Colorado toll roads
Re: “Coping with congestion; Tolling plans spark debate on solutions,” April 2 Perspective article.
It’s disappointing that Douglas County Commissioner Melanie Worley’s perspective on the Colorado Department of Transportation’s preference for adding tolled express lanes to C-470 contained several obviously misleading and inaccurate statements. The facts are:
Express lanes in the C-470 median provide plenty of room to add light rail.
No public subsidies are required to build express lanes as tolls, paid by users, to cover the construction and maintenance costs. Similar to a publicly subsidized transit system, riders pay a fare but we all pay taxes regardless of whether or not we ride the bus.
Local roads can still be improved. Improvements to roads like County Line were assumed in the C-470 study.
Express lanes do not cost twice as much as adding the same number of tax-supported lanes.
Much like light rail, express lanes do depend on congestion. That’s why the addition of toll lanes is only being considered on congested highways.
It’s inappropriate and illegal for CDOT to initiate a tax increase; however, Douglas County officials are welcome to and have stated their intent to do so. While we wait indefinitely to see if residents approve, people are sitting in traffic and the cost of the project increases.
People can choose to use express lanes or the adjacent existing “free” lanes.
Express lanes improve congestion in the adjacent “free” lanes.
Transportation funding has not kept pace with the massive growth in Douglas County, making it difficult to maintain, much less expand, highways. It’s my responsibility to consider statewide transportation interests, not just those in my local area, and from a broad perspective, having those who use toll lanes pay for them makes sense. Regardless of tolling, we’ll still continue to make the most of our existing system and explore all possible options toward improving transportation.
Joe Jehn, Denver
The writer is state transportation commissioner and chairman of the Colorado Tolling Enterprise.
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The article by Melanie Worley, chair of the Douglas County Board of Directors, is another profound insight into this privatization of America by businessmen, also known as Republicans. We see where their failed notion to bring vouchers to the forefront to privatize our public schools failed, so now they dangle them in front of the poor, with the false hope that they too can go to rich private schools. Now they want to privatize our public roads.
Worley accurately points out the consequences of building toll roads alongside, rather than in lieu of, public roads. Not only do the non-users pay for them in tax cuts, but those of us who would not use them, either out of choice or inability to afford them, are denied the improvement of added roads because the toll road businesses negotiate a non-competitive clause into the deal that prevents even the government from adding additional roads that may compete with them.
This is just one more step in the privatization of America, to separate the haves from the have-nots.
Keith Francis, Morrison
Alternative energy
Re: “States taking the lead on alternative energy ideas,” April 2 Perspective article.
Thank you for Joel Swisher’s piece on energy issues in last Sunday’s Perspective. Swisher is right that, in the face of federal weakness, states must step up to chart a path to American energy independence. He is also right that Colorado must do more to put us on that path.
Fortunately, we are. Labor unions, conservation groups and progressive businesses, building on our work together on Amendment 37 and FasTracks, have joined to form the Colorado Apollo Alliance, dedicated to the joint mission of creating good jobs and a clean and secure energy future for Colorado.
We have already advanced proposals to increase bio-fuels use and bio-fuels manufacture in Colorado; to promote industrial and residential energy efficiency and green building standards; to make Colorado a leader in advanced “clean coal” energy technology; to facilitate construction of new wind farms in Colorado; to promote increased use of solar power in our sunny state; and to maximize the “smart growth” potential of the FasTracks build-out.
If we succeed, we’ll have done much to make Colorado the kind of leader Swisher calls for to reach a balanced and sustainable energy future.
Let’s hope others follow our lead.
Chris Nevitt, Policy Director, Front Range Economic Strategy Center, Denver
Wasting time and money to fight pot
Re: “Just say no,” April 2 Colorado Voices column.
Larry Pozner’s column is an excellent exposé about the incredibly wasteful excesses that our local and regional governments use in the “witch hunt” pursuit of marijuana users.
I am not saying that marijuana use is harmless; I am saying that we are spending way too many resources for essentially no return and no increase in overall safety and welfare of the community as a whole. Small-quantity possession for personal use is certainly not the most important issue the police and courts have facing them, and many of us taxpayers are getting fed up.
