Audit criticizes funding program for Colorado roads, bridges 

Audit criticizes funding program for Colorado roads, bridges

Aug 31, 2015, 2:32pm MDT Updated Aug 31, 2015, 4:06pm MDT

Ed Sealover Reporter Denver Business Journal

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Jeffrey Beall | Wikimedia

Critics who have accused Colorado’s FASTER transportation-fee program of being a tax in disguise and of paying for projects requested by people with connections aren’t likely to back down on their contentions after Monday’s release of a state audit on the six-year-old program.

The Colorado Office of the State Auditor found numerous problems with the controversial program, which uses fees paid by motorists on vehicle registrations and rental cars to fund road and bridge repairs and transit projects throughout the state. Colorado Department of Transportation officials who oversee the program agreed to comply with all of the recommendations that affect their department.

Problems discovered by the audit include:

• Transportation officials are spending money on bridges that are ranked as lower-safety priorities over some that are higher on the list without providing any explanation as to why.
• State officials also are over-budgeting many of the bridge projects and taking more than a year to close them out, leaving money unavailable for other projects on the to-do list.
• CDOT leaders are using some of the road-safety fee revenues for projects that are not directly tied to construction or maintenance of roads, concerning some legislators that there is not a direct link between the fee and its usage, which is more indicative of a general tax.
• CDOT disbanded a citizens’ oversight committee on road-safety spending in 2013 after complaining that it was inefficient, despite the FASTER law that was passed in 2009 requiring that such a committee exist.

“The audit confirms some of the criticisms and concerns that were expressed against the 2009 legislation, particularly that the dollars are fungible,” said state Sen. Chris Holbert, a Parker Republican and member of the Legislative Audit Committee that heard a report on the findings. “There’s supposed to be a distinction between the tax and fee revenue ... It’s particularly frustrating that we don’t have control over those fee dollars, and there seems to be no repercussions [for CDOT].”

The CDOT officials who spoke Monday at the committee hearing were, on the whole, almost a completely new group of officials than those who implemented the program beginning in 2010. But they offered some defense for their policies in addition to pledging to implement the reform recommendations.

For example, deputy executive director Mike Lewis said that some lower-priority bridges jumped ahead of structures with greater safety concerns because the environmental permitting for the higher-priority structures would take longer and CDOT wanted to move ahead on some rebuilds. Also, even the road-safety projects that didn’t involve construction that were funded by FASTER dollars had overall connections to the planning of future projects, Lewis and others said.

Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, warned that some state residents already think that funded road projects are chosen by political connections, and she warned CDOT to be transparent about its reasoning for choosing certain bridges and stretches of road.

Kathy Connell, chairwoman of the Colorado Transportation Commission, said the new leadership at CDOT was thankful for what occasionally was a critical audit from the state.

“We are determined to be more transparent,” Connell told the committee. “I think it was so helpful for us to be able to have something to simplify very complex processes.”