FAIRY TALES: Hickenlooper Advisor Prefers Fantasy to Reality on Job Growth

We’ve written extensively on how liberal Governor John Hickenlooper keeps telling every audience he talks to that Colorado’s economy is on the up and up:

My friends, in 2010, when it came to job growth, this state was ranked 40th in the nation.  Now, three years later, in that same ranking, Colorado is the 4th fastest job growth state in the country.  40th to 4th.

First, it was in the State of the State. Then, to a group of folks down in Pueblo, and most recently, in front of a group of businessmen in Denver.  And, again, and again, and again we urge him and his administration to back up these numbers, because, frankly, we can’t find this “ranking” anywhere.

Needless to say, we’ve been met with silence.  You’d think it’d be all too easy to release these rankings and force us to eat crow, but that only works if the numbers are real.

Our constant nagging must be getting to Team Hick as evidenced by Hickenlooper’s chief political guy, Alan Salazar, sending out this tweet Friday night:

From 40th to 4th more good news for CO economy http://t.co/6zFsS4JYQ4

— Alan Salazar (@AlanSalazarCO) February 15, 2014

Unfortunately for Hick, what Salazar is linking to is merely a projection for 2014, not what actually happened in 2013.  And, Hickenlooper, for his part, has been quite explicit in saying it was 2013 when Colorado was 4^th in job growth.  Guess no one told the Federal government this.

To make matters worse for Salazar?  This same organization, Moody’s Analytics, forecasted 2013 to be a year of strong growth, which it had to walk back once we got through 2013, labeling it a “failure to launch.”  In fact, by the end of 2013, Colorado’s GDP actually grew at a smaller rate (1.9%) than it did for 2012 (2.8%).  So, forgive us if we don’t start jumping up and down at just a mere “projection” for 2014, especially from this organization, when we really just want the real numbers Hickenlooper keeps citing for 2013.

Hey Alan, better delete that tweet soon, the way your boss has been governing these past few years, we aren’t coming anywhere close to the job growth rate.