While the federal government always views its threats to cut off the flow of stolen money to the states as a kind of untrumpable trump card, a Colorado town has created a template for how to handle the federal government’s attempts at bribery and extortion.
Castle Rock, a community of 55,000 people in central Colorado, recently decided to refuse funds from the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At issue for the town was a new set of regulations, 377 pages in all, which gives the unelected HUD bureaucrats broad powers over grant recipient communities, including the power to reverse electoral decisions by local voters, change local zoning laws and force said communities to join regions against the its wishes.