Archive for February, 2009

Job Creation Committee Wraps-Up, Proposes Common-Sense Jobs Package

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

DENVER – The legislatures Joint Select Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth met for the last time today to announce a package of two dozen jobs bills. The Jobs Creation Package focused on the areas of:

  • Strengthening small businesses with tax incentives and credit
  • Improving transportation and communication infrastructure
  • Expanding the “New Energy Economy” with green and clean-tech jobs
  • Stimulating job growth in rural communities

“I’m so proud of our bipartisan work on this Committee,â” said Co-Chair Rep. Joe Rice (D-Littleton).  “We took up President Obama’s challenge to put aside political games and create a long-term plan to build and sustain good jobs.  This extensive Job Creation Package offers common-sense solutions to get shovels in the ground, credit in the hands of small businesses and clean technologies to market.  I can describe these two dozen bills with my favorite four-letter word: jobs.”

“The Joint Select Committee has been essential in the introduction of important job creation and economic development bills this session after listening to the advice of the business community,” said Co-Chair Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass).  “These bills promote the growth of small businesses, grow Colorado’s new energy programs, and build the infrastructure of our schools, highways, and broadband groundwork.  The committee has been deliberating since November 2008 along with the help of a group for the business advisors to come up with legislation that will put thousands of people to work.  In this current economy these bills cannot come at a better time.  I am proud of the hard work by the Joint Select Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth and would like to thank everyone who consulted, advised, and helps to make these bills happen.”

Below is a summary of legislation:

1. Create Thousands of Jobs Repairing Our Crumbling Roads and Bridges

  • SB 09-108 – FASTER: Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery

2. Offer Tax Incentives to Companies that Create Jobs

  • HB 09-1001 – Income Tax Credit for Colorado Job Growth
  • HB 09-1105 – Colorado Innovation Investment Tax Credit Act
  • HB 09-1212 – Income tax credit for newly built homes
  • SB 09-085 – Phase-out of business personal property tax
  • HB 09-1035 – Tax refund for CO-based technology companies
  • draft 0622 – Include commercial vehicles in enterprise zone
  • SB 09-232 – Local gov’t financing w/severance tax cash funds

3. Help Small Businesses Create Jobs

  • SB 09-067 – Colorado Credit Reserve program to expand credit for small businesses
  • SB 09-233 – Tax credit for some home businesses
  • SB 09-178 – Unemployment insurance for unemployed individuals available to small business
  • draft 0542 – Concurrent enrollment opportunities for technical education providers

4. Expand New Energy and Clean Technology Jobs

  • HB 09-1126 – Encourage solar thermal installations
  • HB 09-1149 – Encourage new homes to use solar energy
  • SB 09-031 – Clean Technology Discovery Grant Program
  • SB 09-171 – New energy economy training programs
  • draft – Residential energy improvement loan program
  • draft – Update Clean Energy Development Authority
  • draft – Expand solar hot water rebate program
  • SB 09-238 – Government treatment of solar device permits

5. Create Rural Jobs

  • SB 09-234 – Create a state-wide enterprise zone
  • draft 0764 – BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) improvement
  • SB 09-162 – Inventory of broadband service areas
  • draft 0801 – Transmission infrastructure planning
  • HB 09-1275 – EMT Provisional Certification
  • Amend HB 1272 – Expand Colorado First workforce training community colleges

Posted in 2009 Legislative Session, Democratic Issues | 1 Comment »

Gov. Ritter Establishes Colorado Economic Recovery Accountability Board

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Gov. Bill Ritter announced the creation today of an accountability and  oversight board to ensure that funds Colorado receives from the American  Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in Denver yesterday, are spent  effectively and transparently.

“The recovery act presents an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen  Colorado’s economy and create new jobs all across the state,” Gov. Ritter.  “With this opportunity also comes a need for additional monitoring to  ensure the funds are invested effectively, efficiently and wisely, and with  an unprecedented level of oversight, transparency and accountability.

“I have asked this distinguished group of Coloradans to join the  accountability board to support the work of my administration in the  expenditure of these funds,” Gov. Ritter said. “We have a sacred  responsibility to taxpayers that this will be an open process. This board  will establish various methods for the public to monitor where their money  is going and how it is being spent.”

