Report: Fees going to EV and public transit, not fixing the roads

Colorado's roads are deteriorating, as more money moves away from maintaining the roads in favor of funding public transportation and electric vehicle programs.

This comes even as transportation fees continue to increase for Coloradans, raising over $200 million.

This is all according to a March report titled “The Ongoing Shift of Transportation Dollars,” which was authored by Ben Stein for the Common Sense Institute of Colorado.

In an exclusive interview with The Center Square, Stein said that one of the biggest problems currently facing Colorado’s transportation infrastructure is the misdirection of funds away from directly fixing the roads.

“I think that the average citizen, when paying these additional fees that have been created in the last four or five years, presumes that that money is going to improve the transportation infrastructure,” Stein said. “In fact, only a small proportion of it is.”

Instead, the report found that the “bulk” of the money collected through those fees has gone to environmental mitigation and mass transit efforts.

Many of those efforts are being pushed as part of Gov. Jared Polis’ Transportation Vision 2035 plan, which makes it a goal to lower emissions in the state by methodically reducing “the use of vehicles, particularly those powered by fossil fuels.”

Yet, Stein argued that Colorado’s geography will make it nearly impossible to effectively move toward mass transit.

“I don't believe, if you look at the land-use patterns where people live in Colorado today, that mass transit is really going to be an effective solution,” he told The Center Square. “It’s very difficult to imagine that mass transit is a viable solution.”

The report added that the monies that are directed toward infrastructure just aren’t meeting the Department of Transportation’s needs, with inflation, the redirection of funds and the state’s geography all playing a role in that.

“Over the long term, the resources available simply are insufficient to operate, maintain and expand the state’s highway system to maintain appropriate service levels,” the report found.

The problem isn’t going to get any better either, as Colorado’s roads already rank some of the worst in the nation.

This is according to a March report from the Reason Foundation, which ranked Colorado 47th for the condition of its rural highway pavement and 45th for urban highway pavement.

Stein said it is important to raise awareness about the redirection of funds, so that Coloradans know what their transportation fees are actually funding.

“There really needs to be statewide conversation so that the people of Colorado can say, ‘Yes, removing emissions is so important to us that we are prepared to have these fees go toward this, regardless of what it means for the long term condition of the state highway infrastructure.' ”