August 21, 2006 10:05 PM UTC

Comments on Ritter's 'economic plan'

• 2 Comments
• by: Another skeptic

A quick glance at Ritter’s press release announcing his economic plan for CO prompts these thoughts:

Ritter’s complete jobs and business-development plan, “Growing a Strong Economy for Colorado,” is posted on the www.ritterforgovernor.com website. The plan calls for:

* Providing a 21st century economic infrastructure so that the economy can grow and thrive, including:

– The best-educated workforce in the country.
COMMENT: Spend more on education, make the CEA happy, drive employers away.

– An affordable, accessible and high-quality health-care system, in part by creating a Small Business Health Insurance Team of business owners and other stakeholders who will devise strategies for small business owners and their employees to access affordable health care.
COMMENT: So the state’s going to own the health care system, set prices for care and medical supplies, dictate health benefit plans, increase the number of mandated benefits? Any of those will drive costs up. A small business coalition, The Alliance under the Cooperative for Health Insurance Purchasing, failed under pressure from the large insurers and as a result of less than anticipated participation by small employers. In short, this is a disingenuous promise, and it’s been proven unworkable all across the country in many ways.

– A modern transportation system that allows businesses to transport goods and services via an integrated network of roads, highways, rail and air facilities.
COMMENT: Here’s to yah, Contractor Republicans. Give to me and I’ll spend on infrastructure like never before, even if it ruins the mountains.

* Creating a Colorado Jobs Cabinet within the administration. The cabinet will be composed of senior business leaders and representatives of higher education, economic-development agencies and workforce-development officials to align economic development and educational goals.
COMMENT: The Committee for State Subsidizaton of the Establishment.

* Bringing every government agency with a role in economic development together with business and education leaders to create modern economic-development strategies, and placing a renewed sense of priority and urgency on the work of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
COMMENT: If you’re going to make the state too costly for business with all your other programs, these do nothing groups will do nothing.

* Strengthening Colorado’s rural economies by establishing regional partnerships between state government and each economic region. These partnerships will research and analyze economic and labor-force trends, court businesses that show an interest in locating or expanding in the region, and develop recruitment and retention business packages. These partnerships will address the unique needs of the state’s five major economic regions – the Western Slope, San Luis Valley, Eastern Plains, mountain resorts and Front Range – as well as the statewide needs of all of Colorado.
COMMENT: A Clintonian bid for support from all parts of the state. Talk about an empty promise.

* Streamlining government to be more responsive by improving permitting and licensing processes, responding more efficiently to inquiries about available land or office space, and providing quick and thorough answers to questions about state policies or services.

COMMENT: If this said, “I will support legislation that will require municipalities to issue building permits in one week, create sensible statewide building and fire codes and take the profit out of costly zoning disputes,” this would mean something. Otherwise, it means nothing.

* Establishing a statewide incubation strategy that will coordinate existing incubator programs and recruit new ones.
COMMENT: Incubators don’t produce enough jobs to justify the time and trouble.

* Providing greater access to small-business capital by serving as an effective resource for information on a wide variety of private sector and government-sponsored sources of capital.

COMMENT: Entrepreneurs don’t need and won’t use state information resources, which always are out of date and written by college sophomores. If an entrepreneur doesn’t know how to raise capital, he probably can’t, regardless of what the state does.

* Directing businesses to under-used federal economic-development programs.
COMMENT: These programs probably are under used because they’re over regulated and unworkable. Reform the programs before you promote them.

* Focusing efforts on industries that provide exceptional opportunities for growth, including renewable energy, aviation, aerospace, biomedicine, biotechnology, medical research, travel and tourism.
COMMENT: Again, something for everyone. How will the state provide “exceptional opportunities?” With high property taxes? Unworkable building and fire codes? Anti-employer labor laws and regulations? Please explain. And why should Intrawest and Vail be subsidized by the state? Makes no sense.

“I want Colorado to be the first state that businesses think of when considering relocation and the last state they would ever want to leave,” Ritter said. “I will make it my duty as Governor to market Colorado as the best state to do business.”

COMMENT: Was this written by a lawyer? Or a campaign consultant? Such an easily dismissed generalizaton.

On balance, pretty empty and pathetic. It was written to be ignored, and it will be.

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