Gov. Jared Polis and his veto pen are now all that can protect taxpayers in Colorado’s counties from the fiscal train wreck of collective bargaining that is heading their way.

The legislation that would impose that budget-busting policy on county governments across the state, Senate Bill 230, is the work of ruling Democrats who control the Capitol. They are listening to their political benefactors in organized labor rather than to their constituents.

Which means it’s up to the governor to look out for those constituents — and he should do so by vetoing the bill. Indeed, this year the governor appeared poised to do just that to an even more overreaching version of the current bill. It would have covered all public education as well as higher-ed employees. Yet, the bill as it now stands is a disaster all the same.

SB 230 opens the door to collective bargaining for about 38,000 county employees. Pending a vote by those employees, the mandate would force each county to negotiate pay and benefits with a union under threat of a settlement imposed by an arbitrator if negotiations stall. That will backfire big time.

Unlike a private company, which answers to its shareholders, a county is “owned” by the taxpaying public. Taxpayers have a right to expect their counties to operate within their means — not at a union’s whims.

Many counties operate on a shoestring as it is. Counties large and small cannot afford to be over a budgetary barrel, which is where collective bargaining will leave them. Local governments must have the flexibility to reconfigure staff or postpone raises in an economic downturn, when tax revenue slumps.

That flexibility is gone when a union steps in. Under collective bargaining, the government would in all likelihood have to make good on negotiated pay and benefit hikes by slashing other basic services.

Most counties oppose the proposal. And that is another reason why Polis must make good on his original threat to veto a collective bargaining bill.

It is bad enough Polis signed collective bargaining into law for state government employees in 2020. It will hamstring state budget writers in the Legislature and ultimately the state’s taxpayers, well into the future.

SB 230 takes the boondoggle a big step further — by trampling on the autonomy of local government. The big unions evidently weren’t satisfied with tens of thousands of new, dues-paying members at the state level and flexed their considerable muscle in Democratic circles to have their way with the counties, as well.

Those counties and their taxpayers now will pick up the tab so that the majority party at the Capitol can make good on its campaign obligations to organized labor.

The governor grasped what a gut punch collective bargaining would have been for higher ed and public schools when he voiced his displeasure with that idea near the beginning of the 2022 legislative session. The bill as it now stands will be just as hard a blow to counties — and Polis’ same wisdom applies every bit as much.

We’ll say it one more time: Government’s purpose isn’t to create high-paying jobs. It is to provide essential services to the taxpayers who foot the bill. Governor, please veto SB 230.

The legislation that would impose that budget-busting policy on county governments across the state, Senate Bill 230, is the work of ruling Democrats who control the Capitol. They are listening to their political benefactors in organized labor rather than to their constituents.