No on Amendment 26

No on Amendment 26
Now is not the time to fund such an expensive study

October 18, 2001

On Colorado’s Front Range highway lanes are being added by the week. Between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, homes and autos are stretched almost yard-to-yard and bumper-to-bumper. With growth comes increased traffic.

From Denver west on I-70 to the mountain ski towns similar highway congestion exists, not necessarily on weekdays, but on weekends and particularly when winter skiing is good. The four-lane highway that climbs steeply through the narrow river valleys does not have sufficient capacity to meet Denver residents’ desire to play in the mountains.

Alternatives of some kind are needed.

On this fall’s ballot is a $50 million request from the state’s budget surplus to fund the planning and testing of a monorail that would carry passengers between Denver and towns on I-70 on both sides of the Continental Divide. It is the kind of space-age innovation that could hold promise; it might reduce highway traffic.

But this is not the year to fund the study.

The state’s budget surplus has evaporated, a casualty of declining sales tax revenues. Out-of-work telecommunications workers on the Front Range do not shop, nor do those who fear for their jobs. A portion of the state’s planned capital spending, such as for higher education, has been put on hold, as a result. Dealing with the state’s fiscal condition will be a challenge this year, and likely next.

It is unlikely, in fact, that there will be a revenue surplus.

The world does not know much about monorails. In use in theme parks, they have small capacity and travel at relatively low speeds; the terrain is flat. There is no monorail that we know of that climbs mountains. The Europeans, who have put their tax money into public transportation rather than roads, know railroads. But the terrain along the I-70 corridor, including its change in elevation, apparently rules out rail lines. Conceptually, what is needed is rail suspended from above.

We urge a no vote on this state-wide question. The question of the feasibility of a mountain monorail should be left until the state’s revenues improve.