No tolls on Peña

The Denver Post reported on its front page yesterday that RTD, local and state officials were considering adding tolls in Peña Boulevard o pay for the spiraling costs of the RTD FastTracks line to the airport. RTD General Manager Cal Marsella was already foaming at the mouth about the proposal, saying it could generated $500 million for FasTracks.

Of course, most Denverites think this is an awful plan. Nearly 70 percent on the Denver Post's Web poll were against the proposal and its easy to see why when Denver taxpayers already spent billions of our money to build that airport and billions more for the FastTracks plan. To toll on top of taxes just seems like screwing over local taxpayers. This is especially true since there are few good transportation options to DIA except driving there. The RTD SkyRide costs $8 to $12 per person per ride, which is way more than the cost of gasoline and even parking for a one to two day trip. Now, I understand that these tolls would help build a  supposedly better alternative to DIA, but I could see the toll being a slippery slope where after FasTracks is built, we suddenly now need the tolls for something else. I think it is just unfair to expect people to pay simply to visit the airport; to pick up family members or friends. Can you think of another city that charges tolls directly to go to its airport?

Well fortunately, the plan looks to be on hold indefinitely. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper floated the idea to toll Peña a few months ago, but now the logistics make no sense. The federal government spent a lot of money helping build DIA, and would likely expect a significant portion of any tolls on the road they helped build, meaning any actual money to RTD would be a lot less than expected. And of course pretty much all stake-holders except for greedy RTD are against the toll, including City Councilman Mike Hancock whose district included DIA.

So what about other funds for the FasTracks project that is seeing declining sales tax revenues but also declining construction costs? The transportation bill signed by Governor Ritter allows RTD to levy a sales tax at any rate it wants. We can be sure the RTD board will be quick to charge more taxes on all of us for their purposes. Unfortunately, none of this addresses the real reason why RTD and FasTracks is in such dire financial state: RTD mismanagement and inability to accurately forecast any kind of financial future. Its only when RTD can really address its own problems would I feel comfortable giving the agency any more of my tax dollars. Otherwise it seems it's just being thrown down the drain.