Driving in Colorado isn’t easy, and it’s getting harder every day – from potholes to all the time wasted sitting in traffic. But the fix to these problems requires politicians to make the same kind of tough decisions that small businesses and families make every day.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) says it needs $900 million per year over the next 10 years for new transportation projects alone. The department currently budgets only $80 million a year for these projects. At this rate, it will take nearly 31 years just to complete everything on the department’s high-priority list.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum acknowledge the need to address this shortfall, yet too often they present voters with false choices in their attempt to secure more funding. Rather than prioritizing transportation, lawmakers fund their own priorities and then hold transportation hostage, demanding an increase in taxes to fund it.

Not surprisingly, polls have found Coloradans oppose schemes to raise taxes for transportation. During the 2017 legislative session, 57 percent of Coloradans opposed a transportation tax hike proposal before opponents even began campaigning against it, an indication that no amount of money spent in support of the measure would have convinced voters to pass it.

We didn’t get in this transportation mess overnight, and we won’t get out of it in one legislative session. But lawmakers can start by reallocating funds, eliminating waste and ending cronyism in the state budget.

For one, they need to analyze where our user fees for highways are being spent. How much is frittered away on non-highway spending, like transit projects and decorative landscaping in medians?

They should tackle the cronyism in the state tax code that benefits special interests while shortchanging taxpayers. That includes fuel tax exemptions for favored companies and industries that are cutting into our desperately needed transportation funds.

The legislature can also put an end to special tax giveaways for people who buy hybrid and electric vehicles – a program that costs taxpayers $7.6 million per year. Next time you’re stuck in traffic and see a $100,000 Tesla sitting next to you, remember that your tax dollars helped pay for it.

Hollywood also benefits from taxpayer handouts, as we pay more than $9 million in subsidies for movies produced in Colorado. While that number will be cut down to $1.5 million next year, it deserves to be scrapped altogether.

Lawmakers who would rather raise taxes are saying there’s simply not enough money in the budget. They should look harder. A forthcoming issue paper by the Independence Institute has found nearly $700 million in the state budget of questionable programs and expenditures. Reallocating even a portion of these funds in a responsible manner could provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for high-priority transportation projects.

In addition to eliminating waste and cronyism, legislators should consider setting aside sales taxes generated by vehicles, tires, parts and other auto accessories for the transportation budget, as lawmakers have done in the past. These and other general fund transfers provided more than $2 billion for roads before the transfers were targeted by lawmakers seeking to use those dollars for other purposes.  Restoring these user-generated revenues to the purpose of improving roads is one way to ensure a reliable stream of funding for highway improvements without hitting taxpayers with yet another tax or “fee.”

Legislators should pursue these and other alternatives before ever asking for new taxes. And rather than hoping they find the political will to give transportation funding the priority it deserves, citizens should contact their state senators and representatives and demand they prioritize transportation funding in 2018 without raising taxes.

Coloradans shouldn’t have to sit in traffic while lawmakers wait for yet another statewide tax increase proposal to fail. It’s time to get Colorado moving again.