SB 18-001

Senate Bill 18-001, also known as the Transportation Infrastructure Funding bill, aims to provide financial support for road and highway projects in Colorado. It requires the state treasurer to transfer money from the general fund to the state highway fund over several years to help finance these projects. The bill also includes provisions that would allow the state to issue more transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs) if voters approve it, which could provide up to $3.5 billion for additional infrastructure improvements. This bill is now signed into law and will start transferring funds as specified in its sections.

Official Summary

In 1999, the voters of the state authorized the executive director of the department of transportation (executive director) to issue transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs) in a maximum principal amount of $1.7 billion and with a maximum repayment cost of $2.3 billion in order to provide financing to accelerate the construction of qualified federal aid transportation projects. The executive director issued the TRANs as authorized, and the TRANs have been fully repaid. In 2017, the general assembly enacted Senate Bill 17-267 (SB 267), which requires the state to enter into a total of $1.88 billion of lease-purchase agreements and to use the proceeds of the lease-purchase agreements to fund transportation projects and specifically requires the state to enter into $380 million of the lease-purchase agreements in the 2018-19 state fiscal year and $500 million of such agreements in each of the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 state fiscal years. Section 3 of the bill requires the state treasurer to transfer $500 million from the general fund to the state highway fund on June 30, 2019, and to transfer $250 million from the general fund to the state highway fund annually on June 30 of state fiscal years 2019-20 though 2038-39. Section 4 repeals the requirement that the state enter into $500 million of lease-purchase agreements in each of the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 state fiscal years but takes effect only if, as specified in section 12 , the voters of the state approve a ballot measure that authorizes the state to issue TRANS and that is either initiated and voted on at the 2018 general election or referred to the voters as specified in section 10 at the 2019 statewide election. Section 5 restricts the authority of the department of transportation (CDOT) and any enterprise of CDOT, such as the high-performance transportation enterprise, to construct or designate or enter into a public-private partnership to construct or designate a managed lane, which is defined as a toll lane, high-occupancy tool lane, or high-occupancy vehicle lane on any state highway. Section 6 requires CDOT to expend the $500 million transferred from the general fund to the state highway fund pursuant to section 3 only for new highway construction projects and further specifies that: If the voters of the state approve an initiated ballot measure that authorizes the state to issue TRANs at the November 2018 general election, CDOT shall expend the $250 million annually transferred from the general fund to the state highway fund pursuant to section 3 first, to the extent needed, for maintenance of the transportation infrastructure projects financed by the TRANs and thereafter exclusively for maintenance of the state highway system; and If the voters of the state approve a ballot measure that authorizes the state to issue TRANs that is referred pursuant to section 10 at the November 2019 general election, CDOT shall expend the $250 million annually transferred from the general fund to the state highway fund pursuant to section 3 first, to the extent needed, to make the full amount of payments due on the TRANs and thereafter exclusively for maintenance of the state highway system. Section 7 expresses the intent of the general assembly that CDOT strongly consider, when choosing between a standard low bid process or a design-build process for the procurement of a project contract, whether the use of the design-build process is likely to reduce competition and increase project costs. Section 8 requires CDOT to include specified information about the general fund money transferred to the state highway fund pursuant to section 3 and the proceeds of SB 267 lease-purchase agreements in its annual report to the transportation committee of the senate and the transportation and energy committee of the house of representatives. Section 9 is nonsubstantive and changes the previously defined term 'revenue anticipation notes' to 'transportation revenue anticipation notes' to reflect the use of the latter term throughout the bill. If no citizen-initiated ballot measure that authorizes the state to issue TRANs is approved by the voters of the state at the November 2018 general election, section 10 requires the submission of a ballot measure seeking voter approval for the state to issue TRANs in an amount of $3.5 billion with a maximum repayment cost of $5 billion at the November 2019 statewide election. Any TRANs issued following approval of the ballot measure must have a maximum repayment term of 20 years, the certificate, trust indenture, or other instrument authorizing their issuance must provide that the state may pay the TRANs in full before the end of the specified payment term without penalty, and the transportation commission must pledge to annually allocate from legally available money under its control any money needed for payment of the notes until the notes are fully repaid. Section 11 requires TRANs proceeds not otherwise pledged for TRANs payments to be credited to the state highway fund and expended by CDOT only for qualified federal aid transportation projects that are included in CDOT's strategic transportation project investment program and designated for tier 1 funding as 10-year development program projects on CDOT's development program project list. At least 25% of the TRANs net proceeds must be used for projects in counties with populations of 50,000 or less and at least 10% of the TRANs net proceeds must be used for transit purposes or transit-related capital improvements.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

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