DENVER -- A week and a half after Colorado lawmakers finished their constitutionally mandated 120-day session they learned Friday they won’t be called back for a special session.
Capitol reporter Marianne Goodland of The Colorado Independent says part of the decision was whether enough could be accomplished given the session would cost taxpayers $25,000 a day.
“The Legislature could not agree on a transportation bill that would have allowed the state to bond for about $3.5 billion in road and bridge projects and some transit and mobility options,” Goodland told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged. “In the intervening time we’ve heard very little about whether there was even a deal in the works and for a successful special session you need to have all your ducks in a row before you even start.”
Goodland says there are at least two ballot initiatives in the works that voters may get to vote on in November that could provide funding for transportation, but they go about doing it in completely different ways.
“The Contractors Association and the Independence Institute both have their own ideas about how to fund transportation,” she said. “The Independence Institute wants to do it with existing state revenues, the Contractors want to do a sales tax similar to the proposal that was offered during the session.”
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Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.