Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez laid out his economic plan and announced his “Job Creators Coalition” Monday. (Handout photo)
The Republican in the governor’s race, Bob Beauprez, built on his pledge to cut regulations for businesses during a press conference Monday. He would also put public lands and buildings to work on the state’s bottom line, hire a financial adviser for the governor’s office and save potentially hundreds of millions of dollars through “new, efficient practices,” he said.
“It’s time to celebrate not punish the genius, the creativity and the free will of Coloradans and Americans.” Beauprez said flanked by 20 business people standing in a crescent behind him.. “They solve problems, but obviously John Hickenlooper and Barack Obama think that it’s people who create problems.”
The group represented Beauprez’s Job Creators Coalition, which includes 400 members. The list includes Lee Larsen, the retired former president of Clear Channel Broadcasting; Walter A. “Buz” Koelbel Jr., the president of real-estate operation Koelbel and Company; and Pete Coors, chairman of MillerCoors and a noted Colorado Republican.
“Bob and I share basic core values, especially a free market economy which benefits the largest number of people, and a smaller, less intrusive government which will lead to more private sector jobs and individual freedom,” Coors said in a statement.
Among his ideas, Beauprez said there is money to be made off public lands. He suggested swapping remote state land and acreage set aside to raise money for local schools for property the federal government owns.
“We could swap for very productive (land) either through natural resources on top of the surface or natural resources under the surface, energy resources that could be put to use for Colorado and Colorado’s economy,” he said.
Beauprez said the state is renting private office space, when there should be state-owned property and buildings they should use. “We should be paying rent to ourselves,” he said.
Cutting regulations, the linchpin of Beauprez’s economic plan, is easier said than done, Hickenlooper noted in a debate last week. While his administration cites about 1,500 regulations it has trimmed, there’s a legal , the governor said.
Beauprez said his yardstick for cutting rules would be simple.
“If something is anti-freedom, anti-job, anti-economic opportunity, we’re going to be asking exactly the quesion, why are we doing it?” Beauprez said Monday.”We’re not talking about no regulation. We’re talking about (keeping) regulations that make sense.”
He acknowledged that cutting regulations to help businesses might not sit well with those the regulations protect or benefit. That could lead to lawsuits for his administration, but he said that would be a fight he would take on.
“When you’re on the side of angels, in this case the people, I think you win that fight,” he said.
Beauprez said a chief financial officer for the governor’s office could bring in or save potentially hundreds of millions of dollars “by wisely using the resources of the state.”
He said doing all that could strengthen the economy and perhaps lead to a tax cut for residents.
“Once we get this economy going we might be able to do what (Gov.) Bill Owens did so successfully and reduce the income tax in Colorado and really give all of Colorado a reason to feel good again about being in Colorado,” Beauprez said.
Owens cut nearly a billion dollars in taxes after he was elected in 1998, but he was back before voters in 2005 to pass Referendum C, which asked state residents to give up $3.7 billion over five years in tax refunds that would have been required under the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. The money was to pay for health care, public education, transportation projects and local fire and police pensions.
Beauprez’s economic development strategy wasn’t well-received, unsurprisingly, on the left.
“Congressman Beauprez’s economic vision is out-of-touch with Coloradan’s priorities,” said Rick Palacio, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party. “We’re leading the nation in job creation and entrepreneurship while people are moving to Colorado every year for our quality of life. Nothing would disrupt our small businesses and economic harmony more than auctioning off our public lands to the highest bidder.”
Micheal Huttner, spokesman for the anti-Beauprez political group Making Colorado Great, said the Republican’s plan would take the state backward.
“Beauprez’s release of his economic plan, a plan which he had months to release, is nothing more than a political stunt before ballots are sent, “ Huttner said. “When it comes to Colorado’s economy, Beauprez has put his banking agenda over the people of Colorado and as a result will roll back the progress Colorado has made so far.”
Hickenlooper’s campaign put out a statement and statistics to support the job he’s done leading Colorado to what’s been recognized as one of the fastest-growing state economies in the country.
“There is a clear difference between the governor and the congressman on this issue,” said Brad Komar, Hickenlooper’s campaign manager. “John Hickenlooper tirelessly worked to remove restrictive energy measures from the ballot that if passed, would have cost Colorado thousands of jobs. Congressman Beauprez supported keeping these measures on the ballot and putting Colorado jobs at risk.”
The campaign noted that when Hickenlooper was elected in 2010, Colorado was 40th in the nation in job growth with an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent and a $1 billion budget deficit. Today , according to an independent analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The state’s unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent and the state has saved up $650 million in reserves. Hickenlooper has taken credit on the campaign trail for creating 200,000 jobs in his first term.
