Highway funding grabbing attention

DENVER - Funding for Colorado roads, the subject that no one wanted to discuss during this year's legislative session, has suddenly become the topic on everyone's lips.

Gov. Bill Ritter in June ordered his Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel to work for the rest of the year to educate the public about highway problems. A longrunning Interstate 70 task force recently called for widening some portions of that highway. And three Republican legislators are canvassing the state to try to get a measure on the November ballot to divert new revenue to transportation projects.

It hasn't taken a major disaster to heat up the talk as it did in Minnesota when the Interstate 35 West bridge collapsed last summer. It seems state leaders looked back on the 2007 blue-ribbon panel recommendation to raise road funding by $1.5 billion annually, realized they did nothing during the 2008 session and decided to begin discussing what may be the hot-button issue of 2009 right away.

Legislators and transportation advocates remain mixed on what will come of this chatter, but several on both sides of the aisle said the pressure is already so great, six months from the start of the next General Assembly, that some solution must be found.

"It seems to me that this (talk) has a lot to do with the price at the pump. People are feeling the economic impact of those gas prices, and so that translates into higher interest," said Manitou Springs resident Dan Stuart, a member of the blue-ribbon panel. "I want to remain optimistic that the people of Colorado will recognize the problem and will act to solve it."

The problem is this: State gas tax revenue dipped from $604 million in fiscal 2007 to $566 million in 2008, the result of an increase in fuelefficient and alternative-fuel vehicles and a decrease in miles driven because of rising pump prices.

In addition, Colorado is expecting to get $87 million less in highway funds from the federal government this year.

Throw in the fact that last month's economic forecast prognosticated that the state will bring in $200 million less for transportation over the next five years than originally predicted because of an economic downturn, and "the bottom falls out," according to Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Stacy Stegman. Creaking bridges will take longer to get repaired and nothing will be done to relieve congestion, she said.

The funding problems particularly affect El Paso County, which continues to wait for $619 million in improvements on Interstate 25 and Powers Boulevard that were promised when state voters passed transportation bonds in 1999. That money is nowhere in sight and continues to get pushed back, possibly as far as 20 years, Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Executive Director Rob MacDonald said.

Feeling pressure to avoid seeking a tax hike for roads, legislators delayed any effort to increase funding until the end of the session this year, and the two partisan plans that finally came forward were killed quickly. Ritter called the lack of action his biggest disappointment of the session.

Now, though, the same panel that recommended funding hikes has been charged with educating the public on the necessity for increased spending on transportation. Its cause was aided by a recent report from a coalition of I-70-corridor leaders that said $12 billion worth of work is needed to unclog the state's main east-west artery.

A Transportation Legislative Review Committee that meets during the summer will further the discussion by considering such options as tolls and charging motorists to drive on congested roads during rush hour, state Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, said. Ideas once dismissed must be reconsidered to maintain a state economy dependent on tourist travel and delivery of goods, she said.

So too, argues Republican Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma, must a proposal be considered to take increasing severance tax revenues that otherwise would go to the Department of Natural Resources and put them instead toward fixing I-70. Initiative 120, as the measure gathering signatures is now called, would raise $90 million a year for that roadway and would free other dollars to go to other roads in the state.

These proposals weren't discussed earlier because the limited resources available in the state budget were devoted to such subjects as health care and education that were deemed more important, said Sen. John Morse, a member of the Joint Budget Committee. Other things may continue to take a higher priority, but if people see and feel the impact of cutting road maintenance and expansion, that issue may soon rise to the forefront, the Colorado Springs Democrat said.

"And very frankly, it's not an election year," McFadyen added, citing another reason why she believes a compromise can be reached in 2009.

A budget crunch, a diminishing transportation system, the urgency of doing something rather than nothing: All of these factors are coming together to force action on a subject upon which just two months ago there was no will to get anything done, legislators said.

And yet, when it comes down to it, retiring Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, predicted that politics could still be the biggest obstacle. Democrats have scoffied at the GOP idea of locking all auto-related taxes away for use on roads, and Republicans remain very reluctant to raise taxes and fees for highways unless that is done. This could lead to another case of gridlock, he said.

"There's a lot of efforts under way and a desire, certainly," Stegman said. "But the next year is going to be very telling."