We cannot afford any longer to neglect upkeep and postpone expansion of Colorado's transportation grid. Yet, we also cannot presume that the voting public will embrace a massive tax-and-fee hike.

Instead, we must treat transportation like the budget priority it is supposed to be by protecting current funding--constitutionally--from raids by the General Assembly. We also must make highway funding fairer for the taxpaying public, and we have to be more innovative in our approach to financing new projects.

• Making transportation a priority. We must stop highway robbery. Lawmakers regularly undermine the current formula for transportation funding by siphoning off highway dollars to grow other government programs.

• Dedicating—and securing—auto-related tax revenue for our transportation network (Sen. Andy McElhany, Reps. Mike May and Kevin Lundberg). Last year, Coloradans paid some $292 million in taxes on auto-related purchases. It only makes sense to make sure that revenue is spent on maintaining and enhancing Colorado’s transportation infrastructure. Let’s also ask voters to protect that funding source in our state constitution.

• Fairness in highway funding. Some of our state’s highways are actually major thoroughfares for local traffic, chiefly benefiting the communities through which they run. It is unfair to make the entire state’s taxpayers foot the bill for upkeep and upgrades to roadways that primarily serve one community.

• Returning authority for local roads to local governments (HB 1012 Rep. Glenn Vaad, Sen. Nancy Spence). With local residents assuming their fair share of responsibility for the cost for roads serving primarily their communities, we will be able to reduce the drain on the state’s budget and focus more of the state’s transportation resources on efforts that truly are of statewide concern.[Postponed indefinitely in House Committee on Transportation and Energy]

•  Letting innovation pay the way. The state of Colorado is missing out on a golden opportunity to tap into the potential of toll roads and use the proceeds to pay for other transportation projects. Other investors—including foreign ones like the Portuguese and Brazilian companies that are leasing the Northwest Parkway—have the ability to move in on Colorado opportunities and reap the rewards. The state should get into the game for the good of our taxpayers.

• Positioning the state tolling enterprise to bid on toll roads (HB 1139 Rep. Mike May, Sens. Mike Kopp and Josh Penry). The state never placed a bid on the Northwest Parkway project; under this proposal, the state would conduct an analysis whenever a public transportation asset becomes available to determine if it is in the best interest of taxpayers to bid. Toll-road proceeds that exceed debt-service payments on the project could fund other transportation needs.[Refered amended to the Appropriations Committee by the Senate Committee on Transportation]