February 28, 2011 07:26 PM UTC

Post runs advice for Hick from biz execs; agrees to try to get labor perspective

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• by: Jason Salzman

The front of Friday’s Denver & The West section (in The Denver Post) had a photo of Gov. Hickenlooper, looking serious, even though he had no tie on.

Next to Hick, a headline announced that biz execs have advice for Hick.

The summary of their advice, that Colorado needs to be friendly to biz, was included in a smaller headline.

Inside, covering a full page in the business section and including another photo of Hick (with tie on), eight businesspeople each offered a few hundred words of advice, like slash taxes and cut spending and regulations. One guy said the state should improve the quality of K-12 education and higher ed. A couple execs suggested campaigns to buy local. Another wrote that Colorado shouldn’t forget “quality of life” issues.

I finished the article wondering what labor leaders would tell Hick, and so I emailed one of the article’s authors, Post reporter Aldo Svaldi, and asked if something with labor leaders’ advice was in the works.

He replied:

I spoke to my editor Steve McMillan and he likes your idea. We have struggled in the past to get labor leaders to share their views, but Greg Griffin, who covers labor and employment issues, is working to open up the channels of communication. Steve agrees that we should do a story along the lines you suggest, and it is a timely topic given what is happening in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

That’s about as fair as you could hope for. Let’s hope labor leaders play along.

And, of course, others who think of Colorado’s economic health in a different way than “the business community,” like environmental leaders, would no doubt have advice for Hick as well.