The latest draft of a comprehensive transportation funding bill being considered by Colorado lawmakers would impose a “road safety surcharge” of $23 a year on any vehicle that weighs between 2,000 and 5,000 pounds.
The proposed roads-funding measure increases the surcharge to $28 for vehicles that weigh between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds, to $37 a year for those between 10,000 and 16,000 pounds and to $39 for those over 16,000 pounds.
Owners of motorcycles and motorscooters would pay a $16 annual surcharge.
The draft bill also includes a daily $2 fee on rental-car transactions that would go into a fund for transportation improvements.
The 71-page draft bill aims to “accelerate the state’s economic recovery by increasing bridge and road construction, repair, reconstruction and maintenance” and “by employing significant numbers of Coloradans.”
The draft bill estimates that the new fees would generate $225 million per year for transportation.
A transportation financing panel commissioned by Gov. Bill Ritter last year estimated that the state needs at least an additional $500 million per year just to keep existing roads maintained. It would need as much as $1.5 billion per year to allow construction of new lanes and transit.
The draft bill creates a “high-performance transportation enterprise” that could pursue tolling options and public-private partnerships.
It includes a new statewide enterprise to repair and replace structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges across Colorado.
The measure also creates a pilot program to explore charging each Colorado motorist for each mile they drive by imposing a vehicle-miles-traveled, or VMT, fee. Oregon is one of a handful of states that has experimented with such a fee.
States are looking at tolling, private partnerships and VMT fees because the fuel tax on gasoline and diesel sales is losing its buying power. The state fuel tax has been fixed at 22 cents per gallon of gas and 20.5 cents per gallon of diesel since the early 1990s.
Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, one of the draft bill’s sponsors, said its provisions are likely to change in coming days before it is formally introduced in the legislature.
Rice said perhaps there are not enough “Republican fingerprints” on the bill but expects that to change in the next week. He said he expects the coalition working on the draft will introduce it as early as next week. “The good news is that people are substantially focused on policy,” he said. “It’s going so well that I’m a little worried.”
After Ritter’s State of the State address Thursday, some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, expressed frustration that the governor was not willing to dedicate existing revenue to roads projects.
Republicans have proposed using the equity in state buildings to issue certificates of participation, which can bring in large amounts of money upfront and do not require voter approval. The plan is similar in concept to taking out a second mortgage on a house.
Staff writer John Ingold contributed to this report.
