{"id":48637,"date":"2021-02-12T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T00:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gov-jared-polis-pitches-billion-dollar-coronavirus-stimulus-plan\/"},"modified":"2021-02-13T00:20:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T00:20:13","slug":"gov-jared-polis-pitches-billion-dollar-coronavirus-stimulus-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gov-jared-polis-pitches-billion-dollar-coronavirus-stimulus-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Jared Polis pitches billion-dollar coronavirus stimulus plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis says Colorado is proposing a billion-dollar economic stimulus proposal to help the state rebound from coronavirus.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado has a \u201conce-in-a-generation opportunity,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis said, and it lies within his billion-dollar economic stimulus proposal to help the state rebound from coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis billion dollars will really, I think, reflect on this Legislature, on me, on the state, on all of us. It\u2019s a one-time opportunity that no recent Legislature has had,\u201d Polis said Thursday night during a virtual event hosted by The Colorado Sun, where the governor and four state lawmakers presented their \u201cbig ideas\u201d ahead of the resumption of the 2021 legislative session on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Polis pitched his stimulus as an opportunity to breathe life back into the economy after a yearlong pandemic that has put hundreds of thousands of Coloradans out of work and brought sectors of the economy to a standstill. The stimulus, he said, also is intended to help Colorado \u201ccatch up\u201d on long-standing needs like transportation, infrastructure and community-development projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we look to bolster our economy and rebuild, we want to see how we can build back even stronger. These stimulus proposals aren\u2019t just the right thing to do, but the right thing to do for our legacy and the future of Coloradans,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

The Democratic governor, who is three years into his first term, first unveiled a $1.3 billion stimulus plan in November. His administration said then that it would create 15,000 jobs and boost the state\u2019s economy by 11% over current projections.<\/p>\n

State lawmakers, however, have questioned the scale of the spending package, which pulls from the state\u2019s reserve savings and depends on projections from his administration that the state will make a quick economic recovery. Legislative economists, meanwhile, are projecting a more cautious recovery.<\/p>\n

Polis argued Thursday that dipping deep into the state\u2019s coffers now will jump-start the economy faster, and also the tax revenue that feeds the state budget long-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is we still have a structural deficit, and deficits in future years,\u201d Polis said. \u201cBut we also know there will be less of a structural deficit if we get back to economic growth sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s initial proposal includes $220 million in road and infrastructure projects, including rural road improvements; $120 million for expanding broadband internet access to more than 30,000 homes; $70 million in grants to revitalize community Main Streets and $40 million toward job training he said would help \u201cmore Coloradans get out of the hourly economy \u2014 $12, $14, $15 an hour \u2014 to get professional-economy benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis\u2019 proposal has since been followed by President Joe Biden\u2019s ambitious $1.9 trillion economic stimulus proposal.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s spending plan would aim to address specific state needs that Biden\u2019s proposal doesn\u2019t, Polis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our state pocketbook is not as big as Congress\u2019,\u201d Polis said. \u201cI\u2019m very supportive of what they\u2019re talking about federally and I think what we can do in Colorado gives us a leg up over other states who just take the federal stimulus, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about how Colorado\u2019s response to coronavirus has compared to other states, Polis avoided criticizing other governors directly but said he was \u201cskeptical\u201d of shutdown measures in states like California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been skeptical of some of the lockdowns and closures in some states like California\u2026which not only grates on people\u2019s patience but don\u2019t really contain the virus because people go out anyway,\u201d said Polis, adding that he is proud that Colorado had \u201cone of the shortest shutdown periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also defended decisions not to give homeless individuals greater priority for coronavirus vaccinations. Polis recently turned down a request by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to vaccinate homeless individuals sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re a prisoner or homeless or a millionaire, it doesn\u2019t matter. If you\u2019re 65 and up you can get it,\u201d said Polis, noting that homeless individuals will receive the vaccine based on health conditions, age and other factors applied to the public generally. \u201cIf you\u2019re 23 years old, this is a much lower risk\u2026than if you\u2019re 70 or 80\u2026that pales in comparison to the clinical impact of being older.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor wants to jump-start Colorado\u2019s economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,685,11,819,28,29,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-economy-general","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48637"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}