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Ritter unveils $12 million economic stimulus plan

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 13, 2008 at 11:31 a.m.
Updated November 13, 2008 at 11:31 a.m.

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Gov. Bill Ritter announced this morning a series of immediate economic development initiatives totaling $12 million to keep Colorado's economy pumping despite the national economic downturn.

After addressing the legislature's Joint Budget Committee and laying out his $19.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2009-10, Ritter zeroed in on stimulus items to be tackled this month and November.

"As you know, we are in an extremely tough time nationally and internationally," Ritter said. "To date, Colorado seems to have been somewhat buffered from the worst parts of it. Again, that's just for now. It's important that our economic development efforts be aggressive in this environment."

Ritter said the state will spearhead a first-ever "Keep Colorado Working Day." That effort, directed by the Colorado Department of Labor, will feature seven regional job fairs around the state connecting those looking for work and potential employers.

That day, slated for Nov. 20, will also feature Colorado's 63 workforce centers holding open houses that day and the state will begin operating a Web site — connectingcolorado.org.

The free site will allow employers and those seeking jobs to review listings.

Comments

  • November 13, 2008

    11:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ILoveChipotle writes:

    The governor is such a hypocrite! He talks about our energy economy allowing Colorado to stem the economic tide, but then he tries to punish that same energy economy for trying to do business. One term for Ritter, what a worthless governor he's turned out to be.

  • November 13, 2008

    11:50 a.m.

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    MavrickG writes:

    I am with Shaggy!

  • November 13, 2008

    12:04 p.m.

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    COGrownFarmBoy writes:

    Shaggy, the technology isn't there to be refining oil shale yet...we are still several years away from that...all the oil companies want to do right now is lease the mineral rights from us while they aren't worth anything yet. If we wait a couple more years and the technology begins to get where oil shale can be refined, the value of those leases will skyrocket resulting in a better financial benefit to the Colorado (and Federal) Taxpayer. We need to develop oil shale...but we need to be smart about it. I am not in favor of giving big oil more profits at the expense of the rest of us.

  • November 13, 2008

    12:05 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    cassidy22 writes:

    Do any of you know what it actually takes to get oil out of oil shale? at $60 a barrel, the cost isn't worth it. Getting oil out of colorado isn't a free enterprise, even digging to a good oil field is expensive. The oil companies spend BILLIONS of dollars a year pumping out oil. Separating it from oil shale and oil sands is not only expensive, AND dangerous to the water supply - it is also too costly at todays oil prices.

    (you can learn to USE less, and that will reduce your dependence on foreign oil. How come no one is interested in talking about that?)

  • November 13, 2008

    12:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    SPUD writes:

    The State Budget for the State of Colorado $19.2 Billion. Twelve Million is 0.000260417%. That means Ritter is committment is less than 3 ten thousands of of a percent That's really going to stimulate Colorado. Who's kidding who! How dumb does Ritter think we are?

  • November 13, 2008

    12:09 p.m.

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    Scott writes:

    SPUD asks, "How dumb does Ritter think we are?"

    Just as dumb as he is. ;-)

    Scott

  • November 13, 2008

    12:14 p.m.

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    squeakywheel writes:

    Seven job fairs and one website. $12 million

    Replacing Tax Ritter: Priceless

  • November 13, 2008

    12:19 p.m.

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    Willy writes:

    Window dressing. $12 million is spitting in the ocean. Job fairs don't create jobs - duh.

  • November 13, 2008

    12:20 p.m.

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    ILoveChipotle writes:

    The easiest way for the governor to stimulate the economy would be to resign.

  • November 13, 2008

    12:21 p.m.

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    tjpatriot writes:

    What about the trillion cubic feet of natural gas? Is that beyond our technical ability to develop also? It would ease the pressure on those of us who heat our houses with it, but I guess I'm alone on that one. God knows a prairie dog would probably get run over by an oil-field service truck too, and we can't have that. Plus it will produce evil CO2. Oh and Hey Ritter by the way I was wondering, What technology were you going to use to burn all those pine-beetle infested trees that you are going to clear without producing CO2? Must be some new technology. Maybe you could market it. Just an idea.

