Overview:
Denver transportation officials say safer streets and better transit could cost $600 million a year, but funding remains unclear.
At a city meeting on July 15, council member Flor Alvidrez invited Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) officials to provide background on their initiatives and funding goals as the council considers approving a venue seat tax at Denver stadiums, including the new Broncos Stadium.
“What does it cost to achieve our goals of zero fatalities on Denver streets? Or to achieve our goals of mood shift, or to achieve our goals of how we think about a sustainable transportation system?” said DOTI Executive Director Amy Ford. “We’re going to talk about that at the high level today.”
DOTI’s presentation, led by Ford, detailed additional initiatives they are pursuing for the council, such as Denver Moves Everyone, a strategy aimed at guiding investments in safer streets, transit, bike infrastructure, climate goals, and neighborhood connectivity, and Safe Routes to School, which aims to create safe, equitable environments for students to and from school.
But more funding for these initiatives won’t be on the ballot this time around. Officials say that more planning is needed before these projects can officially take off.
“The amount of coalition building that needed to be done wasn’t quite there,” Alvidrez said during the July 15 meeting. “We needed to have projections specifically for ballot language and ballot language ready pretty much by today in order to make the ballot.”
Alvidrez stated that before introducing a formal bill, she would like to see participation from the Regional Transportation District (RTD), Front Range Passenger Rail, the team behind the future Broncos stadium, as well as other stadiums in the city.
“We’re really excited about it because we need to fund these programs,” Alvidrez said. “But we still have homework to do.”
Where will the money come from?
The discussion highlighted funding issues facing DOTI. City transportation leaders anticipate it would cost $600 million annually to reach all of their goals, including expansion of streets, transit, bikeways and signals. Existing funding provides only $200 million to $300 million each year.
Council member Shontel Lewis voiced concerns about lack of clarity regarding where the department would find the additional funding.
“You all talked about federal and state sources, but we don’t necessarily have control over those sources,” she said in the meeting. “If we’re serious about meeting these goals, what, if any, new local sources is this administration seriously looking at?”
One example of local revenue, she said in an interview, is increasing the price of parking or implementing dynamic parking prices.
“During the last budget meeting with the mayor’s office, one of the things he cut was the parking enforcers,” she said. “Issuing citations generates revenue for the city. My hope is that we start to look at opportunities to generate revenue in order to be able to fund these programs.”
Though Lewis is excited by the idea of increasing city revenue to fund projects like a venue seat tax, she worries about coalition building with RTD and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), both of which, she said, are in a budget deficit.
“My worry is that if there’s not a lot of transparency within DOTI, how do we know that there aren’t dollars currently prioritized for specific communities that would then be moved to prioritize projects that are in partnership with RTD and CDOT?” Lewis said.
During the meeting, DOTI officials discussed other potential funding ideas with council members, including new taxes, fee structures tied to right-of-way use and parking revenues. Ford said that her office would need to collaborate with the mayor’s office and finance committees on those ideas.
“We all, I think, could come up with a lot of different ideas about where, for instance, we might generate more revenue or more funding that could be applied to transportation or transportation goals,” Ford said.
What happens next?
Council President Amanda Sandoval said the DOTI presentation lacked clarity, requesting an off-camera follow-up meeting with DOTI officials to discuss school safety initiatives and specifics regarding the data they presented.
“There’s not even a map … of what council districts have (Denver Moves Everyone) programs,” she said. “I’m not picking up what you’re putting down here. And if I were in the minority, I would probably be quiet … I know every single council member I’ve talked to has the same frustration I have.”
In response to the council members’ concerns, Ford’s office clarified that no action is currently planned and promised to provide the requested follow-up information to the council. There will be no seat-venue tax bill in the upcoming election cycle. It remains to be seen whether council members will propose one in the future after receiving more information from the DOTI.
Ford says the presentation was the beginning of an open dialogue between council and DOTI about how they can best move forward to pursue shared transportation goals.
“I think this is a start to the conversation, rather than the end,” Ford said. “I think there’s a lot more definition and thoughtful execution about how we talk about money and funding, transportation goals and priorities.”
