Republican leaders at the Capitol unveiled two proposals Tuesday aimed at shoring up the state’s transportation system.
The first is a much-talked- about plan from Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, to charge $5 tolls at the Eisenhower Tunnel and use the money to pay for widening Interstate 70 west of Denver.
The second is a proposed ballot measure that would write into the state constitution a dedicated funding stream for transportation. It would say that all sales tax paid on new vehicles or vehicle parts would be put into the state highway fund, but it would not raise the tax rates.
House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said the measure is needed so that lawmakers can’t siphon transportation dollars in the budget to other projects.
“Unless we plug this leak of our current transportation dollars, it doesn’t make any sense to go ask for any more,” he said.
“What we’ve seen over the years is there’s too much temptation to take dollars from transportation for pet projects,” McElhany said.
McElhany’s I-70 proposal has not been introduced as a bill. It is closely tied, at least in theme, to another plan to use tolls on I-70 as a way to relieve congestion. Denver Democratic Sen. Chris Romer’s plan, Senate Bill 209, would charge tolls to vehicles carrying fewer than three people during high-traffic times on I-70 between Floyd Hill and the Eisenhower Tunnel.
Romer, though, said the tolls should, in part, fund some type of mass transit system on I-70. McElhany said details of the highway expansion should be left up to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Both I-70 plans have been met with boos from some mountain lawmakers. Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, said the legislature should wait for the recommendations from the various I-70 study groups, one of which is expected to report this spring.
“We simply can’t pave our way out of this,” Gibbs said.
Flo Raitano, the director of the I-70 Coalition, said the groups see tolling as “one of the tools in the toolbox” but urged the state to look more at its transportation system as a whole.
“There are no magic bullets,” she said. “They’re all high-ticket items, and the public needs to be aware of that.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
