In a stark sign the tide is shifting against a controversial bill that strips funding from the state's highways, some prominent business and civic groups are coming out in opposition to the measure.
Alongside Senate Republicans' full-frontal assault on Senate Bill 228 on Monday--a contentious debate that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday morning--business and community leaders from across the state have been issuing statements denouncing the measure.
Led by the influential Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the groups affirmed their opposition to SB 228, saying that it would allow for unsustainble growth of government--and that transportation is way too vital to Colorado's economic recovery to place at risk with 228's deep cuts.
The bill would end a long-standing policy that caps the growth of the state's operating budget at 6 percent a year. The legislation would amount to a dramatic shift--shorting highways untold billions of dollars in the years to come--because of a formula that directs all revenue in excess of the cap to transportation and other critical capital projects. Without the cap, the highway-funding formula is moot.
"...the pressure to grow operating programs is immense," Denver Chamber spokesperson Tamra Ward says in prepared a statement distributed to the business community. "The 6 percent limit prevents operating spending from growing beyond a sustainable level."
"This bill jeopardizes any hope we might have of fully funding vital road and bridge needs for the foreseable future," said Assistant GOP Leader Greg Brophy, of Wray. "So it's really no surprise that so many business groups have stepped forward to call the Democrats out on this reckless move."
On Sunday, before the bill was up for debate in the Senate, Action 22, a coalition of 22 counties in southeast Colorado, sent a letter to all state senators calling on them to vote the measure down, the primary reason being that the bill guts transportation funding.
"...transportation is key to the economic vitality of our Southern Colorado communities, we oppose the bill as written and urge you to vote NO," Cathy Garcia, president of Action 22 said in the letter.
A recent analysis by the nonpartisan office of Legislative Council shows that if the 6-percent limit and the highway-funding formula had been eliminated just five years ago, it would have cost Colorado's highways some $1.6 billion by now.
New numbers released by nonpartisan legislative staff show 228 would cost the state's highways hundreds of millions of dollars a year beginning in just a few years. As soon as the 2011-12 budget year, doing away with the cap would short transportation by well over $300 million, the figures from the Legislative Council office show.
Meanwhile, the Colorado members of another key business group also appear to be lining up against the Draconian highway-funding cuts of 228.
In a recent poll conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business, a non-partisan association representing small businesses across the state, found that an overwhelming 92 percent of its members believe only voters should have the abililty to end the long-standing cap on government spending.
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GOP senators debated late into the night recently in an eleventh-hour attempt to stop a bill that they say guts highway funding. |
