Lawmakers say policies must help cut driving

Dems react to panel’s call to spend $1.5 billion

By ED SEALOVER

THE GAZETTE

DENVER - An upcoming report proposing that Colorado spend $1.5 billion more a year on transportation has some lawmakers asking if something can be done to reduce the miles Coloradans drive.

The report by the governor appointed Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel will suggest putting $562 million more toward mobility needs, $538 million to maintenance and safety efforts, $293 million to local roads and $107 million to transit, bike, environmental and pedestrian needs. Compiled after eight months of study, it recommends raising several statewide taxes and greatly increasing fees on vehicle registrations to fund the needs.

Though the eye-popping number — the state spends about $1 billion a year on transportation — was the first thing that caught many legislators’ attention, a number of Democrats soon began to ask if there were other ways to cut congestion. Rep. Jack Pommer, a member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, questioned last month whether the panel did any out-of-the box thinking, and Rep. Claire Levy proposed a bill this month to place a priority on sending road money to pedestrian- and transit-oriented communities.

I turns out that the transportation panel did look at ways to reduce the amount of driving we do. The report we got focused on the financial part of the proposal; a smaller plan to increase funding $500 million/year for highway repairs and maintenance and a larger plan to increase funding by $1.5 billion/year. That second plan is the one that the commission will probably recommend, and it includes better public transportation.

Outside of the money part of the plans, Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor tells me that the committee will recommend making it easier for us to get around without driving. Will is on the panel.

Though their approaches were different — Levy did not criticize the report directly — both reflected an underlying sentiment among the majority party: Transportation funding and environmental and growth concerns should be linked.

A September report by Smart Growth America and the Urban Land Institute stated that despite efforts to produce alternative-fuel or more fuel-efficient vehicles, carbon emissions from vehicles would continue to rise unless the number of vehicle miles traveled is reduced. With zoning policies encouraging low-density development farther from city cores and transportation policies putting money into roads rather than transit, that is unlikely to happen, the report said.

Policies must encourage inner-city development that allows people to work, shop and play without jumping into a car, said Michael Leccese, executive director of the Colorado District Council of the Urban Land Institute.

“Unfortunately, land use has not been part of the climate-change discussion at most levels of government,” Leccese said.

Transportation accounts for the second-largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and those numbers are growing faster than any other sector of greenhouse gas producers, according to the ULI report. Vehicle miles traveled increased three times faster than the U.S. population over the past 15 years, and in Colorado they grew 114 percent from 1980 to 2005, from 22 billion miles a year to 47 billion miles.

Even if fuel-efficiency standards are increased to 35 miles per gallon and fuel carbon content is reduced by 10 percent by 2030, according to the report, transportation emissions will be 40 percent above 1990 levels. Many scientists have called for cutting emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The pollution problem is even more pressing here along the Front Range. We're creating so much ozone in our air that it's violating federal law. Poisoning ourselves is bad enough, but violating the Clean Air Act also brings down some harsh sanctions from the federal government.

Levy, D-Boulder, hasn’t determined the specific criteria she wants to use in her bill, but said she wants to reward good growth policies with transportation funding so cities and counties can’t get money for expansion without producing “smart growth” plans. She also has proposed a measure that would assess a fee on the least fuel-efficient vehicles and put the revenues to a state office of smart growth.

Pommer, also of Boulder, did not mention a specific plan to cut vehicle miles, but said any recommendation from the Blue Ribbon panel should include one.

The panel’s members, who are writing their final report after agreeing to the recommendations at a November meeting, maintain there are a number of efforts in their plans to move people out of single-occupancy vehicles.

Panel co-chairman Doug Aden noted that of the $562 million suggested for mobility projects, $251 million is for transit projects such as buses and trains that would run between cities. An additional $72 million is recommended for urban and rural transit within communities, and $10 million for bike and pedestrian improvements — areas on which the Department of Transportation has never focused, he said.

Also, a policy statement in the report will call for looking for ways to slow the increase in vehicle miles traveled, Aden said.

