If there’s a constant in government and its Borg of a bloated bureaucracy that assimilates everything in its path, it’s this: Everything government has made more expensive it will use tax dollars to reduce the price or cost to make it more palatable for citizens to swallow.

It just happened before our eyes locally with housing. Or, as the cool kids now call it, “houselessness.” Pretty much as the final ballot came out of the tabulators adding to the numbers of leftists on the Grand Junction City Council, our intrepid mayor announced millions of dollars will be poured into “affordable housing” projects for builders who decide they want to build what’s now the definition of affordable housing.

I mean, I haven’t seen the city council move this fast since it had equipment dropped off in the middle of the night to begin digging at dawn the next day for the foundation of the country’s second most expensive mobile home (next to the Clinton Library) on the corner of Seventh and Main. The only other recent event I could compare is the groundbreaking on Fifth Street the day after a few more voters decided it was time to build a $200 million high school instead of one we should have built for $40 million 20 years ago. But I digress.

Side note: I’m curious how the equipment is readily available for the day after a vote for all these “community leaders” and their pet projects. Then again, when government grinds the economy and building industry to a halt, there’s plenty of heavy construction equipment available.

But back to the topic at hand. You might say, “Well Craig, those funds aren’t local tax funds. The money came from the federal government. To which I’d reply two things: So, they ARE tax dollars, and those dollars were created out of thin air from a government program created to throw dollars at another problem the government created by shuttering the economy due to another problem the government created: COVID 19.

Of course, then you’d say, “But Trump started it!” You’d be right. It’s why he shouldn’t be president again. Anyone taken in by Flim-Flam Fauci doesn’t have the brains or stones to be president. Sad, because Trump has both. But taken in he was. And then as government is wont to do, a guy (well, party, since Joe has no idea what’s up) we now call our president doubled down on things with another slathered-in-irony-named law: The American Rescue Plan Act. That gave our city council money to throw at a problem it still has surveys floating about awaiting results. (See my last column.)

Once again, let’s get back on track. City council did this money toss at pretty much the same time our other elected betters in Denver were approving mandates to force new residential construction to be prewired for electric vehicles on top of all the other things it requires homebuilders to prewire for, all the while Congress is outlawing gas stoves, all of which does nothing by drive the cost of building and owning homes higher and higher. Let’s not mention what government is doing with inflation and interest rates. But don’t worry, you’ve got a mortgage deduction (subsidy) for that. Can’t afford a home or pay exorbitant rent? No worries, the government has an earned income credit for you.

Beginning to see how this works?

If not, here’s more. How about the new apartment complex on First and Rood? What a perfect opportunity for the city to subsidize and create “affordable housing” and address our homeless (sorry, HOUSElessness) problem. Yet what do we hear? These new apartments are going to be out of affordability range for the vast majority. I mean, why build affordable housing in the exact area much of our homeless problem exists when you can address homelessness the old-fashioned way — by pushing them to go elsewhere because you’ve got a new spot to hold a press conference for a development someone else put the bucks into (that you also subsidized) to take credit for?

I realize you’re about to say, “But Craig, what’s your solution?” I get it. My first solution is pretty simple. Don’t let the solution solely come from government because all it knows is how to throw money or create another new law and declare the problem solved. I was going to cite other areas in which the government does this, but Phil only gives me 900 words or so. I’d need five times that, minimum, just for a couple of examples I have in mind.

Homelessness will not be solved by throwing money at symptoms. It has to be solved by people who honestly care about (not run for office on) the root causes. You could build a small, affordable abode for a homeless person and give it to them for free. And it wouldn’t do a thing for someone who’s decided they’re going to live homeless out of choice, mental distress, hiding from society or any of the myriad reasons I didn’t put here or you just thought of.

“WHY are you homeless?” is the first question. And all the tax money in the world won’t answer it. You need someone who is homeless, not elected, to answer it.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.