State economic forecasts: Out with bold, in with blue
State economists Tuesday said they expect to end the fiscal year with double-digit revenue growth driven by higher-than-expected corporate, individual and capital gains taxes.
But they warned that a volatile stock market and stagnant job growth will keep revenue growth under 4 percent in the fiscal year that begins next month.
Henry Sobanet, budget director for Gov. Bill Owens, presented his quarterly forecast to lawmakers Monday and said they should not anticipate similar capital gains tax revenues next fiscal year.
Legislative economist Natalie Mullis said, “It’s slower growth, but it’s a pretty healthy economy.”
The forecasts by the governor’s office and the legislative staff showed that the money the state can keep under the voter-approved Referendum C has grown from the last forecast in March.
Sobanet’s forecast went from $3.9 billion to $4.1 billion. The legislature forecast grew from $4.25 billion to $4.88 billion.
COLORADO
Analysis says state grad rate was lower
A national analysis has found that Colorado’s graduation rate during the 2002-03 school year was lower than the state reported.
The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center analysis found that the graduation rate was 72.5 percent that year, 11.1 percentage points lower than what the state listed.
The difference in the rates is most likely due to different formulas used by the state and the Research Center to calculate the graduation rates, officials said.
FORT CARSON
2nd Brigade to return to Iraq later this year
The 4,000 men and women of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, at Fort Carson since last September, will be going back to Iraq for a second deployment there late this year, Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said Tuesday.
In its first deployment to Iraq, the brigade saw some of the highest number of casualties of any Army unit deployed there. From its ranks 98 troops were killed, including 30 Marines attached to the unit; about 900 more in the brigade were wounded.
FORT COLLINS
Panel will evaluate two views of Preble’s
A scientific panel reviewing the work of two biologists with opposing views on the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse will meet in Fort Collins July 6 and 7.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating whether to remove the mouse from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The panel, convened by the Oregon-based Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, will evaluate the conflicting scientific work of Tim King and Rob Roy Ramey.
This year a study by King, of the U.S. Geological Survey, concluded that Preble’s differs genetically and physically from other meadow mice in Western states.
Ramey has concluded the mouse is not genetically distinct from the more common Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse.
GRAND COUNTY
Body of Centennial man found in lake
The body of a 40-year-old Centennial man who fell from his boat into Lake Granby on June 11 was discovered Tuesday morning, the Grand County sheriff said.
Members of the Estes Park Dive Team discovered Jim Sorensen’s body in about 62 feet of water, near where the accident occurred, Sheriff Rod Johnson reported.
COLORADO
U.S. attorney getting cyber crime unit
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado is among seven nationwide that will begin high-tech crime units to address the growing problems of computer hacking and theft of intellectual property.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it is also putting specially-trained prosecutors in Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Detroit; Newark, N.J.; New Haven, Conn.; and Philadelphia to pursue cyber crime.
DENVER
Homeless man held in death of another
A homeless man was stabbed to death early Tuesday on the south bank of Cherry Creek and another homeless man is suspected in the homicide, Denver police said.
The incident occurred at 12:15 a.m. in the 700 block of East Speer Boulevard.
The victim was 34 and the suspect was 33. Names weren’t released.
EL PASO
Aurora Army doctor died in mountains
A 75-year-old man found dead in the Franklin Mountains over the weekend was a U.S. Army doctor, officials said Tuesday.
Col. Harry S. Spaulding Jr. of Aurora was found shortly before midnight Saturday. El Paso police said a neighbor reported Spaulding missing about 9 p.m. after realizing he hadn’t returned from a morning hike.
Clarence Davis, a spokesman for William Beaumont Army Medical Center where Spaulding was assigned as part of his duties with the 2291st U.S. Army Hospital in Aurora, said the colonel was retired from active duty but volunteered for a 120-day assignment to fill in for doctors who were deployed.
Emergency officials in El Paso said Spaulding was found with water and other hiking gear, but temperatures that day climbed into the high 90s.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Four sentenced for paleontologist’s death
What started out as the robbery of an older man in order to get a motorcycle out of hock in January 2005 came to a close Tuesday with three men sentenced to life in prison and one to 21 years, along with a woman already serving 16 years.
Michael Mapps, 53, the ringleader, was sentenced Tuesday in Jefferson County District Court to life in prison for the first-degree murder of paleontologist Charles Repenning, 82, of Lakewood. Mapps, a contractor, told an employee he would forgive a debt and return the title of a motorcycle if the employee would steal some of Repenning’s WWII artifacts.
The employee hired Michael Wessel, 41, of Thornton and Richard Kasparson, 36, of Denver to break into Repenning’s house. Wessel and Kasparson will serve life sentences for murdering Repenning.
The employee, Nicholas Savajian, 27, was sentenced Tuesday to 21 years in prison for second-degree murder.
Kasparson’s ex-wife, Ginny Kasparson, 29, is serving 16 years for conspiring in the plan.
