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Colorado Emerges As A Comeback State

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May 12, 2009 11:59 am US/Mountain

Colorado Emerges As A Comeback State

Good Question: Why does Colorado have a chance of an early comeback?

Written by Alan Gionet

Reporting
Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ― Louisville is a place where the recession has hit with kid gloves.

Annie Powell recently made a bet that frightens people in many parts of the country.

"We just bought a home and I'm hoping," she said.

Housing prices aren't down. They have even edged up a bit on average.

The recession's punch in Louisville has left a mark, but the town is having no trouble staying standing.

Sales tax revenues are down 6 percent, but city manager Malcolm Fleming says there are reserves to help with that.

Even in Colorado as a whole, on average, we're better off, with an unemployment rate increase that is among the lowest rate in the nation, going from 4.6 to 7.5 percent between March 2008 and March 2009.

In the one-time growth state of Nevada unemployment during the same time period went from 5.6 to 10.4 percent.

Colorado benefits from the lack of big Fortune 500 companies.

"There is strength in diversity," says Fleming. "If you're reliant on one or two or a few major companies, when they go down I think the area goes down."

One big company is coming to Louisville -- Conoco-Phillips. It is already at work on clearing the site for its global training and alternative energy research facility on the old StorageTek property. It could eventually employ thousands as the oil giant tries to prepare for a new energy economy. (Conoco-Phillips wants to be in the proximity of research centers on the new energy.)

Don Elliman, the director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development says he sells a couple of things when trying to make the case for the state.

"The level of the quality of our labor force is really at the top of our list and the intellectual capital that we have in the state -- those are two of the biggest advantages," he said.

The state is trying to push new energy, bioscience and aerospace. There's already significant investment in all three in Colorado.

Few states have that combination.

Colorado has the brain power. The state is second only to Massachusetts in the percentage of people with at least a bachelor's degree. And there's that intangible Elliman tries to sell.

"I mean, Colorado's DNA is a little bit different. We're a very entrepreneurial state. We trade more heavily than most on intellectual capital."

True or not, it's a selling point.

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