Colorado is long overdue for some action — and leadership — when it comes to increasing funding for roads and transit.
Fortunately, an extensive draft of an expansive transportation bill is now making the rounds and starting serious conversations at the state Capitol.
Too many times in recent legislative sessions — like last session’s blue-ribbon head-scratching — we’ve watched lawmakers hold out for too long and then punt for the coming year.
The 71-page draft legislation sponsored by Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, and Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and supported by Gov. Bill Ritter, includes an “everything’s on the table” omnibus strategy meant to provide enough elements to win over members of both parties while also addressing immediate and long- term problems.
In these unsure economic times, it seems reasonable that no single “silver bullet” fix will surface, so an omnibus measure seems to be the right approach. However, if pieces of it function better as separate legislation, that also should be on the table.
That’s clear even in the draft itself, which Rice tells us contains “conflicting elements.” So far, this is by design. Rice wants buy-in, and seems willing to compromise to get it. That he does so shows promise for the process.
The draft’s immediate goal is to raise fees on annual vehicle registration by an average of $52 per vehicle. Smaller cars would pay less, and larger trucks more.
Such a fee increase is a simple way to raise about $225 million a year. Combined with a plan by Republicans to mortgage some state buildings to leverage additional funding, it could help the state retain thousands of transportation jobs and fix most of the 126 bridges listed as “structurally deficient.”
Attempts to raise fees last year failed, partly because the suggested hike was nearly twice as high and the political will just wasn’t there.
Then comes the dreaming. Transportation experts last year said the state needed $500 million more each year to keep up maintenance and as much as $1.5 billion to add extra lanes or transit.
The draft bill suggests a few ways to do this, with gestures to both parties.
For Republican lawmakers, Rice tells us the legislation would empower regional transportation authorities to add tolling to the mix. Another option, which is more palpable to Democrats, is to begin studying — through one or more pilot programs — charging drivers by the mile.
Oregon is trying that experiment by using Global Positioning Satellite technology. (To assuage concern about Big Brother watching, the technology is blind as far as tracing a driver’s whereabouts.)
A mix of those methods should raise $500 million to $1 billion yearly.
Long-term, those options deserve discussion, and we’re glad they’re getting to it so early in the session.
