Comprehensive Colorado Transportation Legislation Wins Approval

More than $5 billion in funding is expected to be ploughed into highway, bridge, and tunnel  work in Colorado if a new state legislative initiative wins final approval.

Members of both houses of the Colorado State Legislature have now passed a measure that will not only provide enhanced funding for transportation construction and upgrade projects, but also for the building of a statewide electric vehicle charging station network.

The legislation additionally mandates new highway project environmental regulations.

As currently proposed, the big bill, intended to pay for projects over an 11-year span, will be funded via some $3.8 billion in new user revenue, as well as $1.5 billion in revenue from the state’s general fund and $380 million in stimulus funding.

That stimulus funding is part of the much larger $3.8 billion that Colorado earlier this year received from Washington as part of the American Rescue Plan.

The user revenue fees comprise such things as the purchase of gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as car rentals, rideshare trips, and delivery services.

The fee funding mechanism made it possible for lawmakers to not have to take the spending proposal to voters, as Colorado’s constitution requires ballot approval for new taxes, but not for new imposed fees.

The legislation additionally provides for up to $800 million for rural road projects, while also putting $2.5 billion into the state’s Highway Users Trust Fund, which local communities draw upon for their own transportation projects.

The emphasis on electric vehicle charging stations in the bill is a piece with the state’s goal of seeing up to 940,000 electric vehicles in use by the end of the decade.

The bill is now on its way to the desk of Governor Jared Polis, who is expected to sign it into law.

By Garry Boulard

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