Colorado Raiding Mission Report

The Governor of Colorado and Denver's Mayor just returned from a recruitment (raiding) mission in California. If you haven't noticed Colorado has stepped up its economic development efforts in recent months.

Some communities in the state are now offering a $10,000 bounty for anyone helping to land a California company in their community. Incentives are far from being new, but this is a unique twist on the incentive game that rears its head from time to time. This is one you have to be very careful with for a variety of reasons. Probably not a good idea to use public money in doing this. The audit trail could be problematic.

I think you will find a recent Rocky Mountain News article, co-authored by Bill Owens (Colorado's Governor) and John Hickenlooper (Denver Mayor), to be interesting reading. Click here to read the article. Two messages are found in the article: 1) the state and the city are working together; and 2) they recognize that Colorado has strong trade and economic ties with California.

It's great that the state and the state's largest city are cooperating. The trade and economic linkage recognition is good as well. One bit of advice on the latter issue--remember that the tie the binds can be both a source of opportunities and problems. If California continues to stumble and its companies get hurt, there are ripple effects for other states, like Colorado, which provides a location for plants and offices of California-based corporations.

Colorado is an attractive state for economic development and it has a lot going for it. It also has a track record of inconsistency in its ED efforts. For how long will the "industry welcome mat" be out this time? That is one for state's ED professionals and its elected officials to think about.