The new chairman of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that winning voter approval of two measures to boost state finances would be his top priority.
“Our first task is the passage of Referendums C and D,” Wells Fargo Bank regional president Tom Honig told 800 people gathered at the Denver Marriott City Center for the chamber’s 121st annual membership meeting. Honig succeeded investment banker Ned Minor in the group’s top volunteer job.
The chamber helped Republican Gov. Bill Owens and the Colorado General Assembly, under Democratic control, reach a consensus on the referendums.
Referendum C would allow the state to keep $3.6 billion in tax refunds over five years, while Referendum D would allow the government to borrow $2.1 billion to spend on road and school improvements.
Minor called getting the measures on the ballot the chamber’s most significant achievement during his year as chairman, ranking it above the approval of FasTracks, a $4.7 billion transit plan to construct six new rail lines, and reauthorization of funding for the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.
As he handed over the reins, Minor presented Honig with a survival kit that included a gavel, a copy of “Robert’s Rules of Order” and an alarm clock set to sound at 5:30 a.m.
The chamber also presented its Del Hock Lifetime Achievement Award to Nancy Tuor, who heads Kaiser-Hill Co.’s cleanup of Rocky Flats, the former plutonium-trigger weapons plant.
When Tuor came to Rocky Flats in 1995, the Department of Energy had projected cleanup costs of $36 billion over 70 years. But cleanup is expected to wrap up in 2006, with costs at a fraction of the original estimates.
Tuor, along with Honig, helped revive the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., the chamber’s economic development arm.
Besides Tuor, Don Bain, an attorney with Holme Roberts & Owens, received the M. Doak Jacoway Volunteer of the Year Award.
Penfield Tate III of law firm Trimble Tate Nulan Evans & Holden received the Leadership Denver Alumnus of the Year Award.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
