Inevitable FASTER Carping Ignores Obvious

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by: Colorado Pols

Just a quick word on this weekend’s worthwhile report from the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone–it’s an welcome opening for usual-suspect complaints, but you could have predicted from the beginning that the bridge-repair projects funded by 2009’s FASTER vehicle registration fee increases would take some time to get moving.

Bridge projects funded by vehicle registration fees, fines for registration and bonds are coming along slowly.

Six of the 121 bridges statewide that are covered by FASTER – Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery – have been completed since the Colorado Bridge Enterprise was created in 2009, according to Don Hunt, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. Eighteen bridges are in the construction phase.

That leaves 97 of the 121 bridges awaiting construction. Eleven have designs complete; 46 more are in the design phase; and 40 have been prioritized as part of the program but no work has begun on them…

Annual assessments of bridges determine which are added to the list, Hunt said.

“It’s 100 percent (based) on bridge sufficiency rating, so the worst bridges get done first,” he said.

The admittedly slow pace of FASTER bridge repair, in addition to provoking reasonable questions from provincial advocates like Sen. Gail Schwartz, is sure to result in another round of wholesale denunciation of FASTER from conservatives in the legislature–or for that matter, any revenue increase to pay for bridge repair. As you know, conservative Republicans have attempted to repeal the FASTER fee increases each year, resulting in divisive infighting between them and leadership like Speaker Frank McNulty. McNulty, as we’ve discussed, made anti-FASTER rhetoric a key part of legislative campaign strategy last year for candidates under his wing, but proved surprisingly reasonable when it came time to actually govern. The reason is simple: Coloradans are driving on structurally unsound bridges. And fixing them costs money.

But sweeping anti-FASTER rhetoric is easy to recite, and well-suited to three-paragraph wire stories, and conservative pundits to write columns bemoaning clumsy “big government” and the crushing tax burden (in truth well below the national average) that Coloradans “already face.”

Rather than falling into that trap, why not simply ask how they would fix the bridges?

18 thoughts on “Inevitable FASTER Carping Ignores Obvious”

BlueCat says:

August 15, 2011 at 9:56 pm

SLOWER, my guess would be… their solution? Don’t spend anything to fix them. Cutting government spending and lowering taxes will have some sort of magical effect. And, of course, there’s always prayer.

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Automaticftp says:

August 15, 2011 at 10:39 pm

Anything?

Waiting until we grow the economy to where it generates sufficient tax revenue to repair them?

Or does he advocate simply letting them disintegrate?

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LarimerLoser13250 says:

August 15, 2011 at 11:24 pm

Seriously, do we?

Did the founding fathers have bridges? Did Washington cross the Delaware on a BRIDGE? It doesn’t look that way to me!

If we truly need bridges, the market will provide them.

Besides, if you weren’t all sinners, you could just walk across.

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ArapaGOP says:

August 15, 2011 at 11:29 pm

Fee hikes are not the only solution proposed. Its the only Democrat solution proposed. And it is very unpopular.

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1. Automaticftp says:
  
  August 15, 2011 at 11:37 pm
  
  n/t
  
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  1. Colorado Pols says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 12:22 am
    
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  2. redstateblues says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 12:31 am
    
    With some tax cuts thrown in.
    
    Once people have enough money in their own pockets, they’ll take it upon themselves to pave 9,146 miles of highway and rebuild 3,447 bridges.
    
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  3. raymond1 says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 3:47 am
    
    … so John Galt can return to America and serve his country by charging us private tolls to use his bridges. Go Ron Paul!!!!
    
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    1. Ralphie says:
      
      August 16, 2011 at 5:00 pm
      
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  4. Diogenesdemar says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 4:00 am
    
    to the one true (Christian, . . . like there was any doubt . . .) God to drop them to earth from the clouds.
    
    Second option, have Rick Perry pray to the one true (do I really need to say it again? . . .) God, and when all our rivers have completely dried up for lack of precipitation, then we can just drive across (or on) the parched river beds.
    
    In either case, the money saved by divine intervention could then be used to fund some more animal semen tax breaks.
    
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  5. caroman says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 4:19 am
    
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    1. Automaticftp says:
      
      August 16, 2011 at 10:12 pm
      
      Though I did email McNulty and Kevin Priola to ask them how they propose to fix our embarrassing roads and bridges.
      
      I’ll post their responses–if they even bother.
      
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      1. Diogenesdemar says:
        
        August 17, 2011 at 8:13 am
        
        Drivers shouldn’t be limited to crossing rivers at the few points the government has decided is best.
        
        Give drivers vouchers they can take to the roads and bridges that best suit their individual needs.
        
        We can run a trial program in Douglas county . . .
        
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DaftPunk says:

August 16, 2011 at 12:33 am

Perhaps a better word choice might have been “rural.”

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  August 16, 2011 at 2:26 am
  
  sounds so much more condescending. What is one to do about the yokels out in the provinces?
  
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2. Ralphie says:
  
  August 16, 2011 at 4:27 am
  
  Snowmass doesn’t count as rural.
  
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  1. DaftPunk says:
    
    August 16, 2011 at 6:08 am
    
    But Snowmass is more cosmopolitan than provincial.
    
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DavidThi808 says:

August 16, 2011 at 6:52 am

We don’t need roads.

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