Intermountain Jewish News

Despite the word “recession” ricocheting around coffee shops, bars, and hiking trails, Boulder County has and will continue to outperform the state and national economies, according to the 44th annual economic forecast released earlier this month from CU.

While that may sound optimistic, outperforming a failing economy doesn’t necessarily mean doing well. It just means not doing as poorly.

While the national unemployment rate (as of October, 2008) hit 6.5%, the highest projected rate for 2009 in Colorado will hover around 6.4%. Analysts predict Colorado will lose about 4,300 jobs in the coming year, with most of those jobs outside Boulder County. The reason: Boulder’s diversity of employers from aerospace and biotechnology to renewable energy and organic products.

But statistics add little comfort to city officials who have to plan ahead while feeling the pinch of the present. And yet, many seem to find the silver dollar lining in a cloudy economic forecast.

Boulder

The Blue Ribbon Commission, established to examine city funding and expenditures, says by the year 2030 Boulder could experience a funding shortfall of between $90 million and $130 million. “That is significant,” says Mayor Shaun McGrath, “so the city council is being proactive now and addressing the problem in a number of ways.”

The first steps were taken in the voting booths this fall when the city asked residents to extend a sales tax that was set to expire in two years. They city also asked voters to “de-bruce” some of the property taxes.

“Under the Tax Payers Bill of Rights (TABOR), the city was required to give back some of the property taxes we took in. But the law allows for cities to ‘debruce,’ or to keep the taxes, if local voters say we can.”

Both measures passed muster, giving the city much needed revenue sources.

McGrath says the city is downsizing as painlessly as possible, too.

“As we have vacancies in our city government, we’re going to hold off on filling those jobs except for critical positions.”

That means no job cuts, just more work spread around the people still employed. In addition, McGrath says the council has asked departments to cut $800,090 from the 2008 general expenditures to prepare for job loss and financial stress.

“And looking at 2009, we asked that we take a phased spending approach.”

Even with a projected increase in revenue for 2009, McGrath says he wants to err on the side of caution. “Rather than go down the road as if the [money is already in the coffers], we want to take it slowly. If indeed we realize those increases in revenue, then we can adjust our expenditures accordingly.”

To date, city expenditures include the usual — police, fire, municipality utility costs. And for Boulder, it also includes investments in green building and renewable energy.

“We’re in the process of building solar panels at our water treatment facility, which will provide 25% of the plant’s energy use.”

The city also boasts an economic vitality program, which provides the city manager with funds to offer incentives to the city’s primary employers.

“We want to be proactive in retaining important employers in the community, but on top of that, we put a Boulder twist on it.”

The city requires that in order for businesses to qualify for the tax rebates or incentives, they must meet criteria that include goals such as paying a living wage, showing commitment to environmental sustainability and providing eco-passes for employees.

The innovative program won recognition this year from the International Economic Development Council.

That’s not the only award for the city this past year. In alignment with green initiatives, Boulder’s long running bike program picked up a platinum medal from the American League of Bicyclists as the third city ever to attain such a high ranking.

“We’ve had the gold medal for a number of years,” says McGrath, but the honor puts Boulder in elite company with Portland, Oregon and Davis, California.

McGrath says the bike program is just a spoke in the city’s alternative energy movement. In March of 2008, Xcel Energy and its partners announced they were investing up to $100 million into a program to make Boulder the first smart grid city in the world.

Beginning in 2009, Xcel hopes to begin assessing the technologies for the smart grid. It’s an exciting endeavor for McGrath.

“As a consumer today, we don’t get any price signals about energy use. It’s all averaged out. But with a smart grid, Xcel can send out signals so we can program a dishwasher to come on at night when it’s cheaper.” And saving money anywhere possible is paramount in this economy.

Longmont

From 2000 through 2007, Longmont’s population grew 16.25%, the number of jobs within the city increased 3.24%, and its unemployment rate remained very low — 2.90%, according to simplyhired.com and bestplaces.net.

Fast forward one year and the population growth is flat, and unemployment remains about half the national average even though the city shows a job loss rate around 39%.

Not great, but still beating out the rest of the country. And while that’s something to celebrate, they’re not breaking out the bubbly just yet.

“The most significant things we’re going to be dealing with as a community in 2009 is how strong we will be financially because of two factors,” says Longmont Mayor Roger Lange.

“One is sales tax revenue and the second is the lack of construction going on that has generally been robust in the past.”

Part of the city’s income derives from use tax — a tax on lumber and construction goods.

“Two and three years ago, we approved more than 1,000 residential building permits. Now we’re down to 200 annually,”

Lange explains before adding his optimistic twist: “A good side to the slow down in construction is that we don’t have as large an inventory of unsold homes as we used to have.” Lange estimates the average time to sell a home is six months, compared with 12 months a year ago.