Tom Ryan is the Chief Research Officer for the Analyst Strategy Group LLC and also the author of the blog Barbeque Logic www.barbequelogic.com which he will tell us about.
On Monday (5/21/2012) the Mountain States Legal Foundation filed suit in Denver court on behalf of the Tabor Foundation alleging that both the ‘fee’ and the creation of the Bridge Enterprise violate Colorado’s Constitution. The case will undoubtedly end up at Colorado’s Supreme Court.
A quick backgrounder…
Back in 2009, the state legislature passed a set of legislation referred to as FASTER (Financial Alternatives for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery). The purpose was to raise the money necessary to repair 128 bridges that were/are in serious need of repair due to misappropriation and mis-allocation of General Fund money over the previous 15 years or so. CDOT estimated the costs to be just north of $1 BILLION. The legislature realized that raising $1B in taxes was not politically or practically possible, but decided that maybe they could raise about $100 million in taxes and leverage that to allow issuance of $1 billion in bonds. At that point, the legislature could have come clean with Colorado citizens, owned up to their previous mistakes, and – in compliance with Colorado’s Constitution – ask Colorado voters to approve both some new taxes AND the issuance of new debt.
But, our legislature decided instead to ignore Colorado’s Constitution and establish the new taxes and increase Colorado’s debt – WITHOUT A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE!
They concocted the scheme that surfaced as the FASTER legislation. There are five main provisions to the legislation:
- Establish an artificial, on-paper-only, government-owned business called the Colorado Bridge Enterprise.
- Charter this state-owned entity with the repair and maintenance of Colorado’s bridges.
- Fund this business through a Bridge Surcharge “fee” of about $20-$25 on EVERY VEHICLE licensed in the state (look at your vehicle registration).
- Authorize the Bridge Enterprise to issue bonds to raise additional money.
- Backstop the Bridge Enterprise by authorizing the governor to sell of Colorado State assets (e.g., the Capitol building) in the event the Bridge Enterprise became insolvent.
There are NUMEROUS legal and operational areas where each of these provisions is, at best, legal fiction.
Currently, the Bridge Enterprise collects about $95 million annually via the Bridge Safety Surcharge collected by DMV via vehicle registrations. Additionally, in Dec 2010, they issued $300 million in a first round of bonds. There are plans to issue an additional $400 million later this year or early next year with the potential for additional borrowing later.
On Monday (5/21/2012) the Mountain States Legal Foundation filed suit in Denver court on behalf of the Tabor Foundation alleging that both the ‘fee’ and the creation of the Bridge Enterprise violate Colorado’s Constitution. The case will undoubtedly end up at Colorado’s Supreme Court.
In the meantime, FASTER should become a campaign issue for EVERY CONSERVATIVE running this November – and should be pushed by EVERY LIBERTY GROUP across the State.
NO ONE is disputing CDOT’s findings that the 128 bridges need fixing. NO ONE is arguing that the bridges should not be fixed. What we are highlighting is the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PRECEDENT this sets!!!
If FASTER is allowed to stand, the precedent establishes that the legislature can move forward with ANY PET PROJECT simply by creating a state-owned ‘enterprise’ to handle the operational side of the project and then funding it with ‘fees’ allocated against the full citizenry of the state – not even limited to only those who might benefit from the project. The precedent does two things:
1) Completely abolishes ANY CONSTRAINTS Colorado’s Constitution places on the legislature’s ability to do whatever they want, raise taxes at will, and plunge the State into dangerous levels of debt
2) Removes operational control of government services from agencies accountable to the governor and the legislature by placing operation of potentially critical government functions into the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic appointees
We are creating a speakers bureau whose members are more than willing to speak at your Liberty Group meetings to educate your members as to what is going on – with the hope that we can rally people to pressure their representatives to repeal/unwind FASTER before it becomes a permanent part of government operations.
Please contact Regina Thomson (regina.thomson@yahoo.com) if you would like more information or to schedule a talk. Also, there are two backgrounder papers available from the Independence Institute website and attached to this email.