  • November 13, 2008

    12:22 p.m.

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    squeakywheel writes:

    I'm so tired of politicians telling us the sky is falling, but somehow they will protect us. More often than not, they are part of the problem rather than the solution.

    We have come to a tipping point in our society where we are rewarding failure (bailouts) and punishing success (higher taxes).

  • November 13, 2008

    12:48 p.m.

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    newsreader1 writes:

    Only $12 million....what a joke!

  • November 13, 2008

    12:59 p.m.

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    Commie_Liberal writes:

    Wow, some of you really must love that ol' conservative snake oil. I guess when you turn it into kool-aid, it just goes down so smooth.

    OK, this has nothing to do with oil. Ritter is holding job fairs, not addressing energy here. So right off the bat, you're trying to hijack the thread and change the story. Ritter is spending $12mil on job fairs and a website to help professionals network and job search in CO. This keeps highly skilled (and high tax paying) workers from accepting out of state jobs and helps prevent industries from shifting out of CO. Oil and resource jobs don't shift my friends, you can't drill for CO oil and gas in New Mexico. But you can make IC chips anywhere, so capturing and keeping that segment is important. Remember, the oil and gas has been there for millions of years, there is no hurry to take it out of the ground (no matter what ye olde GOP tells you.)

    Now, let's talk about energy (oil specifically):

    Saudia Arabia - you locate a vast pool of oil, you dig down to it, you pump it out and have a minimum of refinement. Cost to extract: maybe $10/barrel over the life of the well. Price you charge: from $20-200 a barrel, whatever the market will bear.

    Colorado Shale - You find the shale, you want the oil. So you have to freeze then heat the shale to extract the oil, correct? So do you do this while it is still in the ground? Of course not, you blow the top off the mountain and ship all that shale to a refinement facility. Then you extract the oil (which is not high quality and needs to be extensively refined), and are left with what? A mountain's worth of crushed shale that is now impregnated with the heating/cooling/extraction chemicals. So what do you do with that stuff? Put it all back in the ground the exact way you found it? Hell no, you go dump it somewhere.

    Now, what do you think that costs? $10/barrel, $20, $50? Try about $80-100 a barrel in realistic terms and that's giving them the benefit of the doubt. Factoring in all the natural and added chemicals from the dumped shale that can seep into the local waterways and lord only knows what the final price tag really is. Plus, the Saudis at $10 a barrel costs can just undercut the living hell out of the market and bankrupt your shale business.

    Sorry Shaggy, when you give oil shale the most basic of sniff tests it fails. If you'd like to explain what is incorrect in the analysis above, I'm listening. But unless you can discuss the extraction process in detail and somehow arrive at cheaper than $50 a barrel, it's a pipe dream.

    Peace...

  • November 13, 2008

    1:01 p.m.

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    strohslite writes:

    12 million? How many illegals will that help?

  • November 13, 2008

    1:09 p.m.

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    robbyr2 writes:

    Sure a lot of anger over $12 million. Not sure how much good it will do, but it is $12 million- not billion! It seems unlikely to help much when the problems register in the trillions.

    Did you know when they started trying to make oil shale work? Try 1917. Yep over 90 years, and Shell says they won't make a decision on whether it will work until at least 2016. And it will take more water than we have to make it work.

  • November 13, 2008

    1:17 p.m.

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    Dinty writes:

    Yeah, these "stimulus" packages are working out really well. I guess the Dems think they have to look like they're doing something.

  • November 13, 2008

    1:37 p.m.

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    Elwood writes:

    It's the only thing the dems can think of to solve the problems is to give people money. Doesn't matter that it came from us in the first place.

  • November 13, 2008

    1:53 p.m.

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    Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

    "economic development initiatives" - to whom and for what? What kind of an article is this? How about some facts, RMN, or are they unpalatable and you don't want to print them?

