All Aboard the Tax Train: Colorado’s CoCo Boondoggle

Have you ever traveled a good distance by train? I have…once. It was Amtrak. My takeaway was that trains are great for transporting freight, but not so great for transporting people. Back then, my 3-year-old Thomas the Tank Engine fan was thrilled to ride (photo below). Practicality and affordability weren’t on his mind, though. He loved Thomas the Tank Engine and Geo-Trax trains. He is an adult now, drives a Toyota Tundra, and has outgrown his train obsession. I wish we could say the same of Colorado legislators. Maybe their mothers didn’t let them dress up as Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween and properly work it out of their systems?

Voters in 12 municipalities will soon decide whether they want to hang a sales tax anchor, in the form of Ballot Issue 7A, around their necks until the end of time. The Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) Project has pulled into the station and introduced the Colorado Connector (CoCo) intercity passenger train for Colorado’s Front Range.

Ballot Issue 7A’s Language (A “yes” vote assigns a tax to citizens in perpetuity):

Shall Front Range Passenger Rail District taxes be increased $295,000,000 annually and by whatever amounts are raised annually thereafter, and shall Front Range Passenger Rail District debt be increased $580,000,000, with a repayment cost of $785,000,000; to construct, operate, and maintain Colorado Connector (CoCo) passenger rail service on Colorado’s Front Range and connect communities, including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Sterling Ranch, Littleton, Denver, Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Collins; in order to:

Remove vehicles from highways and increase travel capacity;

Connect travelers to employment centers, colleges, sports arenas, and entertainment hubs along the Front Range; and

Invest in station area improvements and local connections to rail stations; by establishing a 0.333% sales and use tax (equal to one-third of a penny on a $1 purchase), with exemptions provided under Colorado law, including those for gasoline, food, residential electricity and gas, prescription drugs, and medical supplies; and to retain all such revenues, public and private contributions, and any investment income on revenues and debt proceeds, as a voter-approved revenue change under Section 20 of Article X of the Colorado Constitution; and requiring that all such dedicated revenues be reviewed annually by an independent auditor and a rotating group of citizen taxpayers who live in the District?

The Ridiculous Sales Pitch to Voters

CoCo is being promoted as something the “other guy” will use. It’ll improve your quality of life if the “other guy” takes the train. It’ll keep you on your merry way along I-25, driving your car, truck, or SUV wherever you want, with less traffic congestion, while the “other guy” will be on the train. But will it really?

How are those empty bicycle lanes and buses working out for us, Colorado Springs? They were supposed to take people off the city roads. They’re really money pits that funnel grift to nonprofits and government programs through taxpayer-funded grants for “free” or reduced Pike Ride bicycles, E-bike rebates, and free bus tickets. No amount of money the government can throw at alternative transportation will make it appealing to most citizens. Just look at RTD in Denver and further north. They have a $250 million shortfall. They levy a special 1% sales tax on their citizens, but it’s not enough to keep RTD afloat. CoCo will be no different.

Colorado Springs CoCo Meeting Info & Our Key Takeaways:

In mid-August, we attended and recorded an informational meeting at Hillside Community Center about CoCo. We haven’t seen this information in the local media, and we want our local voters to have the full scoop.

• It Won’t Be Financially Solvent

Presenters were forthright that private companies have tried rail services like this but haven’t succeeded. If it’s not feasible for private companies, why foist the cost onto the taxpayers, most of whom won’t ride it? Colorado government blows up the budget for most programs, so we don’t believe for a second that a 0.33% sales tax will even scratch the surface of this massive project.

• It’s a Slow-speed rail

Colorado Springs District 4 City Councilwoman Kimberly Gold addressed attendees, saying she had lived most of her life in South Korea and was surprised by how car-dependent Colorado Springs is. South Korea has a very fast bullet train. CoCo will only move at 79 miles per hour, and it will take an hour and a half to get to Denver from Colorado Springs.

