Denver's faith-based finances raise doubt

July 7, 3:17 AMDenver City Hall ExaminerLisa Jones

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According to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, implosion of the U.S. economy has changed nothing. At a public meeting last month, he said:

"Without a question, this country and this world has the same capacity to make steel, to produce concrete, to build buildings and enterprises that we had a year ago. Right? What we've lost is that faith. That ability to believe."

Specifically, he's referring to belief in his stewardship. Trust in his administration will help Denver rise out of the recession, Hickenlooper asserts.

Call me skeptical.

Not long after Hick made his appeal, his airport manager was asking Denver City Council to approve -- on little more than a wing and a prayer -- a billion-dollar redesign of Denver International Airport.

Airport officials are pushing council to sign off on a $160-million contract with Parsons Transportation to manage the massive redesign project.

Real estimates are closer to $80 or $90 million for total project fees, officials admit.

But DIA Manager Kim Day is asking city council to approve nearly twice that amount just in case she decides to move forward on a "potential office building or something."

Plus, asking for an extra $80 million upfront saves her the time and trouble of going through another public process to request additional public funds, she explained.

Day defended $160 million as "conservatively high."

But that's not conservatively high. That's totally baked.

The Denver Post editorial board, by comparison, must be iced out of their skulls, judging from their July 4th endorsement of the billion-dollar-project-without-a-plan.

No one supports spending a billion dollars without seeing a budget first. Meth will change that.

Heh. I'm not sounding very trusting, am I? Where's my faith? Where's my blind belief in the Hickenlooper administration?

It's over here, looking at reports: DIA passengers have the fewest complaints of any airport. DIA promotes itself (pdf) as one of the newest and best in the nation.

Plus, Kim Day just boasted to city council about the airport's astonishingly robust financial health. The rest of us have hit hard times, but DIA is still in the pink.

Golly. Sure makes an airport redesign sound like a vanity project. Preening on the backs of taxpayers and all.

Did I mention we're in the worst economic straits since the Great Depression?

If only I could believe. If only I could put my faith in the financial wizardry of spending-is-better-than-saving.

If only I could trust the bond market and securitized debt, spun and spread over a sea of suckers and retirees, then repackaged and sold to China where it's milled into toxic pellets then resold to us as breath mints at DIA gift shops.

So cool and refreshing just before respiratory failure.