A bill that would enable RTD to issue tax-exempt bonds to promote private development of transit improvements won overwhelming support from the House transportation committee Thursday.
The Regional Transportation District hopes to form “public-private partnerships” with private companies to build commuter rail lines from Union Station to Denver International Airport and Arvada/ Wheat Ridge.
The tax-free financing that House Bill 1354 would allow should lower the cost of the FasTracks rail projects, RTD officials told lawmakers. FasTracks is RTD’s 12-year program to add at least six new rail lines in the Denver area.
The price tag of FasTracks has ballooned to $6.1 billion from an earlier estimate of $4.7 billion. RTD blames the increase largely on a rise in the cost of construction materials such as concrete and steel.
The transit agency expects private companies that win the right to finance, build and operate the DIA train and Gold Line train to Wheat Ridge will contribute at least $500 million to the ventures.
HB 1354 would allow RTD to issue tax-exempt bonds for the rail projects and then lend that money to private firms selected to construct and operate the rail lines, RTD general counsel Marla Lien said at Thursday’s hearing on the bill.
The private companies would be responsible for paying off the debt, Lien said. Municipalities already have the right to issue this type of tax-free financing for private companies.
If the bill becomes law, RTD could sell tax-free bonds to promote joint public-private development of transit improvements at rail stations, including construction of an RTD parking garage with private commercial development above the garage, Lien said.
That kind of development is controversial. RTD officials have said they may solicit private interest in constructing a four-story, 1,000-space parking garage with up to four additional floors of commercial space at Wads worth Boulevard and West 14th Avenue in Lakewood near the planned Wadsworth train station on the west light-rail line.
Another bill being considered by Colorado legislators, HB 1278, would restrict RTD’s ability to take private property by eminent domain and transfer it to a private entity for economic development.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