The problem is that the idea of cutting these miles while the state’s population grows is harder than just committing to do so, said Aden, who is also chairman of the Colorado Transportation Commission. It gets into the issue of the state determining land use allowances, which has been the prerogative of local cities and counties.

The biggest point the blue ribbon committee will be making is that we don't have enough money to even maintain our current transportation system. Cities and counties fight hard to protect their prerogatives on local land use, then they fight hard to get state and federal tax money to clean up the transportation mess they make.

At some point, they're going to realize that there isn't enough money from the state or federal government to cover their costs. Then they'll have to ask their own taxpayers to pay the entire bill. At that point, I think the real cost of continual sprawl will sink in.

There is also the question of whether pushing growth away from suburbs and into urban areas will cause housing prices in the cities to skyrocket, as they have in some other parts of the country.

“I think the challenge you have in that scenario is for local governments to work with developers to find ways to make that housing affordable,” said Aden, a retired banker. “Development is taking place further and further north and further and further south (along the Front Range) because of affordability.”

The panel’s final report is expected to be published around Jan. 1

A KINDER, GENTLER DICK?

By MICHAEL DE YOANNA

Rocky Mountain Chronicle

Colorado’s GOP kingmaker comes home to bring life back to an ailing party.

Dick Wadhams is surrounded by disarray — half-filled boxes, an unhung picture, stacks of papers — as the phone next to him rings continuously. But The Next Karl Rove, a possible “evil genius,” isn’t moving into this Denver office building; he’s moving out. The 52-year-old Republican explains that the rent is cheaper in Arapahoe County, just south along the interstate.

Besides, there are more Republican loyalists down there.

Dressed in a striped oxford shirt, his pen stuffed in the left pocket, Wadhams winces and chuckles at the labels he’s earned in recent years: cutthroat, a dirty-trick player, an itinerant, political hit man — someone capable of hammering the media into submission.

“No. No. No,” he says, waving a dismissive hand. “Not me.”

The controversial conservative kingmaker has come home after a four-year round-trip that has taken him far from the Rockies to the party’s upper strata. Somewhere along the way, he was crowned Rove 2.0 and, actually, should be somewhere else right now — on the road, blazing Virginia’s George Allen a path to the White House.

But in mid-2006 that dream turned to a steaming pile of “macaca.”

Allen hurled the insult, either a racist slur or a kind of monkey, at a man of Indian descent while campaigning for reelection to the U.S. Senate before promptly disappearing into the political landfill.

“I picked my horse and the horse went off the cliff,” Wadhams says, laughing into a sigh, then calling Allen’s comment “stupid” and “politically fatal.”

How about "wrong" and "racist."

To put the comment in context, Allen was speaking to an all-white crowd in rural Virginia.

He noticed a representative of his opponent's campaign, S.R. Sidarth, who happens to be of Indian descent, and said: "This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent."

As the crowd laughed, Allen added: "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

Sidarth was born and raised in Virginia.

At the time, Wadhams said Allen had "nothing to apologize for."

After that mess, Colorado Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany phoned his friend Wadhams, urging him home to help the state’s ailing GOP. Wadhams called his former bosses, Senator Wayne Allard and former Governor Bill Owens, then ran for, and won, the chair of the state Republican Party.

Unlike other party chairs who have gone without pay, Wadhams earns a salary, which he justifies because, unlike volunteer chiefs, he is fulfilling the job of executive director as well. He’s held the two-year seat since March, owing to a nudge from The Man Himself — not President Bush, but Rove, who endorsed Wadhams in his bid.

Rove recommended Wadhams to Colorado Republicans just as he recommended Wadhams to John Thune when Thune was running for Senator in South Dakota. It paid off for Thune.

Wadhams hit on a winning strategy when he paid bloggers to pretend they were independent and relentlessly attack Thune's opponent and bully the mainstream press. Those bloggers, working for Wadhams, worked with Jeff Gannon, who wa probably working for Rove.

