“The reality is that this was sold as an economic stimulus package. If this was meant to be a school stimulus package, then it should have been called that. But this is about job creation, and on that front I think that folks in Colorado are still waiting to see the jobs,” Frazier said.

Frazier, who has pointed to the stimulus bill as a failed policy throughout his campaign, has been forced to defend his position after it was reported that High Point Academy received over $100,000 in stimulus funding. Frazier who is vice-president of the schools board told Silverman that some good has come from the stimulus package in the form of roads.

Speaking with the Colorado Independent, Leslie Oliver, communications director for the Perlmutter campaign, questioned Frazier’s assertion that the stimulus package failed. Noting the job losses that could have occurred in schools across the state without stimulus funding, she asked what jobs counted in Frazier’s formula.

Frazier went on to criticize Perlmutter for failing to agree to a debate on the Caplis and Silverman show, a criticism he similarly leveled on KOA’s Mike Rosen show earlier this month.

“Well, we’ve asked Ed to agree to as many debates as we can in order to allow voters to see our differences and hear our ideas and, unfortunately, Ed has just not agreed to do that many,” Frazier said in response to Silverman asking if Perlmutter was avoiding him.

Oliver disagreed with Frazier’s characterization of the debate schedule and went on to say that while Perlmutter was working to bring jobs to Colorado, Frazier has worked to outsource jobs.

“We started working on our debate schedule even before the primary, and we finalized a schedule for seven debates about a month ago,” Oliver said. “Frazier knows we have had almost a debate or forum every week. Frazier already backed out of two of the seven – one ,the Jewish Community Candidate Forum, to fundraise in D.C. and the non-partisan League of Women Voters next week because it’s not on TV.

“Frazier’s campaign is in freefall and clearly he’s willing to do and say anything to distort the truth … The hard-working people in the 7th know Ed is the guy who will help bring good jobs to Colorado and not outsource them overseas like Frazier.”

Frazier has denied the claims that as a senior partner of Takara Systems his company outsourced jobs, while a 9News fact check noted the company’s website has a page dedicated to “outsourcing.”

State Rep. Cory Gardner addresses Tea Partiers (Boven)

“I represent a district that is tired of taxes, tired regulations, tired of policies that push oil and gas out of a district where we say energy independence is where we ought to be,” Gardner told the crowd. “I am tired of stimulus packages that bail out Wall Street and take money from our pockets. I am tired of a Government that is fighting Tea Parties and 9/12 groups– people who are getting involved and standing up for our rights and our liberties. And I am tired of a government that puts veterans, second amendment believers and other activists on terrorist watch lists.”

It was a version of the speech Gardner has been sharpening on the stump since the summer and at Tea Party events throughout the Frontrange Fourth District, one that references anti-Obama administration Tea Party themes and story-lines and one that this time conflated the stimulus Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the TARP bank bailout program. It also made no mention of the boom in gas drilling the district will see this year as Houston-based Andarko Petrolium begins to erect new rigs and drill thousands of wells in Weld, Adams, Boulder, Broomfield and Larimer counties.

Gardner, who has drawn heat from Democrats for missing votes in the House this week because he was campaigning in Washington, told the crowd that Colorado Republicans have an excellent opportunity this year to win back key offices. He said Democrats were out of touch with voters.

“If you don’t listen to the people the people are going to fire you and they are going to kick you out of office.”

Also attending were Republican Senators Dave Schultheis, Colorado Springs, Scott Renfroe, Greeley, and Kevin Lundberg, Berthoud, joined Republican Representatives Jim Kerr, Littleton, Larry Liston, Colorado Springs, and Laura Bradford, Grand Junction. Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Tom Wiens also made an appearance.

AFP State Director Jeff Crank talked about the “grassroots advocacy session” held ealier in the day with GOP lawmakers. The session saw Tea Party representatives meeting in the Old Senate Chamber with Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry and Rep. Frank McNulty.

