Utah a boogeyman waiting to steal Colorado's growth. Officials blame transportation.
Nick Coltrain
When it comes to economic growth, there's a boogeyman lurking to the west, waiting to lure Colorado-bound business out of the Centennial State.
Colorado's roads are leaving its economy vulnerable to its neighboring states, transportation advocates and the governor warned Tuesday.
Utah has been dumping money into its roads while Colorado has spent years roiling in quagmire about how to pay for its highways. The debate reared up again this legislative session, despite lofty aspirations and an ultimately failed bipartisan push for $3.5 billion in new road funding.
That disparity caused the Beehive State to emerge as competition at a Tuesday meeting of the Northern Colorado Economic Alliance.
Gov. John Hickenlooper headlined the event and, after a panel on transportation funding, he got in on highlighting the contrasts.
"You drive from Colorado into Utah, you'll see a marked, dramatic difference in the quality of roads," Hickenlooper said, adding that drivers see the same crossing into Kansas and Nebraska. "Sooner or later that's going to begin to take its toll on where young people decide to move and set up their businesses."
More:Northeast Fort Collins feels traffic and growth pains
Hickenlooper framed the conversation around the need for transportation infrastructure and called himself "agnostic" around the proper tax to pay for the needs. He said he hoped the special session of the Legislature he floated, but didn't ultimately act on, would have resulted in a smaller sales tax increase than the half-percent that was shot down in committee in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said he thinks a sales tax is the most politically viable option for funding, since everyone relies on roads. An increase to the gasoline tax polls incredibly poorly, he and others said. Increase the state income tax to 5 percent on income higher than $400,000 a year and "I'd probably be tarred and feathered," Hickenlooper joked.
Hickenlooper also jabbed at Republicans on the finance committee who shot down the measure, noting that the Constitutional provisions in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights would require a vote before any new taxes are enacted. That provision, Hickenlooper reasoned, is in place to ensure the whole of Colorado has a say.
If something's not done, transportation woes could spur anti-growth sentiments, effectively tamping down an engine of Colorado's economic growth, he warned. More folks straining the transportation system could stoke thoughts of, "we're having too much growth, we need to stop it," Hickenlooper said.
Roads:Big Thompson Canyon reopening this week
During the panel before Hickenlooper's talk, advocates for transportation argued that residents need to look at roads differently. While it's easy to rail against taxes, folks need to realize that a reliable transportation system requires ongoing investment, they said.
"(People) just expect it to be there," said Terri Blackmore, executive director of the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. "They don't expect to pay for it."
Colorado's gas tax hasn't been modified since 1991. And, while lawmakers were able to squeeze $1.9 billion for transportation projects this year, the Colorado Department of Transportation has about $9 billion in needs, officials said.
Some of that cuts into the area's famous quality of life — and helped Blackmore create the image of Utah lurking on the outskirts, ready to use its roads as a lure for folks who would otherwise be Colorado bound.
"They're about to eat our lunch in the tourism industry because we can't get people to the ski areas," she said.