bolick, author of the book "Grassroots Tyranny."  Familiar with Colorado from his years at Mountain States Legal Foundation, Bolick is now with the Goldwater Institute in Arizona.  "Big government didn't disappear," he says, "it simply moved to the suburbs."

Our state is notorious for its kudzu-like proliferation of special taxing districts. We're also the place where life imitated art in 2000, when a city called Centennial incorporated itself south of Denver, echoing James Michener's novel by that name about an imaginary town north of Denver.  A struggle over the young municipality's future is now underway.

Click to read the piece in full.

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