This post has been updated on June 18, 2021 to reflect Gov. Jared Polis signed the transportation bill on June 17.
Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 21-260, a $5.3 billion transportation bill on Thursday morning, a 10-year plan to build out Colorado’s roads and bridges, create more electric vehicle charging stations,. boost mas transit and mitigate air pollution.
Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, Speaker Alec Garnett, Senator Faith Winter and Representative Matt Gray introduced the transportation bill, which will drive Colorado’s economic comeback, establish a sustainable funding source to improve roads, invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and expand multimodal and transit options to reduce congestion and improve air quality.
The package will take about $1.5 billion from the state operating budget over the next decade, but it will most rely on new changes including:
- A road usage fee that would ratchet up annually over 10 years to maximum of 8 cents.
- 3.5 cents per prearranged ride in a zero-emission vehicle and 7.5 cents for every other vehicle.
- 6.9 cents for retail deliveries
- 5.3 cents for each delivery to support a fund to transition government fleets to electric vehicles.
- Raising the $50 registration fee for electric vehicles with an index that makes EVs equitable to what combustion vehicles pay.
- Indexing the current $2 fee per day on vehicle rentals to inflation, exempting car-sharing programs.
- Changing the Statewide Bridge Enterprise to the Statewide Bridge and Tunnel Enterprise, and authorizing its board to impose a fee on diesel and
retail deliveries.
Fees will kick in starting July 1.
For the first two years, the proposal reduces vehicle registration fees. New fees won’t begin until mid-2022 and will be nominal, costing the average driver about $28 in the first year, and will be spread across all users using the system to bring down costs on people. The fees are estimated to raise $3.8 billion over the next decade.
The bill promotes collaboration between CDOT, the Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Energy Office.
Over the course of the 11-year plan set forth by the bill, nearly $2.8 billion will be generated through new fee revenue and the bill will leverage nearly $1.5 billion in state general fund revenue and stimulus dollars.
