Three GOP Governors Compare Housing Fixes for Vail and Aspen

The wind howls through the pass, rattling the windows of a house that costs more than most people make in a decade. Inside, a teacher or a nurse stares at a mortgage statement and wonders if they’ll ever sleep in the same bed they wake up in. That is the reality for thousands on the Western Slope. The housing crisis isn’t just a statistic. It is a daily eviction notice for the people who keep the mountains running.

Scott Bottoms, Barbara Kirkmeyer, and Victor Marx are running for governor. They all want to fix it. They all blame Denver. But they disagree on how to pay for the fix.

The Vail Daily sat down with the three Republican candidates for the June 30 primary. The questions were simple. The answers reveal a party divided on what actually drives up costs in the High Country.

Bottoms leads with a blunt diagnosis: government is the problem. He wants to slash regulatory burdens and taxes. He argues that excessive fees and red tape, not a lack of supply, are pushing locals out. He wants to cut property taxes. He wants to streamline permitting. He wants to repeal mandates that inflate builder costs. Bottoms believes that if you remove the weight of the state, housing becomes affordable again. It is a classic supply-side play. It assumes that builders will build if you stop bothering them.

Kirkmeyer looks at the payroll. She points to the Colorado State Patrol. The vacancy rate in the High Country hits 50 percent. Why? Because potential recruits can’t afford a home. Firefighters face the same trap. Kirkmeyer has a concrete solution. Last year, she sponsored legislation to expand downpayment assistance for first responders through the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). It is now law. She wants to modernize CHFA programs. She also wants to repeal statewide energy efficiency requirements. Those rules add $60,000 to the price of a new home. That cost applies whether you are building near the Oklahoma border or at 10,000 feet in Leadville. Her approach is targeted. It helps specific workers and removes specific costs.

Marx calls it a failure of Denver politicians. He says they write housing policy like mountain communities don’t exist. He has sat with ranchers and nurses who can’t afford to live where they work. He calls it heartbreaking. He agrees with Bottoms that it is a regulatory crisis. He wants to cut the red tape. He wants to end unfunded mandates that force counties to raise local taxes. He wants to give mountain communities the flexibility to build workforce housing. He wants local control. He wants to stop one-size-fits-all mandates from the capital.

Read that again. Marx and Bottoms agree on the root cause. They both blame regulation. Kirkmeyer focuses on the human cost of that regulation. She highlights the empty patrol cars and the tired firefighters. She offers a legislative track record. Bottoms offers a philosophical framework. Marx offers a political critique.

The short version? The candidates agree on the enemy. They disagree on the weapon. Bottoms wants to cut taxes. Kirkmeyer wants to tweak existing assistance programs. Marx wants to shift power to the counties.

Which approach actually lowers the price of a house in Vail or Aspen? Bottoms’ plan relies on market forces. Kirkmeyer’s plan relies on state subsidies. Marx’s plan relies on local flexibility. All three assume that the current system is broken. All three assume that the governor can fix it. The voters will have to decide which assumption holds water.

The primary is in June. The housing prices are not going down. The question is who gets to blame them for it.