Motorists weary of Colorado’s crumbling and congested highways might appreciate at least a glimmer of hope that our starry-eyed legislature someday will come back down to earth and give our beleaguered transportation grid the funding it needs.

That glimmer may have arrived last week when a state Senate committee passed an obscure resolution urging more funding for road projects in a rural Colorado county. Senate Resolution 26-001, “… supports the Morgan County Board of County Commissioners in demanding (the state transportation department) reevaluate its priorities to provide funding to undertake road improvement projects in Morgan County and to implement those projects.”

It’s a modest measure. Yet, the odds against it were steep. Its passage by the committee caught even the resolution’s lead sponsor, Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, off guard. Pelton told Colorado Politics he was “absolutely surprised” the resolution made it out of the committee. 

Three of the committee’s Democrats, in fact, joined Republicans to advance the legislation. 

It’s surprising because the lopsided Democratic majority in both legislative chambers has seen to it for years that a disproportionate share of any transportation funding is siphoned off for mass transit, bikes lanes and assorted other politically anointed, practically limited modes of transportation. Rail, bus and bike-lane zealots among ruling Democrats at the State Capitol have been doing their level best to run passenger cars off the road.

So, let’s take it as a hopeful sign, for now, that three Democrats opened their minds to reprioritizing highway funding following an appeal from a rural county. 

Its transportation woes are representative not only of most other rural counties in the state but also of the state at large.

As the resolution points out, 70% of the state highways in Morgan County were deemed by the Colorado Department of Transportation to have no more than three years of drivability left. And that assessment was from 2023. 

It is emblematic of the entire state. 

As noted by Colorado Politics, Reason Foundation not long ago ranked Colorado 47th in the nation for rural road conditions. An omnibus transportation funding measure passed by the legislature in 2021 was supposed to help — but has done little. 

The legislation created a dedicated new fee to “preserve, improve and expand existing transportation infrastructure.” Only, it also is intended to, “develop the modernized infrastructure needed to support the widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles, and mitigate environmental and health impacts of transportation system use…”

In other words, a lot of it was redirected to pave the way for Gov. Jared Polis’ green-energy dreams — instead of for motor vehicles.

The Morgan County commissioners who testified last week before the state Senate Transportation and Energy Committee could have been speaking for all of Colorado. 

“Something needs to be done,” Morgan County Commissioner Kelvin Bernhardt said. “We really need some more funding to help out with the highways in Morgan County. People are getting injured, people are getting killed.”

Lawmakers have all the more motivation to re-engage on highway funding — thanks to a pending ballot proposal. It would require the state to spend all revenue collected from taxes on transportation expenditures, like vehicle registration and retail delivery fees, on road and bridge maintenance projects.

The proposal’s advocates are currently gathering voters’ signatures to place it on the statewide ballot in November. Petitions are due in May.

Lawmakers, the voting public is about to pass you in the fast lane. They’re tired of waiting for you to do your job — and fund our highways.