Face The State Staff Report
Backers of Amendment 52 announced Wednesday they have the full support of former state Senate President John Andrews, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, his primary opponent Jeff Crank, and the state’s most popular conservative radio host, Mike Rosen.
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“I like 52 because it identifies a responsible revenue stream for roads and does so without new taxes,” Andrews said.
Amendment 52 would place a cap on oil and gas revenue currently allocated to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and dedicates the funding overflow to transportation needs. It is the brainchild of three rising GOP stars in the state legislature, Sen. Josh Penry and Reps. Cory Gardner and Frank McNulty. They call their proposal the "Better Roads Now" amendment. The plan gives priority to alleviating congestion along the I-70 corridor.
The Republicans say their measure will address the state’s transportation woes without new taxes or tolls.
“During these tough economic times, government must learn to do what families across Colorado already do, and that means to reprioritize existing revenue to critical state functions like transportation,” said McNulty. “Amendment 52 makes this common-sense investment in our roads and bridges without tolls and without new taxes.”
Rosen endorsed the amendment last week in his column for the Rocky Mountain News. “The project is necessary; this is as good a place as any to fund it,” he wrote.
The proposed measure is taking fire from some unlikely places, however. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, a “progressive, grassroots” organization representing farmers and ranchers in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming has come out in opposition to the amendment.
Benjamin Waters, RMFU's government relations director, says the amendment will take money away from desperately-needed water projects.
"Amendment 52 will leave Colorado's water needs high and dry,” said Waters. “It robs Peter to pay Paul by cutting funding that would go to water projects and invasive species mitigation and sends it to highway construction on the I-70 corridor. It would cut funding by over $130 million over four years, which sadly won't do much to help transportation and will do much to hurt state water projects."
Penry flatly rejected the claim that the ballot proposal would cut DNR funds needed for water projects.
"There are no cuts to any program," he said. "The Department of Natural Resources piece of the severance tax pie has grown from 16 million in 2003 and to about 90 million in year one under our plan. If that's a funding cut, Good Heavens, I'd hate to see what a funding increase looks like."
Andrews added that the proposal is a far better approach to funding transportation needs than anything offered by Democrats currently in power.
“Everybody seems to agree we need to find more resources to fix our highways,” Andrews said. “And [Gov. Bill] Ritter so far has struck out.”
Duing this year's legislative session, state lawmakers, including a significant number of Democrats, shot down all recommendations by Ritter’s Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel. All of the proposed funding mechanisms that the panel suggested included some kind of tax or fee hike. Various public polls found abysmal public support for such proposals. Ritter renewed the panel in 2007. It has not released any of its findings so far.
Polls released last week by Ciruli Associates show Amendment 52 is popular with likely voters, with 62 percent favoring it and only 12 percent against it. It was the most popular ballot proposal polled by Ciruli.