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Time to address our deteriorating roads

As I write this column, on this cold Monday morning, the Capitol completely is void of people. There is a little snow in the Mile High City, so the General Assembly will not be in session. I was well on my way to Denver when I received the news, so I will use the day to work on fine-tuning bills and catching up on some things.

One of the most serious issues facing Colorado is the increased deterioration of our highways. When I served on the House Transportation Committee in 2011 and 2012, Colorado’s highways were in 46 percent poor condition. Today, that number has increased to a miserable 53 percent-plus. This is a serious problem that deserves serious consideration by the governor and the General Assembly.

We are in a situation of playing “catchup,” and we aren’t even planning to hold the line on the maintenance of our highways. There will be around $150 million transferred to highways this year under SB 228, a law that was passed around seven years ago and for the first time finally will provide money out of the General Fund. The General Assembly needs a law that provides for the discipline to ensure that highways, as a fundamental part of government, be prioritized.

SB 228 does not get the job done!

Let’s look at a little history. I may not get this completely right, but it will be close enough to make my point. Some years back, the Legislature passed SB 1. This bill put a spending limit of 6 percent on Colorado’s General Fund Budget, and anything above that went into the State Highway Fund. It is estimated that Under SB 1, highways would have had an extra $1.5 billion over the last few years.

Some years later, the Legislature realized that state buildings at universities, prisons, etc. were not getting the maintenance they needed, so HB 1310 was passed to do the same thing as SB 1, while adding the maintenance of our capital inventory. Both of these bills worked pretty well, but they were replaced by SB 228, which does not require the spending limit and quite frankly is inadequate.

To add insult to injury, the Colorado Department of Transportation – sometimes by its own design and sometimes because of idiotic federal regulation – performs some wasteful practices that rightfully irk the taxpayer. One such practice is the federal requirement that all excess gravel on a project be picked up and removed from the site. This is gravel that could be used on site and in fact may be returned the very next day to finish the same project. This requires a special piece of equipment and is horrendously wasteful. There are many examples of this kind of misuse of tax dollars.

CDOT and the federal government must be held accountable for getting the most out of every dollar. Additionally, there still is no doubt that we must invest more in our highways. My bill, HB 1148, will transfer this year’s general fund surplus, estimated to be $190 million, into the Highway Fund. This can be a start to improve our highways.

J. Paul Brown represents House District 59 in Colorado’s General Assembly. The district encompasses Archuleta, Hinsdale, La Plata, Ouray and San Juan counties and part of Gunnison County. Reach him at jpaul.brown.house@state.co.us.



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