Colorado's Gubernatorial Candidates Disagree On Growth
DENVER (CBS4)- Colorado's gubernatorial candidates sparred over several issues during Friday night's debate on CBS4, especially growth.
The candidates were asked about their plans to reduce the cost of living in Colorado.
"Growth means jobs and jobs means growth. They are inextricably linked and that's why I said that my top priority will be to fix Colorado's crumbling infrastructure for the long term," said Republican Walker Stapleton. "We put forward a plan to do it. New bonding mechanisms from the general fund, which includes sports gambling, fixing the broken medical marijuana system, also we've done an analysis of Colorado and eight other mountain states and found out that if we actually spent the same amount per mile on maintenance charges that these other states did, we could have more than $150 million for bonding in the future. This is in contrast to Congressman Polis' radical plan which simply wants to invest in multi-modal transportation, under-utilized public transportation and bike lanes at a time when we have to be spending all of our money on roads and bridges, bridges and roads. Plus, he's going to drive so many jobs out of Colorado and bankrupt our economy that we're not going to have the tax bases to fix our roads, so he will solve the problem that people will be moving out of Colorado, they just won't be moving back."
"It seems like every time Walker talks it's 'noun, verb, Jared Polis, noun, verb, Jared Polis. I'm here to tell you about my plans. We have to invest in infrastructure because growth is very important. We have to make sure that growth actually works to improve the quality of life for Colorado families because what does growth mean when we have 3 percent unemployment, and it's very low, but for many families you may have gotten a raise but your rent is more, your 15 minute commute is now a 30 minute commute. Young families struggle with the high cost of childcare and we're focused on making more preschool and child care options available and saving families money on health care. So it's about how can we, yes, take this amazing economic growth and as someone who has created hundreds of jobs and started companies and met payroll, I bring that real world practical experience to the governorship and I can make growth work for every Colorado family," said Democratic candidate Jared Polis.
