But to reinvigorate more of our smaller communities, we need to incentivize companies and rural entrepreneurs, or the urban ones who want to be rural, to take a chance and start a business where they're needed the most.
That's why we just announced a ten-million-dollar Rural Venture Fund to focus equity investment and access to capital in rural parts of the state, similar to what they've done along the front range.
Source: 2018 Colorado State of the State address
, Jan 11, 2018
Colorado Blueprint: build a business friendly environment
After we took office three years ago we launched a strategy to be a thoughtful and supportive partner with the business community. We reached out and built relationships with people in 14 regions from around the state, and based on what we heard, we
designed a Colorado Blueprint that focused on six core objectives:
Build a business friendly environment
Increase access to capital
Educate and train the workforce of tomorrow
Retain, grow, recruit companies
Cultivate innovation &
technology
Create a stronger Colorado brand.
This past year we launched the Rural Economic Development Grant Program, and are in the process of awarding $3 million to our rural communities. We launched the Advanced Industries Accelerator Program
making seed capital available to start-up companies in aerospace, biosciences, energy and tech. We created a unified brand logo, which is almost universally loved. 117 of Colorado's companies are already using it.
Regulatory impact statement on all new legislation
In the days ahead, I would like to see if we could look at adding a regulatory impact statement or something like a regulatory impact statement to new legislation.
Just as we require a fiscal note for every new bill that estimates the costs to state government, we could also include an estimation of the cost to businesses of additional regulations.
We also hope that every bill you consider passing will be viewed through the lens of its impact on our economic growth.
This doesn't mean we compromise our standards or put our land, air or water at risk, but it does mean that we'll keep a fierce and even relentless focus on jobs.
