The Farmer’s Table restaurant in Fort Collins has one of nearly 80 loans made this year by the SBA in Larimer County under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The husband of one of the co-owners said he was unaware the loan was coming from stimulus funds, and he’s a little un-comfortable with the idea, The Coloradoan newspaper reports.

A Denver Post analysis graphically illustrates the disconnect between stimulus spending thus far and the places that seem to need it the most. Seven of the 10 Colorado counties with the highest unemployment rates in October rank in the bottom half of the state for overall per-capita stimulus spending. They include Mesa, Pueblo and Adams counties.

By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Local political sides are divided over the president’s modest plan announced Tuesday to create jobs.
There wasn’t much to the plan, mostly just small steps, including small business tax cuts and energy efficiency rebates for consumers. President Obama also suggested more money for roads, bridges and other infrastructure, but he did not release an actual price tag.
Administration officials, however, have told reporters that the White House is considering another $50 billion for such infrastructure — on top of money already earmarked for infrastructure projects through the president’s $787 billion economic stimulus package, signed last February in Denver.
The president also called for an extension of unemployment and health insurance benefits for the more than 15 million out-of-work Americans.
“There are those who claim we have to choose between paying down our deficits on the one hand, and investing in job creation and economic growth on the other,” said the president. “But this is a false choice.”
Many Democrats are calling for Obama to push for using some money from the $700 billion bank rescue fund that has been returned to taxpayers. Obama appears to be more interested in using the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP money — which has cost about $200 billion less than anticipated — to pay down the record U.S. budget deficit, rather than for initiatives to spur job growth.
Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said Tuesday that TARP money should be used to spur job growth and help working families.
“The biggest way that we’re going to get the deficit down is to get the economy back on track, and when I say the economy back on track, it’s not just Wall Street, it’s Main Street too,” she said. “So, from my point of view, we use whatever we can to get the average person earning and get them jobs and able to take care of their families.”
Republicans viewed Obama’s speech Tuesday as little more than a political move — a necessary step to prove to Americans that the president still cares about them and the economy as he tackles foreign issues, including an unpopular military surge in Afghanistan. The White House jobs forum and visit to America’s industrial heartland last week was viewed the same way.
It’s no secret that double-digit unemployment has eroded the president’s popularity, with his approval rating slipping to around 47 percent, according to recent polling — a drop of around 7 percentage points from surveys last month.
Dick Wadhams, chair of the Colorado Republican Party, believes Americans don’t believe the stimulus package or the president’s domestic moves are working out.
“The first stimulus was absolutely a bust, it did nothing,” he said. “They can claim to save millions of jobs, but it didn’t create a job, and they can spend another $50 billion, or $500 billion, or whatever they want to try to throw into allegedly creating jobs — it’s just going to be another failure.”
Wadhams, like many of his Republican friends, believes the best way to save the economy right now is to defeat Democrats’ attempts at passing health reform and a cap-and-trade system to cut back on climate change. He said those bills would increase taxes and kill jobs.
“This is all for show, he’s trying to convince Americans he cares about them,” Wadhams said of the presidents’ speech Tuesday. “The public is against cap-and-trade, it’s against these health care proposals, and if he really wants to create jobs and he really wants the public to support him, then do the right thing and kill these job-killing machines running through Congress.”
Waak, however, believes the president’s speech Tuesday points to a positive strategy to get the economy back on track.
“There’s no silver bullet, there’s no one plan, there’s no one thing — I think that he’s kind of outlining those priorities that he has for investment, mostly for small businesses to grow, investments in infrastructure — which driving my roads I know we need — and then providing rebates to consumers for creating efficiency,” said Waak. “At least these are a few things that are really targeted to the individual consumer and not to Wall Street. That’s what needs to be done right now.”

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

Colorado has spent about a fifth of its federal stimulus money, according to the Associated Press. State officials announced Tuesday that the state has already spent about $345 million in stimulus funds on wide-ranging projects from boosting food stamp payments to paying the salaries of public employees who might otherwise have been fired because of falling tax receipts.

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STATE BILL COLORADO
A new reporting system from Colorado shows how American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are being used in the state’s 64 counties, Gov. Bill Ritter announced.
The 64 reports can be found by clicking here.
Ritter’s office said the county reports are the first of several new sources of data that will be released in the next few weeks to help Coloradans track Recovery Act dollars.

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The Colorado Transportation Commission has approved nine extra construction projects around the state with stimulus funds, in part using funds that have been saved from lower-than-expected bids on previous projects, the Denver Business Journal reports.

From The Denver Post: State government officials have told U.S. General Accountability Office investigators that they are concerned about insufficient staff and resources to oversee stimulus spending, according to a new federal report. Among the challenges: the need to scrape together about $2 million to fund at least 16 additional staffers to manage and monitor stimulus grants.

By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Colorado Republicans are calling President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package a “failed economic experiment.”
But Democrats say the study the GOP uses to make its claim is a flawed report conducted by the Republican National Committee, which began the study swimming in preconceived notions.
“These are paid studies that begin with a conclusion, and these conclusions are nothing more than to attack President Obama and his agenda to help America,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNow and author of a new book, “50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America.”

