Colorado Politics ran a piece by Marissa Ventrelli on a small miracle at the Capitol: a resolution calling for increased road funding actually cleared the Colorado Senate’s transportation committee. The resolution, carried by Senator Byron Pelton of Sterling, was brought to him by county commissioners who are tired of watching rural highways crumble while the state pats itself on the back.
Ventrelli reports Pelton said he was “pleasantly surprised” it advanced, because road maintenance is probably the No. 1 issue across his seven-county district, with Morgan County in particularly bad shape. The article cites a 2023 CDOT assessment saying 70% of Morgan County roads are in the red for maintenance, and notes a Reason Foundation report ranking Colorado 47th nationally for rural road conditions.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Sen. Byron Peltons road-funding resolution cleared committee, 6-3. All Republicans and three Democrats voted yes, while Sens. Lisa Cutter, William Lindstedt, and Matt Ball voted no. Because apparently fixing roads is now controversial.
- Morgan Countys roads are waving the white flag. The article cites CDOTs own assessment: 70% of roads in the county are in the red, meaning they are on track to become undrivable. Not bumpy. Undrivable.
- County commissioners walked in and brought reality with them. Commissioners Tim Malone and Kelvin Bernhardt testified about real-world danger, including calls where concrete pieces fell from overpasses and hit cars, and crashes caused by drivers swerving to avoid potholes.
- SB 260 gets another report card, and it is not a passing grade. Pelton says the 2021 transportation funding law promised a lot and delivered too little for rural projects, nowhere close to covering Morgan Countys needs.
- If this passes the Senate, it heads to the usual place: the Governor and CDOT leadership. Next stop is the Senate floor, and if it clears that, it goes to the governor and CDOT Director Shoshana Lew. The resolution is not money, it is a message. Which tells you everything about the problem.
My Bottom Line
Good on my dear friend Senator Byron Pelton for getting this through committee. I am as surprised as he is, because CDOT and the Colorado Legislature have been failing at the basics for years. And yes, you already know this if you, oh, DRIVE.
Senate Bill 260 was sold as transportation solutions. What we got was a growing maze of fees and enterprises, and the only thing that reliably expands is the appetite for spending money on everything except the thing drivers actually pay for: safe, functional roads. If roadway expansion and maintenance are not the first priority, then transportation policy is just a clever costume for somebody elses agenda.
Let’s say the quiet part out loud. The ruling Democrats do not like roadways because roadways represent freedom of movement they cannot manage. They want to tell you how to commute, and it does not involve your own car. It involves a government-run bus or train, the kind that barely functions along the Front Range, let alone out in Morgan County where people have jobs, farms, feedyards, and family businesses that do not run on light-rail vibes.
So yes, Senator, good luck with your resolution. I hope it passes the floor and lands on the governor’s desk and on Director Lew’s doorstep. And if history is any guide, they will treat it the way they have treated Colorado roadways for the last several years: with a shrug, a press release, and total indifference.
Source: Colorado Politics
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