We watched for too many years the erosion of Colorado’s transportation system as well as the public confidence in the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Far too often, the Democrat majorities worry more about liberal government programs than they do about hardworking Coloradans. We will not remain silent any longer.

We are calling for the immediate suspension of Colorado’s 22-cent-per-gallon gas tax for six months. The fiscal impact of suspending the gas tax is estimated to be approximately $600 million over 6 months to both CDOT and cities and counties.

To not further destroy our transportation system, we call upon Gov. Jared Polis and the Democrats in control of the General Assembly to use the federal ARPA COVID stimulus funds (which Polis received $3 billion to “invest as he saw fit”) as an offset to the short-term loss of revenue to CDOT. The General Fund saw a strong recovery from the COVID downturn of 2020 and could also be used as a source of revenue to offset the gas tax suspension. Surely, helping to reduce the financial burden on hard-working Colorado families is the best use of these “one time” federal stimulus dollars.

As public servants representing the well-being of the state of Colorado, we hope one of the many contributions we leave behind is our knowledge about how transportation has been funded, or the lack thereof. Due to term limits, unfortunately, far too many of our colleagues lack the knowledge of the legislative history surrounding how both the revenue for transportation and the “deals” to address a sustainable General Fund commitment to transportation have been ignored by Democrats in power.

Let’s just examine history for a minute. In 2005, under Republican Gov. Bill Owens, Coloradans took a historic vote with Referendum C and Referendum D. Colorado was riding a rapidly-growing economy (sound familiar), and TABOR kept government spending in check. Under the leadership of Owens, Colorado massively invested in a clearly defined set of “strategic” projects that were universally accepted in Colorado. Coloradans spoke clearly on Nov. 8, 2005. as voters said they wanted CDOT to build a defined list of transportation projects with the state monies available without taking on public debt for these investments. They did not want CDOT taking public debt to build transportation projects, and they opposed “debt” for transportation investments.

Over the past 15-plus years, and three Democrat governors later, a massive amount of General Fund revenue, which should have been dedicated to CDOT through SB97-001 and HB02-1310, has been taken away. The first “deal” struck was the creation of SB09-228, which dedicated 2% of General Fund collections to CDOT with 10% of that money going to transit.

SB09-228 was a “compromise” because Democrat majorities felt SB97-001, in combination with HB02-1310, provided “too much” general-fund revenue to CDOT. Additionally, in 2009, the Democrats massively raised taxes for transportation through SB09-108 (FASTER). Democrats never intended to live up to the General Fund commitments of SB09-228, which was proven true in consecutive legislative sessions.

This pattern of passing a tax increase for transportation as well as a “General Fund commitment” was once again the preferred legislative scheme of Democrats during the 2021 legislative session with the passage of SB21-260.

Last year, Gov. Jared Polis, Sen. Faith Winter (D-Adams), Senate President Stephen Fenberg (D-Boulder), House Speaker Alec Garnett (D-Denver), and Rep. Matt Gray (D-Boulder, Broomfield) rammed through the Colorado General Assembly one of the largest tax increases in Colorado history. Five Democrats, with nearly universal opposition by Republicans, under the auspices of “transportation investments” have forced upon Colorado taxpayers a $5 billion tax-hike boondoggle with so-called “General Fund expenditures” for transportation. Does this pattern sound familiar? What will Colorado taxpayers get in return for this massive tax hike?

• Massive new public debt
• The transfer of $6.5 billion away from road improvements to liberal environmental “mitigation” projects
• Continuation of some of the nation’s worst rural Interstate roads (Colorado is 47th in the nation)
• Shockingly-high serious injury and fatal crashes (2021 set records in these areas)

This “diversion” of revenues for transportation, typically a bipartisan priority, to liberal “pet” investment areas has directly broken Colorado’s transportation system. Hard-working Colorado families should not bear the burden of a longstanding history of mismanagement of Colorado’s transportation system by Democrats.

In a time of international crisis and President Joe Biden and Governor Polis’s war on the energy industry, which has resulted in higher fuel costs, Colorado families deserve a break. That is why we are calling for the immediate suspension of Colorado’s 22-cent gas tax for six months. This action would immediately lower the price at the pump from about $4-a-gallon to $3.78-a-gallon, thus directly impacting the pocketbooks of every Coloradan. Many other states are examining, or have already implemented, this concept. We can do this too and not take one single penny away from CDOT – but only if the Governor and Democrats in power under the dome take immediate action to help hard-working Colorado families.

Ray Scott is a Republican in the Colorado State Senate representing District 7, Mesa County. Dennis Hisey is a Republican also in the state Senate representing District 2, which encompasses Clear Creek, El Paso, Fremont, Park and Teller counties.