A fight is brewing over how to fund repairs to the state Capitol dome, a century-old structure built of cast iron and rusting badly.
For months, there has been a proposal to start a private fundraising campaign to pay for the restoration, a project that could cost in the neighborhood of $12 million. A number of lawmakers have supported the effort, including Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley.
“It (a fundraising campaign) gives people throughout the state the opportunity to support this great building,” Riesberg said. “If we look at the list of other historical projects such as the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument, they’ve also been financed through fundraising.”
But now another group of lawmakers is supporting a plan to take $12 million from the State Historical Fund, a pot of money generated by gambling revenues and used to finance historical preservation projects across Colorado.
Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, who is leading the effort, has picked up bipartisan support. Kopp proposes to take $6 million a year for two years out of the $11 million to $12 million of the historical fund used for statewide grants each year and use it for the dome repairs, which are expected to take about two years.
There’s no disagreement the dome is a historical structure in need of repair: Colorado Preservation Inc. put it at the top of its list of endangered historic places in the state this year.
Nor is there disagreement the rusting dome, which an architectural firm said poses a “significant hazard,” needs to be repaired.
“It’s a piece of state property that should be fixed by taxpayers,” Kopp said. “We’d never ask for donations to fix a state highway.”
The Colorado Historical Society, which administers the fund, has in the past offered help for the dome. The organization last year approved using $3 million to repair the dome if the state could come up with the remaining $8 million-plus somewhere else — which lawmakers, desperately trying to balance the budget, couldn’t.
Among the Democrats supporting Kopp’s idea is Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, who said that other historical projects would still get funding, just not as soon. “This will only slow down some of the projects,” she said. “We don’t want all of the money.”
Opponents of using the historical fund are not likely to give up easily, she predicted. “It’s going to be a fight,” she said.
That was made clear recently when Colorado Preservation issued a “call to action” to its supporters urging them to contact lawmakers and oppose the plan to use historical fund money for the dome.
Jim Hare, the group’s executive director, said the organization already was planning to work on fundraising efforts for the dome project. He said taking so much money from the historical fund would endanger other state preservation projects that don’t have the public profile the dome does.
These preservation projects, which range from restoration of churches, schools and libraries to repairing historic main street buildings, also provide needed jobs in small communities, Hare said.
“If you’re out and about the state, people see it (restoring the dome) somewhat as a Denver-centered thing,” Hare said.
Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, opposes the Kopp plan and pointed out that lawmakers in recent years already have taken $30 million from the fund to cover critical repair projects at the Capitol.
Bacon heads the Capital Development Committee, which controls funding for construction projects and which is expected to discuss the issue Thursday.
Bacon said it would be a “bad precedent” for lawmakers to sweep the historical funds for the dome when so much has already been spent on Capitol improvements.
Colorado Historical Society president Ed Nichols said it’s possible to have fundraising and to use the historical funds.
“We understand and respect that the state Capitol is one of the icons of historic preservation in the state,” Nichols said. “I don’t deny the opportunity for the State Historical Fund to participate, nor do I think it’s appropriate to deny private participation in this.”
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
