By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project
ASCE leans on the Colorado Fiscal Institute and the Economic Policy Institute to understand TABOR?
The Complete Colorado article linked at bottom details a recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) which gave our state an overall C- rating on infrastructure.
Quoting the article, “The ASCE report evaluates 14 categories of the state’s infrastructure, assigning a letter grade to each of the categories: Aviation, dams, rail (B-), bridges (C+), energy, public parks, wastewater (C), drinking water, solid waste, storm water, transit (C-), levees, schools, and roads (D+).”
Sounds about right.
The article goes on to detail some issues with the report. One of these is how the report misunderstands TABOR and its interaction with public funding. The quote from near the end of ASCE’s report reads in part, “In Colorado, where TABOR limits public funding decisions, clear communication with residents is especially critical. Education and outreach efforts should aim to build mutual trust between government entities and the public…”
This is a statement that is, at best, sorely needing context on what TABOR does and does not do or require. A statement that completely sidesteps the fact that our state has been “feeing” us to death in order to (using Polis’ words) fix our damn roads–such fees being beyond TABOR limits.
I will leave it to you to read the article for more detailed context on some aspects of what I touch on below, but I want to focus here on what I think are some of the motivations behind ASCE’s claim, and some of the references they use to inform it.
Who is it that gets hired when you have to fix infrastructure? I’ll give you a hint. It’s civil engineers.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that our infrastructure is good and that ASCE is playing games there. No. It’s bad. No getting around that.
What I mean is perhaps a bit subtler. What ASCE wants is big soundbites that convince people to go to their policymakers and shake them into opening the purse. ASCE wants the shortest path possible to more civil engineering design and construction work.
To a group with that orientation, any law or provision that slows this process down is problematic. This is all the more so to a group that focuses on their own interests without bothering to do the basic research of how infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, is funded.
Our state’s infrastructure has deteriorated alongside nearly every other state’s infrastructure for many reasons. First and foremost, human beings are terrible at taking care of the unfun things.
In an effort to keep bills low, we have (as a nation, as a state) NOT been paying the true cost of things for some time now, the true cost meaning paying for current upkeep while putting aside money to replace what we use today. When the stuff rots away and needs constant repair, we’re shocked at the “surprise” bill. This has nothing to do with TABOR, it has everything to do with politicians who are happy to take the expedient route and people who are happy to follow.
Second, and this relates specifically to Colorado (and is covered in the Complete article) our state has been especially bad at this because while we keep talking about fixing infrastructure, and while we make fitful attempts at doing it, the money drummed up gets redirected to things that will do absolutely nothing to solve the problem. To wit, the pipe dream that somehow bike lanes and transit will “fix” traffic, etc.
Nope. Didn’t work. Won’t work either. People have decided how they want to get around. Freight doesn’t go on busses and electric bikes.
At the time the report came out, I saw a CPR article on this ASCE report which (of course) quoted ASCE’s bit on TABOR. I remember being mildly irked at it and reaching out to the ASCE press person.
I asked, via email, if any of the report’s authors were from Colorado and what they used to inform their understanding of TABOR. I got what you see in screenshots 1 and 2 attached as a response re. TABOR along with the following statement from their spokesperson (quoting my email):
“From an infrastructure perspective, yes, the sources listed in the document I sent is what this committee used. For clarity, the report is not an assessment on the collective impact of TABOR on Coloradans – rather, everything mentioned in this report is tied to how programs/decisions impact the current and long-term viability of the state’s built environment.”
Fair enough, but I want to leave you with this. Revisit screenshot 1. Alongside the official government sources on TABOR, note references b and d (I’ll not go into detail on reference c which is the “nonpartisan” Colorado Sun), the Economic Policy Institute and Colorado Fiscal Institute.
I linked to these group’s “About” pages below. I urge you to go and look. Then I want you to reflect on what you think these groups would say about TABOR, what they would say about efforts at fiscal responsibility. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the picture of supporters of Colorado WINS (our state public employee union) on Colorado Fiscal Institute’s About page says it all.
These were references ASCE used in part to inform their understanding of TABOR. You will note that there was no counterbalance from the other side of the ideological divide.
Our infrastructure problems are thorny and have multiple causes. I am glad that ASCE highlights the problem, but they would do well to be more thorough and thoughtful in their approach to researching Colorado’s fiscal dynamics in the future.
Doing so would lend more weight to their words, instead of what we have now which is yet another example of leftist nonprofit influence of government, media, etc.
https://coloradofiscal.org/about
READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT
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