“We had about 70 activists who are representing various groups around Colorado who came together and talked about how do we keep the movement going? How do we stop the health care bill in Washington DC? How do we stop them from raising taxes and continuing to raise taxes here in the state of Colorado?”

“We are organized. We are disparate groups. We have different visions. But we all work together and we are going to continue to do that for the cause of freedom on Colorado,” Crank said.

The Independence Institute’s Jon Caldera said Tea Party and 9/12 groups are forcing Republicans to uphold a fiscally conservative agenda.

“Why are Republicans talking like Republicans? Do you think that it is because of them?” Caldara said,  pointing to the capitol. “No. It’s because of us.”

The grassroots session and the rally underlined again a new dynamic on the right in Colorado this year, one that mirrors changes across the country, where grassroots groups in an election year after steep GOP election losses in 2008 are shaping Republican politics– on the stump and in the legislative chambers.

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding through the Department of Energy was one of five projects announced Thursday that will leverage an additional $167 million in local government and private sector funding.

The 30-megawatt Northeast Colorado (NECO) Wind Project will be located in Phillips County, although the project at 650-megawatt build-out would be spread over Phillips, Sedgwick and Logan counties. Both senators praised the project as an innovative way for rural Colorado to spur economic recovery and energy independence.

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According to a press release sent out last week by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, 47 state nonprofit arts organizations received stimulus grants allocated to the National Endowment for the Arts. The money is intended to “help combat job loss in the arts due to declining philanthropic and other support in the current economic climate,” the release stated.

These grants have significant impact on arts organizations statewide:

Organizations in 15 counties and 17 cities received ARRA funding. More than 300 jobs, including contract positions, will be preserved or reinstated. Forty-seven grantee organizations include theatre, music, dance, visual arts, film and arts festivals. Many of these jobs are key leadership positions critical to the daily operation of each organization. Other positions will allow organizations to continue to provide innovative and educational programs and services that greatly benefit numerous Colorado communities.

Click here to read the full list of recipient organizations.

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Pres. Obama signs the stimulus bill in Denver (aficio2008, Flickr)

The study, conducted by policy research center Good Jobs First, praises Gov. Bill Ritter’s economic recovery team for tracking and disclosing stimulus spending in a way that throws it open for public review. In this case, transparency won’t be merely beneficial in preventing abuse and increasing efficiency, according to one Recovery Team official: It will also likely translate to increased citizen participation in the program and to the kind of spending engineered to produce lasting benefits.

In a recent interview with The Colorado Independent, Recovery Team Communications Director Myung Oak Kim said the high marks in transparency were due to the hard work of team tech guru Chris Smith, director of new media.

“Chris had a very ambitious plan for transparency from the beginning. He wanted to make the [Recovery] site very user friendly and part of that was to include a tracking map. The map just gives you this instant picture of where the money is being spent right across the state.”

Kim, a former Rocky Mountain News reporter, said the governor’s small Recovery team of four started in February and recently added a fifth staffer. The team collects material from a wide variety of sources and feeds it to Smith for the website.

“Our goals are aggressive outreach and transparency. We want to help as many people understand and participate in the program as possible,” she said.

Artificially competitive metrics

Myung Oak Kim

Kim said that the question stimulus analysts should be asking is not how much money Colorado has received in relation to other states. That line of inquiry, she said, establishes an artificial competitive metric in light of the national goals of the program.

“That question just misses the point. It’s not a race. The question is: Are we using the money to best effect?”

In any list of how well states are weathering the recession, Colorado is a long way from the bottom. The fact that Michigan with its hobbled post-industrial economy or California with its monumental budget shortfall would receive more stimulus money at this point than Colorado only makes sense. (As The Colorado Independent’s sister site in Michigan recently reported, the Great Lakes State received dismally low marks for stimulus transparency in the same report.)

