Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter issued an executive order this week directing state agencies to track job creation. The executive order requires the Colorado Economic Development Commission to include information about job-creation activities in its annual report to the state Legislature.
Ritter’s order also instructs the commission to prepare a plan to track jobs created from grants, loans and tax credits provided by the commission. According to a report from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, lawmakers are skeptical of claims that Ritter has created thousands of jobs with his new energy economy programs.
Lawmakers introduced at least three bills this year that would require proof that new jobs are being created. The bills included the New Energy Jobs Creation Act, the Green Jobs Colorado Training Pilot Program and another key bill, Requirements for Economic Incentives, which Republicans tried to amend to require the governor’s office to conduct a study “of all so-called green jobs” created through tax incentives.
Ritter said at a speech last week in Washington, D.C., that his new energy economy is producing results, including 2,500 jobs from Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems, which made Colorado its North American manufacturing hub, and 700 jobs from SMA Solar, which is opening a manufacturing plant in Colorado this summer, its first outside Germany.
