Gov. Hickenlooper concerned about transportation, infrastructure

Gov. John Hickenlooper held a press conference in Denver on Friday, announcing his decision to not call lawmakers back to the capitol for a special session.

Hickenlooper was considering reconvening the legislature to work on unfinished business, primarily funding for transportation and health care.

“A big gap that needs to be addressed is finding sufficient resources for infrastructure. I view it as one of the most important things facing the state right now,” Hickenlooper said.

He added lawmakers didn’t do enough to fund transportation.

Sen. Michael Merrifield, who lives in Colorado Springs told us he agrees with the governor but is disappointed.

“It’s been a problem we’ve faced for a number of years. The fact we can’t come up with a financial solution is very frustrating,” Merrifield said.

The governor said he’s not only concerned about infrastructure but transportation as well, noting that if we don’t do more about it, traffic jams could start hurting our economy.

“We have to be able to handle the increased traffic, we got to be sure that we are building the infrastructure to accommodate,” Hickenlooper said.

The state has only received a fraction of the money it needs for transportation. We have $1 billion dedicated to transportation; the governor says we need $9 billion.

Merrifield is relieved there won’t be a special session.

“I’m glad we aren’t going back, frankly, because I think it would have been a waste of time,” he said.

But he knows, that like the governor, funding is crucial to advance our transportation and infrastructure.

Hickenlooper says he will call on the legislators in the 2018 session to really look at how we can get enough money for transportation.