The list of Colorado’s transportation needs is long, and unfortunately the list of funding possibilities is short.
Still, we commend the state House and Senate transportation committees for meeting Tuesday with the Joint Budget Committee to review both lists, and we urge them to craft a solid plan to fix our crumbling highways and begin to build the road and transit systems necessary to support a strong state economy.
Key Democrats on the panel seemed ready to tackle specific recommendations issued last year by Gov. Bill Ritter’s bipartisan commission. The panel suggested four possible funding packages to raise $500 million, $1 billion, $1.5 billion or $2 billion a year.
Ritter spent precious little time in last week’s State of the State address on transportation, but Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, chairwoman of the House transportation committee, told The Post earlier, “At the very least, the legislature has to come up with $500 million for maintaining our current roads.”
We’d like to see the legislators go further, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much of an appetite among minority Republicans. It will be difficult to get them on board during an election year, but a broad coalition would make it much easier to push an ambitious proposal for Colorado roads. Regardless of the final funding level, The Post believes any new transportation package should include the following elements:
• A reasonable portion of new revenue shared with the state’s county and municipal road budgets, as the existing Highway Users Tax Fund does. Counties, which rely heavily on property taxes, have been particularly hard pressed to maintain their road and bridge networks.
• Any sizable funding increase should be referred to the voters. Technically, legislators could raise $500 million a year for highways simply by raising automobile registrations an average of $100 each. The 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights exempts such fee increases from the need for voter approval. But it would be politically foolish — and unfair to taxpayers — to pass so stiff an increase without giving voters a chance to weigh in.
• The current transportation laws treat supplemental highway funding, above the earmarked revenue from registration fees and gas taxes, as the very last responsibility of the hard- pressed general fund. One supplemental plan, House Bill 1310, has produced as much as $291 million and as little as zero for highways in just the last five years. It’s time to repeal that law and replace that wildly fluctuating source with reliable revenue, possibly new motor fuel taxes and/or registration increases — if voters approve such a plan.
We believe Coloradans are willing to pay for the balanced transportation system that we need to preserve our state’s economy and quality of life.
We hope the legislature will give voters a chance to do just that.
