RTA could fund road improvements with tax district

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Efforts once again are afoot to form a new taxing district to finance regional transportation improvements within Larimer and Weld counties.

A June 13 transportation summit in Windsor is aimed at bringing together a broad range of residents to discuss local transportation needs and forge a grassroots lobby to carry the campaign for voter approval of a Rural Transportation Authority in the fall of 2007.

RTAs are independent taxing entities authorized by the state to collect up to a 1 percent sales tax, a $10 annual vehicle registration fee and a 2 percent lodging tax to finance local transportation improvements over a duration determined by the participants.

The summit is sponsored by the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, an association of 13 local governments collaborating to improve regional transportation and air quality. The organization plans and prioritizes which projects in those plans will receive state and federal funding.

The problem, according to executive director Cliff Davidson, is there are plenty of projects but little money available from those two sources to meet the region's most pressing transportation priorities anytime soon. Just over $1 billion in estimated revenues through 2025 would finance about a third of the state and local transportation needs in this area, according to the organization.

Those deficiencies will only be compounded, Davidson said, with the inevitably increasing Front Range population, which he notes grew 144 percent from 1970 to 2000. "The North Front Range is where it's happening," he said.

It became apparent the region was on its own a year ago when all five of the state's MPOs took their case about the transportation crisis to the state legislature, Davidson said. They returned home empty handed, except for a directive to solve the problems themselves by establishing Rural Transportation Authorities.

"There just is not money from the state to help us with transportation," said Fort Collins City Councilman Kurt Kastein. A member of the North Front Range MPO board, he also serves on a subcommittee working to refine and resolve differences about the proposed RTA. The committee is composed of representatives from Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley and Larimer and Weld counties.

Davidson readily rants about his objections to RTAs for further "balkanizing" government by forming yet another layer of bureaucracy. Regardless his disdain, however, he said RTAs are necessary as "the only game in town" to generate funding.

Further, he said, "RTAs are appropriate vehicles because they allow regions to make their own decisions locally about where they're going to invest their funds."

Davidson said the Pikes Peak region offers a prime example of how RTAs work well. Voters there in 2004 approved an RTA encompassing El Paso County and the municipalities of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and Green Mountain Falls. Each collects a 1 percent sales tax with $68 million in annual revenues dedicated to local transportation construction, maintenance and transit projects.

The Pikes Peak RTA arose from a two-year endeavor by more than 50 community organizations and business leaders, building on previous years of effort by other citizen boards and commissions committed to resolving regional transportation issues.

"We're following the Colorado Springs script to a T," said Larimer County Commissioner Karen Wagner, another member of the "big five" RTA subcommittee.

Although following the same script, creating an RTA here is a much more complex production. The Pikes Peak RTA involved a single county and one dominant city. Here there are two counties with very different philosophies and approaches to land use, three major cities competing for all-important sales tax revenues and eight smaller towns seeking their own slice of the pie.

Consequently, there are many more issues to resolve. Would a local RTA finance improvements to state and federal highways such as Interstate 25, or be limited strictly to local transportation needs, as does the Pikes Peak RTA? Would individual members be able to opt out should their voters reject formation of an RTA? What mix of potential revenue sources should the RTA seek to meet transportation needs? How should those funds be distributed among members? Should more populous members have greater voting power?

There's obviously plenty of opportunity for conflict. Such differences of opinion - chiefly between Fort Collins and Loveland on "who ran the show" - sank a previous proposal for forming an RTA following a two-year exploration, according to Davidson.

But this time around, Davidson said, it's much more likely the players can reach agreement with the growing realization that they're all in this together. Statistics, he said, show that a huge majority of commuters in the area are driving from homes in one community to jobs in another.

"So in some ways we do have a region," he said.

Wagner agreed that there appears to be more unity, "if you want to call it that," and that it's important to take a regional approach to transportation. But she has not yet signed on as a supporter because she believes there's no consensus on an RTA's purpose.

Her own concerns illustrate just how difficult it will be to reach real consensus among all potential partners in an RTA. While promoters of pavement regard more roads as essential for better mobility, Wagner considers the emphasis on roads shortsighted. She believes connecting the communities with transit is the best way to prevent them from all growing together.

"Building new roads will create more sprawl, and soon you won't know whether you're in Greeley, Windsor or Fort Collins," Wagner said. "Every road seems to be a magnet for new development."

All in all, Wagner said, she harbors real concerns about an RTA. She also expressed reservations whether the seemingly hurried and "exclusive" summit staged on a weekday morning will result in the broad-based coalition necessary to begin rallying support and raising funds for a regional election campaign.

"It's going to have to be carried by people in the private sector," said Kastein. "Hopefully at the summit we'll get a really good cross section of community groups."

"There's a long way to go," Wagner said.

"I'm not doubting at this point," said Kastein. "We need to work regionally on transportation."