• The Downtown Colorado Springs Station

The downtown train station is planned for the empty lot directly to the south of the floundering U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum. According to the county assessor’s website, SRPC LLC owns that lot. Past articles have reported that SRPC LLC is owned by the Jenkins family- a well-known developer family in Colorado Springs. They own Norwood Development Group and Banning Lewis Ranch, and their real estate investments span Colorado Springs. They additionally donated land for the Olympic Museum. During the Hillside meeting, City of Colorado Springs Deputy Public Works Director Gayle Sturdivant said the area is an emerging district, and a developer is willing to invest in the station. She said she sees a public-private partnership with the city and the developer.

A study selected the downtown station location with plenty of stakeholder input. Stakeholders are typically public servants, nonprofit board members, or people with business investments who want to make a buck. Stakeholders are never you and me- the people who foot the bill and couldn’t care less about the Olympic Museum’s success. We see this station as another way to prop up a downtown where few want to spend time. Here’s the study that determined the best spot for the downtown station.

• The Northern Colorado Springs Station

A 2^nd northern Colorado Springs CoCo station is being planned as a “special event stop,” and they “hope” it will become a permanent stop in the future. Nothing is firm for this location. During the meeting, it was asked whether FRPR has approached the Air Force Academy and the Ford Amphitheater about the northern station. A meeting host coyly answered yes. They are looking for some land and a location up that way. Nothing would boost ticket sales for Air Force games and Ford Amphitheater events like a taxpayer-funded train station, right? If the city and these venues want special transportation to their special events, that shouldn’t be on the taxpayer dime.

• The Ballot Vote

Shortly after the community meeting, the FRPR board voted on August 28th to place a tax increase on your November ballot (Ballot Issue 7A) to pay for their choo-choo train dreams. We recorded that virtual meeting. Find the meeting here. They are asking you to tax yourselves an additional $0.33 for every $100 (or 1/3 penny for every dollar) that you spend so the state can fund the CoCo from Denver to Colorado Springs and Pueblo. They already have taxpayer funding for the Denver-to-Fort Collins route, so the only thing on the table for ballot issue 7A is to fund the locations south of Denver. It makes you wonder whether Denver and the other northern municipalities fully understand that 7A allows the government to additionally tax them so they can travel by train to Colorado Springs and Pueblo. According to meeting presenters, they’re still getting a train from Denver to Fort Collins- even if 7A fails. The ballot language doesn’t make it clear. Is that intentional?  

Here are more details about the proposed CoCo service from Fort Collins to Pueblo:

– The Denver to Fort Collins route already has taxpayer funds set aside and will proceed no matter what – even if the 7A ballot issue fails.

– The Colorado Springs to Pueblo route will be funded only if the 12 municipalities’ citizens vote in favor of the 0.333% tax increase in November.

– The Colorado Springs and Pueblo routes would not be ready until 2032.

– From start to finish, the line will be 190 miles (Fort Collins to Pueblo).

– It will serve 12 municipalities with 15 stations.

– The “plan” is to run it on freight rail lines that already exist.

– They are working on a deal to pay freight rail companies a bonus for prioritizing CoCo’s schedule over the freight schedules.

– A Pueblo-to-Fort Collins one-way ticket will be $20.

– Each train will fit up to 500 passengers.

– There will be 8-10 round trips each day.

– There are 2 stations planned for Colorado Springs.

Our Take

FRPR is pulling a fast one with the municipalities to the north. Those citizens don’t have to vote “yes” on 7A to get their trains. Funding for the Denver-to-Fort Collins portion of CoCo is already secured. The ballot language is unclear and deceptive. It’s meant to fool Sterling Ranch, Littleton, Denver, Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Collins voters into taxing themselves unnecessarily.

Anything that has to use taxpayer funds forever is typically a bad idea, as it shows private industry won’t take the risk because it’s not fiscally sound. Today, throwing money at antiquated, max-speed 79-mile-per-hour slow-speed rail is a thickheaded move. Trains are straight out of the 1800s and aren’t futuristic thinking. We encourage voters to think long and hard about how much they trust the state government to manage this large amount of taxpayer funds responsibly. They don’t have a good track record.