Hickenlooper Announces Job Creation Road Map

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READ THE PLAN HERE: Hickenlooper Job Creation Road Map.pdf

"Everyone knows jobs are the chief concern for Coloradans, but it's not enough to just talk about creating jobs - we need action." Hickenlooper said. "Any business knows you have to have a well-researched business model to reach prosperity. We're implementing a plan to involve the entire state in job creation that starts with concerns of businesses local level."

Hickenlooper's Job Creation Roadmap will invert the typical top-down approach to economic development. Instead, Hickenlooper's plan calls for creation of a jobs strategy in each county that informs nine regional plans, and finally builds a coordinated, over-arching statewide jobs council to incorporate the needs of every community in Colorado. The campaign plans to build an economic development plan over the course of the summer based on solutions and strategies identified as the candidate moves across the State.

"Solutions to our economic challenges are going to come from the local level, so it is imperative that we incorporate the local needs into a statewide plan for job creation. The real experts are the local businesses and leaders dealing with economic realities. In June alone, we've met with more than 25 businesses, more than 20 local economic organizations and more than 500 citizens in small-group discussions from Julesburg to Trinidad to Cortez."

To date, Hickenlooper has assembled over 200 experts statewide in advising policies for a new administration with a focus on job development and economic growth.

Hickenlooper announced the Roadmap at the future home of the Rocky Mountain Soda Company, a Colorado small business that is preparing to open its doors in Commerce City. Hickenlooper was joined by small-business owners and economic experts from across the state.

"The single best way to get our state's economy back on track is to create jobs in every region of Colorado" said Marilyn Laverty of the Small Business Development Center at Western State College. "Having a statewide job creation plan driven by local needs and promoting the economic potential of communities around the state will attract businesses, create jobs and relieve budget problems for the state. It's a business solution to the state's economic woes."

Caroline Parra with the Southern Colorado Small Business Development Center in Pueblo said this strategy represented a new approach to job creation.

"Too often our community feels like our elected officials are not listening to the needs of the local community," she said. "This plan gives Colorado businesses a voice in building an economic model that will grow jobs in every community."

The Job Creation Roadmap is based on three key facets:

1. Job Creation strategies from the bottom up: This plan will assist in creating, or build on existing, county-level economic plans to inform nine regional plans throughout the state. These regional plans will guide the state's over-arching economic development plan to expand, attract and retain businesses in Colorado.
   
   A panel of economic experts representing each of the nine regions will convene on Hickenlooper's first day in office, ensuring that job creation stays as a priority for the new administration and that local needs are coordinated with efforts at the state level.
   
2. Branding Colorado as a center for innovation and small-business development: Colorado already has a favorable tax structure, a well-educated workforce and a quality of life that is second to none. Branding Colorado in a coordinated effort - in the same way that private businesses brand their products - will ensure that the state retains current jobs, encourages local businesses to expand, and attracts new businesses and entrepreneurial startups.
   
   We will work with regional and local officials to encourage a pro-business atmosphere throughout Colorado, melding Colorado's tourism marketing with business recruitment efforts and encouraging cross-marketing and branding for Colorado products and services.
   
3. Cutting red tape; getting government out of the way: For Colorado to create jobs the next governor must ensure state government is functioning as efficiently as possible. Hickenlooper pledged to remove the redundancies in state government. To make sure this happens, Hickenlooper pledged to name experienced managers - not political allies - as the heads of State agencies through a selection and vetting process during the transition

"This is not a long-term strategy," Hickenlooper said. "This is a plan to focus on job development and retention now, encourage expansion of local business in the short term and build a roadmap to attract new businesses down the road. Colorado cannot wait to develop a job creation strategy. This plan will be made available to the next governor on the first day in office - regardless of who wins the election.

"The best way to get people working in Colorado and address the growing budget issues in state government is to create a strong business environment across the state," Hickenlooper said. "Government can't solve all our issues, but the next governor can make the state be a catalyst for job growth and reduce red tape where government is getting in the way."

A former small-business owner himself, Hickenlooper won a long-shot bid for Denver mayor after submitting a pragmatic budget plan when the city was struggling through an economic downturn. Just before he took office in 2003 The Denver Post predicted "Political pros, economic experts and recent graduates warn that Denver's next mayor will struggle for years fixing the troubled economy and changing government processes.", but within two years Hickenlooper was named one of Time magazine's Top 5 Big City Mayors, and he made good on a campaign promise to create 25,000 jobs in his first term.

"We have been successful running Colorado's largest city because we brought a business perspective to government," Hickenlooper said. "We significantly reduced the size of city government for the first time we are aware of, eliminated redundant government agencies and slashed unnecessary delays in permitting to help businesses grow."

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