The Joint Transportation Committee heard annual SMART Act presentations from CDOT and RTD, plus a Front Range Passenger Rail District update and public testimony on impaired driving — no legislation was voted on, but sharp exchanges erupted over rural road neglect, a $300 million CDOT budget cut, express lane toll enforcement fairness, and RTD safety and accessibility failures.
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Senator Pelton B stated constituents 'feel like they've been betrayed by Senate Bill 260 because they felt like some of their roads and bridges were going to be fixed. Bridges have been triaged instead of prevent maintenance,' and referenced Morgan County resolutions and a ballot initiative. Director Liu characterized the $300 million reduction as 'a legislative decision' made in 'a more constrained budget environment' and stated the SB 260 investments 'have been spent on the intended purposes of legislation.'
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“If we were going to transfer 500 million or billion dollars, various numbers that I've heard from the general fund just into this, that has to come from somewhere. And the place that it comes, if you look at our budget, a third of our budget is Medicaid, third of our budget is K12, 10% is prisons. There's not a lot in there that is, as I put it in the Denver Post article last year, the Dave Matthews concert.”
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Sign in to subscribeThere's no gavel. I feel cheated, so. But the Joint Transportation Committee will now come to an order to order. Ms. Forbes, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Basley. Thank you. Excused. Ball. Here. Basenecker. Excused. Brooks. Excused. Exum. Excused. Jackson. Excused. Lindsey. Here. Linstedt. Excuse. Oh, no. Excused. Malika. Excused. Nguyen. Present. Haskell. Here. Pelton, B. Present. Pelton R. Here. Phillips. Here. Yes. Richardson. Here. Stuart. Here. Sukla. Excused. Sullivan. Here. Velasco. Here. Weinberg. Excused. Froelich. And Madam Chair. Present. All right. Today we will have presentations from the Joint Budget Committee, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation District, and the Front Range Passenger Rail District. And there will be an opportunity for public testimony, as always, at the end of the agenda. So. So we will begin our presentation from the Joint Budget Committee. Please. Senator Bridges. Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a real pleasure to be here, as we are required to be by law, which is weird, because what we do right now is we present to you what it is that the governor is saying and what the governor has requested in the governor's budget. This day is particularly strange because…
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