The president arrives in Denver today to whip the economy into shape. So is Colorado the “before” picture, or the “after” picture?
President Barack Obama will sign the $787 billion stimulus package at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science at a time when Colorado represents a little of both.
Home prices have shrunk and unemployment bumped up; Colorado-based companies have seen their stock prices plummet, and declining sales-tax revenues plague local governments. Conversation on the street or in the typical coffeehouse tends to turn to joblessness, fears of salary cuts, investment losses and health care costs.
But Obama will make his grand national gesture in a state where two of his pet industries of the future are thriving on new ideas and ambition, and which are ready to spend money as soon as he caps his pen.
The stimulus includes billions in credits and grants meant to promote green-energy production and independence from Middle East oil. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter has long made those ideas key to his vision of creating Western jobs.
Pete Austin of Cañon City is poised to implement the stimulus bill’s expanded subsidies for wind energy and business-equipment purchases. He said he will train and hire installers for solar panels and wind turbines and will finally lock up the loan he has been putting off for new trucks.
“I’d like to thank them from the bottom of my heart,” said Austin, taking a break from installing a home-based solar array in Pueblo West. “I’m tickled to death that we’re moving forward with legislation and policy that directs this country into energy that’s diversified. We’re very happy they have kept the promise.”
Money for health care
Kaiser Permanente Colorado president Donna Lynne might be able to tell Obama the same thing in person. She will be near his elbow for the museum signing. The stimulus includes billions of dollars in grants to help speed patient information among doctors’ offices, hospitals, clinics and insurers.
Drawing on previous grants, Kaiser linked to Denver Health, University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital to share files. In practice, that might mean an emergency room patient at Children’s would avoid the delay and cost of an X-ray if a doctor could quickly download a previous X-ray taken by Kaiser.
“The kind of money being put up in the stimulus bill is hugely significant to both improve the quality of care and reduce cost in the system,” Lynne said. “That’s an immense commitment to information technology that will really put us on a pathway to improving health outcomes.”
Obama returns to a Colorado shaken but not yet felled by a recession that began well before he accepted the Democratic nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High in August. Local economists think the recession didn’t officially hit Colorado until this past fall, while the national economy began slipping in December 2007.
“We are 22nd on the list for stimulus spending, so I wouldn’t say we are the most needy state,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president with the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation.
Poster child for new energy
So far, it appears the state is holding up better than most others on measures like unemployment, income gains and job growth. People also continue to move to Colorado; and 4.8 percent of Colorado mortgages were delinquent in the third quarter of 2008, compared with 7.3 percent nationwide.
Colorado’s emphasis on alternative-energy development and a perception that local governments will quickly turn the shovel on large infrastructure projects are why Clark said he thinks the stimulus bill is being signed here.
“We are the poster child for the new energy economy and for regional cooperation in doing big projects,” Clark said.
By choosing Denver, the president is attempting to cast the stimulus package as an investment in the future rather than a remedy for past failures, said Michael Orlando, an economist with Economic Advisors in Denver.
Obama might also be trying to recapture the bipartisan message that was successful on the campaign trail but fell flat inside the Beltway.
“The Eastern Seaboard just tends to remind us of failures on Wall Street and lobbying on K Street,” Orlando said.
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com
President’s visit
(Events are closed to public; invitation only)
11:30 a.m.: Arrives at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora.
12:15 p.m.: Tours solar panel installation at Denver Museum of Nature & Science with Vice President Joe Biden and Blake Jones, CEO of Namaste Solar.
12:40: Signs bill, with remarks from Jones, Gov. Bill Ritter, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Biden.
3:00: Departs museum.
3:45: Departs Buckley AFB for Phoenix.
Note: The museum is closed to the public today and will reopen Wednesday.
TRAFFIC ALERT
While the route of the presidential motorcade is unknown, drivers in Aurora and east Denver will want to be aware of potential traffic tie-ups about noon and again about 3:30 p.m.
LIVE COVERAGE
Throughout the day at denverpost.com.
9News and 9news.com. also will have live coverage.
Traveling Bills
Examples of bills signed by presidents at locations outside Washington:
Dec. 31, 2007: In Crawford, Texas, in the first makeover of the Freedom of Information Act in a decade, President George W. Bush signs a bill meant to strengthen the law, giving the public and media greater access to information. Congress makes sure the language of the bill puts pressure on government agencies dallying in response to FOIA requests. Under the new law, agencies are required to meet a 20-day deadline for responding.
Jan. 8, 2002: Boston is selected as the setting to laud a big bipartisan achievement when President George W. Bush signs into law his favored education legislation, increasing standards and testing for schools and funneling federal dollars to the poorest schools. The education overhaul is the result of compromises on both sides of the aisle, and Bush credits Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, for his efforts. Bush is also eager to play up the signing event because the actual passage of the bill was overshadowed by the buildup to war and a tussle over an economic stimulus package.
Aug. 12, 1993: President Bill Clinton, in his fourth trip to grievously flooded Midwestern states, chooses St. Louis as the venue to sign a $5.7 billion flood-relief bill that provides disaster payments for farmers and FEMA funds for damaged housing and public buildings. The trip is also meant to downplay his predecessors’ late response times to previous emergencies, and Clinton heaps praise on local heroes’ rescue efforts.
Nov. 5, 1990: In Houston, a day before midterm elections, President George H.W. Bush signs into law a tax increase as part of a $492 billion deficit-reduction plan. By signing the budget package just before its midnight deadline, he avoids prime-time TV broadcasts and newspaper deadlines that would have put the event on voters’ front pages on Election Day.
Aug. 13, 1981: Relaxing in the Western setting of his beloved Rancho del Cielo, President Ronald Reagan signs tax and budget-cutting bills while conceding that the soft economy is a real and possibly lingering situation. He praises cooperating parties of the Congress that passed the bills cutting taxes by $749 billion over five years and reducing government spending. The attending press corps enjoys its first invitation to the “Western White House” at Santa Inez, Calif., in more than a year.
Sources: The Washington Post; The Associated Press
Compiled by Vickie Makings, Denver Post research library