Gov. Bill Ritter’s special panel on transportation was back in business Tuesday, wrestling again with how to raise up to $1.5 billion for Colorado’s roads and transit systems.
The panel, which met throughout much of 2007, had proposed a variety of options for raising new transportation money, including higher vehicle registration fees and added fees on rental car transactions.
Some Democrats promoted a bill in the General Assembly that included the fee increases with the expectation that it might raise about $200 million a year initially. The bill failed despite Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate.
Republicans countered at the time that money to repair roads and bridges should primarily be from the general fund, not new fees and taxes.
As the session ended, a bipartisan group of legislators vowed to work this summer on what might become a compromise transportation funding bill for the 2009 session.
Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, reiterated a widely held GOP position that Colorado needs to dedicate general fund revenues to transportation and not rely on fickle funding sources that rise and fall depending on economic conditions.
Panel members also considered a proposal from a private advocacy group to spend $650,000 on a “public awareness” campaign to educate voters about Colorado’s “quiet crisis” in transportation.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
