Drivers could register their vehicles for two years at a time under a GOP-backed bill that passed its initial vote in the House on Tuesday, but they’ll still be socked with late fees if they don’t re-register on time, The Denver Post reports.

House Bill 1268 sparked a tussle over controversial late fees that have irked many drivers since they took hold a year ago. House lawmakers gave the legislation initial approval Tuesday.

Sponsor Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, said the bill will make life easier for county clerks and recorders and cut down on traffic, wait times and other headaches at local clerks’ offices.

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Regional Transportation District officials this evening will vote on whether to send to voters a ballot initiative that would raise RTD sales tax an additional four-tenths of a percent to complete the voter-approved FasTracks project by 2017.
The crippled light rail expansion project — which is facing a shortfall of at least $2.4 billion — was promised to voters in 2004 at a price tag of $4.7 billion. But RTD says soaring costs of materials coupled with the global recession won’t allow planners to complete the project by 2017 as promised, unless there is another tax increase.
“We have been very diligent about thinking through all the latest information surrounding FasTracks, including feedback from our regional stakeholders,” Lee Kemp, chair of the RTD Board, said in a statement. “The last part of the process is hearing directly from the public — our customers and taxpayers.”
A public hearing will be held at the board meeting tonight, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at RTD headquarters, 1600 Blake St.
Some anti-tax crusaders, however, would rather see the project completed with whatever resources are currently available rather than raise taxes again. Jon Caldara, president of the libertarian Independence Institute, believes officials have been lying to the public since they went to voters with the proposal.
“It’s hard to build support from taxpayers when you continually lie to them,” said Caldara. “There was no way from the beginning that this could have been done on time and on budget.”
Caldara sat on the RTD Board from 1994-1998, during which time he opposed the FasTracks proposal. He does not believe voters will go for another tax increase.
“RTD is massively stupid, but they’re not so massively stupid as to put this on the ballot for this year,” quipped Caldara. “It would be blown apart into little, itsy-bitsy pieces.”
A vote of the people has been postponed since the additional tax has been discussed. Polling indicates that voters are not in favor of a tax increase. Last year the issue was the odd election year; this year there is concern about the economic downturn.
If a sales tax vote is approved by voters this year, RTD would be able to complete the project by 2017, according to RTD officials. If voters approve the tax hike in 2012, the program would be complete by 2019. If voters do not approve a tax increase, the project would not be completed until 2042, according to FasTracks planners.
Lines at risk are the Interstate 225 Corridor in Aurora; the North Metro Corridor from Union Station to Thornton, Commerce City and Northglenn; and the Northwest Rail Corridor from Union Station to Longmont, passing through north Denver, Adams County, Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville and Boulder.
The Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) is hopeful that voters would approve the tax increase if presented to them on the ballot. The group argues that light rail expansion would save taxpayers money on gas and other travel expenses.
Danny Katz, director of CoPIRG, points out that the average Coloradan spends 17 percent of their income on transportation expenses.
“The most important thing right now is figuring out how can we build the system in its entirety, because it’s an important system — it connects the entire Denver Metro region and it has numerous, numerous benefits, from environmental to economic to jobs,” said Katz.
A spokesman for Mayor John Hickenlooper, who has been a huge proponent of FasTracks, said Monday that the mayor would support sending to voters a tax increase proposal to pay for the system.
“He is committed to completing FasTracks in its full breadth and scope,” said Eric Brown, Hickenlooper’s spokesman. “We recognize that may mean asking voters for more support. We are confident the RTD Board of Directors will determine the best way to move forward.”
Katz shrugs off accusations that RTD promised something to voters that was never possible. He points out that the T-REX project, including the Southeast light rail line, was completed in 2006 $3.7 million under budget and 22 months ahead of schedule.
“It surprises me that anyone can claim that RTD has any sort of track record of not delivering,” said Katz.
“We absolutely think it’s because of the economy,” he said of the shortfall. “When you have something that’s dependent on sales tax revenue and then you go into one of the worst recessions in the last 50 years, then it’s not surprising that we’re coming up short.”