What’s more, the Recovery Act is designed only partly as a short-term relief program. It’s also meant to have long-term economic effects measurable state by state but also for the nation as a whole.

“Perceptions are that [the Recovery Act] throws money at the states to spark growth as fast as possible. But that is a misperception,” Kim said. “This is legislation designed to grow the economy in stages.”

To the extent the stimulus program has so far had an effect, it has been in helping people to merely get by as the nation languishes in the current economic doldrums. It has bolstered food stamp programs and unemployment benefits, for example.

It has also saved jobs by, for instance, keeping public schools and universities open as state budgets have contracted. In the coming months, it will spur job creation through public works projects, including many in the planning stage for months that will now get underway in earnest, transportation construction projects, for example. In the end, however, the stimulus program aims to remake the U.S. economy by accelerating the shift from industries of the past to those that will see continued growth in the future.

It’s that last phase in particular that will not appear in the kind of calculations undertaken by ProPublica for its recent report. Yet it is this last phase that may have the greatest effect, Kim said.

Present unmeasurables

The final round of large stimulus disbursements will come in the form of competitive grants — money basically awarded to promising projects in clean energy, broadband expansion, health industry communications technology and work force training, Kim said.

Colorado stands a good chance of being awarded an outsize percentage of funds in these areas because the state has long been a leader in clean energy and high-tech research and development. Kim argues that this is also where the majority benefits of her team’s efforts at transparency and outreach will come into play.

“You won’t see those awards until 2010. But part of transparency is to help people benefit. Our website presents the program in a very accessible way. Now we’re doing a lot of outreach to help inform people about what’s here and to encourage applicants.”

According to Kim, the team recently contracted with a coordinator for competitive grants to make sure groups in the state know what’s available. Kim has gone to conferences and traveled across Colorado to meet with local governments and businesses. In Durango, she said, officials are pushing hard to win stimulus funds to expand broadband access there. They see it as a first essential step in building a stronger local economy.

The recently hired staffer the Recovery team is dedicated solely to outreach and is scheduled in the coming months to travel to all 64 counties in the state. She will meet with local and minority businesses in each county.

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The money is being touted as a huge boost to Gov. Ritter’s New Energy Economy and is just under half of what the state will receive as part of the DOE’s State Energy Program (SEP) in the stimulus bill. The money will fund the following projects statewide:

• The Energy Efficiency for Existing Buildings Program aimed at reducing energy use and carbon emissions at state agencies, including public schools.

• Expansion of the state’s Renewable Energy Rebates and Grants Program for residential, commercial and industrial/utility consumers.

• Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) promotion of energy efficiency in new and existing homes with programs such as the Whole House Tune-up, which bundles efficiency incentives for homes.

• GEO enhancement of information for residents and business owners looking at all of their renewable energy and conservation options.

• Other SEP-funding eligible programs include energy audits, building retrofits, education and training efforts, transportation programs using alternative fuels, hybrid vehicles, and new financing tools for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

The latest infusion of SEP money is 40 percent of what the state will receive and brings the total to 50 percent, with the first 10 percent going to planning. Another $24 million is earmarked for the state if Colorado meets certain accountability milestones. The GEO will also direct another $80 million in stimulus money targeting weatherization projects for low-income residences.

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Über transparency advocates the Sunlight Foundation is crowdsourcing a federal contract bid to redesign the economic stimulus oversight Web site, Recovery.gov, through it’s open source development lab.

Clay Johnson describes Sunlight’s approach to submitting a collaborative proposal to improve government transparency of federal contracting:

On Tuesday afternoon, someone handed us a copy of the Recovery.gov 2.0 RFP and we thought: what if we try something truly radical here,” said Clay Johnson, director of Sunlight Labs. “What if we opened up the process of government contracting by bidding and allowed anyone to edit our proposal online? We together—not just we meaning the Sunlight Foundation—are going to bid on redoing Recovery.gov to learn more about the process of government contracting, and to try and build what is perhaps the biggest federal transparency-related Web site.

