Phil Weiser makes his case for Colorado governor

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser declined to say Thursday evening how he’ll vote on a graduated income tax ballot question in November as he vies to be governor, but hinted he believes in having wealthy people pay more in taxes.

“Do we need more tax revenue for critical investments like education? Yes. As you’re looking at revenue, are you inclined to say those who are doing really well can afford to pay a little more should? Yes,” he said, saying he supports Proposition NN and can’t weigh in on Amendment 87 because of pending litigation he’s involved with as attorney general.

While he did not take clear positions on some ballot issues Colorado voters are deciding on, Weiser clearly differentiated himself from his opponent, Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx, who declined to participate in the forum hosted by The Colorado Sun and Rocky Mountain PBS.

Weiser criticized Marx’s absence from the forum and other debates and said all Coloradans should be “concerned” about his opponent’s campaign.

“If you basically say I’m going to stay in my bubble, curate my message, never leave my bubble, never have real engagement, you’re, to my mind, undermining what the democratic process is about, and I’m concerned about the fact that we have a major candidate who doesn’t see things the way I believe democracy requires,” Weiser said.

The graduated income tax question wasn’t the only issue Weiser declined to weigh in on. He wouldn’t say how he’s voting on Ballot Issue 7A, which asks voters near planned Front Range Passenger Rail stations to increase the sales tax in a special district to raise money for expanded train service. And he wouldn’t provide specifics about how he would rein in the state’s Medicaid expenses, an issue he’ll surely face if elected governor as state revenues struggle to keep up with healthcare costs, or how he will handle the state’s faltering wolf reintroduction program.

But if elected Colorado’s next governor, Weiser promised to have as many people at the table as possible as he develops his plans as the state’s executive.

“I believe if people believe they’ve been listened to, they’ve been at the table, they can respect decisions,” he said. “I need all Coloradans to know that I care about them, I listen to them, I’m working for them.”

As attorney general, Weiser helped negotiate a deal with Democrats in the legislature earlier this year that prompted the construction industry to drop their ballot measure seeking to boost road funding. Part of that deal, he said, was his openness to supporting a similar ballot issue to raise taxes for road funding in the future.

“I plan on doing something, which I believe is the responsibe thing to do, coming up with a path forward to improve our roads,” he said.

Weiser said he is open to coverage mandates for healthcare companies, something Gov. Jared Polis had as a nonstarter. And Weiser said he’s open to tax incentives for data center companies under certain circumstances.

If a tech company creates a data center powered by a geothermal plant that employs people who previously worked at a coal plant, Weiser said that could be worth the state’s investment.

“Incentives for data centers that accomplish critical economic development goals — a just transition is high on my list — are ones that the state can invest in,” he said.

But he doesn’t want to see data centers built in communities that don’t want them.

“Communities should not have data centers shoved down their throats,” he said. “Noisy data centers near senior homes or healthcare facilities are highly concerning, particularly when communities say there was no process, there was no consideration, and we’re stuck with this. So we want to protect communities.”

When it comes to water, Weiser said he wants the state to support farmers in transitioning from cultivating water intensive crops like barley to less water intensive crops like rye and build solar panels on top of reservoirs to prevent evaporation. Water should be reused more often, Weiser said, and everyone, not just farmers, will have to conserve water.

Weiser touted his largely successful effort suing the Trump administration to block its policies and said he’s eager to work as governor to have a bigger impact on the lives of Coloradans. He’s particularly interested in reducing recidivism among people released from state prison, something he couldn’t tackle as attorney general, he said.

If approached by a theoretical Democratic president in the future about being the U.S. Attorney General, Weiser said he’d turn down the offer.

“We have a lot of work to do, I am all in to do this work,” he said of the governorship. “If the people will have me, I plan to do it for eight years.”