Jeff Gannon, you may recall, covered the White House (he had no trouble getting a press pass) for an entity called Talon News Service.

It turned out that Talon News Service was a Republican sham and Gannon turned out to be -- it's getting to be kind of a Republican theme -- a gay prostitute who ran an escort website that he decorated with nude pictures of himself.

(The Secret Service background checks must have missed that, unless Gannon had a friend in the White House. The U.S. House and Senate denied him press passes because his application didn't check out. Oh, Gannon also had access to the secret documents that outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent in the Rove-inspired attack on Plame's husband).

I mention the gay prostitute part because articles Gannon wrote for the phony news service included comments like John Kerry "might someday be known as 'the first gay president" and derided the "pro-gay agenda."

In any case, the whole Wadhams strategy worked: Thune beat incumbent Sen. Tom Daschle.

“Poor old Mark Udall,” Wadhams says, smiling as he envisions Udall at the Democratic National Convention in Denver next August. Udall, he imagines, will have to hold hands with his predicted presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, and that’s bad because Clinton has high negative ratings, which could cost Udall swing votes if “Clinton burnout” is high.

Poor Mark Udall because Wadhams is going to attack him relentlessly the way he attacked Tom Strickland to get Wayne Allard elected senator.

Wadhams is picking apart Udall’s decade-long record as a state legislator and representative of Colorado’s Second Congressional District. Look for Wadhams to go after Udall’s initial support for a bill that sought to create a department of peace.

In Larimer, Wadhams recently defended Larimer County Republican Chair Ed Haynes, who caused a ruckus when he used the word “n*****” during a public hearing at Colorado State University on the Rocky Mountain Collegian’s “Taser this: F*** BUSH” editorial. Haynes asked the crowd, “‘What would have been the reaction if it read, ‘Taser this...Obama is a n*****’”? Wadhams says Haynes apparently wanted to show that some words should not be expressed.

“He was trying to drive home a serious point and, from what I saw in the papers, he succeeded,” Wadhams says. “His overall point, I think, is a good one.”

So the F-word is rude, and insulting the President is rude, and that somehow makes it OK for a Republican Party leader to insult every American of African descent? The overall point, I think, is a bad one.

Money allocated for Capitol security upgrades

By MIKE SACCONE The Daily Sentinel

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Joint Budget Committee reluctantly agreed Tuesday to temporarily allow the Colorado State Patrol to strengthen security at the Capitol in response to a July fatal shooting inside the building.

The six-lawmaker panel approved $855,000 of the state’s $1.6 million request to hire additional security personnel, buy more metal detectors for the Capitol entrances and install security-card access on the building’s outer doors.

Peter Wier, director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said the improvements should allow public officials, staff and visitors to the Capitol to feel safe and welcome.

Gov. Bill Ritter’s emergency budget request came after the July 16 shooting of 32-year-old Aaron Snyder Thornton after he tried to enter the governor’s office with a gun.

Since midsummer, visitors to the Capitol have funneled through a single basement entrance equipped with metal detectors and an X-ray machine.

As the panel approved a limited version of the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s request, Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, said the whole Legislature should take up the issue again next year.

“I’m a bit reluctant to make a decision on the Capitol portion of this (request) through this six-member committee,” Buescher said, “when I would rather (it) were discussed with the entire 100 members of the Legislature.”

Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, agreed and asked staff to arrange for House and Senate lawmakers to possibly convene a joint session to discuss long-term Capitol security improvement.

Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, told his peers, however, he was uncomfortable with knee-jerk policy reactions to an isolated, extraordinary incident.

“I believe that the Capitol belongs to the citizens, and I think when the citizens don’t have ready access to their Capitol, then the whole concept of transparency is obstructed,” White said. “The citizens already don’t trust us, and if they can’t get in easily to see what it is we do, then all I think we do is create additional mistrust.”

Rep. White has a good point. The shooting was awful, but it's not necessarily the start of a trend.

I voted for the proposal because the State Patrol surveyed people who work at the Capitol full-time and they overwhelmingly said they feel unsafe. I don't work in the Capitol full-time.

