By Kevin Bommer
This week, the Colorado Municipal League (CML) called for the withdrawal of Initiative 175 by the Restore Our Roads Coalition, along with urging legislators to vote “no” on HB26-1430, “Transportation Funding Adjustments.”
The Coalition has succeeded in forcing an admission by Governor Polis and the legislature that transportation taxes are being redirected toward other purposes. However, HB26-1430 would blunt the effect of Initiative 175 and place local government transportation funding at serious risk in the process.
CML opposes HB26-1430, mainly because municipalities could receive less funding for transportation and transit funding than they do now. Despite claims by Gov. Jared Polis and bill sponsors that local transportation funding would be held harmless, there is no guarantee that would happen and future legislatures could reduce local government funding even more.
They don’t exactly have a great track record of holding local governments harmless on anything over there.
CML also has a core policy on initiative reform that supports maintaining “the state constitution as a basic framework for government rather than as an embodiment of statutory law” but still “maintaining the citizen lawmaking process, by supporting additional protections for statutory law made by citizen initiative.”
Initiative 175 is drafted as a constitutional amendment for understandable reasons, but if it passes, it will be gutted by HB26-1430 and just be yet another thing cluttering our state constitution.
CML supports a constructive dialogue on the future of transportation and transit funding, especially in the wake of three-year elimination of state support for the Multimodal Opportunities Fund (MMOF). The MMOF created by SB21-260, supported by CML, provides critical funding for local transit options and is yet another example of the state shoring up its budget with funds approved for other purposes.
Kevin Bommer is executive director, Colorado Municipal League. Colorado Municipal League (CML) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1923 and represents the interests of 270 cities and towns. For more information on the Colorado Municipal League, please visit cml.org, or call 303-831-6411.