The Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. gathered Tuesday to recognize its accomplishments and discuss future strategy with its investors after a trying year.
The state shed more than 100,000 jobs last year and in recent months has lost corporate headquarters for First Data and Frontier Airlines, with Qwest expected to leave after a merger.
The EDC also had to divert its attention to fight several bills it considered unfriendly to business during the legislative session, winning some and losing others.
Now, the group will need to mend fences with political rivals to defeat three ballot measures considered harmful to the state economy, said Tom Clark, the group’s executive vice president.
“We are all going to have to pull together to defeat these measures,” he said.
Still, economic-development efforts had some key wins, especially in recruiting “green” companies.
The EDC recognized SMA Solar with its “Deal of the Year Award” for locating a new manufacturing plant that will employ 300 in Denver.
The German company makes inverters, devices that convert solar energy into a current that can travel on the power grid.
“Clean technology was like a safety net that kept us from falling into the abyss,” Clark told the audience gathered at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center.
On that same theme, Gov. Bill Ritter and Don Elliman, the state’s chief operating officer, were recognized for “Outstanding Efforts in Economic Development” for their work to make Colorado a leader in alternative energy.
Ritter told the crowd he has signed 56 pieces of legislation related to clean energy in what has become known as “The Colorado Story.”
Clark said the EDC will launch a new clean- technology campaign, with visits to industry conventions in Dallas and Munich, Germany.
Robert Lang, director of the Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the audience Denver could gain from Arizona’s stance on immigration, which has angered many in California, the region’s economic engine.
He compared it to how Atlanta pulled ahead of Birmingham, Ala., based on a more tolerant civil-rights stance that played better with northern industrialists looking to relocate.
“Don’t follow Phoenix,” he said.
The EDC also recognized Don Dunshee, who is retiring as president and chief executive of the Broomfield Economic Development Corp., for his 50-year career in the field.
Dunshee was among those who helped the region shift from a competitive to a cooperative model of economic development in the 1980s.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
Ballot measures opposed
Chamber and economic-development officials have turned their focus to defeating three state ballot measures in November:
Proposition 101: Eliminates state and local taxes on rental cars and car leases; limits auto- registration, license and title charges to $10 per vehicle per year; sets the state income tax rate at 4.5 percent, with decreases over time, and restricts telecom surcharges.
Amendment 60: Aims to cut mill levies with the state making up the shortfall in school funding and allows voters to roll back previous approvals that allowed governments to retain more tax revenues.
Amendment 61: Requires local governments to get voter approval to borrow, requires debt to be repaid within 10 years and prohibits borrowing by the state government.
Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post
