A coalition of transportation advocates, working with members of the 2009 legislature, will make another run at raising hundreds of millions of dollars for Colorado’s roads, bridges and public transit, most likely from some combination of new fees and taxes.
A special panel on transportation finance, set up by Gov. Bill Ritter more than a year ago, met for the last time Thursday and recommended that legislators consider imposing road- or bridge-maintenance fees on rental- car transactions, vehicle registrations or other sources of revenue.
The panel said lawmakers also should consider tax increases for transportation.
A 0.1 percent hike in the state sales tax, targeted for roads and transit, would raise about $90 million a year; a 5 cents-a-gallon increase in the state motor fuel tax would raise about $115 million a year, said Carla Perez, the governor’s transportation policy adviser.
Colorado needs about $1.5 billion in new money annually for transportation, according to the panel’s analysis.
At Thursday’s meeting, state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, a panel co-chairwoman, said the nation’s current financial crisis may prompt Congress and the incoming Obama administration to approve a new economic-stimulus package with significant spending on transportation infrastructure.
“It’s a way we can restore growth in our economy,” Kennedy said.
While the state considers fee and tax hikes for transportation, it also is advancing a new way of charging drivers for their use of highways — a vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, fee.
It would rely on GPS devices in vehicles to help record the miles a motorist drives and then allow that vehicle owner to pay a fee, such as 1 cent a mile, for the use of the road system.
In 2007, there were about 49 billion vehicle miles traveled in Colorado, so a hypothetical 1-cent-a-mile VMT would raise about $490 million.
Fees could be adjusted upward to account for driving in congested areas and peak travel periods, said Jake Kononov of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s research and innovation branch.
Kononov is preparing a pilot study of the VMT fee concept and told panel members that if such a test proves successful, Colorado could move to a VMT fee as a highway-user charge in about five years.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
