Regulator-at-large celebrates itself with the cash it collects
Peter Blake / Colorado News Agency
Get fined by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies—for giving unlicensed haircuts, say—and you will pay a surcharge that finances DORA’s “consumer outreach” program.
Which, who knows, may lead to the apprehension of another illegal—oops, undocumented—barber.
That gives you the dubious satisfaction of knowing that you not only have to pay for your own crime, but must help promote the agency that caught you.
The outreach program was created by the legislature in 2008. It is supposed to educate consumers on how to use the regulatory system, and to counsel the many regulated occupations on how to behave.
DORA oversees banking, insurance, public utilities, securities, real estate, civil rights and, by my count, 54 trades or professions. It finances itself mostly by charging those it regulates annual fees. Not that the trades and professions seem to mind. Every year several more occupations go to the legislature seeking regulation, claiming the public needs protection. But some suspect limiting freelance competition may also be a motivation, since the public has never initiated an effort to license a trade. …read full column.
Veteran Colorado political columnist Peter Blake writes weekly on state issues for the Colorado News Agency.
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