I started writing this column on Monday hoping to find some answers about the future of our economy.

The stimulus bill that has been at the center of our nation’s collective attention for so long was finalized last week and I was anxious to learn what it meant for our corner of the world in South Metro Denver.

But from the looks of it, the Feb. 17 signing only launched the next murky phase of the process, which is figuring out how to access the money made available by this bill.

I went through my normal reading routine expecting to come away with some sense of clarity now that the bill was set. Instead, I found more questions than answers.

I read breakdowns of the money coming to Colorado, but it’s not exactly clear reading. I read about tensions building between governors and mayors nationwide as competition for funding gets under way. Before long, I had nearly a dozen articles open on my browser and I was clumsily trying to connect the dots between each one as I tried to understand what to expect from this bill. Finally, I gave up and decided to wait until I could call folks in government Feb. 17 and have them walk me through my questions.

As I drove home, I stumbled across Gov. Bill Ritter on the radio with Caplis and Silverman answering some of the questions I had been wrestling with all afternoon.

When asked how Colorado fared compared to other states as far as the amount of money it will receive, Ritter said that was a question better answered three or four months from now.

“A lot of what is being talked about now, a few days into this, is guesswork on what states are actually going to receive,” Ritter said.

So much for my search for relief and comfort. What came crashing home to me as I took in all of this is that we’re not dealing with found money. It’s not as if the bill was signed and state Legislatures woke up the next day to find money in their coffers that would have work on shovel-ready projects under way by the weekend. Instead, these are federal dollars available through the same dizzying labyrinth of restrictions that stand in front of all federal funds.

I don’t know how the supply of funding provided by this bill will match up with the demand for money, but there will certainly be more demand than supply and the stage is set for a money-grab governed time-consuming politics and compromise.

If I’m right, the bottom line is that there are still a number of decisions to be made about how the money will be spent, which shovel-ready projects will be funded and which ones are shelved for another time.

The one thing that has made sense to me about all of this is the regional approach some or our communities are taking with their projects. I firmly believe that leaders representing individual communities in the South Metro area need to look at the area as one entity. From an economic standpoint, there are no discernable boundaries separating Castle Rock from Parker from Lone Tree from Littleton from Englewood.

If a paving project on Broadway is funded, that will create or save jobs right here. Those saved jobs will put money into restaurants in Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree, which will create jobs there and hopefully the snowball will continue to roll.

I used Broadway as an example because I see what Littleton and Centennial have agreed to do in splitting the cost of repaving the high-traffic road that borders both cities as an example of what all communities in our area should be doing right now — recognizing projects that can be shared and have the most benefit.

I don’t know where the stimulus package will take us, but we need to use whatever it provides us wisely and unselfishly.

Bangs