The board will be chaired by Don Elliman, director of the Colorado Office  of Economic Development, and composed of public- and private-sector leaders  from across the state, including: (more…)

Posted in 2009 Legislative Session, Elected | Comments Off

Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien Unveils Monthly Podcast

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien posted her first monthly podcast today, which focuses on education reform in a down economy.  The podcast can be found by going to her website located at, www.colorado.gov/ltgovernor, and clicking on the podcast button.

“It is important for everyone in Colorado to understand that my office is also working toward goals that will improve the state, especially in these challenging economic times,” said Lt. Gov. O’Brien.

Lt. Gov. O’Brien is co-chair of Gov. Ritter’s P20 Education Coordinating Council, a group of business, education, and community representatives that studies education reform issues with a goal of creating a seamless education system from pre-school to graduate-school in preparing students for the demands of the 21st Century. This year, Lt. Gov. O’Brien and other members of the council concentrated on developing innovative solutions in a time of diminishing funds.

“Ensuring that our education system is graduating work-force ready, community-involved citizens is a top priority for this administration,” Lt. Gov. O’Brien said.

The lieutenant governor’s office handles education reform, early childhood issues, aerospace, the Governor’s Commission on Community Service, the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs and health and wellness issues.  Future podcasts will be posted the first week of each month.

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Bluest of the Blue

Monday, February 9th, 2009

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Yesterday, mere hours after our return from a very long drive back from Oklahoma, we jumped back on the Reorganization Circuit, stopping in Adams and Denver counties for their reorganization meetings.

As with so many other counties, both Adams and Denver are undergoing some pretty big changes; both counties elected mostly-new slates of officers, including new chairs and vice-chairs.

Adams County was the first stop, up at the Pipefitters’ Hall on North Broadway. The room was packed with precinct committee persons and politicians from all stripes. It was great to see so many new faces there mingling with the familiar ones. We spoke toward the beginning of the meeting, along with Governor Ritter, Congressman Perlmutter, and former Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff. We all spoke just before the officer elections; Marty Wisniewski was selected unanimously as the new Adams County Chair. He’s the former Mayor of Thornton; I had a brief chance to meet him on Sunday, and he seems like he will do a good job keeping the county solidly blue.

We had to get down to Denver before the officer elections in Adams, but I’ve heard that Linda Sands is the new First Vice Chair and Julia Hicks (my predecessor as State Party First Vice Chair) was selected as the Second Vice Chair. So congrats to all of the new officers!

We then drove down to Denver for their reorganization meeting. Denver’s Dems run a well-oiled machine, and they had the agenda set forth down to the minute. That was impressive, but what was even more impressive was how frustrated the leadership seemed to get when they got about 5 minutes off of the schedule. That’s a sign that expectations are certainly high in Denver, and the level of activism and excitement continues to impress me every time I visit.

Another thing that impresses me is the youthfulness of the Party leadership in Denver. The outgoing chair and vice chair (Jennifer Coken and Rachel Kienzler) proved that you don’t have to have been involved for 50 years to successfully run a county party. New Chair Cindy Lowery has been incredibly active as a Young Democrat and has proven her ability to organize and plan; joined with Jennifer Jacobson, the new Vice Chair for Denver, they and the rest of the officers should prove to continue to be the dynamic team that keeps the Party in Denver an exciting operation.

The State Party officers spoke in the middle of the officer elections in Denver. Fewer folks were paying attention to our re-election spiels, but that was fine with me; I was just happy to have a chance to talk to the Denver Dems. As for the officer elections, it appears that the offices of Secretary and Treasurer were contested races, and I have not been able to find out any results of those races. (If anybody knows how those turned out, let me know in the comments section.)

I left before the speeches for the open Treasurer’s position; however, in the Secretary’s position, Dan Willis was being challenged by Owen Perkins. It seemed like an interesting race. From the speeches, it sounds like Owen worked hard to campaign to each central committee member individually, while Dan said that he had to focus on planning the reorganization meeting, so he could not campaign as much. It will be interesting to see how all of that turned out.

