FRTM - Dirks project - please read!

 

I am doing the project #4 “Speaking Under Fire” from the Public Relations advanced manual.  My objectives are:

 

 

I have 3-5 minutes for the presentation and 2-3 minutes for audience questions.

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The following situation is current and real in Colorado.  You are encouraged to research this situation on your own as it’s a very serious problem that is coming to a head.

 

 

 

History:

In 2009, the Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 09-108, commonly known as Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery Act (FASTER), which provides for creation of the Colorado Bridge Enterprise, a government-owned business chartered to repair and to maintain bridges in Colorado.  Previously, that work was performed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which is overseen by an 11-member board; that same board now also oversees the Bridge Enterprise.  In addition, CDOT’s Executive Director is the Director of the Bridge Enterprise and CDOT’s CFO is CFO of the Bridge Enterprise.

 

FASTER imposes a “bridge safety surcharge,” based on weight, which is collected whenever a vehicle is registered anywhere in Colorado.  Almost half of Colorado’s 64 counties will receive no direct benefit from the Bridge Enterprise; nonetheless, the residents of these 29 counties must pay the same bridge tax as residents of the counties allegedly benefitted by the tax.

 

Government-owned enterprises, which are exempt from TABOR if 90 percent self-supporting and operating independently from state government, cannot levy taxes; they may only assess fees for their services.

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At this point, from this legal brief, it appears that this is nothing more than a taxing issue.  In deed it is, and a violation of our state laws.  However, if you do some further research, you will find something aspects extremely disturbing.

 

The reason this was done is because on August 2^nd 2007, the Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed.  Thirteen people died and over 100 were injured.  This disaster made the state legislature realize that this kind of episode could happen here in Colorado because there were studies in their hands from CDOT that showed that 125 bridges were unsound in the state.  They also knew that on numerous occasions they had tried to pass funding bills past the TABOR laws and all failed.  Nobody is denying that the bridges need to be repaired, but they must do so within the laws of our state.

 

The legislature went on vacation soon there after and a couple of legislators started trying to figure out to bypass TABOR.  They devised a plan to create a corporation (legal shelter) owned by the state of Colorado.  They then transferred the ownership of all bridges in the state to this corporation for $1.00 each.  The corporation then required funding.  This was accomplished by Bill Ritter quietly signing into law the increased vehicle registration charges, under the name of the “bridge safety surcharge.”  (This is why your car’s registration fees doubled or tripled).  The late fees were increased to $25/month, capping out to $100/year.  This means that if you have a boat and don’t use it for two years, leaving it parked in your back yard, then decide to use it and register it, your registration late fees will be in excess of $200 for failing to register it when you had it parked in your back yard.

 

The corporation has already raised over $100 million through these registration fees.  But it does not feel this is enough, so it is in the process of acquiring another $300 million in bonds which are guaranteed by the tax payers.  This means we are liable for this debt with no oversight process in place – all without any sort of tax payer vote.

 

This is not the biggest problem, however.  This action has created a blue print for how our elected legislators, bound to the Tax Payer Bill of Rights (TABOR) can be avoided.  In the future, if they decide that some public works project needs to be created, they can, without any public vote, fund the pet project for many millions of dollars, putting us, the tax payers on the hook without any checks and balances in place.

 

The above lawsuit is legitimate and processing currently.  The underlying precedent of not allowing the legislators to abuse us as tax payers is an enormous issue.  For those spend-happy legislators with pet projects, this is the golden goose if it’s not stopped.

 

Please research this.  I’m going to do my best to justify this action as a supporter of the project and you are going to be the hostile audience asking questions!

 

Dirk (the Dartboard) Kittredge