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Should the sales tax that funds regional and multimodal road projects be extended another decade?

Voters will decide at the polls Nov. 8 whether to extend the Pikes Peak Regional Transportation Authority’s 1-cent sales tax to share revenues among El Paso County, the cities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, and the towns of Green Mountain Falls, Ramah and Calhan.

Most of the money goes to the county and Colorado Springs. Fifty-five percent of the generated revenues pay for one-time capital projects, 35% of the funds go toward maintenance projects, and the remaining 10% to transit.

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If approved, the 10-year sales tax, which voters first approved in 2004 and extended in 2014, will finance major road projects between 2025 and 2034. Some of those projects include reconstructing North Nevada Avenue; upgrading Marksheffel Road from Woodmen Road to Carefree Circle on the county’s eastern edge; connecting Powers Boulevard from Colorado 83 to Voyager Parkway; and upgrades to Woodmen from Powers to U.S. 24.

Some residents have criticized the poor state of El Paso County’s roads despite previous tax increases intended to finance road upgrades and maintenance. A county Public Works report published last August that detailed local road conditions found more than 60% of the county’s paved roads and 45% of its rural roads are in poor shape or need reconstructing.

“We’ve seen how little we get in return for our tax increases. Won’t Get Fooled Again,” Jack Edwards wrote in a comment posted to an Aug. 10 Gazette article announcing the question’s inclusion on the November ballot.

Of the Colorado Springs projects, the plan would spend more than $100 million of the estimated $592 million in capital funding that it is projected to raise over the next decade on reconstructing North Nevada Avenue.

Residents have questioned why such a large percentage of the city’s expected future tax collections is planned for work on a 2-mile portion of the road they said wasn’t particularly unsafe or congested.

That project is split into four segments on the list voters will review. All four are described as projects that will improve signalized intersections and provide better transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to support the North Nevada redevelopment vision.

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Dutch Schulz, president of the Old North End Neighbors, told the regional transportation authority’s board in July redevelopment efforts would be more properly funded by a metropolitan district, typically financed by property taxes.

The plan to connect Powers from Colorado 83 to Voyager Parkway was envisioned as part of a two-part project that would one day directly connect Interstate 25 to Powers Boulevard on Colorado Springs’ far north side. Bond revenues from Polaris Pointe, a retail complex including businesses like Bass Pro Shops, Magnum Shooting Center and dozens of others, are financing engineering on this part of the project, Colorado Springs Public Works Director Travis Easton said. Revenues from bonds and the extended road tax, if it passes, will fund the project’s construction.

The Marksheffel expansion is estimated to cost $47 million, and the city’s portion of the extension of Powers is estimated to cost $72 million. The county also expects to contribute $30.9 million of its projected $301 million in capital funding to the Powers extension.

El Paso County’s proposed $473 million budget for 2023 also includes $11.9 million for county road maintenance and improvements – $10 million in one-time funds for road projects and $1.9 million to pay for gravel road maintenance.

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