Becker is adamant that raising sales tax is not the solution

Lawmakers at state Capitol are hoping this will be the year that they can find a compromise to fund a multi-billion-dollar list of transportation projects statewide. But despite bipartisan support for the transportation bill rolled out two weeks ago, some Republicans, including Rep. Jon Becker of Fort Morgan, are adamant that this is not the right solution.
    Last week, the House Transportation and Energy Committee, in a seven-hour marathon session, approved a bill that would ask voters to OK an increase in the state’s sales tax, from its current 2.9 percent (29 cents on a $10 purchase) to 3.52 percent (about 35 cents on a $10 purchase).
    If approved by the voters, the sales tax would help pay for $3.5 billion in transportation projects around the state. The increase in sales tax would be expected to raise about $677 million per year, and some of those dollars would be used to raise bonds that would pay for the transportation projects.
    In its original version, the bill would send the first $300 million of those dollars to the state Department of Transportation to pay for the bonds over a 20-year period. CDOT says it has a $9 million backlog of transportation projects statewide. The bill’s smaller request reflects a belief among lawmakers, as well as Gov. John Hickenlooper, that voters may OK a $3.5 billion request but not a $9 billion one.
    Of the remaining dollars, 70 percent would go to counties and municipalities for local transportation projects, and the last 30 percent would be socked into a “multimodal transportation options fund” that would pay for transit and rail projects, a major priority for Democrats in the negotiations. There’s also a separate “pedestrian and active transportation account” designed to pay for sidewalks and bicycle paths.
    Republican Senate President Kevin Grantham of Cañon City and Sen. Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulphur Springs, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, are the measure’s Senate sponsors.
    But Republicans in the House transportation committee showed the bill no love on Wednesday; the committee’s five Republicans, including Becker, all voted against it.
  

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