Colorado voters were supposed to get a say this November on Initiative 175, better known as Restore Our Roads.
Now, apparently, never mind.
CBS Colorado reports that the initiative’s backers have reached a tentative agreement with state lawmakers and agreed to pull the measure from the ballot. In return, legislators would commit more money to Colorado roads in both the short and long term.
That could be a good deal. It might even be a better deal than Initiative 175. I am perfectly willing to read the agreement, examine the numbers and admit it if lawmakers found a smarter way to fix the roads without gutting schools, health care or every other state responsibility.
There is just one small problem.
Where is the agreement?
Initiative 175 was not some cocktail-napkin complaint passed around by three angry guys at a truck stop. It qualified for the statewide ballot after supporters submitted more than 188,000 signatures. The measure would have required Colorado to direct transportation-related taxes and fees toward road transportation. State analysts estimated it could obligate roughly $2 billion a year for roads, including about $540 million from the General Fund.
Those are real numbers. There were also real tradeoffs. Critics warned that shifting that money could squeeze education, health care and other services. Fine. That is exactly the argument Coloradans were preparing to hear and decide.
Instead, we have been handed the political equivalent of, “Don’t worry, we worked something out.”
I am truly disappointed. Initiative 175 was a massively common-sense measure because it exposed the Legislature’s road-funding hypocrisy. Colorado collects taxes and fees tied to vehicles and transportation, yet our roads still rattle pickups hard enough to rearrange the cupholders. The initiative asked a question ordinary people understand: If government collects money from driving, why is so much of that money not fixing the roads we drive on?
I believe the measure would have passed 70-30. I suspect plenty of lawmakers could see the same freight train coming. Whether that political reality drove this agreement is something the people involved should answer, not something I am going to invent.
But this much is fair: a ballot measure important enough to qualify should not disappear behind a curtain while the Capitol announces that the adults have handled it.
Show us the deal.
How much money will actually reach roads? Where will it come from? Which existing programs will gain or lose? Which highways, bridges and maintenance projects move first? What is the timeline? Is the funding protected, or can a future Legislature raid the couch cushions again when the budget gets tight?
Restore Our Roads co-chair Jeff Keller says the agreement goes beyond what Initiative 175 contemplated, both in revenue and in addressing major projects. That sounds terrific. It also sounds like exactly the kind of claim that should come with numbers attached.
Colorado does not need another ceremonial transportation promise with a ribbon-cutting photo, a task force and a binder thick enough to use as a wheel chock. We need pavement. We need bridges. We need a funding plan that survives longer than the press conference.
Maybe this agreement delivers all of that. I hope it does.
But lawmakers and initiative backers do not get to bench the voters and then ask for applause before showing the scoreboard. Initiative 175 forced the Capitol to confront a problem it had spent years explaining around. If the result is a genuine solution, put every term on the table and prove it.
Until then, the road-funding shitshow has not been repaired. It has merely been moved behind a closed garage door.
Source: Politics – CBS Colorado
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