FasTracks Feedback Coming Fast
As the RTD Board approaches its preliminary decision regarding a potential ballot initiative to increase the FasTracks tax, we are beginning to receive feedback from some of our local public officials and editorial writers.
This Monday, Sean Maher wrote an excellent piece in the Daily Camera, “FasTracks needs more fuel“. While Sean wants to make sure that RTD is accountable for its commitments, he argues for a vote on the full 0.4% sales tax increase in order to finish the FasTracks buildout by 2018. “2042 is just too long to wait,” he concludes, which is the time it will take to complete the FasTracks program without additional resources.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of mayors from around the region expressed similar support for the 0.4% sales tax increase. They were responding to polling results that indicate higher public approval of a tax that will complete the FasTracks system in a reasonable time period. According to a story in the Denver Post, which you can access here, pollster David Kenney found that voters just want to be told “what it costs to get it done while I’m alive.”
Finally, today I had the opportunity to sit on a panel during a meeting of the US36 Commuting Solutions organization with Louisville Mayor Chuck Sisk and Broomfield Mayor Pat Quinn, along with RTD Board Chair Lee Kemp, for a discussion regarding the potential FasTracks ballot initiative. As the Broomfield Enterprise well captured in a story that you can read here, Mayors Quinn and Sisk did not shy away from their clear advocacy for a 0.4% increase. In the words of Mayor Sisk, “Four-tenths is what we support . . . I will be critical of the (RTD) board if they don’t step forward and get this done.”
All of this is great input for me and my RTD Board colleagues as we weigh our desire to complete the full FasTracks system as soon as possible against the public’s appetite for a sales tax increase. Getting that balance right is critical because, in the words of RTD Board Chair Lee Kemp, “We only get one shot at this.”
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john@johntayer.org
John –
I don’t know where your polling data is coming from, but I’d be surprised if metro voters supported a 0.4% tax increase when we already passed a major tax increase to fund Fastracks in 2004.
I ran for the Board in 2000 for a short time, before bowing out to support Bill Elfenbein for the District A seat. We did not want to divide the pro rail vote.
I am vehemently opposed to any sales tax increase at this time. Denver voters have been very generous in the past decade passing numerous property and sales tax increases for public projects such as education and mass transit.
I frankly feel betrayed and angered that the Board now considers tacking on another 0.4% to an already high sales tax rate that we pay here. Most of all, this will hit those on the lower end of the income ladder the hardest – especially if they buy a home or move into a new apartment and need to purchase appliances.
I would strongly suggest that you all sharpen your pencils and find out why it now is going to take another 30 years to complete this project when projections less than hafl a decade ago said it would be done by 2020 at the latest I believe.
I have a strong background in finance and just don’t understand how your projections could be so horribly inaccurate. Did nobody forecast an economic slowdown at some point in the 2004 projections? Sales tax revenue will increase as the economy improves.
Best,
Bernard Douthit
Denver, Colorado