Pueblo’s economic progress, not hampered by marijuana
Even as some in Pueblo express concern over legal marijuana’s impact on economic development, officials say the substance hasn’t affected recruitment.
By Kara Mason
Is the marijuana industry in Pueblo preventing prospective businesses from moving or expanding into the Steel City?
“Your question made me laugh out loud,” Pueblo County Economic Development Director Chris Markuson said via email.
“No, there hasn’t been a single instance where a business has told us that they’re not locating in Pueblo County because of marijuana. Zero,” Markuson, who also is an appointed board member of the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation, continued.
“In fact, to the contrary, we are busier than ever. We have numerous businesses that we’re in touch with from other communities who are expressing interest in Pueblo County. Frankly, marijuana isn’t ever a topic unless the business we’re working with is in the industry.”
But the suspicion still lingers among conversations between some local business leaders.
A Repurposed Group
Before the 2016 election, when a ballot question was threatening to dismantle the entire recreational marijuana industry in Pueblo, a group of Pueblo’s elite businessmen took to the Pueblo Chieftain editorial board in support of Props. 200 and 300 — the industry-killer questions that went on to fail among city and county voters.
The group’s dispute was that marijuana was disrupting business and, more notably, “impacting their ability to attract new companies to town,” the Chieftain reported the group telling the paper, but the reporting didn’t cite any specific examples from the group that reasoned marijuana is destroying a wholesome image.
Pueblo has been called the Napa Valley of weed with nearly 100 grow sites around the county. County leaders have dubbed the industry a success story, praising the 1,300 jobs various marijuana operations have added to the economy and adding a nice cushion to the county’s budget.
While some revenue money has gone to infrastructure, education and even homelessness, many outside of county government say the extra revenue doesn’t stretch far enough to support community issues that have been pinned as further impacted by recreational marijuana.
During the election the acting finance and budget director for Pueblo County told PULP if Prop. 200 passed it would cost the county five jobs and $1.3 million in revenue — equivalent to the budget of an entire county department.
Despite the data touted by the marijuana industry and the county, the argument about hindered economic development quietly persisted, even as the measure floundered at the ballot box.
Many from the group of seven that met with the Chieftain editorial board have reorganized into PROPuebloCO.
Jack Rink, former PEDCO president and CEO, has become the face of PROPuebloCO, penning editorials and running meetings. The others from the editorial group are: Dan DeRose of DD Marketing, Ryan McWilliams of International Engineering, Burnie Zercher of Industrial Construction Managers and former state Rep. Keith Swerdfeger, who owns K.R. Swerdfeger Construction.
PULP Newsmagazine tracked Swerdfeger through a chain of dark money, which promoted Props. 200 and 300, during the election.
There are members of the PROPuebloCO group who weren’t part of the seven also in the editorial meeting, but were vocal opponents of marijuana: Brian Moore and Mike Baxter — the CEOs of Pueblo’s two separate hospitals — and Paula McPheeters who spearheaded Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo, the official group behind Props. 200 and 300. Emergency Room doctor Brad Roberts and Posada Director Anne Stattelman have also spoken out against the industry.
But the PROPuebloCO group says they aren’t anti-marijuana. In a ‘what’s done is done’ move, the group says it is focused on generally just making Pueblo a better place through focusing on three different pillars: drug culture, vagrancy and crime.
During the election the three pillars were often talked about too, but as a result from marijuana. Unlike now, the logic went that if the root could be eliminated, perhaps the problems of crime, vagrancy and a drug culture would also subside.
Rink started a news conference revealing the grassroots group in March with a reassurance that PROPuebloCO is not anti-marijuana, though he acknowledged the group holds that the now-legal substance is part of the major problems they see in the community.
At the group’s second meeting in April, Rink said the group “had no desire to look at the legality of marijuana,” distancing itself even further from election days when a majority of the group favored reversing access to legal marijuana in Pueblo.
According to the Experts
PEDCO, the City of Pueblo’s private, non-profit partner in recruiting primary jobs to Pueblo, says it’s taking a neutral stance when it comes to marijuana, despite former president Jack Rink’s vocal objection to the industry since leaving the organization.
Current president Jeff Shaw, who once worked under Rink, paints a different picture of what has happened in the city, post Amendment 64, even as there haven’t been any operating recreational shops located in city limits.
“What I can tell you is last year we announced more jobs than our 5-year historical average. Our pipeline looks stronger than it has in years,” Shaw said. “Companies we are recruiting see an amazing community they want to partner with. Keep in mind, two companies we announced post 2012 are United Technologies (expansion) and United Launch Alliance (attraction).”
To Shaw, these two companies are a big deal when looking at economic development because they are “top tier.”
“There is a reason why these types of companies chose to come and stay in Pueblo,” he said.
PEDCO has generally stayed clear of saying anything or making any moves related to marijuana, but ventured into recruiting a hemp manufacturing company to Pueblo. CBD Biosciences was slated to get $7.8 million from the city’s half-cent sales tax fund last year, but warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration to eight marketers of CBD products left the city with cold feet.
The deal, made under Rink’s leadership, was to bring the city 163 jobs in 2016 — and though some city council members were wary of the move because of hemp’s relation to marijuana, all but one council member approved using tax dollars to recruit the company.
If there have been any instances where a company has declined to move to a community in Colorado strictly because of the marijuana industry, Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade isn’t letting on either.
“Marijuana legalization has not negatively affected Colorado’s economic progress. Colorado is one of our nation’s fastest growing states,” the office said in a statement to PULP. “Over the past six years, the state has created nearly 400,000 new jobs. And for the last two years, Forbes Magazine named Denver the best city in the country for business and careers.”
This year the City of Pueblo is permitting eight stores in city limits and the conversations regarding potential economic development threats have been minimal.
Pueblo City Councilmen Steve Nawrocki and Ray Aguilera both told PULP there have been no issues of attracting business to Pueblo because of marijuana.
Nawrocki noted that by the time council gets involved in economic development, the deal is in process. City government isn’t so much involved in the recruitment bit, he said.
