RTD is exploring whether $1 billion in FasTracks financing from a public-private partnership, if it is raised, could be affected by the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Last week, Regional Transportation District officials announced a delay in the timetable for forming a public-private partnership, or PPP. The reasons cited did not include a possible snag with TABOR, a 1992 voter-approved measure in the constitution that limits growth in state revenues and requires voter approval for tax increases.
PPP financing might need to be altered to avert TABOR problems or, in an extreme case, metro- Denver voters might be asked in November to approve a TABOR exemption to propel the financing, say officials close to negotiations between RTD and three teams of private companies that are bidding to become the agency’s PPP contractor.
FasTracks is the largest transit expansion in the country, and RTD is depending on the winning team to finance, build and operate major portions of FasTracks infrastructure.
In return for upfront financing by the PPP, RTD expects to make annual payments to the private group for up to 50 years. Some legal experts say such multiyear payments by a public agency to private interests require voter approval, like the issuance of bond debt.
Last week, RTD general manager Cal Marsella, who plans to leave the agency at the end of next month, said the solicitation of detailed proposals from the PPP teams was being delayed because of:
• A lawsuit brought against a redevelopment plan for Union Station, which will be the hub of FasTracks and location of important rail systems work that will be done by the PPP contractor.
• RTD’s failure so far to settle on a site for a $200 million commuter-rail maintenance center, which the PPP will construct.
• The need for Congress to target $1 billion in federal money for key elements of FasTracks, including the train to Denver International Airport.
For months, RTD board chairman Lee Kemp has been telling metro-area mayors that the PPP process had to stay on track, and last week he said he did not know “how serious a delay” there would be.
“To me, they are stumbling blocks,” he said of the reasons cited by Marsella for delaying the public-private venture, which will build the $1.4 billion DIA train, the Gold Line train to Arvada-Wheat Ridge, the commuter-rail maintenance facility and other projects.
RTD hopes that Congress will embed $1 billion for the FasTracks PPP in a multiyear transportation funding measure that the Senate and House will consider this summer.
RTD needs an extra $2.2 billion to close a FasTracks funding deficit, but agency directors decided not to ask voters this fall for a tax increase to close the gap. That vote could come next year.
Scott Reed, RTD’s assistant general manager for public affairs, would not confirm that questions have been raised about PPP financing and TABOR.
But he said, “TABOR, like NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), gives wide- open access to challenges by people who would not otherwise have legal standing under other laws and regulations.”
The lawsuit brought by the Colorado Rail Passenger Association against the Union Station development plan claims the Federal Transit Administration violated NEPA requirements when it approved the plan last year.
Colorado Rail is fighting the Union Station makeover because it says the different transit modes — commuter rail, light rail and regional bus — do not all arrive at the station in the same location.
As an example, the plan calls for the light-rail platform to be placed about two blocks west of the commuter rail station — a four-minute walk.
“We advocate as supporters of intermodal connectivity,” said Colorado Rail president Ira Schreiber.
Schreiber said his group takes some credit for delaying the PPP: “The whole idea of the suit was to stop the clock from running, to stop them from doing anything.”
Another of the reasons Marsella cited for delaying the PPP might get earlier resolution.
RTD has been eyeing an Owens Corning roofing-shingle factory at 52nd Avenue and Fox Street on the Denver-Adams County boundary for the commuter-rail maintenance facility that will house and repair 100 rail cars used on four FasTracks lines.
RTD had said it might need the entire Owens Corning property, requiring the manufacturer to move. The roofing company says it could cost at least $80 million to move its operation.
RTD would pay some of the cost of acquiring and moving Owens Corning. But company roofing and asphalt division president Sheree Bargabos said if RTD were to acquire the property by eminent domain, it would likely leave the company with tens of millions of dollars in additional costs related to the relocation.
Last week, a possible compromise emerged when RTD engineers said they are exploring a redesign of the rail maintenance center in a way that might spare the shingle factory.
RTD needs a strip of the company’s storage yard for the movement of FasTracks commuter trains. Owens Corning officials said they can tolerate that loss of their property but not losing the manufacturing structure itself.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
