Widgetized Section

Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone

Gubernatorial candidate Johnston ‘encouraged’ by bipartisan progress on transportation

By
March 13, 2017, 12:16 pm
M-Johnston_CMC_Edwrds_3-9-17_03

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston in Edwards last week (Dan Davis photo).

Colorado Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston, at a campaign event in Edwards late last week, told RealVail.com he’s encouraged by the bipartisan progress he’s seeing from the State Legislature on the long-gridlocked topic of transportation funding.

Republican Senate President Kevin Grantham and Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran last week announced a bipartisan deal on a sales tax increase that would go to the voters in November if it passes the House and Senate and is signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited and will leave office in 2019.

The House Bill 1242 proposal is for a 20-year statewide sales tax increase to 3.52 percent from the current rate of 2.9 percent to provide a revenue stream for $3.5 billion in bonds to expand Interstate 70 and 25 as well as provide discretionary local transportation funding.

“I’m encouraged; I think it’s a good first step,” said Johnston, who is from Vail and spent two terms in the state Senate. “It’s going to be a process. What I like is that we’ve got to do something. What I like is that there’s some bipartisan support for it. I like that there’s a focus on transit, multi-modal, which is nice, and that there’s a funding stream to support bonding because there wasn’t previously.”

Democrats and Republicans have been a loggerheads for years, trying unsuccessfully to carve out dedicated transportation funding as critical infrastructure has continued to deteriorate. Johnston acknowledges the legislative process could be tough.

“It’s a good potential package,” Johnston said. “The question is whether we can get it through both chambers and the voters to pass it. I was encouraged by the progress. I want to read the bill and see how it goes through the Legislature.”

Some conservative Republicans have already lined up against the bill, which is co-sponsored by Democratic Vail Valley state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush and Republican Sen. Randy Baumgardner. Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg has floated a much more modest alternative to the plan, which would only fund a $1.3 billion bond package.

Colorado Department of Transportation officials say they are facing a $1 billion-a-year budget shortfall just to safely maintain current road and bridge  infrastructure. The HB 1242 sales tax increase would produce close to $700 million a year in added revenues.

Johnston says Republicans need to get realistic about where that money will come from if not in the form of a tax increase.

“The question for them is what is your plan to solve transportation if not this,” Johnston said. “They want to carve some out of the existing budget and they’d love to say Medicaid, but tell me who the people are you want to cut off from health services if you want to do that because $700 million a year is a lot of money.”

 

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profile

David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.