Regional Transportation District update on TABOR, coordination with Front Range Passenger Rail, and legislation

Part one of a three-part series covering RTD regarding TABOR's Impact, RTD Northwest Rail and Front Range Passenger Rail, and an update on key state legislation.

On April 24, Commuting Solutions hosted a meeting with updates on RTD, the CO 119 Safety, Mobility and Bikeway Project, and the Front Range Passenger Rail. Commuting Solutions is a service organization that advocates for its members and the communities it serves for multimodal improvements and the funding needed to implement them.

Lynn Guissinger, Regional Transportation District (RTD) Board Second Vice-Chair and Director for District O covering much of Boulder County, started the presentation with a timeline outlining the voter's support for RTD over the years. In 1992, Colorado voters approved an amendment to the Colorado Constitution known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). Subsequent to the approval of TABOR, Colorado voters exempted RTD from TABOR's limitations in 1995 (known as de-Brucing), and again in 1999. In 2004,voters authorized an increase in RTD's sales and use tax rate from 0.6% to 1%.

In 2025, approximately 50% of RTD's revenue will become subject to TABOR and potentially the ratchet-down effect. The ratchet-down effect occurs when district revenue decreases or increases less quickly than inflation plus population growth. This causes the following year's revenue limit to increase from a smaller base amount and can limit spending growth to a lower amount, even if the economy bounces back.

RTD believes the best option to address potential funding issues created by TABOR is for voter approval to extend de-Brucing with limited opportunities to exempt revenue from TABOR.

Intertwined with this is RTD's continued work on the Northwest Rail, which will link Denver Union Station through Westminster, Broomfield, Flatirons Crossing, downtown Louisville, Boulder Junction, and downtown Longmont. HDR, Inc., a global professional services firm specializing in architecture, engineering, environmental, and construction services, is initiating milestone 4 for RTD. This milestone encompasses service options and Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) partnerships.

FRPR and RTD have separate projects along the same route, overlapping routes and several stations. Both agencies are looking at economies of scale. This includes joint operational efficiencies, synergies arising from a common fleet type of train, the potential to share and reduce operational and maintenance costs, shared track improvement costs, and sharing in the cost of safety systems and crossing upgrades.

Gussinger said, "As the only public transit system in Colorado, RTD is happy to have conversations about how it can support and continue to comply with what the General Assembly legislates RTD to do regarding FRPR.

The last part of the presentation included a review of the HB24-1447 Transit Reform Bill, now in the legislature. The original bill had proposed a reduction from 15 to seven RTD board seats, with 11 seats in 2025 and 2026 and seven in 2027. This element was dropped from the proposal. The bill also requires additional coordination between RTD, the Denver Council of Governments (DRCOG), and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) as well as a study on the District's size.

Stay tuned for part two of our transportation series, recapping the CO 119 Safety, Mobility and Bikeway project specific to 63rd St. and Niwot's Park-n-Ride.