The Times-Call, June 20, on bike lanes:
The political fight over the rights of bicyclists, and the amount of road they should have available to them, is finding a new avenue, so to speak.
In Boulder, city planners are considering changing several four-lane roads into two-lane vehicle thoroughfares, with a center turning lane and wide paths for bicycles on the right side of the road. After a late-night, contentious meeting of the city council, the plan was approved on a 7-2 vote.
For some residents, the notion that car traffic would be squeezed into a single lane to make space for riders who are neither licensed nor insured like automobile drivers is akin to a food stamps program for those who already can afford to eat steak.
While motorists have a right to be concerned, their misgivings might be directed toward the wrong place.
The problem with American transportation infrastructure isn’t that bicyclists aren’t paying their fair share - it’s that nobody really is. The backlog of transportation projects at the federal level is in the trillions, at the state of Colorado in the billions and in the millions for municipalities. The primary sources for funding, such as the gasoline tax and other taxing sources, have not been changed in a generation, while the construction prices and demands on our roads have steadily increased.
If funding for our roads had kept pace with the demands placed on them, alternative routes for cyclists - and better arterials and connecting streets for motorists - could help keep cars and bikes separated, and their users less prone to accident and injury.
In the coming years, residents of Colorado will be faced with a new reality of tolled highways - euphemistically called “managed lanes” - to help generate new money for roads.
Cyclists are sometimes maligned as being “trust fund babies.” In fact, the roads motorists now use were a trust handed down by the generations before, too.
The conversation isn’t just about how to fit cyclists and cars on the roads, but about how to make sure there’s enough road for all of us now and the future.
Editorial: https://bit.ly/1eHi2Dd
___
The Pueblo Chieftain, June 22, on PERA financial troubles:
THE LAURA and John Arnold Foundation has completed a report that confirms what we already know. The Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association public pension program is in serious financial trouble and it’s time to take action.
The “Risky Retirement: Colorado’s Uncertain Future and Opportunities for Reform” report, released last week, indicates that PERA is only 61 percent funded and the state owes more than $25 billion in retirement benefits that have already been earned by public employees.
The report suggests that “the state should take immediate steps to preserve services and workers’ retirement benefits by adopting comprehensive reforms that are affordable, sustainable and fair.”
Among the fixes recommended by the report’s authors are a more conservative funding policy to protect PERA during economic downturns and a reasonable payment plan that would get the system out of debt.
We don’t think the recommendations go far enough to ensure PERA’s stability and fairness, which the report purports to advocate.
Certainly compelling PERA to shy away from high-risk investments makes sense. Speculation has gotten the system into financial trouble time and again. It’s just common sense to be more conservative when investing pension funds.
Also, Colorado needs to shift from its current defined benefit PERA system to a defined contribution system. Most private-sector employees rely on defined contribution plans - i.e. 401(k) plans. PERA guarantees a set benefit, no matter the fluctuations experienced in the economy or in the market. That’s a recipe for disaster.
We take issue with the current contribution levels required by law as well. Employees pay in a steady 8 percent of their salary into the PERA system. Thanks to Colorado law, the public’s share of pension costs rise higher each year. It should be the other way around. Taxpayers should be on the hook for the same percentage each year, while public employees should face a rising contribution rate to cover the cost of the exceptionally high benefit they enjoy.
In March, ratings agency Moody’s Investors Services warned that the state needs to take action to reduce the amount of its unfunded liabilities within PERA. At that time, Moody’s reported that PERA’s unfunded liability was $17.3 billion, making it the 16th highest public pension debt problem in the nation.
PERA Executive Director Greg Smith says the pension system is just fine and has plenty of money to meet its financial obligations. We believe Moody’s and last week’s report. It’s past time for our elected officials to do something about the mess.
Editorial: https://bit.ly/1eHjlSC
___
The Denver Post, June 23, on Rep. Ken Buck and the trade deal:
Not long after last week’s narrow House vote to provide “fast-track authority” for the president to finish a trade deal with nations across the Pacific Rim, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, sent out a fund-raising e-mail touting his opposition.
“I proudly voted to defeat ObamaTrade … twice!” Buck declared.
