Gov. John Hickenlooper and his Republican opponent, Bob Beauprez, both recognize that transportation funding is at a crossroads as more efficient vehicles undermine the gasoline tax.
They also understand, as we discovered in recent interviews, that the problem is only going to get worse as new federal mileage standards come into play and electric vehicles make deeper inroads into the market.
But if any other political leaders in Colorado are in doubt about the developing funding crisis, they should take a look at a recent report by The Pew Charitable Trusts that examined transportation funding nationwide.
The report found that not only was federal funding decreasing, but state funding was plummeting, too.
Between 2002 and 2011, overall spending on highway and transit infrastructure dropped by 12 percent, adjusted for inflation. State funding alone dropped by 20 percent during the same time frame.
It seems the same holds true for Colorado. The report did not provide a state-by-state break-out of spending trends, so we asked the state Department of Transportation for numbers that covered the same period as the Pew study. Officials said there has been a 21.5 percent decline in state highway and transit spending.
Much of the decline is attributable to deterioration in gas tax revenues and the fact that this antiquated tax system hasn’t kept up with the times.
Not only has the federal gas tax not been raised since 1993, its very nature means it cannot fairly assess high-mileage vehicles that still exact wear and tear on roads. The state fuel tax, at 22 cents per gallon, has not been increased since 1991.
When reaction to the U.S. 36 public-private partnership hit a Defcon-1 level of outrage, it was funny how critics neglected to address the public revenue side of the equation. If public-private partnerships are misguided (and we don’t think they are), then highway money still has to come from somewhere. And yet polls show that support for raising taxes to pay for transportation — gas tax or any other tax — is pitifully low.
The next target for critics will be the state’s plan to address the Interstate 70 mountain corridor. Or perhaps they will target a $1.8 billion plan that includes private participation to fix another dysfunctional part of I-70 in north Denver.
Those who object to private companies engaging in state road-building in exchange for a cut of tolls should be intellectually honest about what is happening to highway funding.
They can’t have it both ways.