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Contractors are concerned over a budget-balancing measure making its way through the Legislature that would divert as much as $20 million annually away from state-funded bridge and highway projects.
House Bill 1387, which has already made its way through the House and is currently being debated by the Senate, would divert approximately $20 million away from the Highway User Tax Fund — which pays for bridge and highway repairs — to the Department of Revenue for driver’s license administration.
The measure, which has bipartisan support, aims at assisting in closing the state’s estimated $1.3 billion shortfall. The bill is part of the proposed $18.2 billion budget, which was taken up by the Senate Thursday after making its way through the House.
Contractors wonder why the Democratic-controlled Legislature pushed a bill through the Legislature last year that increased vehicle registration fees in order to raise $250 million annually for transportation funding, only to then propose diverting $20 million annually away from bridge and highway projects. The state has 126 structurally deficient bridges and hundreds of miles of crumbling highways to fix.
“How do the governor and those who voted for FASTER honestly tell their constituents that the number of structurally deficient bridges and poor highways required a vehicle registration fees increase last year, but then turn around this year and divert tens of millions away from those same structurally deficient bridges and high-priority highway projects?” asked Tony Milo, executive director of the Colorado Contractors Association. “Do legislators really believe the public and media will endorse diverting $20 million per year — $200 million over the next decade — away from road and bridge projects after they just approved FASTER?”
Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, a member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, is sponsoring HB 1387 in the Senate. He said he is open to discussing amendments that would sunset the diversion, rather than make it permanent.
But the issue for White is about budget-balancing and paying for services with fees that are intended for those services. He pointed out that about $17.3 million is placed in the Highway User Tax Fund each year from revenue generated through processing driver’s licenses.
“Somewhere along the line … there became some consideration of entitlement that the purpose of those funds were for highway construction — I think it’s just historical disconnect somewhere because it seems to me that if I need a driver’s license this year and you don’t, that I should pay the fee to support that process instead of taking money out of the general fund, which are your taxes,” said White. “Why should your taxes go to support my processing of a driver’s license if you don’t need one and I do?”
White and his supporters, including Joint Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, are aiming at uniformity in paying for licensing.
“We’re trying to move toward having fees cover the cost of any program — whether it’s agricultural inspection, whether it’s restaurant inspection, whether it’s licensure of Realtors — the fee that the person who is being licensed pays should cover the entire cost of operating that program,” he said.
But Milo says the diversion couldn’t come at a worse time for his industry. He points out that business is down anywhere from 30-40 percent for the construction industry.
State-funded Colorado Department of Transportation projects usually boost the industry by anywhere between $400 million to $600 million, according to Milo. But a diversion of $20 million would take a large chunk out of the boost, he said.
The first FASTER projects are in the works, but construction is only just beginning on a handful of them. Only two projects are under contract, according to a CDOT FASTER Web site.
“The industry, legislators and the governor had to work very hard to get FASTER through — because there’s a dire need,” said Milo. “So, to take a step forward and then what feels like a little bit of a step back with this diversion is frustrating, because we do have so many needs here in Colorado for transportation.”

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Truckers should be encouraged by the latest action in the Colorado House to pursue the transfer of responsibility for the state’s Port of Entry, Land Line Magazine reports. The Colorado Department of Revenue now operates the Ports of Entry weigh stations throughout the state. The House Transportation and Energy Committee held a public hearing Thursday, March 4, and then voted to advance a bill that would hand over that responsibility to the State Patrol within the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

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Hundreds of thousands of skiers and snowboarders could see congested down-mountain commutes eased next winter with legislation meant to nudge transportation officials toward a new-to-Colorado technology, The Denver Post reports. Movable concrete barriers would divide a section of westbound Interstate 70 on weekend afternoons, temporarily rededicating the inside lane to eastbound traffic along one of the roadway’s most snarled segments.

