Vail – Colorado’s 64 counties display an amazing variety of landscapes, people and resources. But despite – or perhaps because of – their diversity, they seem more united than ever in their efforts to resolve common problems ranging from social services to this state’s crumbling highway network.
Usually, such assertions of unity are subjective. This one is quantifiable. Counties have a statewide coordinating body, Colorado Counties Inc. No one at that venerable organization can remember when it last represented every single county in the state, as it now does. Denver, a longtime holdout, rejoined last year and Boulder County made it unanimous Jan. 1. Thus, CCI now represents every voter and acre of land in Colorado.
Politicians are born with instruments in their heads that can detect changes in political clout as swiftly and accurately as seismologists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden can measure earthquakes in China. Thus, it was no surprise that CCI’s enhanced status prompted Gov. Bill Owens, most of his Cabinet, Attorney General John Suthers and 33 legislators to journey to Vail this week for the CCI summer convention.
Owens joined House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, Joint Budget Committee members Abel Tapia of Pueblo and Bernie Buescher of Grand Junction, and Rep. Jim Sullivan of Douglas County in urging the counties to support Referenda C and D, the budget rescue twins on the Nov. 1 ballot. The CCI board responded Wednesday by unanimously endorsing both measures.
Referendum C will release the “ratchet” in the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and permit the state to recover most, though not all, of the revenue lost in the 2001-2002 recession. Counties are the arm of government that actually deliver social services, and Referendum C’s passage is crucial to maintaining the programs they administer in partnership with the state.
Counties are also intensely interested in Referendum D, which will allow about $1.2 billion of bonds to be issued for highway projects. Friday, the State Transportation Advisory Committee released a detailed list of 60 projects throughout the state’s six highway regions that will be funded if C and D pass. The Colorado Department of Transportation worked closely with county and municipal officials in drawing up the list. Such cooperation is essential because local governments, especially counties, do the heavy lifting in our state transportation network.
In 2001, for example, the state maintained 9,151 “center lane miles” of highways, while cities maintained 12,602 center lane miles. Counties maintained 66,400 center lane miles, including 52,000 miles of gravel roads and 14,400 miles of paved roads.
These numbers understate the state’s role, since a mile of a state highway like Colfax Avenue carries more traffic than a mile of the gravel road bordering our family farm in Phillips County. But the point is municipal and county roads provide the vital feeder networks without which state highways would be roads to nowhere.
City and county officials deal with citizen complaints about potholes and congestion on a daily basis. Most county commissioners are Republicans, but they are also mostly pragmatists who are more concerned with providing the services their taxpayers expect than expounding on the economic theories of Ludwig von Mises.
As such, they are acutely aware of how seriously budget cuts forced by TABOR and other mandates have eroded our transportation network. According to U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, 30 percent of Colorado’s major roads are congested, 43 percent of our roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and almost 20 percent of our bridges are structurally deficient. Counties have been particularly hard-pressed to maintain their roads since they rely heavily on property taxes for such needs – and those levies are limited by both the Gallagher Amendment and TABOR.
Thus, the battle lines of the upcoming election are already forming. Opposition to C and D so far is fanned mostly by out-of-state right-wing panjandrums like Grover Norquist and Dick Armey. Support is coming from the local officials who pave the street in front of your house and the volunteer firefighter who lives next door.
If Tip O’Neill was right, that “All politics is local,” this growing support for Referenda C and D at the city and county level should prove decisive in November.
Bob Ewegen (bewegen@denverpost.com) is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post. He has written on state and local government since 1963.
