The Denver Gazette reports that Colorado businesses are not just “concerned” or “watching the climate” or whatever phrase consultants use when the building is on fire but the PowerPoint still has mountains on it.
They’re packing.
Common Sense Institute says Colorado ranked 48th out of 50 states in net business births per thousand residents in 2024, and dead last in net establishment openings. Dead. Last. As in: the economic welcome mat has been replaced with a clipboard, a fee schedule, a compliance seminar, and a Denver official asking if your business plan centers equity hard enough.
The numbers are not exactly subtle. CSI says Colorado had 28,121 business “births” and 32,055 “deaths” in 2024 — a net loss of 3,934 business establishments. The Colorado Chamber says the state has lost a net 98 firms and 13,607 jobs since 2019.
Meanwhile, state officials keep waving around new business filings like a toddler proudly holding up a macaroni necklace while the kitchen burns down behind him. Yes, nearly 55,000 new businesses registered in the first quarter, according to a CU Boulder report. Great. Colorado can still generate LLC paperwork. Congratulations, we are a national leader in people filing forms before discovering the cost of surviving here.
That is the scam: confuse registration activity with economic health. A guy registering a side hustle so he can afford eggs and rent is not the same thing as a thriving business climate. A cleaning worker setting up an official practice is not the same thing as Palantir keeping its headquarters in Denver.
And speaking of Palantir, the Gazette notes the company announced it would move its corporate headquarters from Denver to Miami. Re/Max Holdings, another major Colorado name, is also headed toward Florida after a proposed purchase. Florida, apparently, has discovered the radical economic strategy of not making every employer feel like they are being mugged by a committee.
This is where Colorado’s ruling class deserves a standing ovation from nobody. They spent years turning the state into a boutique regulatory terrarium for activists, attorneys, agency lifers, and nonprofit barnacles, then acted shocked when businesses started looking for exits.
Gov. Jared Polis even signed a letter warning Colorado is scaring away corporate expansions and entrepreneurs. Read that again. The governor signed the “holy crap, businesses are leaving” letter like he was some random LinkedIn founder discovering the problem from a coffee shop in RiNo.
Buddy, you’re the governor. You don’t get to wander into the crime scene wearing the badge and ask who did all this.
Then, according to the Gazette, a source close to Polis later walked back some of the letter’s assertions, pointing to his support for public-private partnerships and tech-hub growth. Of course. First comes the alarm bell, then comes the communications team with a wet towel and a bucket of institutional mush.
This is Colorado governance now: create the pressure, notice the pressure, sign a letter about the pressure, soften the letter about the pressure, then hold a roundtable where everyone agrees pressure is complicated.
Meanwhile, the job market is throwing up flares. Revised state data showed Colorado lost 11,700 jobs in 2025, the first annual job loss since the pandemic. Labor force participation is down. The labor force shrank by 10,600 in March, according to state data cited by the Gazette. But don’t worry, some official somewhere can still say filings are up, which is apparently the economic equivalent of telling a patient, “Your pulse is weak, but your hospital paperwork looks terrific.”
Normal Coloradans know what this looks like because they’re living inside the invoice. Higher costs. More fees. More rules. More smug lectures from people whose entire economic development strategy is “start a task force and pray Florida doesn’t answer the phone.”
Colorado used to be the place people came to build something. Now it’s the place where government makes you prove your business deserves to breathe.
Businesses are not fleeing because Colorado lacks mountains, talent, or ambition. They are fleeing because the geniuses in charge turned opportunity into a permitting process and then acted offended when the movers showed up.
Just Stop It
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