It is about time that someone of authority gets involved and sets a realistic priority for the limited police resources.
I wonder how many police feel the same way, that their time and efforts are being wasted on nonessential issues.
Barry Brooks, Lakewood
Immigration and amnesty
Re: “Salazar: Immigration bill not ‘amnesty,”‘ April 4 news story.
I agree with the Senate immigration bill, as Sen. Ken Salazar defines it, up to a point. But I have to go along with Rep. Tom Tancredo that the bill does indeed represent amnesty since it would reward illegal residents with eventual citizenship.
One small change in the Senate bill could solve that – assign illegals a special status once they register: they can stay in this country, doing their present jobs; and their children, many of whom have citizenship status, can remain in our schools. However, they themselves, and any family members not born here, can never become citizens with the right to vote unless they return to their home country and apply legally. Being denied citizenship would be their punishment for having broken this country’s laws.
And if Congress will stop giving “amnesty” to employers and work seriously at workplace enforcement, we can begin to solve our immigration problem.
George Brazill, Colorado Springs
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My company is a family owned and operated business that was conceived in 1950. We are a mid-size producer of quality blooming plant material, and we service a wide array of garden centers, landscapers and municipalities throughout Colorado and the region.
I am in favor of a comprehensive immigration reform policy that provides the agricultural industry with a documented workforce. My industry has been at the forefront of trying to fix this issue with programs such as H2A and H2B. There is a place in our economy for the alien workforce because of the deficit of American citizens who are willing to do remedial work like field planting or greenhouse production. This is a labor-intensive industry and workers are needed for us to bring the products to market that the consumers demand. It is critical that we ensure that American businesses can meet the demands of the market, and the last thing that I want to see is food and plant productions become imported commodities because of the lack of regulatory control that we will have.
Brian F. Yantorno, Vice President, Center Greenhouse, Inc., Denver
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Re: “Congress has two bad ideas,” April 4 Froma Harrop column.
Froma Harrop thinks the House immigration bill is too mean, the Senate version to lax. She agrees that most American want illegal immigrants stopped but would deny us the tools to accomplish this task. Illegal aliens need to be classified as felons, as do those who hire them or aid and abet their violation of our borders.
An amnesty by any other name is still an amnesty. The Senate is not listening to the people. We want our country back. The answer is to sever the border security and enforcement provisions from the guest-worker/amnesty provisions. These are two separate issues which should be debated separately.
Gordon J. Johnson, Broomfield
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Illegal immigration is driven by greed and bigotry, and I’ve been in a position to watch it manifest. The big lie is that these people do work that Americans won’t do. But I’ve seen Americans displaced from their jobs increasingly during the past decade.
As a delivery driver in the Denver area, I’ve watched many manufacturers and warehouses replace their American workers with illegals, sometimes literally over a weekend. I’ve seen American janitorial crews replaced by illegals. I’ve seen many kitchen crews replaced by illegals. And if you have been paying any attention at all, you have seen the fast-food, construction and landscaping workforces change almost exclusively to illegals.
Denying this exploitation, this modern-day slavery, is a despicable example of American greed and bigotry.
Larry Johnson, Longmont
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Has everyone forgotten where their ancestors came from? Whether it was on the Mayflower or from a war-ridden country, the desire and necessity for a better life was in their best interests.
Yes, there should be strict penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants for less pay, and yes, illegal immigrants should enter the U.S. with the proper documents. But where there is a nation that squanders food, clothing and other items, such as ours, the desperate, poor and hungry from other countries will be more than glad to pick it up.
America is what it is because many immigrants have come to make it a better, richer and stronger nation.
Gloria Preciado, Denver
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It appears to me that the inconvenience that RTD riders find during the transit strike might be just a small foretaste of what millions more Coloradans might face if the suggested deportation of “illegal” immigrants takes place. We would not just have a few thousand metro Denver people angered and inconvenienced, but people of every county, city and town across this state would find their lives changed, not just inconvenienced, by this unwieldy and ill-conceived process of ridding us of these workers. Think of the consequences to yourselves and our communities if such radical and racist action were, in fact, carried through.
John Pipe, Centennial
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