Unstimulating stimulus in Colorado

Not only can't the Democrats in Washington manage the cash for clunkers program, The Denver Post, a liberal paper by the way, is reporting that they can't handle stimulating the economy.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is supposed to create or save 59,000 jobs in Colorado by the end of 2010, but five months into the program, state officials can link fewer than 1,000 new full-time-equivalent positions to stimulus spending.

The biggest source of employment so far is a summer work program for youths run by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The program has placed 2,946 youths, but because the jobs are temporary, they amount to fewer than 500 full-time- equivalent positions.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has more than 600 people working on road and bridge projects across the state. Through June, the hours worked by those employees amounted to 77 full-time-equivalent positions.

Others — perhaps a few hundred people — are repairing airport runways, reviewing food-stamp applications, renovating school buildings and working on projects for federal agencies across the state. At Denver International Airport, for example, about 105 workers are improving runways and drainage in an $11.5 million project expected to wrap up by the end of August.

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