February 17, 2010 09:48 PM UTC

Local Groups Defend Stimulus One Year Later

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

In a press release this morning, several local policy groups defended the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, known in the vernacular as “teh stimulus”) on the one-year anniversary of its signing here in Denver. Full release after the jump with links to two new reports on stimulus funding in Colorado–says Kathy White of the Colorado Fiscal Policy Center, “The data are very clear that ARRA has had a positive and critically important impact on Colorado. At least 33,000 jobs have been retained or created, over 3.8 million Coloradans have benefited personally from assistance, and more than $1.5 billion in ARRA money has been used to mitigate against state budget shortfalls.”

Coalition credits Recovery Act for bolstering Colorado

ARRA funding critical hedge against deeper cuts to education and core services

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Contact: Perry Swanson, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute communications director, 303-573-5669 ext. 306

DENVER – On the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a coalition of non-profit organizations, students and working Coloradans credit the act with helping stabilize Colorado’s budget and protect services critical to millions of Coloradans.

The coalition, led by the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, Colorado Common Cause, 9to5 National Association of Working Women, FRESC: Good Jobs, Strong Communities, and ProgressNow Colorado Education, released two reports to highlight the economic impact of ARRA on Colorado: “2009 Recovery Act fact sheet” and “Recovery Act: Preventing worse budget cuts.”

“The data are very clear that ARRA has had a positive and critically important impact on Colorado,” said Kathy White, project director of the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute. “At least 33,000 jobs have been retained or created, over 3.8 million Coloradans have benefited personally from assistance, and more than $1.5 billion in ARRA money has been used to mitigate against state budget shortfalls.”

“In this year alone, ARRA money has thankfully backfilled more than $382 million in cuts to higher education,” said Brittany Havey, co-chairwoman of the Legislative Affairs Committee for the student government at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “ARRA money has literally saved us this year.”

###