Two of Colorado’s leading potential gubernatorial candidates suggested Wednesday that the state should focus more attention on maintaining and upgrading highway infrastructure, signaling a potential shift could be coming in transportation policy.
Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who are both rumored to be eying runs to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2026, spoke at a Move Colorado event on what’s next for transportation in the state. Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse sent a video to the event because Congress remains in session, while Democratic Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, a fourth rumored candidate, had to miss the event because of a pressing issue, organizers said.
Weiser and Kirkmeyer, who fielded questions from Move Colorado Executive Director Tamra Ward, lined up fairly closely on a number of their approaches in an event that some attendees referred to only half-jokingly as the first debate of the gubernatorial race. Both supported greater usage of public-private partnerships to fund major construction, both said that transportation-related land-use planning should originate from local governments and both backed existing environmental regulations on transportation emissions.
More money for road maintenance?
But what caught the attention of several attendees was that both said the Colorado Department of Transportation should put more resources into maintaining major roadways at a time when Gov. Jared Polis’ administration has seemed to shift toward other priorities. Polis and CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew have garnered national attention for efforts to prioritize multimodal solutions like a Front Range Passenger Rail, and the Democratic governor wants to cut $110 million from highways next year in a budget-balancing plan.
Kirkmeyer, a member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, criticized the reduction of FASTER vehicle-registration fees in Polis’ budget plan and said CDOT needs to focus on maintenance rather than “chasing the next shiny object.” She did not, however, identify a specific approach to boosting highway funds, saying that with the budget crunch and a lack of voter interest in raising taxes, it will take “all of us sitting around the table to figure out how we get this done.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser answers a question Wednesday from Move Colorado Executive Director Tamra Ward (left) while state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer (right) listens.
Weiser also said the state has “got to do better” in caring for highways, saying that maintenance of the roads is the most cost-effective way both to ensure pedestrian-friendly urban areas and the upkeep of shoulders in more rural locations. While he criticized the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights revenue cap as a major impediment to this goal, he too stopped short of offering a funding solution, though he said that “a key part of the answer is how we can do more with less.”
“The pendulum has swung”
Tony Milo, president/CEO of the Colorado Contractors Association, said after the event that he was encouraged to hear both officials acknowledge the need to reprioritize asset management, safety and congestion reduction. Despite the passage of a $5.3 billion funding package in 2021, pavement condition and backups have gotten worse as the money goes in many different directions, which should force the state to rethink how to best allocate its transportation dollars, he said.
“They were both on the same page … and that commonality is encouraging,” Milo said. “It seems for both of them, the pendulum has swung a little too far, and we need to get back to taking care of what we have.”
Neguse, in his video, didn’t get into issue specifics, but he did describe the combination of roadway safety, bridge maintenance and upgraded transit as “integral to the future of our transportation system.” He spoke of his pride in helping to get federal funding for three projects in particular — expansion of the Floyd Hill chokepoint along Interstate 70, improvements to U.S. 287 and seed funding for the Front Range Passenger Rail proposed to run from Trinidad to the Wyoming border.
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse speaks about transportation issues in a video played Wednesday at a Move Colorado event.
Differences in transportation approaches
Disagreements between Kirkmeyer and Weiser largely were in the nuances of how they discussed subjects or in the degree to which they backed certain ideas.
On environmental regulations around transportation, which is the largest emissions-producing sector in Colorado, Weiser broadly said that continuing to find ways to manage vehicle pollution must be a “critical” topic of discussion moving forward. Kirkmeyer said she supported regulations already in place but said the state should not enact laws that are stricter than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules and should look to rely on technical innovation in the transportation industry more for help.
While both supported a local-government-up approach to blending transportation and land-use policies following 2024 debates over Polis’ package of housing-focused land-use laws, Kirkmeyer emphasized the state should react to what locals want to do. Weiser, meanwhile, said that local governments should be allowed to come up with regional solutions but added that the state should harness ideas from this “learning laboratory” and work to spread best practices across Colorado.
When asked specifically about the use of public-private partnerships to fund road improvements, a practice that’s ebbed under Polis and Lew, Kirkmeyer said she would support them. But Weiser proactively mentioned the funding mechanism as a primary way that Colorado could boost transportation revenues, pointing to U.S. 36 improvements funded by a toll-generating partnership with an international firm.
Passenger rail as a transportation strategy
Finally, when asked about the potential for implementing the Front Range Passenger Rail, which has been a Polis focus, Kirkmeyer simply cautioned that the state first must ensure that local transit systems at each stop are adequate to handle passengers getting off there. She suggested that the state could offer grants to help local governments plan for that.
“If you don’t have the local network, what good is it?” she asked. “I mean, I can get from Denver to Fort Collins. But if I get to Fort Collins, then what do I do to get around?”
Weiser said the state should consider spurs that can reach Western Slope towns transitioning away from coal so that those workers have opportunities to travel to potential jobs in other locations. He also said that the state needs to study the challenges faced by the metro-area Regional Transportation District — like how to locate parking near trains — and reckon with RTD’s unmet commitments to expand to areas like Boulder County.
“How do we see how RTD is being used or is not being used, and how do we learn from it?” Weiser added.