Gov. Jared Polis’s efforts to meet the state’s transportation needs in his first legislative session are getting a lukewarm reception among his own, Aspen Public Radio reports.
That’s because his efforts to do so are just pathetic.
Democrats managed to boost spending by $70 million for the next fiscal year, without addressing the $9 billion road construction backlog facing the state.
So, Polis has boldly committed to demand meeting upon meeting with financial strategists until the money just magically appears.
“That group will continue to meet on building as large a coalition as possible to meet our infrastructure funding needs.”
Polis’s Transportation Department director and Harvard graduate Shoshana Lew is approaching the funding problem from a completely different angle — by moving the conversation away from money.
While Democrat state lawmakers work on the only magical solution they’ve ever known — eliminating TABOR.
House Speaker KC Becker, D-Boulder, estimates the TABOR ballot measure could generate anywhere from $65 million to $1 billion in state funding each year.
“We don’t think this is going to be a solution to long-term needs in transportation, or K-12 or higher ed, but we do think it’s a good first step,” Becker said.
Keeping up to $1 billion more of our money each year is only a “good first step,” because it’s not really the transportation solution, as Becker admits.
In other words, keeping $1 billion of our tax dollars would really be used to create a massive slush fund to get themselves reelected, while continuing to ignore the state’s much needed road repair and widening projects.