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State Sen. Dan Gibbs wants to improve Interstate 70 mountain traffic flow by keeping large commercial trucks out of the fast lane on steeper grades, he tells The Summit Daily News. “My goal is to improve mobility and efficiency along the highway,” Gibbs said. He’s sponsoring a bill to be introduced this week that would require vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds to stay out of the left lane on grades of 6 percent or more.

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Two Weld County commissioners are upset about losing out on a $3.5 million grant to four Western Slope government entities that they say may have benefited from favoritism. What bothered the commissioners was the selection process, The Greeley Tribune reports. The Energy Impact Advisory Committee was stacked with members who came from areas where the projects were selected.

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A plan to let police pull over unbuckled drivers and charge them higher fees hit a dead end in committee Tuesday after lawmakers gutted the bill, likely forfeiting $12 million in federal transportation dollars in the process, The Denver Post reports. Lawmakers on the Senate Transportation Committee said they struggled to balance their constituents’ personal freedoms with public-safety concerns.

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By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Denver is reporting only six citations issued for texting while driving since the law took effect in December.
Law enforcement had originally said the law would be difficult to enforce. But the Denver Police Department does not attribute enforcement difficulty as the reasoning behind the low number of citations issued. They think people are just paying better attention.
Sonny Jackson, Denver Police spokesman, said his department is strictly enforcing the law, but that the violations can be difficult to prove in court. He said his officers are issuing citations based on what they believe they can prove in court.
“That’s what they’ve seen,” Jackson said of the six citations. “They clearly saw enough going on that they thought they could prove it in court, those are the cases they’ve seen and thought they could prove it in court.”
The law was pushed last year by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, who originally also pushed for a ban on talking on handheld devices while driving. As a compromise, the law ended up banning texting while driving for all drivers, and made it illegal for drivers under the age of 18 to use any cell phone while driving.
A series of car-related accidents led lawmakers to consider placing more restrictions on drivers and cell phones.
Levy said she does not measure the effectiveness of her law based on the number of citations issued. Instead, she believes the law itself has simply raised public awareness of the dangers of texting while driving.
“It has raised public awareness of the danger of texting while driving. It is having beneficial effects. Whether it is a success or failure? Are speed limit laws success or failures if you judge them on how many people follow that law? asked Levy. “I think that’s not even the right framework in which to view the legislation.”
Levy said she has no intention this legislative session of attempting to ban talking on handheld devices while driving, but she did not rule the possibility out in the future.
“There hasn’t been enough data to say whether these laws are good or bad,” Levy said of banning talking while driving.
Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, who opposed the component of Levy’s bill that would have banned talking on a handheld device while driving, said he has no problem with the ban on texting while driving. He hopes the low citation numbers indicate that people are listening.
“Hopefully, it means we have compliance with the law and safer drivers on the road,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Colorado State Patrol believes an accident last week in which a 23-year-old schoolteacher was killed in a single-vehicle crash west of Brush may be related to texting while driving. Records indicate that the woman was texting at 7:25 a.m. and 11 seconds, according to the Denver Post. The first 911 call came in at 7:25 a.m. and 59 seconds, by another motorist who witnessed the accident, according to the Post.
As a result, investigators are looking into whether the text was related to the accident.
Jackson said despite the difficulty in enforcing the law, the Denver Police Department is still taking the issue very seriously.
“At this point in time we know we’re taking it seriously and we are going to enforce it,” he said. “Our biggest concern is public safety, and if people aren’t paying attention when they’re driving, we don’t want accidents to happen because of that.”

Denver Daily News reporter Gene Davis contributed to this story.

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

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The announcement of a $304 million federal loan Friday gave the green light to the redevelopment of Union Station as a major Front Range transportation hub, The Denver Post reports. After at least six years of planning, the loan, guaranteed by the city and county of Denver, will let the $480 million project begin.

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