It’s official: Colorado Springs will ask voters to extend tax for 2C expanded street paving program

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Mayor Yemi Mobolade confirmed Thursday what he first proposed earlier this year; that he and the City Council will ask voters for a ten-year extension of the 2C expanded street paving program.

Mobolade said that the question will be on the ballot in November, and emphasized that the sales tax which has financed the program since 2016 will remain at the current rate.

"So, we can do it without a tax increase while still addressing our infrastructure needs," he said during a media event regarding paving and potholes Thursday, outside Martinez Elementary School on the city's north side.

City Council president Randy Helms said that the Council still must approve the specific ballot language that voters will read at the polls.

When asked what would be next if voters reject the measure, he responded: "We (Council) are totally on board with this. I'm not even thinking about the possibility of it failing. I'm an optimistic person."

Officials said that continuing the 2C program remains the best way to reduce potholes, but the extra paving hasn't always reduced their numbers; according to city statistics, crews repaired more than 60,000 potholes in 2022 and the number rose to nearly 87,000 last year.

"Last month alone, we patched more than 9,000 potholes in 13 days," said Gayle Sturdivant, the city's acting public works director. "That equates to 715 per day."

Corey Farkas, the city's manager of operations and maintenance, explained why -- despite the additional paving -- the potholes are developing more frequently.

"Remember there's the freeze-thae cycle along the Front Range," he said. "We had a wet summer last year and a wet late winter and early spring. The water table with all of the water that we've had is so high currently, that we've had a lot of issues with springs popping up underneath our roadways. So, you know, with all of that water underneath the roadways, compromising that upgrade with the traffic on the roadways, inevitably you're going to have a lot of potholes due to the wet years that we've had over the last eight years."

City statistics reveal that as of this week, crews have repaired nearly 34,000 potholes -- on pace to threaten the record of 106,000 in 2019.

The city has between six and eight daily crews devoted to pothole repair.

"We rely on citizens to report potholes to us when they see them," Farkas said. "But we also fill them whenever we come across them. I know that some people say thay they never see a pothole crew. Well, that's because we're such a big city with a lot of lane miles. We have repaved what would be the distance from here to Athens, Georgia -- but we still need to pave what would be from there to Athens, Greece."

John Suthers, the city's previous mayor, authored 2C when he ran for the first of his two successive terms in 2015 and said that the city is making progress but still is far behind where it should be."

"In the early 1990s, the city eliminated a one-half-cent infrastructure tax that had been enacted to keep up with the pace of the growth of the community and our infrastructure demands," he recalled. And for the next two decades, we grossly underfunded road maintenance in Colorado Springs and the city was continuing to grow and we were improving a very, very small fraction of our roads every year."

Suthers said that the percentage of city roads in poor condition has decreased from 66% to 50% during 2C -- a sign of progress but also a symbol of how much more is needed.

James Proby, a local business owner, attended the event to support a 2C extension.

"As a small business owner, we need smooth roads," he said. "We need good infrastructure to make sure our employees and our customers can get to our shop. Additionally, this is a real simple project. It's really straightforward. Strong roads, strong infrastructure."

Also speaking in favor of an extension was Kate Brim, a Team USA para-cyclist.

"The maintenance of our roads is very important to the carsm cyclists and pedestrians," she stated. "And so, yeah, definitely helping out with the project to see for the next ten years is definitely going to be a huge benefit."

KRDO's Road Warrior, Scott Harrison, asked several people near the event if they'd vote for an extension.

"Definitely, yes!" said one woman. "Have you driven around lately? We need it. Streets are terrible all over town."

Another woman was ambivalent.

"We need better roads but a lot of people don't have money because everything costs more these days," she said.