Once again, the General Assembly kicked the can down a congested, potholed roadway when it came to providing a fix for Colorado’s highway system. 

At the end of the session, the legislature did finally pass a measure regarding transportation funding, the Transportation Funding Adjustments Act (HB 26-1430).  That measure, though, was more of a knee-jerk reaction to a ballot proposal, Proposition 175, brought forward by the Restore Our Roads Coalition.   

Prop 175, if approved by voters, would amend the Colorado Constitution and require that all state motor vehicle taxes and fees be spent on maintaining and improving state roadways.  Overall, this would translate into an additional $700 million per year for roadways out of the General Fund.    

Unfortunately, the primary purpose of passing HB 26-1430 was not to provide more funding for highways but rather to offset any additional revenue resulting from Prop. 175’s passage so as to protect other programs supported by the General Fund. The measure outlines a reduction in various state transportation taxes and fees, with the net result being no additional funds for highways if voters approve Prop 175. 

HB 26-1430 did outline some limited additional funding for highways in the future and would also create a working group to develop a plan to meet present and future needs for our roadway infrastructure.  The hitch, though, is that the additional funding and working group are contingent upon the proponents of Prop 175 pulling the measure from the November ballot.  One legislator, who opposed HB 1430, called the measure a “nothing burger” because there were no guarantees of additional highway funding, and he has seen little in the way of results from the numerous other working groups on this issue over the years.  

It isn’t like the General Assembly isn’t aware of our roadway problems. The funding shortfall is well documented, and CDOT annually presents the status of the highway system as part of its proposed budget request to the legislature.   For a number of years, legislators have seen similar discouraging slides reflecting the deficiencies in our highway system, which continue to worsen due to inadequate funding. This past January, legislators heard from CDOT that they had a backlog in maintenance of $2.3 billion and that it would take an additional $350 million annually to maintain the current condition, which is scored at a lowly D+ by a national engineering group.   

Realizing that CDOT received virtually no additional funds from the legislature for the upcoming year, we can anticipate that the backlog on maintenance and critical improvements will grow even larger, and conditions will likely further deteriorate.  

For the public’s part, they do not need to see statistics or charts to know that conditions on our highways have been worsening.   They are witnesses to it daily.  They see it in higher vehicle maintenance, tire, and other costs.  They can count the potholes on their drives as well as identify the rough stretches of highway.  They realize that their time commuting to work or traveling into the mountains continues to lengthen, eroding more and more of their personal and family time. This is further brought home to them every time they cross the state line to adjacent states such as Utah or Kansas, where the road conditions are discernibly better. 

Much of the fault rests with our state’s elected leaders in putting the transportation department behind the eight ball by inadequately funding our highways.  While many in the General Assembly, as well as the governor, recognize the problem, profess support for addressing it, and rank it as a high priority, their lack of action speaks volumes.  Over the past 20 years, a limited number of highway-funding measures have been approved, but they have served more like band-aids, merely slowing the decline rather than fixing the greater problem.  

Unfortunately, this strategy has not only been frustrating for motorists and businesses dependent on our highways but also extremely expensive for the state. By deferring key maintenance improvements and upgrades, the state has dug a much bigger hole.  By not adequately maintaining our highways, we have created a much more expensive problem that in some cases may require certain highways to be substantially rebuilt, which is multiples more costly than the cost of properly maintaining them over the years.  

To add to the frustration for many citizens, while the Legislature punted again on a solution to address our declining highways, it did find time to pass measures supporting Front Range Rail (CoCo) and restructuring the Denver area’s Regional Transportation District, both of which collectively will transport fewer people on an annual basis than the number of people traveling on our state highway network in one day.    

This isn’t to knock ln CoCo or the restructuring of the RTD Board, but rather to highlight the failure of our elected officials to place a high enough priority on our state highway system. It is essential to our economy and the safe and efficient movement of people and goods in our state.  Dealing with these other transportation interests first is akin to adding a garage to your house when your home is on fire. 

The governor still has time to make a difference on this critical matter.  He could ask a working group of people knowledgeable on the transportation funding issue (whether it was the same one called for in HB 1430 or not) voluntarily to come together shortly with a charge of developing a recommendation for consideration by the General Assembly.  The group would be tasked with completing the report by early August.  In conjunction with announcing the working group, the governor could announce a special session of the General Assembly for mid-August with the single subject being the addressing of the state’s transportation needs with particular attention on restoring our highways and roadways in the state. This mid-August time frame still would allow for a referred ballot measure to be added to the November ballot if it was one of the recommendations of the working group.    

While some will say that convening a group to come up with a recommendation(s) in a little over a month, isn’t realistic, let’s remember that legislators and policymakers have been looking at this issue for many years, and most of the strategies and options have already been costed out and reviewed as to their impact and implications. Further, legislators and groups were considering legislation to address this issue up to the final days of the General Assembly.   

Gov. Jared Polis promised to fix the roads, and by acting now, he can fulfill that commitment and make it part of his legacy. 

James Lee is a third-generation operator in the trucking industry in Colorado and chair of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association.