February 04, 2009 08:21 PM UTC

GOP Brings Stoopid, Dissident Dems Attack FASTER

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: A deal at hand? No link yet but we’re being told to stand by a moment for a significant development. Rocky:

The Senate has paused further debate on the bill until 4 p.m. in an attempt to reach bipartisan compromise on the measure.

Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, will offer an amendment that would cut the $41 annual fees in half but then raise them up to that level over the next three years. The move would put people to work, as sponsoring Sen. Dan Gibbs has emphasized, and lower fees, as Republicans want.

…Several Democrats expressed optimism that a compromise can be reached. Sen. Chris Romer of Denver said that this is the time for Republican leadership to pledge to support the bill, and Gibbs said that everything remains on the table.

If we get a deal that works here, we promise to take back all the mean things we said about Mike Kopp below the fold. Thank you (provisionally), Al White.

UPDATE: Key components of the FASTER plan in danger now as rebellious progressive Democrats join with Republicans to strike funding mechanisms, Rocky:

Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, has rankled her own party again, this time with an amendment that would prohibit tolling of existing highway lanes. It again passed on an 18-17 vote.

The bill had provisions that would allow for tolling existing lanes under a process that involves local and state governments and, if the road in question is an interstate, a federal waiver…

Democratic Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora, Lois Tochtrop of Thornton and Jim Isgar of Hesperus joined Hodge and Republicans in backing the amendment.

The Rocky Mountain News legislative blog is reporting the GOP silliness:

Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, has introduced an amendment that would cut the $265 million transportation-funding bill to a measure that would pay $27 million to $50 million per year to fix only the bridges that are in imminent danger of collapsing. [Pols emphasis]

Rather than raising vehicle-registration fees, Kopp’s proposal would take money from severance tax revenues and would leverage state buildings as collateral for bond sales. This lower amount of spending would be in line with what Colorado taxpayers can afford to pay during a recession, Kopp said.

But Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said this would be a “titanic” mistake. Letting the bridges get to the breaking point before replacing them instead of doing smaller and cheaper repairs over time is going to be both more expensive and more dangerous, Romer said.

Seriously, that wasn’t the ‘big idea’ from the GOP, was it? Because holy cow, there will be no mistaking a bridge in “imminent danger” of collapse–you’ll recall this plan worked out really well up in Minneapolis. Democrats totally should have thought of that, eh?

We’re no transportation infrastructure experts, but it’s common sense that you don’t wait until the very last minute to fix something as important as a bridge.

If this unseriousness is the best the Republicans have got, it’s either going to be a really short day or a really long one. In a sign of actual willingness to compromise, however, Sen. Dan Gibbs just pulled the mileage-based tax study out of the bill.