Heads up Colorado citizens and this includes those of us in rural Colorado. Polis and his Democrat buddies are planning to pass a new transportation bill. They will use the tried and true method of fleecing us by calling for fees instead of tax increases; raising taxes require voter approval- picking our pockets through the instituting of fees does not.
Senate Bill 18-001 was enacted during the 2018 legislative session. It is an extremely important piece of transportation funding. This bipartisan bill passed the senate with a 35/01 in 2018 and asked voters for $3.5 billion in bonding with 'No new taxes.' Senate Bill 18-001 commits state General Fund revenue for transportation n fiscal year 2018-19 and fiscal year 2019-2020. In 2018-19, $495 million was transferred from the General Fund to be dispersed as follows: $346.5 million to the State Highway Fund; $74.25 million to county and cities; and $74.25 million to the Multimodal Transportation Options Fund. In 2019-20, a total of $150 million transferred from the General Fund and dispersed as follows: $105.0 million to the State Highway Fund; $22.5 million to counties and cities; and $22.5 million to the Multimodal Transportation Options Fund.
Senate Bill 18-001 is a commonsense bill that uses funds from the State General Fund for Transportation Infrastructure; no new taxes, no new fees, no new money from our pockets in this economically stressed time. The newly introduced Senate Bill 21-260 would repeal Senate Bill 18-001 and new fees would begin to bite into our budgets. This new Democrat/Polis legislation would impose fees on everything from gasoline, ride sharing, delivery services and more. This bill would create new fees on new technologies such as electric vehicles. Uber and Lyft rides would also see new fees. Those fees would be tied to cost indexes meaning the fees would be continually rising.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Struthers is reluctantly backing the bill. He has said he would prefer to see more money coming from the General Fund. The Mayor said he would like to see more of that funding going toward highway expansion and less toward multimodal projects such as public transportation. However, objections and hesitancy aside, the Mayor of Colorado Springs threw his hat into the Democratic pool. This bill has just been introduced and it is sure to meet with many barriers along the way. It is like most Democrat ideas presented as a Godsend, a real blessing to the public. Every Coloradan will see rising costs because of this bill and not all of the funds raised will be used to mend our Highway woes. A big share of the money taken from us will be spent on the Democrat wish list which includes getting rid of gasoline fueled cars in favor of electric cars.
Sounds great, but most Coloradans are trying to recover from the Polis imposed lockdowns and really don't want to see rising transportation costs this year. Sage Naumann, communications director for the Senate Republican caucus, is not in favor of this bill. A major concern on his part is that it would repeal an existing law. Lawmakers would be required to put a measure on the 2021 ballot asking voters to allow the state to borrow $1.8 billion for transportation projects. Naumann also pointed out that the use of fees would impact the state's poorest residents. Everyone in the state would have to pay more because of this bill. The bill has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee, but its first hearing has not been scheduled yet. This is definitely a bill to keep our eyes on!
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