COST loves summer! We don’t have to track bills at the state capitol or remind legislators about how they are voting for special interests over taxpayers. Summer gives us time to do fun things like poke around Governor Bill Ritter’s status report on our “stimulus” dollars, a.k.a. your hard-earned tax dollars — more like your children and grandchildren’s hard-earned tax dollars, at work in Colorado.
The Governor maintains a working document (last updated June 19, 2009) titled “A Colorado Status Report” to provide Coloradans with a “snapshot of where Colorado stands” with respect to our $7 billion share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Examples of how some of our dollars are being spent include projects such as $1.2 million for Weld County school bus pollution retrofit, $7 million for University of Colorado research grants, and $42.7 million for energy efficiency and conservation block program grants.
The most beguiling figure is the number of ”people benefitting from tax credits or direct grants.” Below is the Governor’s accounting of that number. COST took the chart directly from his report.
People benefiting from tax credits or direct grants
Social Security one‐time $250 payment 500,000
Pell Grant Increase 52,000
Food Stamp Increase 326,000
Increased Unemployment Benefits 115,000
Youth in summer employment program 3,000
Making Work Pay tax credit 1,800,000 families
Total 2,796,000 plus
First of all, nearly 2.8 million Coloradans seems high since according to US Census figures the state’s total population as of July 1, 2008 was 4,939,456 people. That means nearly 57 percent of Colorado’s total population is getting some sort of grant or tax credit courtesy of the stimulus.
But wait…
Notice the word “families” next to the 1,800,000 Making Work Pay tax credit figure. Since “families” generally consist of 2 or more members, then 1.8 million “families” would, at the very least, equal 3.6 million people. (Assuming a family means 2 people and multiplying it by 1.8 million families) Continuing with our math problem and using the Governor’s own math formula, if we add 3.6 million Coloradans to the other figures, the new total number of beneficiaries is 4,596,000 or more than 93 percent of Colorado’s total population. That means 343,456 Coloradans get nothing.
But wait…
According to the US Census, the average family size in Colorado is 3.13 people. Multiply that number by 1.8 million families, and we find that 5,634,000 people are getting stimulus dollars. Add that figure to the Governor’s other numbers, and our new total is 6,630,000 Coloradans receiving stimulus dollars, which is nearly 35 percent greater than the actual population of the state.
COST will give the Governor the benefit of the doubt and use the lower figure of 4,596,000. We feel sorry for the 343,456 Coloradans who don’t get anything, but somebody has to pay for it.