Colorado voters to decide between competing transportation funding measures

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said he supports one of two transportation funding measures on the November ballot that works best for the city.

During his annual State of the City address last Friday, Suthers said he supports Proposition 109 because it doesn’t raise taxes and he doesn’t want city voters to be taxed again after they passed 2C, the five-year, $250 million expanded paving project in 2015.

The other measure, Proposition 110, would increase sales taxes statewide and generate a maximum of $20 million for city streets and roads — far less than the current $50 million collected annually from 2C.

“It would raise the city’s sales tax to nearly 9 percent, and that’s too high,” Suthers said. “If that passes, I will ask that the City Council not renew 2C when it expires in 2020. Proposition 110 is not a good deal for us.”

Suthers said Proposition 109 would use the existing state budget and the sale of bonds to generate $3.5 billion, although the money would be used only for state highway projects and not for city streets and roads.

During a City Council work session Monday, council president Richard Skorman said he agrees with Suthers and hopes his fellow council members will do the same.

“Certainly, U.S. 24 East needs help and so does the MLK Expressway,” Skorman said. “So there are a lot of state highways that need help. But that would just come as funding is available and as statewide priorities are weighed.”

However, most Colorado cities and counties do not have a funding mechanism similar to 2C in Colorado Springs, and that could affect how voters decide the issue on Election Day.

In other council business, members received a request for $500,000 from Suthers and some city staff to double the number of beds at two homeless shelters.

Homeless advocates want to add 150 beds at the Springs Rescue Mission and 220 at the Salvation Army’s shelter on Sierra Madre Street.

Some of the additional beds at the Salvation Army would be created by changing them from high-barrier to low-barrier, meaning there would be few restrictions for prospective users.

The money from the city, if approved, would pay for operating expanded facilities to include the beds at the shelters. Funding has already been provided for construction of the facilities.

Suthers said doubling the number of beds would legally make it easier for the city to enforce ordinances that ban the homeless from camping on public property and along creeks and other waterways.

Steve Posey, who administers federal grants the city receives to help the homeless, said a count earlier this year showed that 1,500 people considered themselves homeless, but 500 said they had no shelter available to them.

Doubling the current shelter bed capacity would give the city well over 600 beds.

“It’s tough to peg the actual number of shelter beds that are needed, until these facilities come on line, so to speak, and the beds are available, and then we’d be better able to judge whether this enough, or not,” he sid.

“It’s tough to peg the actual number of shelter beds that are needed until these facilities come online, so to speak, and the beds are available, and then we’d be better able to judge whether this is enough or not,” Posey said.

The City Council expects to vote on the matter next month and Posey said he hopes to have the beds available before the arrival of colder weather.