ROAD RULES: BALLOT ISSUE NO.

3 SHINES A HEADLIGHT
ON CRUCIAL CITY AND STATE BUDGET ISSUES

by Kate Tarasenko

[Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn (Fort Collins, Colo.),

March 24-30, 2005, pg. 7]

Ballot Issue No. 3 asks for a ten-year extension of the existing 0.25 percent sales tax which funds the city’s Street Maintenance Program.
The City Council, in a unanimous vote, initiated this ballot question, with official backing by the "Committee for Transportation Solutions."
Without the extension of the current tax (which does not apply to grocery food items), the direct funding for the program will expire at the
end of this year. The projected annual budget of $5.5 million generated through this quarter-cent sales tax, which had its start-up as part of a
larger revenue package in 1997, addresses all aspects of sidewalk and street upgrade and repair. Fort Collins has some 475 miles of streets to
maintain. Proponents of continuing the program funded through this tax say that non-residents who shop Fort Collins -- and drive its roads --
help fund this revenue stream by at least a third, offsetting some of the tax burden to residents.

There are few opponents to extending the "road tax." Mayor Pro Tem Bill Bertschy says that the Street Maintenance Program is "a success
story." Mayor Ray Martinez, however, said earlier this year that the City Council should do more to anticipate ongoing needs for the city such
as basic road maintenance. His sentiments echo the growing criticism -- from mayoral candidates Mark Brophy and Doug Hutchinson to the
Chamber of Commerce -- of the City Council’s lack of a more disciplined approach to its big-picture fiscal goals. Without a self-sustaining
budget measure for the city’s road repair, Colorado’s constitution automatically requires voter approval for initiating (or, in this case,
extending) any additional tax. This is one of the hobbling effects of the TABOR Amendment, as cited by its critics.

Until the folks at the State Capitol can untangle some of the more unmanageable implications of current state tax law, the City Council would
do well to hammer out the more no-brainer budgetary needs of the city without triggering TABOR.

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