The transportation bill sponsored by the Democratic Speaker of the House and the Republican Senate President died in the Senate Finance Committee on April 25. HB-1242 would have asked voters to approve a new .50 state sales tax and allowed the State to issue bonds in order to raise $3.5 million for transportation. CDOT would net 29.2 percent of the revenue for state highways. The remaining revenue would have been split with allocations for local government (70 percent) and multi-modal transportation (30 percent) including sidewalks, dial-a-ride services and transit.
The Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee killed the bill, which had already passed the House, because they opposed the sales tax increase. NCLA had a neutral position on the bill, as did CAR. NCLA supports bonding as a revenue source, however the bill would not have raised enough revenue for CDOT’s priority list. In addition, we did not support the multi-modal emphasis of the bill. As written, the bill would’ve allowed multi-modal projects to “triple-dip” because they would’ve been eligible for bond revenues, local government and the specific multi-modal allocation. Rumor has it the Republicans will introduce another transportation bill in this session but it’s hard to imagine the Democrats will support it.
