Of two minds

Of two minds
Effort to lure Boeing at odds with growth control

May 3, 2001

Irony, it would seem, is not a quality much appreciated among Colorado officials. While the biggest issue facing the state is growth, the biggest state-sponsored effort this week is an attempt to persuade more people to move here.

The Legislature wrestled with growth last year. Then, in the wake of a growth-control initiative, Amendment 24 on last year’s ballot, it took on the issue again in this legislative session.

It had to. A number of officials promised the voters last November that if Amendment 24 was defeated state government would make growth its No. 1 priority.

The result was two different bills, Senate Bill 148, a Democratic effort, and House Bill 1225, backed by the GOP. Each house passed its respective bill and sent it to the other chamber. The House promptly killed the Senate’s bill, while the Senate simply gutted HB 1225 and replaced its original language with that of SB 148.

Thus there are now two versions of HB 1225. That leaves the whole business up to a conference committee, which is supposed to hash out the differences and come up with something like an acceptable compromise.

At the same time, though, Denver and Colorado officials are falling all over themselves to persuade the giant aircraft manufacturer Boeing to move its corporate headquarters to Denver.

Gov. Bill Owens – who promised to make growth a priority – entertained a Boeing delegation Tuesday. He and former Broncos quarterback John Elway welcomed the aircraft company’s executives to the Governor’s Mansion. Owens and the Boeing brass were then to be joined by Denver Mayor Wellington Webb for dinner at the Brown Palace, the downtown hotel that dates to 1892.

A Denver official told The Associated Press that the city has not offered Boeing incentives to relocate there, but that it was willing to negotiate. In past deals Denver has reimbursed relocating corporations for half of their city property tax, construction-related use tax and personal property tax for four years.

Buying business with tax money is always suspect, but the argument can be made that attracting a company like Boeing is good for the state’s economy. How, though, does that kind of boosterism square with controlling growth?

Colorado is headed in two directions. And, if Boeing does move to Denver one of the first things its executives may face is a revised and reinvigorated ballot initiative on growth – one that they helped bring about.