And why? Because “Obama could use his overreaching trade authority to advance: A radical climate change agenda; Amnesty for illegal aliens; Unpopular gun control laws; Payoffs for big labor.”
This breathtaking series of dangers is both imaginary and unrelated to the actual goals of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). And the last item, “payoffs for big labor,” is particularly ironic.
Labor unions have been, along with environmental groups, the most tireless and formidable opponents of the trade deal. Labor’s opposition explains why so many Democrats, including Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter, voted against fast-track authority.
For Buck to claim that a fast-track vote will somehow redound to organized labor’s benefit is simply mind-boggling.
Every president asks for fast-track authority before concluding trade deals. Negotiators can’t have Congress demanding changes to a deal involving 11 other countries that took years to finalize.
If Congress doesn’t like the final product, it is free to reject it outright at that time.
Colorado exports more than $1 billion in agricultural products, and more than $300 million in beef and veal alone - much of which comes from Buck’s 4th Congressional District. If anyone should be supporting free trade, it is the freshman congressman.
Fortunately, three other Colorado House Republicans and one House Democrat, as well as Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, seem to understand the importance of the TPP, which covers 40 percent of U.S. trade, in breaking down barriers and creating a level playing field for Colorado exporters.
Indeed, Bennet and Gardner voted again Tuesday on a procedural measure to move fast-track authority forward - with the final vote expected to occur Wednesday. In doing so, they stood by their votes last month.
The fast-track drama in Congress has gone on long enough. It’s time to support expanded trade.
Editorial: https://dpo.st/1GyzpMb
___
The Durango Herald, June 23, on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument:
When then-President Bill Clinton used the Antiquities Act to designate the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in 2000, there was a small but vocal opposition concerned that the designation would detract from the Montezuma County canyon country’s remote and rugged stature, bringing throngs of federal regulations, along with crowds from afar. While the designation has certainly attracted visitors who appreciate the stunning scenery and rich archaeological resources ensconced in the monument, as well as lasting protections for the irreplaceable landscape and treasures it contains, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument has not wrought the negative impacts some had feared. In fact, the story has been largely positive.
As the monument commemorates its 15th anniversary, it is instructive to look back at the impetus for its designation. The monument comprises 178,000 acres of the highest-known density of archaeological sites in the United States - with 8,000 identified thus far. This concentration of Southwestern heritage is integral to our understanding of Ancestral Puebloan culture in general, with specific insight into hunting, agriculture, geology, botany, ceramics, hydrology, astronomy and architectural practices. That such a rich archive of this history exists in such a stunning, remote and yet accessible setting is a boon to Southwest Colorado and to American culture in general.
The Bureau of Land Management caretakes the Canyons of Ancients, and, in its management plan, ensures that existing grazing and rights-of-way are in place at the time of the monument’s designation remain protected, while also enshrining and highlighting the archaeological treasures within the monument’s broad boundaries. This balance makes Canyons of the Ancients an important local resource for those who have historically used the federal lands for recreational and agricultural purposes, while protecting their irreplaceable cultural, historic and environmental resources.
This has had a positive economic impact on the monument’s surrounding communities. From 2000-2008, Montezuma County’s population grew 5 percent, while jobs grew by 10 percent, and income increased by 15 percent per capita, according to a study by the Headwaters Institute. Though not necessarily causational, the monument certainly has not harmed the Montezuma County economy and, in fact, appears to have reinforced previous growth trends. In a community where nearly one-quarter of the economy is linked to tourism and the service industry, Canyons of the Ancients represents an important draw for travelers, particularly when added to the region’s vast complex of important archaeological sites including Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Canyon National Historic Park south of Bloomfield, Chimney Rock National Monument in Archuleta County, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Chinle, Arizona.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument’s 15th anniversary is indeed worthy of celebration. Its designation has protected, in perpetuity, a wide array of resources definitive to the history - ancient and otherwise - of the Southwestern U.S. A federal investment in that history and the landscape that holds it is wholly appropriate, particularly given the benefit such an investment brings to local communities.
Editorial: https://bit.ly/1BACtM6
Please read our comment policy before commenting.