CDOT to sell our roads without citizen approval.

[Great-Kazoo]

I honestly don't want to get into that at all. The point I am trying to make is I want the people to decide through a vote and not let an unelected big government bureaucracy. That big government bureaucracy should not have the power to sell our public infrastructure without our consent.

I know a bunch of folks who live on the rez that agree.

[esaabye]

So I read the petition and it was going fine until they suggest we increase gas taxes ( to hurt SUV drivers) increase income taxes to hurt the fat cats and increase oil and gas royalties. This group is not interested in the same outcomes as I am. Their solution is to increase my taxes, those of my employer, and hamper my ability to travel so that the state can increase the labor pool and keep providing the same mediocre service they do now.

while not a fan of this contract I am not a fan of your alternative (assuming you are in agreement with the petition you shared)

[68Charger]

Hickenlooper and democrat administration doing something not fiscally responsible? (this is my shocked face)

I simply will not take the toll roads (when I travel back East it's practically unavoidable, but company pays the tolls then)

I hope is it is a complete an monumental failure, and winds up being referred to as "Hick's folly" and the disgrace kills his national political career...
but in reality, he probably bought a future election with the deal...

[Aloha_Shooter]

I wonder how much this Change.org petition resembles the ludicrous petitions you'd see on Leno or O'Reilly. I'm no fan of Goldman Sachs but read a bit further down on the webpage ...

CDOT makes the false claim that privatization is the only source of money for upgrading Colorado Highways. Privatization is like a high interest credit card loan. The state of Colorado gets quick upfront cash, then has to pay high interest and profits to foreign toll road firms and Wall Street bankers for the next 50 years. Public Finance options for US 36 include:

1. Use the more than $70 million in new marijuana tax revenue to finance education and Colorado public highways
2. Add a 2% flat tax on all income, including capital gains over $500,000 in Colorado. Wall Street Bankers want all people in Colorado to pay road tolls.
   Instead, let’s have the Wall Street Bankers pay a little more tax to support Colorado public highways.
3. Let’s do a small increase on the fuel tax to fund public highways. This will also encourage people driving gas guzzling vehicles like Hummers to move to more fuel efficient or electric vehicles like VIA Motors pickup trucks and cargo vans.
4. Let’s do a small increase on the oil and natural gas production tax in Colorado. The vast profits of the oil and gas sector can help fund Colorado public highways.

Yeah, I'm not quite ready to call BS on this one but my BS meter is pinging real hard. It sounds more like another incremental front for getting voters behind another tax increase. The last thing we need is to give Ferrandino and company another source of revenue to spend.

[DeusExMachina]

Hey, idiots: http://www.coloradostatesman.com/con...-us-36-boulder

[nynco]

I don't agree with the tax solutions as many of you do not either. But I look at that as a battle for another day. Right now, the important part for me is preventing this from being signed later this week.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Yeah because the rest of the state should have to pay for those privileged drivers speeding merrily along from Denver to Boulder or Denver to Fort Fun. A toll road is the perfect solution to meet the upgrade needs there -- and the tax "solutions" proffered on that website are just the in Ferrandino and company want to circumvent TABOR. Nah, so far, I see nothing to protest and everything to support the toll lane solution.

[bogie]

Yeah because the rest of the state should have to pay for those privileged drivers speeding merrily along from Denver to Boulder

Now that you mention it, why should I pay for the six lanes that let drivers sit on 25 when driving between cos and south Denver?

[Aloha_Shooter]

Now that you mention it, why should I pay for the six lanes that let drivers sit on 25 when driving between cos and south Denver?

You paid for them because it's a part of the Interstate system which is a nationwide express route intended to ease the logistic burden of national defense. Eisenhower was inspired by the Autobahn system in Germany and how it helped them speed transport of troops and war materials. The express lanes they're talking about charging tolls for are a whole other deal altogether -- if the proposal was to turn all of I-25 into a toll road, I'd be on the side of people protesting that but that's NOT what's being done. In point of fact, what they are doing is getting lease money from investors who propose to front the money necessary to repair and upgrade a much larger portion of the infrastructure and then get their money back by charging tolls to use the express portions of the highway -- so the people using those portions are the ones paying the bill.

My apologies for injecting a little reality and a few facts into this discussion.

[BPTactical]

CDOT is funded by taxes on fuel sales and supplemented by fed dollars. If anybody tells you different they are full of shit.
No money from the general fund/coffers goes to CDOT.
Therefore any proposed tax increase will go the the general fund and NOT CDOT.
They are lying.