    And, where's he getting the money? The money tree that grows behind the State House?

    Band-aid Ritter at work with the blessings of the majority of voters.

  • November 13, 2008

    2:27 p.m.

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    horsinaround writes:

    My husband is in the natural gas business and I can tell you that Ritter is in the pocket of the enviromentalists and has already pledged to my husband's business to stymie and shut them down every chance he gets. By the way, one of Obama's first plans is to try and shut down a major natural gas project they have in another state. One of my husband's business associates had a leader in the Democratic party come up to him at a meeting and tell him they will do everything they can to shut them down. This was right after Ritter was elected. They continue to do this. When gas is back at $4.00 a gallon and higher, we will have Ritter and the rest of the Democrats to blame. Everyone agrees we need to seek alternative energy, but the answer is still years away. Until then, the companies need to be allowed to drill. For almost every project they start, they get sued by some enviromentalist group or another; thereby raising everyone's costs.
    On another note, oil and gas are publicly traded commodities on the stock market....supply and demand regulate the price. Take the demand away, the price goes down. Increase the demand, decrease drilling, the price goes up. For those of you who think the oil companies control the prices, do you really think gas would be below $2.00 a gallon and dropping if they did??? Stop buying into the envirowhacko and Democratic propaganda.

  • November 13, 2008

    2:59 p.m.

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    horsinaround writes:

    Shaggy,
    I read your posts a lot and you are right again! I have a friend whose son will probably not graduate high school. She asked my husband if he could help her son get a job on a natural gas rig. My husband told me that if Obama gets elected, he, my husband, will have about a zero percent chance of helping her son get a job. There will be less jobs in that industry, translating to less jobs/more loss of jobs in Colorado and Utah, as well as other states, as he will do his best to stymie their drilling. He was elected by the special interests and he'll have to pander to them. I guess that's the change we have to look forward to.

  • November 13, 2008

    3:48 p.m.

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    JJ1 writes:

    I agree with parts of Governor Ritter's plan, especially opening up some money for small businesses to get credit. I think more money needs to start flowing to businesses to allow the economy to get moving again. In this respect, I am glad that Colorado seems to be doing more than the federal Congress to help the economy.

    In this area, I feel like our Congress has failed us. I think they need to focus all of their energies on fixing the economy. Hopefully the next Congress coming in January can do a bit more than the current Congress seems to have done. If any of the other readers feel the same way, write your congressperson and ask them to do something to help the economy. Or, join with a group to help strengthen your voice. For instance, the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sending a petition to the new Congress to fix the economy first. If you'd like to sign it, you can do so here:
    http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/...

  • November 14, 2008

    9:03 a.m.

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    jbowen43 writes:

    Let's face the facts. The economy is in the toilet because of years of mismanagement and greed by republicans, and the Democrats have been overwhelmingly elected to fix things. It took years to create this mess and will take years to fix. Only the democrats have the trust of the public to do the job.
    Oil prices have crashed because of a lack of demand not because of the potential of shale oil, ANWAR, or of deep water production.
    You can attack folks and lie all you want but you cannot change the facts.

  • November 14, 2008

    10:53 a.m.

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    BigSky182 writes:

    jbowen43 writes:

    Let's face the facts. The economy is in the toilet because of years of mismanagement and greed by republicans,
    ----------------------------------------------------------

    Seriously dude... go read something... ANYTHING.

    You cannot blame one party for the economic hole we are in. The Dems have been in bed with Fannie and Freddie for a VERY long time and the Repubs only paid lip service to the problem until it blew up in everyone's faces.

    Who do you think pushed making loans easier to get? Which party benefits more from lowincome and/or unqualified buyers getting loans they can't even afford? What do you think the phrase "sub-prime market" even means?

    sub-prime - less then the best. "Hey, let's force banks to give out billions of dollars in loans to people who can't possibly pay them back!!"

    This has been cooking for at least 16 years... probably longer.

    And if you think Obama is going to wave a magic wand and just "fix things" overnight, then you are truly, truly hopelessly lost.