During the survey people pointed out a lot of less dramatic incidents during which they felt threatened.

Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said he is worried the state is taking extreme action about one building when other state agency buildings in Denver or Grand Junction might have similar security concerns.

The survey didn't include other state facilities. People in some of those buildings handle things like public benefits and legal issues that can bring out the worst in people.

Wier said that while his agency values all state employees, policymakers “need to prioritize” the state’s critical infrastructure.

Mike Saccone can be reached via e-mail at msaccone@gjds.com.

Ritter gives gas-tax talk little mileage

The governor is waiting to see what a panel will suggest to fund state road needs. But he's said all options are on the table.
By Mark P. Couch Denver Post Staff Writer

Gov. Bill Ritter declined Wednesday to say whether he would support increasing the state's gas tax to pay for improvements to roads and highways.

The Democratic governor said making any comment would pre-empt the work of the Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel he appointed this year.

"I'm not going to answer that," Ritter said. "The transportation panel is doing its work. Until it's finished, I'm not going to dilute what they're doing by offering my suggestions."

In appointing the panel, Ritter made it clear he wanted the group to consider all options for maintaining roads. In previous efforts, officials were prohibited from considering tax increases.

The Colorado Department of Transportation estimates it will cost $65 billion to sustain the existing system of roads and bridges through 2030. To expand the system to keep pace with population growth would cost another $40 billion.

The department's 2007-08 budget is $1 billion. The total state budget is more than $17 billion.

That total state budget figure is a little misleading. It includes federal funds and cash funds that pass through our budget, but w have little or no control over. We couldn't just divert them to transportation, or anything else.

The General Fund, which we can control in theory is about 7.6 billion. I say "in theory" because a lot of it is taken up with spending we can't really cut. Medicaid, schools, prisons and other items are huge expenses which are protected by federal law, the state constitution or practical considerations.

In addition to the gas tax, other funding proposals that have been discussed include raising taxes on sales, income, rental cars and lodging.

Another idea is a tax on vehicle miles traveled, charging motorists a penny for each mile traveled in the state.

The discussion about road funding has added urgency because of last week's bridge collapse in Minneapolis in which at least five people died.

During the past two years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota twice vetoed legislation to raise the state's gas tax to pay for transportation needs.

In the wake of the disaster, Pawlenty, a Republican, has reconsidered his position.

Lawmakers on Colorado's Joint Budget Committee, which writes the annual spending plan, expressed mixed views about increasing the gas tax.

Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said he would support an increase in the gas tax to pay for maintaining roads and bridges.


"For years, the department has been saying that we're underfunding them," Pommer said. "Who knows how many issues we have lurking out there."

In its 2005 report to the JBC, CDOT said a top priority was to: "Eliminate Backlog of Structurally Deficient Bridges." At that time it said 106 bridges across the state were in such bad condition they couldn't be repaired and had to be replaced

.

A year later, after finishing replacement of Colorado's worst bridge, CDOT Executive Director Tom Norton said: “...there are still numerous bridges that are nearing or past their design life and need to be replaced. We appreciate the support of our local, state and federal partners and hope we can continue to work together to secure funding so CDOT can make even more progress on replacing the state’s deteriorated bridges.”

Any tax increase would need to be approved by voters because of limits imposed by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, an amendment added to the state constitution in 1992.

"We can say it, but nobody has to pay it unless it's approved by voters," Pommer said.

Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Larimer County, said Colorado shouldn't rewrite its budget because of a disaster in Minnesota.

"I don't think a problem in Minnesota necessarily means we've got a problem in Colorado," Johnson said. "We ought to design our budget to meet the needs of our state."

That's true and the needs of our state are pretty clear and have been for some time. It's just that no one pays much attention to them until some disaster gets their attention.

We have a comprehensive, detailed report on our state's transportation needs and this is what says:

"The funds presently estimated to be available through 2030 fall far short of being able to meet the needs of the state’s transportation vision. Nor will they sustain the system’s present-day quality and performance levels.

