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From Colorado to Virginia, blue states try California’s failing model

Colorado used to be the West’s answer to California — all the mountains, none of the madness. Pro-growth, lightly regulated, and magnetically attractive to the kind of ambitious people California was slowly driving out.

That equilibrium is gone.

The strivers arrived from the Golden State, shifted the politics leftward, and brought the policy preferences that made them leave in the first place. The results are arriving on schedule.

Population growth has slowed. The labor force has contracted. Denver now trails Midwestern peers in economic momentum.

Housing costs have climbed to coastal absurdity, with typical homes demanding more than six times median income.

Companies have noticed — major employers have relocated or expanded elsewhere, citing regulatory climate and cost pressures. Infrastructure spending tilts toward transit systems ill-suited to a car-dependent metro while highway expansion stalls.

The governing model has migrated steadily from the Colorado boom of the 1990s toward something that looks, uncomfortably, like Sacramento with ski resorts.

Colorado, at least, still has hope. The natural assets are enviable. The workforce is educated. The damage is recent enough to be reversible, if the political will materializes.

The problem is that political will tends to be the last thing to arrive and the first thing to disappear when the bills come due.

Two other blue states to the east and northeast offer a clearer view of........

© New York Post