‘Detrimental impact’ on Colorado?
But Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said the stimulus package, which Obama signed in February at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, is having a “detrimental impact” on Colorado.
“When President Obama and Congressional Democrats pushed to pass the stimulus bill, they promised it would be a targeted, timely and transparent effort to create jobs immediately. But as we approach the 200th day since the stimulus passed, here in Colorado jobs continue to be lost, stimulus spending is slow, and, as even Vice President Biden has acknowledged, ‘Some of this money is going to be wasted.’”
Wadhams is referring to a June comment by Biden at a roundtable discussion in New York with business leaders. The vice president’s comments were aimed at encouraging transparency and accountability to avoid scams related to the stimulus package and to bring about its success.
Wadhams uses his party’s “200 Days, 200 Claims” report as fodder for criticizing the Democrats’ stimulus plan. He attempts to debunk several claims by Colorado Democrats over job creation, wasteful spending, and oversight, accountability and transparency.

Ritter: Impact has been positive
But Gov. Bill Ritter has defended what he considers to be a positive effect on Colorado due to the stimulus package.
He has said if it weren’t for the estimated $7 billion Colorado is expected to receive in direct funding and tax relief, the state would be struggling to close much more than the $318 million budget shortfall anticipated for next year. In fact, Ritter said lawmakers would need to come up with another $500-$600 million to close the shortfall, and more than $1 billion over the next two years.
Huttner says studies indicate that the stimulus has saved thousands of jobs in Colorado. He questioned the GOP’s motives for criticizing the plan.
“These folks want nothing more than to try to criticize,” he said. “But we’re going to expose their lies and the special interest money that funds them.”

Books
Huttner’s new book, which was launched Tuesday, is an organizing handbook for grassroots groups to help Obama push his issues. Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin wrote that the book is aimed at “every nutroots activist out there” and was a bid to “dislodge conservative authors” from best seller lists.
Malkin’s book, “Culture of Corruption,” is currently No. 1 on the New York Times’ best sellers list in the nonfiction category.
“Malkin and other right wingers should argue about the issues instead of attacking people trying to help pass health insurance reform,” said Huttner.
Meanwhile, Wadhams continued his opposition to Obama’s stimulus plan.
“Instead of providing jobs for the people of Colorado, thousands are being left unemployed and billions of dollars have been added to our deficit,” he said. “In the end, the stimulus is yet another one of Obama’s failed experiments that Americans cannot afford.”

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
State officials Wednesday highlighted positive impacts the federal economic stimulus package is having on Colorado, especially in creating jobs through construction projects.
But critics remain skeptical of President Obama’s recovery plan, arguing that government control is not a long-term fix for fiscal woes, but will instead come back to haunt future generations of Americans. Opponents would rather see the free market system fix itself through citizens doing the spending.
But Gov. Bill Ritter Wednesday pointed out that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has put people back to work through construction projects. Since money started trickling in in May, Colorado has seen the creation of 1,685 jobs related to transportation projects, according to data as of July 31st.
The spike has resulted in an additional 86,332 payroll hours, or $2.14 million in payroll expenses, according to the governor’s office.
“Saving jobs and creating jobs are key elements of the Recovery Act — and we’re starting to see measurable benefits of that in Colorado with dozens of transportation construction projects now underway across the state,” said Ritter in a statement. “Millions of dollars have been paid to hard-working Coloradans statewide, and that amount is increasing every day.”
But Jeff Crank, state director for the conservative think tank Americans For Prosperity, recently told the Denver Daily News that a better way to stimulate the economy is to filter dollars into the hands of ordinary citizens and let them improve the economy through sales and property tax revenues.
He added that massive government spending will only come back to haunt Americans down the road.
“We’ve got every state in America, every community, every family right now is having to make tough choices, and this state’s no different — it should be making tough choices,” said Crank. “But this stimulus is exactly the opposite of that. It’s just saying, ‘We don’t have to make tough choices; let’s just spend it now and pass it along to our kids.’”
Still, state officials are praising the Obama administration’s stimulus efforts, arguing that without the infusion of cash the state would be in worse shape.
Transportation chief Russ George added that the state has done a good job of getting stimulus-funded projects rolling to maximize benefits.
“Colorado gets much-needed transportation projects,” he said. “But it’s the people on the ground who do the real work that really deserve the credit.”

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Federal officials Thursday completed approving a $20 million grant to advance solar energy research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
The initial announcement was made back in May, but Energy Secretary Steven Chu Thursday announced that $377 million has been finalized for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers, including NREL.
The majority of the funding comes from the federal economic stimulus package, while the rest will come from the Department of Energy’s budget. Funding will come over five years.
Gov. Bill Ritter — a champion of renewable energy, having coined the term “New Energy Economy” — was fast to applaud the finalization of funding for NREL.
“NREL is a critical component of Colorado’s energy sector and this grant is the latest example of how the state is being recognized for its work to create jobs and advance energy technologies,” he said.
NREL’s Center for Inverse Design will benefit from the $20 million, using the funding to replace trial-and-error methods used in the development of materials for solar energy conversion. Researchers will use quantum theory and high performance computers to design the new materials.
“This could usher in a new era of materials science — not only in renewable energy — but in other technology areas where specialized key materials are needed,” Dr. Alex Zunger, NREL research fellow, said in May when the funding was first mentioned.
Blake Jones — who founded Namasté Solar, a successful Boulder-based solar energy company — said he is looking forward to what research will do for his industry.
“The solar technology that we see today has been around for at least 50 years, and in that time there have been tremendous improvements in the technology, its efficiency and its cost,” said Jones. “That being said, I think we’re still just scratching the surface for the potential that solar has and for the potential improvement we still have yet to make.”