Local government officials discussed “pothole politics” on Friday, assessing the appetite of Colorado voters for billions of dollars in new taxes for highway maintenance and construction.
For months, a task force of the Denver Regional Council of Governments has been exploring possible fixes for the shortfall in transportation dollars in the region and around the state.
DRCOG estimates that its nine-county region will be short $25 billion in needed money for roads and transit over the next two decades.
Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to appoint his own committee to look at options for raising billions of dollars in new money for transportation statewide.
That group is expected to review work already done by the DRCOG panel.
The regional government group estimates that increasing the current state gasoline tax of 22 cents a gallon by one penny, and tying other future increases to inflation, would raise about $24 million a year.
A far-larger hike in the gas tax would be needed to cover any substantial portion of the funding shortfall, and some members of DRCOG doubted whether voters would support such a large increase.
Similarly, another large increase in the sales tax for transportation also will be a “hard sell” since sales taxes already are high in many communities, said DRCOG transportation planning expert George Scheuernstuhl.
It may be time for Colorado to consider a “vehicle-miles-traveled user fee” as a way of raising money for transportation, said Regional Transportation District general manager Cal Marsella, a member of the DRCOG panel.
Oregon is one of only a few states that have experimented with the VMT tax.
Taxing all Colorado drivers a penny for each mile they drive would raise an extra $400 million a year for state transportation projects, according to DRCOG’s analysis. It could replace or be added to the gas tax.
A VMT tax could be framed to do more than lessen the state’s dependence on shrinking gas-tax revenues, Marsella said.
“Likely outcomes could include changes in behavior such as driving less, using mass transit more often and decisions to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles,” he wrote in a recent analysis.
For example, a VMT tax could be established on a sliding scale that would charge drivers of a Toyota Prius 1 cent a mile – or $100 if they drive 10,000 miles a year – and owners of a far-less fuel-efficient Lincoln Navigator 5 cents a mile, or $500 for the same annual mileage, Marsella said.
A VMT tax could be assessed on motorists when they report total mileage for the year as part of the auto-registration process, he added. To combat cheating, audits would ensure that reported odometer readings were accurate.
But Clear Creek County Commissioner Harry Dale said a VMT tax could “penalize” motorists in more rural areas of Colorado, who typically drive longer distances and “have less transit options.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
