First Regular Session Sixty-seventh General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO INTRODUCED LLS NO. M09-0837.01 John McKay SJM09-001 SENATE SPONSORSHIP Harvey, Brophy, Kester, Cadman, Mitchell, King K., Scheffel, Spence, Kopp, Lundberg, Penry, Renfroe, Schultheis, White HOUSE SPONSORSHIP McNulty, Baumgardner, Gardner C., Gerou, Kerr J., King S., Lambert, Massey, May, Murray, Nikkel, Stephens, Summers Senate Committees House Committees State, Veterans & Military Affairs SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 09-001 Memorializing Congress to amend the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009", and, in connection therewith, urging Congress to restrain spending on projects unrelated to infrastructure improvements, to reduce the financial burdens imposed on small businesses by the current version of the bill, and to limit allocations to projects and investments that will effectively stimulate the national economy. WHEREAS, The United States Congress is currently considering passage of H.R. 1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"; and WHEREAS, The cost of this so-called "stimulus package" has swelled to more than $1 trillion more than the cost of the entire Iraq War; and WHEREAS, The version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives contains, among other things: $335 million for sexually transmitted disease research; $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $600 million for the federal government to purchase new cars; $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings; $150 million for the Smithsonian Institution; $4 billion for a Neighborhood Stabilization Program; $200 million for grass replacement on the National Mall; $75 million to encourage people to quit smoking; and More than $50 billion for federal programs that have already been criticized by either the federal Office of Management and Budget or the federal Government Accountability Office as being "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits; and WHEREAS, While broad bipartisan support exists for additional investment in transportation infrastructure and the economic activity such spending would generate, less than 5% of the overall spending in H.R. 1 is earmarked for highway repair and reconstruction projects; and WHEREAS, Forty-five other states stand to receive more funding for transportation projects than Colorado will under the terms of H.R. 1, as it was passed by the House of Representatives; and WHEREAS, A recent analysis conducted by the Congressional Budget Office determined that less than half of the funds included for road and infrastructure improvements can be spent before the end of fiscal year 2010 and that the bulk of the money will not be obligated until even later after, many economists believe, the recession will have ended; and WHEREAS, Proponents of the stimulus package claim, dubiously, that it will create approximately 3 million jobs yet even if one were to accept this claim, that would mean each of these 3 million jobs would be created at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $300,000 per job; and WHEREAS, H.R. 1 contains a provision requiring the payment of "Davis-Bacon Act" mandated wages on all infrastructure projects, disadvantaging small contractors and artificially inflating the cost of the stimulus package by tens of billions of dollars; and WHEREAS, The savings recognized from eliminating the Davis-Bacon requirements alone would free up billions of dollars to fund additional construction projects, hire more construction workers, and provide working families with much needed tax relief; and WHEREAS, H.R. 1 also contains billions of dollars in additional spending to underwrite state and local government operating budgets, rewarding the behavior of fiscally irresponsible governors, state legislators, and local officials; and WHEREAS, According to the United States Census Bureau, state and local budgets have nearly doubled since 1998 and have grown by an astounding 34% between 2003 and 2007, despite the fact that the population of the United States grew by just 5% over this period; now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-seventh General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein: (1) It is the sense of the General Assembly that passage of H.R. 1 will grow the size of government far more than it will stimulate the economy. (2) It is the sense of the General Assembly that the best way for the federal government to spur private-sector job creation is to reduce the tax and regulatory burdens on small businesses, rather than redistributing billions of dollars from the private sector to government programs. (3) It is the sense of the General Assembly that the inclusion of provisions unrelated to infrastructure spending, such as the Davis-Bacon wage mandate, in H.R. 1 will impose unnecessary costs on taxpayers. (4) It is the sense of the General Assembly that certain provisions of H.R. 1 are designed to bail out state and local governments that have engaged in profligate spending, at the expense of taxpayers in states like Colorado that have enacted mechanisms such as TABOR and the Arveschoug-Bird limit to curb excessive growth in government spending. (5) The General Assembly urges the members of the 111th Congress and the President of the United States to reject noninfrastructure-related provisions of H.R. 1, which will do absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy. (6) The General Assembly urges the members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate to stop runaway federal discretionary and entitlement spending and the crushing debt it imposes on future generations of Coloradans. Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Memorial be sent to each member of Colorado's congressional delegation and President Barack Obama.