William Forrester Owens (born October 22, 1950) is an American former politician who served as the 40th Governor of Colorado, from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he was re-elected in 2002, amassing 62.6% of the vote, the largest Republican share of the vote in state history. , he is the last Republican to serve as Governor of Colorado.
Early life
Owens was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated from Paschal High School. While a sophomore in high school, Owens was appointed a Page in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman (and later, Speaker of the House) Jim Wright. Owens was assigned by the Doorkeeper of the House to the Republican cloakroom, where he worked for notable Republicans who were serving in the House then such as George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Bob Dole.
He attended Stephen F. Austin State University where he served as vice president and president of the student body. While at Stephen F. Austin, Owens served as a coordinator of the Students for George Bush in George H.W. Bush's unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate. It was during this campaign that Owens would first meet future President George W. Bush. Owens earned a master's degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he was awarded a full two-year fellowship.
Following his graduate work, Owens accepted a position in the Washington D.C. office of Touche Ross & Company. He moved to Colorado in 1977, after accepting a position with the Gates Corporation. He later served as executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Association, and as Executive Vice President of the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association.
Early political career
Owens served as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 1982 until 1988, and as a state senator from 1988 to 1994, representing Aurora and Arapahoe County.
While in the Legislature, Owens was active in tax reform, privatization and school choice initiatives, sponsoring the nation's third charter school law. He served as chair of both the House and Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committees and as Chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Energy Committee, as well as on NCSL's executive committee.
Owens was elected to statewide office as Colorado State Treasurer in 1994, where he was responsible for managing the state's $5 billion in investment funds. He served during this time on the board of Colorado's $25 billion pension fund, the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA).
Governorship
First term
Owens was elected as the 40th Governor of Colorado in the 1998 governor's race, when he defeated Democratic opponent Gail Schoettler by 8,300 votes (less than one percent of ballots cast). When he was inaugurated on January 12, 1999, Owens became Colorado's first Republican governor in 24 years. His platform was three pronged: cut taxes, repair Colorado's aging infrastructure, and continue school accountability reforms.
Tax cuts
Upon entering office, Owens worked with a legislature controlled by his own Republican party to push through the largest tax relief package in state history, amounting to $1 billion in rate cuts to the sales, personal-income, and capital-gains taxes. Owens also championed, and eventually won, the elimination of the state's marriage penalty. By 2006, the Owens administration estimated the overall tax cuts pushed through during his administration had saved Coloradans $3.6 billion.
TRANS and T-REX
In November 1999, Owens brought his transportation funding initiative to the ballot. Called TRANS, the $1.7 billion bonding initiative accelerated future federal transportation dollars on 28 road projects across the state. The keystone project was the Transportation Expansion, dubbed T-REX.
T-REX combined new road funding from TRANS to widen and expand Interstate 25 through Denver with $460 million-worth of new light rail lines to link downtown Denver with the Denver Tech Center. Through an innovative design-build concept that greatly reduced construction times, T-REX was finished in less than five years, and came in under budget.