DENVER — Roads don't fix themselves.
If they did, we'd have fewer topics to talk about around election time.
Depending on where you live in Colorado, your November ballot may include multiple questions asking you for road money.
They will not fund the same road projects.
Everyone statewide will be asked to vote on Proposition CC. That's the ballot issue where the state is asking to keep TABOR refunds indefinitely. The September estimate has that dollar amount at $264 million in 2019-20 and $143 million in 2020-21. If voters say no, that money will be refunded through property tax credits for seniors and disabled vets, a state income tax reduction and through state tax returns.
"There's a $9 billion dollar funding shortfall when it comes to the state's infrastructure challenges," said Morgan Cullen, Legislative and Policy Advocate for the Colorado Municipal League.
Proposition CC money will fund state road projects and schools.
State road projects cover interstates and state highways, not the roads you take to get to those roads maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation.
"Trips begin and end on a local road Commuters just want to make sure that they can get from 'Point A' to 'Point B' without a whole lot of gridlock and without hitting potholes along the way," said Cullen. "We found there was a $3.5 billion funding shortfall for our municipal roads, and then an additional $750 million shortfall just for our maintenance needs.
That's where the ballot issues in Mead, Longmont, Colorado Springs and Alamosa come in.
The town of Mead is asking voters for a one percent sales and use tax increase for transportation projects for trails, roads and drainage.
The town estimates the tax would bring in $1 million a year and has posted a list of projects it could go to and the cost of each project.
Mead voters were asked the same sales and use tax question on the 2018 ballot, but that money would have been spent on police and roads. That issue lost by 49 votes.
Longmont voters are being asked to extend a .75% sales and use road tax indefinitely. That tax, which Longmont voters currently pay, is supposed to expire in 2026.
A .62% road repair and improvement sales and use tax in Colorado Springs expires next year. Colorado Springs voters are being asked to reduce that tax to .57%, but also extend it to 2025.
In Alamosa, voters are being asked for a .5% sales and use tax for roads. The city estimates that it would generate between $500,000 and $1.8 million. The city has also provided a map of road projects that could get the funding.
Voters in all of those locations will have both Proposition CC and their local road tax question on their ballots.
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