Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is the Tuesday edition of Colorado's Morning News. A
ballot initiative for next year's midterm election is hoping to
better fund Colorado's critical infrastructure, including roads, highways, and bridges.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Initiative one twenty six has a goal that all fees
related to the highway would be dedicated back to Colorado
Roads and joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit
Health Hotline is president and CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association.
It's Tony Milo. Tony, thank you so much for your
time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good morning, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So we gave a brief overview of what this initiative
is about, but go into further detail of what this
could look like if it's before voters next year.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Sure sure appreciate the opportunity our initiatives. Then we filed
a few different iterations of them right now in order
to test them in the field and see which ones
the voters prefer the most. But the guts of the
initiative is to ensure that all fees and taxes that
are currently being paid related to highway use go back
(00:59):
into our roads and bridges. The voters have told us
that they feel like they pay enough in fees and
taxes right now, and they're frustrated about pavement condition across
the state, congestion in urban areas, and safety, and so
these initiatives would help keep a consistent funding stream annually
(01:22):
to ensure that our roads and bridges keep up with
the growing demand.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tony, if you can clear it up from you, then
are you saying currently the funds and fees that are
supposed to go to those kind of issues are not
all directed to those issues.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's correct. Many of the fees and taxes that motorists
pay every day for the use of the highways are
going to other things, whether it be transit or environmental mitigation.
And some of it, like the sales tax on auto
parts and auto purchases, goes into the general fund, and
there's no way of tracking where that even goes. But
(01:57):
there is currently no that general Fund commitment to our
roads and bridges here in Colorado, and this initiative would
guarantee that every year a portion of that general Fund,
especially the sales tax money that comes from auto parts
and services, would be dedicated to our roads. And I
think the voters have told us that that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
The sales tax and other fees makes sense when it
comes to bringing that back to Colorado roads. But what
are some of the other taxes or fees that people
might not even be aware about that we pay already
that could be going into this initiative.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sure, that's a great question. So currently, there's a fee
for every delivery that you get at home, whether it's
Amazon or FedEx or ups, it's a twenty five cent
per delivery charge. And that's because those delivery trucks are
using the roads. So that makes sense. However, much of
that money goes to things other than roads, including environmental
(02:52):
mitigation and transit. So what we're saying is that a
fee like that, whether it's an uber fee, rideshare, feed,
delivery fee, all of those fees that are placed right
now on consumers for the use of the road would
go back into roads and bridges, and right now they're
being spent on other things.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
A bit of a pivot, Tony. But and I don't
know if you know this, but if you had to
give our roads a letter grade, say compared to other states,
what letter grade would you give our current road conditions
here in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well, that's a great question, and the American Society of
Civil Engineers just did a study recently, a national study
that compares you know, pavement quality, pavement quality, statewide, congestion
in urban areas, and safety, and Colorado got a D
plus for their roads overall. So we are failing the
(03:44):
motorists of Colorado. We're letting one of our biggest investments
here in the state really crumble beneath us. So that's
where this initiative steps in to say, let's fix what
we have.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Getting in on the ballot is not easy and it
can be expensive as well. So tell us about the
steps for this initiative, what it has to do next,
and the number of signatures. Are you already in the
signature process of getting it on the.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Ballot, Sure, we have not gotten that far yet, but
you're right, it's quite an extensive process. We do have
four different initiatives filed with the Secretary of State. We
need to go through the title process to actually officially
get title from the Secretary of State for each of
those initiatives, and then we're going to test them in
(04:33):
the field and see which one the voters prefer based
on the small changes. One has a ten year sun set,
one doesn't kind of changes like that, just to see
which ones are our most palatable to the voters. Then
we have to pick one to go out and get signatures,
and you get six months after title, you get six
(04:54):
months to collect the signatures and get them into the
Secretary of State. And you have to have a certain
number from each county because it is a constitutional amendment,
and so it is a long and expensive process.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Tony, my instincts tell me you you may not be
that hard to get that many signatures, because we know
our roads are crowded and a lot of people obviously
are using them. I'll ask you this as we wrap
up with you. Have you presented any of this to
our leadership the legislature to say, guys, we have these issues,
let's use the funds that we have in place. Are
they aware of the problem that it comes to funding
(05:26):
or lack thereof That's a.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Great question, and to your point, we think you're right.
We think the voters are really set up and really
frustrated about our roads, and we have presented it a
number of times to our legislators and our elected leaders,
and they are they just many of them, a majority
of them currently are not making roads and bridges a priority.
There are many priorities that the state has, and we
(05:49):
understand they're all important, but we've got to take care
of this and this infrastructure system that we have here
in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
President and CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association, it's Tony Milo. Tony,
thank you so much for your time this morning.
