The Colorado Contractors Association on Tuesday announced it would move forward with its ballot measure to enshrine road funding in the state constitution, defying state lawmakers who had set a June 15 deadline for the group to suspend its campaign.
The move sets the stage for an unusual November ballot fight.
If Initiative 175 qualifies for the ballot as expected, voters would be asked to increase funding on roads through a constitutional amendment. But — because of a law passed by the state legislature this year to combat the proposal — if voters say yes, they will cut existing road spending by a similar amount by temporarily cutting the state gas tax and other transportation fees.
If that happens, voters would get gas tax relief, while transportation funding and the rest of the state budget would be largely unaffected for at least the next three years.
“It’s unfortunate Gov. (Jared) Polis is forcing Coloradans to wait three more years to fix the roads, but in the meantime, they will get a much-needed break at the pump and, over the long haul, safer, better-maintained roads,” Tony Milo, president and CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association, said in a statement.
Initiative 175 would require the state to set aside all of the taxes raised from motor vehicle sales, and most of the sales taxes collected on auto parts for transportation projects. That would prevent those dollars from being spent on general state services as they are today.
As a result, nonpartisan state fiscal analysts say the measure would blow a $264 million hole in next year’s general fund budget, which starts July 1, plus $539 million the year after that.
Critics said that would exacerbate the state’s budget crisis, triggering deeper cuts to healthcare, education and other public services. So in response, legislative Democrats passed House Bill 1430, which Polis signed into law earlier this month.
The bill established a June 15 deadline for the Restore Our Roads campaign to withdraw its measure. Had the campaign done so, the legislature would have created a working group to make recommendations for how to fund transportation sustainably in the future.
Lawmakers had hoped that the bill would force the contractors to the negotiating table by undermining the transportation funding that Initiative 175 was intended to generate. An opposition coalition known as Keep Kids First Colorado repeatedly issued letters pleading with the contractors to withdraw the measure.
“Colorado would be better served by a plan that strengthens Colorado’s transportation system without undermining critical services that support children, families, and seniors across the state,” the group wrote in a May letter, signed by labor groups, education advocates and healthcare providers.
But negotiations so far have failed to produce a deal.
In a previous interview with The Colorado Sun, Milo was undeterred by the legislature’s tactic, saying transportation could still come out ahead. The measure would add road funding to the constitution, giving it similar protections to K-12 education. And, he noted, trading gas taxes for sales taxes could be a net positive, because gas taxes have been declining over time.
“If that is ultimately where we land, that is not all bad for Colorado roads,” he said.
The campaign in May said it has submitted 188,000 signatures to get the constitutional amendment on the ballot. That’s well above the 124,238 signatures needed to qualify. The Secretary of State’s Office now has to confirm whether enough of them are valid, and meet a requirement that signatures include 2% of the registered voters in each of the 35 Colorado state senate districts.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Restore Our Roads said it remained “open to working with legislative leaders.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.