Herald HIGHLANDS RANCH 1.10.13
Highlands Ranch
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 26, Issue 8
January 10, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourhighlandsranchnews.com
C-470 talks in final stretch Coalition expects to make expansion decision soon By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com
From left, state Rep. Chris Holbert, state Rep.-elect Polly Lawrence and outgoing state House Speaker Frank McNulty address the Douglas County Business Alliance on Jan. 3 during a legislative kickoff session. Photo by Jane Reuter
Stay aware, legislators tell businesses GOP lawmakers speak to local alliance By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com State leaders urged Douglas County business owners to stay aware and get involved in issues that could impact them as lawmakers take their seats at the state Capi-
tol for the new legislative session. Democrats have regained control of the Colorado House, and maintain their majority in the state Senate, and Republican members of the Douglas County legislative delegation said that could impact business owners. Four of them were on hand for a Douglas County Business Alliance-sponsored legislative kickoff session held Jan. 3 at Lone Tree’s Sky Ridge Medical Center. “The bills you need to be cautious about
aren’t going to be the ones grabbing the headlines, so it means you really do have to pay attention,” outgoing House Speaker Frank McNulty said. “They’re the ones that are going to have the highest impact on the economy.” McNulty urged business owners to “show up at the state Capitol,” testify and bring supporters when issues of concern are on the table. Legislators continues on Page 19
Coffman to focus on veteran assistance Congressman sees difference between self, fellow Republicans By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com A 20-year veteran of the U.S. armed forces, Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) plans to focus much of his efforts in the new congressional session on veteran affairs. The recently re-elected representative for Colorado’s 6th District said that he intends to focus on issues ranging from transition into the citizen workCoffman force to how the country can better take care of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. “I think the real concern is in looking at the unemployment rates for veterans, particularly those coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it is significantly higher than the general population,” Coffman said. One way Coffman hopes to defeat this is by working from the inside out. Near the close of the last session he introduced a bill
MIKE COFFMAN’S VIEWS On fiscal resolution: “I like the tax piece, the fact that most of the Bush tax cuts remain permanent for the vast majority of American people I thought was a win. On the negative side, it wasn’t at all balanced with cuts, and we are, in fact, going to spend even more money now. We’ve got to be serious about the deficit and the debt and this bill certainly wasn’t serious about it at all.” On proposed high-capacity magazine ban: “Personally, I feel that there ought to be a limit. I think this notion that there shouldn’t be any regulations at all is wrong. That said, the question about high-capacity magazines should be decided by state legislatures, because there will inherently be varying standards for different parts of the country. I feel that 100 rounds is too much but that is an issue that must be debated and decided by the Colorado General Assembly and not in Washington, D.C.” that would force the Department of Veterans Affairs to hire qualified veterans before hiring from the outside. “Only about a third of the people that work (in the VA) have actually served in the military,” Coffman said, “and I just think that there’s a culture there that’s not responsive to the veterans. … In my experience, people who have served in uniform are much more likely to understand the challenges of those who are in the military and are getting out of the military.” It’s Coffman’s military background that also has him in the midst of a movement to
restructure some recent cuts to the Department of Defense. “I think we need to go forward with these cuts,” he said, “but I think they could be done in a way that doesn’t compromise our national security. There was no attention to detail paid to these cuts. I think that they thought it would never happen, so the notion was `let’s just do an across-the-board cut to the Department of Defense.’ “It just isn’t rational. We’re cutting programs that are essential and giving the same weight to programs that are essential to our national security to programs that probably should have gone by the wayside a long time ago or have little value.” Coffman said he fancies himself different from many members in his own party in that a lot of Republicans don’t support any cuts to defense spending. Some of the things on the table in Coffman’s eyes include: troop levels in Europe; whether U.S. allies should be more involved in cost-sharing; whether we should retain some of our permanent overseas bases; are there functions being handled by active-duty military that could be handled by the reserve at a cheaper cost; and are there weapons systems that are being developed that aren’t critical. “I’m looking at being very specific in coming up with cuts that I think will realize the same dollar amount but will not compromise our security,” he said.
After months of public outreach, town halls and community surveys, the C-470 Corridor Coalition expects to decide by March or April how to pursue expanding the busy freeway corridor from Interstate 25 to Kipling Street. “I think overall people are saying there is something that needs to be fixed when it comes to the congestion,” said Jack Hilbert, a Douglas County commissioner who serves as chair of the coalition’s policy committee. According to the coalition, eastbound travelers from Kipling to I-25 face delays of more than 11 minutes during the morning rush hour, and westbound travelers are delayed as much as 18 minutes in the evening. Growth along the corridor is expected to increase by more than 30 percent over the next 20 years. Beginning with a series of telephone town halls in July, the coalition has been busy presenting three options to citizens and area business leaders: tolling any additional lanes and keeping the existing lanes free; tolling all the lanes, old and new; and raising property or sales taxes to pay for additional new lanes. “The one thing that has come across clear,” Hilbert said, “is that there is just no way in the world you could go back and toll existing roadways. No matter what is decided, existing (lanes) will remain free.” Hilbert said the coalition is leaning toward a decision to toll any new or additional lanes to pay for construction and maintenance. He said this will be discussed heavily at the coalition’s January and February meetings, when they go over results from a recent telephone survey conducted by Hill Research Consultants. “If we go that route, construction could start in early 2014, if not sooner,” he said. “If we pick a financing option that requires a vote (raising taxes), that obviously pushes it out further. But I don’t think those two options are what I am hearing citizens say. I’m hearing citizens say `yeah, fix it, but we want someone else to pay the taxes.’” Raising taxes was a popular option in the early town hall surveys, but according to Hill’s survey only 9 percent of people were in favor of increased property tax and 42 percent favored increasing sales taxes. Despite the higher numbers, 42-41, in favor of sales taxes over tolling one new lane, the report suggested that there was not sufficient support to secure passage in an election as required by TABOR.
Possibility of four lanes now
Hilbert said there is a possibility that C-470 could expand sooner rather than latC-470 continues on Page 19
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