Tonight, we have our own reorganization meeting here in Canon City for the Fremont County Dems. My wife is running for re-election as the Party’s treasurer, so I will be there all night to support her and the other candidates for the future of the Party down here. Unless plans change, I think we’ll be in Boulder on Wednesday, Pueblo on Thursday, and Durango on Saturday. So I’ll see some of you out on the road!

Posted in Counties | Comments Off

My D.C. Inauguration Experience

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Ken Strom, my husband, and I flew into Washington National on Saturday, January 17, 2009 too late to attend the DNC tribute to Governor Howard Dean. I had tried to change my tickets for three days, but the airlines were not about to let me get in without a lot more money. So we missed that event and heard the next day that it was wonderful.

On Sunday, the streets were closed off, so we walked a few blocks and took a taxi to the Washington Hilton for the Emily’s List luncheon. Other Coloradans Rollie and Josie Heath were there, and we also ran into Katie Hoffner with her mother. And of course, Rep. Betsy Markey and her staff attended.

It was so exciting to hear from the newly elected Senators Kay Hagan (NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (NH). Governor Bev Perdue gave us insight on her race in North Carolina. And we also got to hear from the three women appointed to the Obama Administration: Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security; Hilda Solis for Labor; and Hillary Clinton for State. The program ran an hour over time, but it was so exciting.

We then went by the Westin to do a walk through for the Monday Colorado Ball. From there we walked back to our hotel with strains of music coming from the Mall.

After standing in a crush of people trying to get onto the Metro, we headed for dinner with family in Springfield, Virginia. Everyone was in a good mood.

On Monday we spent most of the day on Capitol Hill collecting swearing in tickets for Colorado attendees. While having a late breakfast on the Senate side, we ran into Senator Shaheen again.

From there it was off to the DNC for the last group of tickets. It was an opportunity to hear more stories about how different states were faring in the process. There we ran to lunch where Anthony Graves and Erika Hixson showed up to collect their tickets. They told us how long the lines were to get into the Rayburn Building where Rep. DeGette was holding a reception.

Luckily, Lisa Cohen, Diana’s chief of staff, sent out rescue teams to get us in.

Our next trip was back to the hotel to change into our fancy clothes for the Colorado Inaugural Ball. It was very well attended and included Mayor Hickenlooper, Sen. Udall, Sen.-select Bennet, Reps. DeGette, Polis, Markey, and Perlmutter, State Sen. Groff, State Sen. Schwartz, State Rep. Gagliardi, State Rep. Primavera, State Rep. Kerr, State Rep. McGihon, State Rep. McCann, and many others. We partied till the end.

On Tuesday morning we started out really early. The Metro would not let us in so we walked two and half miles to the backside of the Rayburn Building where the Orange Gate line began. One and one half hours in line made us thankful for the long underwear, hats, gloves and other warm clothing.
But in the end we had a wonderful view of the inaugural ceremony. I was moved to tears more than once. You can see all the pomp and circumstance online, but I would not have missed the real thing. I felt really lucky to be there.

After the swearing in, we walked back to our hotel (2.5 miles). Scheduled us for an early dinner. Then we dressed again and were off to the Western Ball. One highlight of the evening was Marc Antony, and Jennifer Lopez joined him on stage. Joe and Jill Biden arrived around 10:30pm. We missed seeing the President and First Lady because my brother and his wife had to get the next Metro to Virginia before it closed down. It was a really cold night.

On Wednesday, Ken and I moved to the Woodley Park hotel where the Association of State Democratic Chairs met. Our main mission was to elect new officers. I was re-elected as the Western Representative to the DNC. In the afternoon the DNC met and paid tribute to Governor Dean. In a very moving moment, the Native American community presented him with an Indian blanket.

Gov. Tim Kane was elected as the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
He is very supportive of the 50-state strategy. We will be waiting to see what form that comes in.

Thursday was to be museum day for us, but we were invited to sit in the Senate Gallery in the afternoon. After a quick visit to the Native American Museum, we went over to the Senate to observe the discussion about the “Lily Ledbetter” law. That went on for about 40 minutes. Then Vice President Biden came to swear in Michael Bennet as Colorado’s new senator.

