Sign Up for the Politicker.com Wake Up Call

Colorado

RSS Feeds

Syndicate content Add to Netvibes Subscribe with Bloglines
Add to Technorati Favorites
Add to Google

Send suggestions to: editor@politicker.com

Colorado: Ed Tauer

May 21, 2009 - 10:21 am
NEWS FEED: Denver Post

Metro mayors back year delay on RTD tax vote

Denver-area mayors have reversed course and now favor a year's delay and a November 2010 vote on a sales-tax increase for RTD's FasTracks transit program.

On June 2, the Regional Transportation District board of directors is expected to back the mayors' recommendation and set the vote for next year.

In March, the Metro Mayors Caucus, which includes about 40 area mayors, backed a proposal for a vote in November in the eight-county metro area on a proposal to double the current 0.4 percent FasTracks sales tax.

Such an increase — whether this year or next — would close a $2.2 billion shortfall in FasTracks funding that has developed because of shrinking sales-tax collections and higher-than-planned construction costs.

Read More at Denver Post >
There have been 104 comments posted in response to this story.

March 5, 2009 - 05:06 am
NEWS FEED: Denver Post

FasTracks unity derailed

By Jeffrey Leib

The once-solid coalition of Denver metro-area mayors that unanimously promoted RTD's FasTracks tax five years ago is splintering into camps of potential winners and losers as they grapple with ways to close the project's $2.2 billion budget deficit.

At a FasTracks task force meeting of the Metro Mayors Caucus on Wednesday, Broomfield Mayor Pat Quinn said he cannot support the Regional Transportation District's pursuit of commuter-rail lines to Denver International Airport and Arvada/Wheat Ridge if doing so means the Northwest corridor line that will serve his community is relegated to a secondary position.

RTD is pushing forward the DIA train and Gold Line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge because it expects the two commuter lines will get $1 billion in federal money and a private consortium will build and operate them and bring another $1 billion to the project.

Read More at Denver Post >
There have been 27 comments posted in response to this story.

January 27, 2009 - 02:15 am
NEWS FEED: Colorado Independent

Live Blog: Aurora considers adding same-sex benefits for employees

By Ernest Luning

Stainless steel and glass sculpture by Rafe Ropek outside the Aurora Municipal Center. (Photo/City of Aurora)

The City of Aurora, Colorado’s third-largest, decides Monday night whether to offer insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners of city employees.

Stainless steel and glass sculpture by Rafe Ropek outside the Aurora Municipal Center. (Photo/City of Aurora)

The question could be contentious, as a budget deficit estimated from $6 million to $12 million has the city of 300,000 tightening belts at every turn. Some opponents say the roughly $50,000 annual cost to add the benefits is a luxury the city can’t afford. Others say the city can’t compete for employees without joining the 20 other municipalities across the state offering domestic partnership benefits.

Read More at Colorado Independent >
There have been 23 comments posted in response to this story.