In the weeks before the Nov. 2 election, The Denver Post is asking Colorado’s three gubernatorial candidates to respond to a series of questions on some critical (and not-so-critical) issues. This week, they tackle transportation, and were asked to respond to this question:
A recent report suggested that for the first time, more than 50 percent of Colorado’s highways are in “poor” condition. Given the state’s budget shortfall, how can the state get more money into transportation coffers to not only pay for routine maintenance but also for expanding lanes, fixing more bridges and transit? Also, much has been said about the need to “fix” I-70 through the mountains. Would that corridor be your No. 1 priority? Or would it be another arterial, such as I-25 north into Wyoming or south through Colorado Springs?
Instead of favoring one region of the state over another, policymakers must do a better job prioritizing our resources statewide.
Last year, Democrats imposed a new $250 million per year car tax hike, but almost immediately after doing so they eliminated a statutory mechanism that has dedicated more than $1.5 billion in general fund dollars to highway construction over the last five years. In fact, last year Democrats didn’t allocate a single dollar of general fund revenue to road construction.
That’s right: After asking drivers to pay higher car taxes to the tune of more than $1 billion, Democrats then approved the largest cut to transportation funding in state history — allowing them to siphon off money previously set aside for safer roads and bridges and spend it on other programs.
In addition, Democrats are considering a new mileage-based revenue tax that would make motorists pay an additional tax based on the number of miles they drive. And in 2007, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper proposed imposing higher auto insurance premiums for motorists who drive more.
I oppose these ideas for two main reasons. First, it is disproportionally unfair. Most Coloradans don’t live in major urban areas. They live in suburbs and small towns, which means they drive further to work, school, or the grocery store more than people who live in high-density cities. Second, in order to effectively implement a mileage tax, every vehicle would need to be equipped with some kind of monitoring equipment to record every mile we drive. Do we really want the government collecting that kind of information?
As governor, I will put a statutory framework in place that prevents politicians from stealing revenues from roads to pay for unsustainable growth in entitlement programs. And I will demand that the legislature set aside sales-tax revenues generated by the sale of automobiles and automobile-related items to pay for highway construction and maintenance. There is no reason motorists should be sitting in gridlocked traffic while their tax dollars are being spent on social programs.
I will also expand the use of public-private partnerships to accelerate the construction of new projects, and will ask Congress to streamline federal environmental rules so that more money is spent on concrete and asphalt, and less is spent on endless bureaucratic studies and paperwork. And I will veto any effort to impose a mileage tax.
Tom Tancredo is the American Constitution Party candidate for governor of Colorado.