In the reception following, former Sen. Tim Wirth and now senior Senator Mark Udall spoke along with Rep. John Salazar and Rep. Betsy Markey. Many great friends and new acquaintances welcomed Sen. Bennet.

We flew back to Colorado on Friday. It was great to get home.

Pat Waak

Posted in CDP, DNC, Presidential Campaign 2008, US Senate Race 2008 | Comments Off

Change is Coming to County Parties!

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Well, its that time: county party reorganizations. Traditionally held between February 1 and February 15 of every odd-numbered year, there are always a couple of counties that tend to go just before the window. The point of a “reorganization”? To elect the party officers to serve for the next two year election cycle.

Wednesday night, I drove up to Sterling for the first of these. Logan County Democrats, like many counties across the state, saw an increase in Democratic votes in 2008. They saw organizational efforts like you wouldn’t believe. And they saw several new faces join the Democratic Party. And on Wednesday night, one of those new faces became probably the youngest county chair in Colorado.

20-year old Cody Engelhaupt can’t buy beer. He voted in his first Presidential election only a few months ago. But he worked so hard and so tirelessly last year that there wasn’t even a pause when the Logan County Democrats unanimously selected Cody as their new County Chair.

For the longest time, especially on the Eastern Plains, the Democratic Party has always looked for new leadership from young people in the communities; however, it often seems like the tasks of running county parties fall to the same people. Now, these are folks like Jennifer Felzien of Logan County, who have all done an amazing job keeping the Party together and working to get out the vote every election. But most of these folks would be glad to give their duties (and for those of you who don’t know, county chairs have some of the most daunting duties, yet go terribly unappreciated) to a new generation of leaders.

How do I know this? Because I was once one of those “new generation” of county party leaders. At Fremont County’s FDR Dinner in January 1999, the wonderful Fremont County Chair, the late Beatrice Kauffman, asked folks to come see her after the dinner if they had an interest in serving as an officer. I approached her, figuring to serve as the secretary or maybe the treasurer. However, after I had walked out of the room, she had recruited me to succeed her as the county chair.

In any event, Engelhaupt isn’t the only young face serving Logan County’s Democrats. 29-year old school teacher Dan Conn was elected unanimously as the Party’s Secretary, as well. In Logan County, the donkey is alive and kicking!

A new generation of leadership is coming to El Paso County, too. Thirty-six year old Jason DeGroot was selected as the new County Chair in El Paso County on Saturday. I drove up to Colorado Springs for the event, and it was a crowded hall. Rep. Michael Merrifield reminded folks of the times when El Paso County Democrats could have held their reorganization in a tiny room with 20-30 people there. This time, easily a couple of hundred folks showed up and showed enthusiasm for the changing politics of El Paso County. Pat Waak, Carolyn Boller and I were there on behalf of the State Party, and we made sure folks there understood the importance of El Paso County in statewide politics. I pointed out that when we get close to 40% in El Paso County, we usually win statewide; when we get closer to 30% in El Paso County, we don’t do so well statewide. Getting that 40% number is critical to any statewide victory, and that’s why El Paso County is so important to us. (Outgoing chair John Morris pointed out that 40% wasn’t good enough for him, but that’s understandable.)

In any event, El Paso County has seen an abundance of changes since first electing Michael Merrifield in 2002. They have elected a State Senator (John Morse) and last year elected a second Democratic State Representative (Dennis Apuan). Outgoing party chair John Morris has been a critical part of these changes and this organizational framework that has helped Democrats like Bill Ritter, Mark Udall and Barack Obama statewide. He will be missed, but DeGroot is certainly capable — I worked a lot with him last year, first as head of the transportation committee for the State Convention, then later as an alternate to the National Convention from the 5th C.D.

I’ll try to get to several more reorganization meetings in the coming couple of weeks, but sadly, I will miss several on Thursday and Saturday because I will be celebrating my boys’ birthdays in Oklahoma on Friday and driving back on Saturday. So, to the folks in Jefferson, Gunnison, Eagle, Garfield, Douglas, Larimer, Mesa, Arapahoe, and Broomfield, and Ouray, I send my deepest regrets. As with the other officers of the Party, I am running for re-election, and I hope my absence doesn’t mar your views of me and my re-election bid.

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