Transportation and Infrastructure Issues

Transportation and Infrastructure Issues

There is $9 billion worth of unfunded deferred maintenance and improvements that need to be made to Colorado's transportation system and infrastructure and that number is growing at about $1 billion a year. Colorado Farm Bureau Vice President of Advocacy Shawn Martini says that addressing transportation and infrastructure is a policy priority both in the state and federal level for Farm Bureau. And he says all involved in the state legislative system understand the importance of addressing the transportation now rather than later.

Martini: "From Farm Bureau's perspective — something is better than nothing. Obviously nothing perfect is going to come out. There is no way we're not going to be able to raise $9 billion in a single shot to be able to attack this problem. It is going to be a multi-year effort. There are a couple of different proposed solutions that are making their way thru the legislature right now. Members are having lots of conversations with constituents, lots of conversations with groups like Farm Bureau and Chambers and that sort of thing and also among themselves to try and figure out how they are going to come to some kind of compromise. It looks like at this point that it is going to be a bonding measure of some sort or potentially an increase in sales tax or something along those lines to service those bonds. That will probably be packaged into a referred measure that will be brought to the voters in November."

One focus of Colorado Farm Bureau in their conversations with elected officials concerning the direction of these future transportation funds on a equal basis to both rural and urban areas.

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