Under the current revenue forecast, today’s approximately 60 percent good/fair rating for roadway surfaces on the state highway system will fall to 32 percent. Local roads will deteriorate.

A growing number of the 8,413 bridges statewide will require load restrictions, increased maintenance or other special management measures to ensure safe conditions for people and goods.

Load-restricted bridges also may force trucks to find longer delivery routes, thereby increasing consumer prices.Efforts to reduce traffic fatalities and crashes will be diminished.

Without increasing capacity or the use of alternative modes of transportation, the percentage of congested miles on the state highway system will rise from 10 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2030.

People will pay more for vehicle repairs due to potholes and ruts. In urban areas, motorists will have to leave home earlier to avoid longer and more congested routes. The increased demand for service in 2030 for transit, aviation and local roads will not be met."

There you have it. An assessment of Colorado's transportation system, written by Colorado's former transportation director (a Republican, by the way).

Johnson said he fought with statehouse Democrats this year to prevent deeper cuts in transportation funding. He said some Democratic proposals shifted money from roads to building construction, health care and the judicial department.

We didn't cut transportation funding, we just didn't increase it as much as some people wanted.

"I'd rather see us spend more of the money we've got on transportation rather than raising taxes," Johnson said.

Still, he acknowledged that the state's pool of money falls short of the needs identified by the Transportation Department.

Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.

Kids 1st" license plate debuts

By Mike McPhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 08/08/2007 01:53:25 PM MDT

Lisa Van Bramer talks about the new kids license plate as Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien, right, listens at the state Capitol on Aug. 8, 2007. (The Denver Post | John Leyba)

The "Kids 1st" license plate made its official debut this morning as the state's newest designer plate, aimed at preventing injuries to the state's 1 million children.

The whimsical plate has the words "Kids 1st" in the center near the bottom, just below three handprints in blue, yellow and red.

The plate is the brainchild of Dr. Lisa Van Bramer, an emergency physician who founded the Rocky Mountain Research and Prevention Institute five years ago.

"I got the idea for the license plate when I was in medical school in Chicago," said Van Bramer. "Indiana had a 'Kids 1st' license plate that raises between $1.5 million and $3 million a year. The state didn't copyright the name. In fact, they wanted it spread around."

She said 14 or 15 states now have similar license plates.

"Coloradans love license plates, and they love children," Van Bramer said. "So I'm hoping we can do as well as Indiana."

Colorado has 100 versions of its basic license plate, including specialized plates and designer plates. Van Bramer is hoping "Kids 1st" becomes the most popular.

The purchaser of a "Kids 1st" plate gives a $30 donation to Van Bramer's institute, then pays the standard fees for a designer plate. If a car owner's plates haven't expired yet, they can get the "Kids 1st" plate now and be credited for the remaining time left on their old registration. The plates also can be personalized but without the three handprints.

Van Bramer's institute doesn't have its own programs but raises funds to be distributed among existing programs for children's health and injury prevention.

The plate is personalized for Van Bramer in a special way: The three handprints on the plate came from her own kids: Jake, 10; Josh, 6; and Emma, 10 months. They were all in attendance at today's dedication in front of the state Capitol.

Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien, a fierce advocate for children's issues, enthusiastically endorsed the new plate.

"This is a great way for the
The new Colorado kids license plate features kids' handprints and a purple background. It will raise funds for child health and safety programs throughout the state. (The Denver Post | John Leyba)
public to support programs for the safety and health of children," she said. "It funds grass-roots organizations that care for children and work toward preventing injuries. It will hand out grants in every community in the state."

Chris Watney, representing the Colorado Children's Campaign, said one in six Colorado children don't have health-insurance coverage.

"This could be a great opportunity to support our kids," she said.

The legislation creating the new plate was co-sponsored by Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, and Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder.

"Years ago, cholera was the main health issue facing children. Then it was strep throat. The new frontier today is protecting children from accidents," Pommer said. "This program could become the lead in a nationwide effort to protect our children."