Toll Road relief for traffic

Senator Chris Romer put forth an idea a few weeks ago in an effort to relieve the ski traffic on I-70 from Denver to the resorts. His initial suggestion was to charge a toll for people using the Interstate during high traffic times, while rebating another amount to those who opt to use the road in off peak times.

OK, my first thought his how does one implement such a program? Further investigation discovers Sen. Romer has not actually decided on any definite plan of action for his soon to be presented House Bill except what he plans to call it, “Traffic Demand Management.”

Romer has a Google Group where citizens can visit and leave their thoughts as to how to manage the problem. Like most online groups some of the comments left are less than complimentary to the Denver Democrat, his idea, what the “D” after his name stands for and where he can put his “bill!”

A quick reading through the suggestions convinced me that more people really don’t understand the process of brainstorming or who in fact will end up paying for improvements.

Colorado has limitations on taxes (Tabor Amendment) and cannot pass legislature without a successful popular vote. While our tax limitations seemed like a good idea at one time, the fallout of “no funds available” is starting to resonate. Our highways are in bad condition. We need more roads built to handle the current traffic and certainly there should be a plan to handle future growth as well.

Where the money will come from is obvious. It’s us. We can be proactive and start right now or we can argue about it until the roads fall apart and we are all sitting bumper to bumper in traffic no matter where we go.

I don’t like to pay taxes anymore than the next person. However their comes a time when we have to put money back into the kitty to take care our infrastructure. At least our lovely state of Colorado enjoys among the lowest property taxes in the country. We are ranked at #47!

Taxes, tolls or nerves; we can pay now or we can pay later. It’s time to pick our poison.