I hate you, Colorado Peak Politics
Yesterday, Twitter was abuzz that Team Hick was putting on a full-court press to kill Senate Bill 1, which is a transportation bill that would fix our roads by diverting 10% of state sales and use tax (i.e., without raising our taxes). Sounds like a fantastic idea to us, so what’s the problem? Is it just that Hick and his team hate Republicans? They wouldn’t put hatred of the GOP above road safety, would they? Everyone is begging for traffic relief along I-25.
Actually, word on the street is that Democrats have a plan to increase statewide revenue – under the guise of fixing transportation – before Hick flicks the lights off in the Governor’s office. The tax hike would simply provide a revenue stream to fund pet projects and political allies’ careers. Sounds like a great plan, if voters will bite.
Here are a few of the rumored proposals according to Capitol insiders.
- Raise sales tax by 0.2%, which would raise around $220 million
- Raise gas tax by five cents, which would bring in around $125 million
- Raise lodging tax to bring in about $200 million
- Raise things like registration fees to bring in around $50 million the first year, but up to $400 million by year seven
Either way, today, Governor Hickenlooper came out and said that the $3.5 billion that Senate Republicans hope to raise for transportation through the sale of bonds is a “bridge too far.” While we’re not sure if he’s being ironic with the bridges too far, but given the state of the transportation system in Colorado, no bridge is too far to alleviate commute times.