Gubernatorial hopeful Josh Penry vowed this week to repeal the vehicle registration fee hike put in place this summer.
Once the economy begins rebounding — and the state’s general fund expands with it — Penry said, he would begin setting aside hundreds of millions in new money to replace the $250 million generated for Colorado’s roads and bridges by the new fees and fines dubbed FASTER, an acronym for Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery.
The move sets Penry, the state Senate minority leader, apart from his primary GOP opponent, but also sets him up for criticism from those who say his alternative roads-funding plan won’t work
Budget gurus point out that by 2011, the state will be struggling to replace as much as $650 million in temporary federal stimulus money now propping up colleges, Medicaid and other critical programs. That’s atop another $1.4 billion in cuts to services, raids on cash funds and other fixes that have helped Colorado cope with a much leaner recession budget.
Penry said many of those cuts would stay in place but declined to say which ones.
Former Congressman Scott McInnis, one of Penry’s GOP opponents, also has blasted FASTER, but has stopped short of promising full repeal of the plan that is supported by Democrats and an array of business interests, but is less popular with drivers.
Any plan to repeal FASTER would require legislative approval.
If the legislature doesn’t act next year, McInnis will survey the political landscape with an eye toward eventually doing away with FASTER if he takes office, said campaign spokesman Sean Duffy.
Penry is more resolute. “The car tax needs to go. It’s punitive and it’s wrong. It shouldn’t have been put into law in the first place,” he said.
And, in a shot at McInnis, Penry added: “It’s just horribly disingenuous for anyone to rail against FASTER on one hand and then on the other, do nothing about it if elected.”
Penry said his long-term plan sets transportation as a top priority alongside other behemoths like education, health care and prisons, which sap most of the state’s budget each year. He said he also would find ways to reverse cuts to Medicaid and colleges that the state made and backfilled with stimulus money, which runs out in 2011, without providing specifics.
Penry, R-Grand Junction, said he would gradually phase out FASTER while building to the point where the state dedicates more than $300 million, or 13.5 percent of sales tax — the estimated portion generated by automotive purchases — for roads and bridges.
There simply isn’t enough money to accomplish all that, said state Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, who sits on the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee and who found numerous flaws with Penry’s proposal.
There won’t be an opportunity to set aside transportation money for at least a year after the gubernatorial election, for example, because the general fund is expected to contract through at least 2011-12, Ferrandino said.
And when that money comes back, there are increases in caseloads to be dealt with, increased costs associated with employees and important programs clamoring for funding restorations, he said.
“It would be nice if Sen. Penry lived in the reality the rest of us live in the legislature instead of the world on the campaign trail where you can say things without backing them up with facts,” Ferrandino said.
