To quote Harry Caray, “Holy Cow!” There is good news with the opening of the U.S. and Colorado economies. After losing 342,000 jobs in March and April, Colorado recaptured 20% of them, or 68,800, in the month of May. U.S. employment fell by 22.1 million during those same two months, but added back 11% of those jobs, or 2.5 million, in May. For more details check out the cber.co Review of Colorado Economy – Update Through May 2020.

Along with the re-opening of the economy, there is other good news. Over the past three months developers have shown their confidence in the Colorado economy by announcing the construction of multiple new housing developments along the Front Range. In addition, the state legislature is to be commended for dealing with a split session, a significant loss of revenue, and a challenging budget process.

At the same time, it is important to stay informed about the legislative proposals and proposed ballot measures. The Denver Business Journal has published a series of articles about these issues and the Common Sense Institute, produced the report “$4 Billion in New Taxes and Fees on the Table”. The document can be found at https://commonsenseinstituteco.org/4-billion-new-taxes/. Stay informed.

The major take-away from the current analysis is that every state and industry is going to recover at a different rate. It will not happen overnight and there will be some bumps along the way – stay patient.

Gary Horvath

https://cber.co