GETTING THERE: Panel says roads are at 'crisis' level

Coloradans need to cough up $1.5 billion - probably through new fees and a higher state sales tax - to fix roads and bridges that have deteriorated to a "crisis" level and fund mass transit as oil supplies decline.

That was the pitch last week by some members of Gov. Bill Ritter's Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel, who met with civic leaders and road and bridge experts in Colorado Springs. The panel members were seeking advice on how to sell a funding increase that would more than double the annual budget of the Colorado Department of Transportation and cost each resident of the state at least $300 a year.

It could be a tough sell. Although Ritter has previously recommended increased funding for transportation - and may do so again in the budget he submits in November - even fellow Democrats in the last legislative session declined to act on some of the funding recommendations made by his panel.

Among them: an annual vehicle registration fee (based on the weight of a vehicle) that would average about $100;  a 13-cent increase in the state gas tax; a 0.35 increase in the state sales tax; an increase in the oil and gas severance tax; and a new $6 visitor fee for those renting a car or checking into a hotel in the state.

Some of those would require a vote of Colorado residents; others could be implemented by state lawmakers.

The problem, said panel members, is that polls show more than 60 percent of Coloradans think roads in the state are just fine, and state politicians already are grappling with finding enough money for a host of other state services.

Dan Stuart, the only member of the Blue Ribbon panel from this area, acknowledged asking for more money in a time when folks are worried about their jobs and filling up their gas tanks is difficult. But he said if Coloradans are educated about the need for transportation funding, he believes they would be willing to think beyond their personal needs, much like in 2004, when local voters approved a sales tax increase for roads and transit.

Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, who attended the meeting at the offices of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, succinctly sketched out the problem for those seeking more money for roads:

"I've been to so many doom-and-gloom meetings lately," he said, including ones about funding health care programs and education. "Politically, no one is willing to step forward with that huge of a request."

Merrifield agrees with Ritter that there is a "quiet crisis" afflicting Colorado's transportation system. But he said a lack of funding is crippling the state's ability to provide a host of other services.

He said he doesn't have a magic formula to sell anything. But he thinks it's time political leaders had an honest talk with residents.

"It's the responsibility of political leaders to go out and say ‘these are our needs and this is what it's going to take' to be on the cutting edge instead of the bottom of the heap," he said.

Merrifield said residents and lawmakers need to figure out - probably through a combination of taxes and fees - stable, comprehensive funding for all state services.

Until then, he said, he expects to sit in a lot of meetings in which the word "crisis" rolls off the tongue frequently.

To read the transportation panel's study, visit: www.dot.state.co.us/StateWidePlanning/PlansStudies/blueribbon.asp
 
-

Tell me your commuter tales. 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com