Colorado Politics

Colorado legislature passes bill postponing road funding ballot question until 2020

Colorado lawmakers have passed a bill that would delay until 2020 a ballot question asking voters if the state can borrow $2.34 billion for transportation projects.

The issue was to appear on the 2019 ballot under legislation passed last year.

It would have asked voters if the state could issue $2.34 billion in transportation bonds. The state would owe up to $3.25 billion in borrowing costs over 20 years.

Lawmakers this year worried that would conflict with other 2019 ballot questions on state spending. Voters defeated two competing transportation funding questions last November.

The one-year delay also allows the state to keep generating money for roads under the 2018 legislation without interruption.

The House passed the bill by a 49-14 vote on Thursday.

It now heads to the governor.

In this Sept. 8, 2017, photo, Craig Pike, monitors traffic from a Colorado Department of Transportation office at the mouth of two tunnels bored under the Continental Divide. In 2018, about 13.4 million vehicles on I-70 crossed the Continental Divide, which slices through the heart of Colorado’s ski country. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Thomas Peipert
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