The group said in a written statement that the project is “a way to draw attention to the need for more transparency about the way the federal government allocates spending for its technological needs … and to demonstrate how the Internet can help democratize the government contractor bidding process.”

Still, state officials will take what they can get, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture doled out four grants of $250,000 each to fund a biomass boiler heating system at a prison in Florence; wood pellet production for wood heating stoves at a mill in Kremmling; biomass co-firing of a coal-fired power plant in Colorado Springs; and a biomass collection center and biomass heating system at the Boulder County Parks Department.

All four facilities will use or process trees cut down during wildfire mitigation projects dealing with the state’s massive mountain pine bark beetle epidemic that has left millions of acres of Colorado forests rust-red and on the way to becoming gray and lifeless.

Several Colorado towns, including Vail and Avon, are considering pursuing centralized biopower plants that would gasify chipped wood to produce hot water and electricity, and a Littleton-based firm is among the world leaders in producing portable biopower machines, although it’s sold none of the systems in-state. The Governor’s Energy Office is currently considering state grants for such projects.

The Daily Camera last week reported that Boulder is eligible for an additional $1 million in stimulus money and that City Manager Jane Brautigam announced plans to use $500,000 of the money to pilot a city-wide community bike program.

Her modest proposal fueled red-hot discussion in the Camera comments section, culminating in the now-automatic exasperated question that somehow went unasked through most of the Bush years: “What the hell is happening to our country?”

In announcing the proposal, Brautigam said that Boulder would be the first small city to institute a large-scale bike-share program of this kind and that the program would be completed with private funds.

The Camera:

The remaining $500,000 needed to pilot such a program could come from other grants or private partnerships, she said. Details of such a program aren’t yet developed, but the tight deadline to apply for the money means Boulder officials must act quickly to ask for the money.

Sorry, no. Citizen-commenters were not persuaded, e.g.:

Bike welfare.

great…with interest, by the time our kids repay this, its probably a 3.5 million $$ program. just great.

This has to be the most ridiculous idea to ever come along. All the negative comments I’ve read here are spot on. What the hell is happening to our country?

On Friday, Colorado officials formally asked the federal government for $760 million in stimulus money to save education programs and jobs threatened by this year’s record budget shortfalls.

Despite the inflow of federal cash, university administrations will make cuts across departments and hike tuition significantly. In-state tuition will climb an estimated 9 percent at many four-year institutions in the state.

The Greeley Tribune reports, however, that applications to college are climbing and specifically to the state’s junior colleges.

Marsi Liddell, president of Aims Community College, said Aims has seen enrollment steadily increase since the economic downturn. Enrollment of full-time equivalent students is up 20 percent this summer and it climbed 12 percent in spring.

While Aims doesn’t ask students why they enroll, “I can tell you that in the last two semesters we’ve seen evidence of a perceptible increase in enrollment,” Liddell said. “I can only guess that that’s because of the cost of going away (to college), especially to a four-year institution, and also the need for people who have lost their jobs, or fear they will lose their jobs, to go back and get some retooling.”

The state community college system is seeing similar trends. Enrollment increased 10 percent in spring 2009 compared to a year ago and is up 25 percent this summer, said Rhonda Bentz, spokeswoman for the Colorado Community College System.

The Greeley Trib cites a poll conducted in April by CollegeInvest, a nonprofit that provides college savings plans. CollegeInvest polled 502 Colorado parents and reported on Colorado recession education:

• Two-thirds of parents with high school children expect to use student loans, up from 61 percent a year ago.

• 55 percent of parents said they plan to delay retirement to pay for college, compared to 45 percent last year.

• Three out of 10 parents said they are saving less for college than they were a year ago, with 91 percent blaming the economy.

• About a fifth of parents said their children will wait a year or more before continuing their education.

• A quarter of parents whose children will enter community colleges said that before the recession they were planning on four-year institutions.