It is the Tuesday edition of Colorado's Morning News. A
ballot initiative for next year's midterm election is hoping to
better fund Colorado's critical infrastructure, including roads, highways, and bridges.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Initiative one twenty six has a goal that all fees
related to the highway would be dedicated back to Colorado
Roads and joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit
Health Hotline is president and CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association.
It's Tony Milo. Tony, thank you so much for your
time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good morning, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So we gave a brief overview of what this initiative
is about, but go into further detail of what this
could look like if it's before voters next year.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Sure sure appreciate the opportunity our initiatives. Then we filed
a few different iterations of them right now in order
to test them in the field and see which ones
the voters prefer the most. But the guts of the
initiative is to ensure that all fees and taxes that
are currently being paid related to highway use go back
(00:59):
into our roads and bridges. The voters have told us
that they feel like they pay enough in fees and
taxes right now, and they're frustrated about pavement condition across
the state, congestion in urban areas, and safety, and so
these initiatives would help keep a consistent funding stream annually
(01:22):
to ensure that our roads and bridges keep up with
the growing demand.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tony, if you can clear it up from you, then
are you saying currently the funds and fees that are
supposed to go to those kind of issues are not
all directed to those issues.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's correct. Many of the fees and taxes that motorists
pay every day for the use of the highways are
going to other things, whether it be transit or environmental mitigation.
And some of it, like the sales tax on auto
parts and auto purchases, goes into the general fund, and
there's no way of tracking where that even goes. But
(01:57):
there is currently no that general Fund commitment to our
roads and bridges here in Colorado, and this initiative would
guarantee that every year a portion of that general Fund,
especially the sales tax money that comes from auto parts
and services, would be dedicated to our roads. And I
think the voters have told us that that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
The sales tax and other fees makes sense when it
comes to bringing that back to Colorado roads. But what
are some of the other taxes or fees that people
might not even be aware about that we pay already
that could be going into this initiative.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sure, that's a great question. So currently, there's a fee
for every delivery that you get at home, whether it's
Amazon or FedEx or ups, it's a twenty five cent
per delivery charge. And that's because those delivery trucks are
using the roads. So that makes sense. However, much of
that money goes to things other than roads, including environmental
(02:52):
mitigation and transit. So what we're saying is that a
fee like that, whether it's an uber fee, rideshare, feed,
delivery fee, all of those fees that are placed right
now on consumers for the use of the road would
go back into roads and bridges, and right now they're
being spent on other things.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
A bit of a pivot, Tony. But and I don't
know if you know this, but if you had to
give our roads a letter grade, say compared to other states,
what letter grade would you give our current road conditions
here in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Well, that's a great question, and the American Society of
Civil Engineers just did a study recently, a national study
that compares you know, pavement quality, pavement quality, statewide, congestion
in urban areas, and safety, and Colorado got a D
plus for their roads overall. So we are failing the
(03:44):
motorists of Colorado. We're letting one of our biggest investments
here in the state really crumble beneath us. So that's
where this initiative steps in to say, let's fix what
we have.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Getting in on the ballot is not easy and it
can be expensive as well. So tell us about the
steps for this initiative, what it has to do next,
and the number of signatures. Are you already in the
signature process of getting it on the.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Ballot, Sure, we have not gotten that far yet, but
you're right, it's quite an extensive process. We do have
four different initiatives filed with the Secretary of State. We
need to go through the title process to actually officially
get title from the Secretary of State for each of
those initiatives, and then we're going to test them in
(04:33):
the field and see which one the voters prefer based
on the small changes. One has a ten year sun set,
one doesn't kind of changes like that, just to see
which ones are our most palatable to the voters. Then
we have to pick one to go out and get signatures,
and you get six months after title, you get six
(04:54):
months to collect the signatures and get them into the
Secretary of State. And you have to have a certain
number from each county because it is a constitutional amendment,
and so it is a long and expensive process.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Tony, my instincts tell me you you may not be
that hard to get that many signatures, because we know
our roads are crowded and a lot of people obviously
are using them. I'll ask you this as we wrap
up with you. Have you presented any of this to
our leadership the legislature to say, guys, we have these issues,
let's use the funds that we have in place. Are
they aware of the problem that it comes to funding
(05:26):
or lack thereof That's a.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Great question, and to your point, we think you're right.
We think the voters are really set up and really
frustrated about our roads, and we have presented it a
number of times to our legislators and our elected leaders,
and they are they just many of them, a majority
of them currently are not making roads and bridges a priority.
There are many priorities that the state has, and we
(05:49):
understand they're all important, but we've got to take care
of this and this infrastructure system that we have here
in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
President and CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association, it's Tony Milo. Tony,
thank you so much for your time this morning.
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