What Owens wrought: after 8 years, Gov. Bill Owens leaves a 'limited' legacy.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Cover story

Herman Malone, an African-American businessman and a Republican, was walking with a reporter from The Denver Post along the 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver in 1999, basking in the spring sunshine and the victory of his candidate for governor that fall, Bill Owens.

Owens was the first Republican governor to serve the state in 24 years, and Malone said later he was hoping to see "a new direction" for state government, to the benefit of small business and especially minority-owned businesses.

The reporter--now the writer of this piece--reminded Malone that the turnover of Democrats and installation of Republicans in the various offices of the new administration could lead to wholesale changes in the way the State of Colorado operated. Owens would be appointing executive-level department heads in state government, making budget decisions, proposing new policy to the General Assembly--all from a far different political perspective than his predecessor, Democrat Roy Romer.

Owens' conservative perspective dictates a "limited" role for government, yet no one knew at the start of his two terms what historic and economic events would also help shape and determine the new governor's legacy to the state.

Now, almost eight years later, yet before the election that would choose his replacement, Owens sat down with ColoradoBiz to discuss what he is leaving behind.

Perhaps appropriately, it's limited.

But Owens did teach Colorado one big lesson.

A governor of modern Colorado must manage three statewide priorities: education, social services and transportation. One of those priorities was missing from Owens' game plan from the beginning, the ColoradoBiz interview with the governor showed. And yet Owens recognized his responsibility to governing in the end, and called on the state's voters to supply state government with the money it needed to keep Colorado viable as a place to live, work and raise a family, goals often stated by members of his administration.

"I'm pleased with what I've done," he said. "I'm actually looking to do something different, but it is funny to think in terms of legacy when we're so busy still on a day-to-day basis dealing with departments, with issues.

"Here's what I would say in terms of what I'm most proud of:

"When I ran for governor in 1998, I looked very carefully at a person named George Bush, and what his campaign had been like in 1994 in Texas. He ran on three issues, and then by 1998, when he ran for re-election, he was able to say here's what I said I would do, and here's what I have done.

"Well, I did the exact same thing, in this sense: I ran on three issues. I said I was going to cut taxes. Said I was going to improve transportation, and I said I was going to bring accountability and reform to schools, public schools.

"And here's what I've done: On net, I'm still a significant tax cutter. Most people haven't noticed that because of the Ref C debate, but if you look at the tax cuts of 1999 and 2000, tax cuts which you might not have been in favor of, nevertheless, they in fact make me over eight years a significant tax cutter. So I think that I've kept to that first commitment. The second is transportation, and while much more remains to be done, within the time I've had, I think I've added significant value to our transportation infrastructure. And finally, education, K through 12--I'm really proud of what Gov. Romer did, and I give him credit, in every speech, as having been the intellectual and practical father of CSAP. What I did was I really added value to that concept. I believe that that which is measured, we improve; that without measurement, you don't have any way to understand where improvement is needed.

"Gov. Romer realized you had to have a statewide standard, and I can't believe we didn't. So now, 177 school districts, with thousands of individual classrooms, they know that we teach adverbs in this grade, we teach adjectives here, and in mathematics, the fourth-grade math curriculum links inextricably into the fifth. There's continuity to it today.

"What I've done is I've added some tests. I've added a report card to it, and continued what he (Romer) started, and that's the third part of the trilogy I'm most proud of. We did a lot in higher ed, too, but that can come later."

MEASURING LEGACY

From that base, Owens' eight years can be measured a success, and most people who have commented on his performance cite those very milestones in toting up the governor's legacy. But a legacy is much more than accomplishment. It must take into account what has not been accomplished as well, and Owens chalked up a number of failures, some admitted and some brushed over with the political whitewash that is used commonly among colleagues in his chosen profession.

Referendum A, for example. The $2...