COVID-19  May 15, 2020

Boulder-area business, government leaders look ahead toward uncertain future

BOULDER — Boulderites — and especially local businesses that have been shuttered or severely limited for two months — are waiting with bated breath for Gov. Jared Polis’ May 25 update on COVID-19 restrictions, but business and government leaders acknowledge that the economic future is uncertain, regardless of how much restrictions are rolled back. 

“We are all looking forward to seeing what this looks like,” Zac Swank, Boulder County’s public health COVID-19 business liaison, said during a Friday town hall with elected officials, government staffers and business leaders.

Even if Polis were to decide in a week and a half to reopen business such as restaurants and bars, “we don’t want people to just go back to everyday life like everything is fine,” Swank said. Local businesses and their customers need to make protective measures such as wearing masks a part of their everyday routines he said. “This is a long haul.”

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Boulder Chamber CEO John Tayer noted the particularly difficult circumstances in which business owners now find themselves compared with just several months ago.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak — described by Tayer as “very much a tidal-wave experience” — business leaders “were addressing issues associated with having such a vibrant economy,” he said.

The chamber and its government partners must  implement recovery plans immediately, Tayer said, but “we know that it’s not going to be a simple ‘turn the lights on’ type of moment.”

On a more hopeful note, Rep. Edie Hooton (D-Boulder), noted that the county’s economic diversity could lend itself to a more-robust recovery relative to other regions.

“When you just have one industry keeping a city afloat, that can be pretty devastating,” she said.

It’s not only the private sector staring down the barrel of an uncertain future. Colorado’s state government has yet to get its arms around the extent the virus will wreak havoc on the budget. 

“Every time we do a forecast and dig into the numbers, it looks a little worse.” Sen. Stephen Fenberg (D-Boulder) said.

That latest projection predicts a roughly 25% revenue shortfall, and in the best-case scenario, Colorado will face “at least several billion dollars in cuts coming this year,” he said.

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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