New Democrat Update - January 2001
NEW DEMS TACKLING GROWTH
To their credit, Senate President Stan Matsunaka and Senate President Pro Tem Ed Perlmutter are taking the lead on managing growth responsibly. They plan to hold a series of town meetings around the state to get citizen feedback on the legislation.
The Senate leadership has already developed solid guidelines including strengthening Colorado's quality of life, economic prosperity, affordable housing, local and regional planning, transportation infrastructure and resource-conscious development. In addition, the guidelines call for protecting open spaces, private property rights, fiscal integrity of the state budget and water resources.
THE NEW DEMOCRAT TAKE
New Democrats believe that the solutions to sprawl are found in using public-sector activism to help develop community-based solutions. We respect the enormous legal, political, and even cultural differences among regions within Colorado and believe state government's proper role in easing sprawl is to give regions and communities the tools they need to solve their own problems.
As the Senate leadership's guidelines suggest, we must recognize that fighting sprawl represents a test of our state's ability to deal with economic success. Sprawl is partly the result of a growing number of Coloradans enjoying what comes with middle-class life - homeownership, access to better schools and freedom from violent crime.
At the very least, the state should "First Do No Harm." It simply makes no sense for us to be acquiring and conserving open space while, at the same time, actively promoting urban sprawl (analogous to subsidizing tobacco farmers while discouraging smoking). We must stop subsidizing sprawl through transportation and housing policies that favor new development over renovation of existing facilities.
State government should also empower local communities with the tools they need to stop subsidizing sprawl, including allowing the assessment of impact fees on new developments, creating regional transportation authorities, and charging fees to use state highways. In return, the state should require local multi-jurisdictional land-use planning while refraining from dictating the outcome.
TAKING A BITE OUT OF TRAFFIC
When voters express frustration with sprawl, they are often complaining about overwhelming traffic congestion. To alleviate this growing problem, Colorado needs a "Third Way" that moves beyond the right wing's insistence on stopping all mass-transit solutions and the left's myopic strategy of hoping for worsening road congestion to get people out of their cars.
A "Third Way" recognizes that we must take aggressive action to reduce the demand for driving while increasing the supply of roads and making them more efficient. Implementing a comprehensive set of solutions will require new thinking from all sides.
On the demand side, we have intense congestion because we subsidize it - motor vehicle users pay only about 60 percent of public expenditures for highway infrastructure and services (taxpayers make up the difference). To make matters worse, congestion causes unnecessary pollution from cars idling in traffic.
Colorado should take steps to move to a "pay-as-you-drive" system, providing motorists incentives to install new systems that track vehicle use. For example, drivers could pay annual car registration fees based on the number of miles driven and on the car's emissions - the less you drive, the less you pay. Proceeds could be used to expand and upgrade roads and transit and reduce taxes.
Environmental activists must realize that growth is overtaxing the current infrastructure and the dispersed nature of Colorado's New Economy is making it harder to shift from cars to mass transit and other forms of transportation. Nationally, 36 percent more of us work and commute, compared to 20 years ago. While congestion has increased 37 percent between 1987 and 1998, lane-miles of available roads across the country have edged up a mere one percent.
The anti-highway movement has promoted the myth that building roads "induces" large numbers of new drivers to fill up the road, saying new highway capacity in rapidly growing areas is like buying a belt to cure obesity. In fact, after accounting for growth, adding more lane miles faster than population growth reduces traffic congestion. That is more like buying new shoes for your kids when their feet get bigger.
Colorado needs to expand arterials and freeways and build new ones, not to support sprawled growth, but to meet the needs of the population that is already there. We should also implement information technologies that let roads handle more traffic and make transit more responsive and faster.
While not an exhaustive list, these initiatives will go a long way toward preserving Colorado's unique quality of life. Check out more ideas at "Slaying Sprawl."
New Democrats are very hopeful and excited that the legislature and governor may finally do something about growth. We are convinced the Senate Democrats are on the right track and call on the business community, environmentalists, local governments and other key groups to rally behind them.
Nothing less than Colorado's quality of life is on the line.
"PARTIES AT PARITY"
Be sure to get the latest copy of The New Democrat magazine. This edition, entitled "The Parties at Parity" analyzes the 2000 election and provides a blueprint for how Democrats and Republicans should govern in this closely divided political environment. Andrew Rotherham's article on school reform in Great Britain is especially interesting and informative.
The magazine is on the web. If you would like a hard copy, please contact the Colorado DLC.