DENVER–Colorado recently received a below average grade in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2025 Infrastructure report with the state getting a C- on overall infrastructure health.
But the report, which among other things finds fault with Colorado’s constitutionally guaranteed taxpayer protections, has some transportation experts calling foul on the ASCE urging “increased funding mechanisms,” saying the problem isn’t a lack of revenue, but rather poor use of existing resources.
Ben Stein, infrastructure expert for the Common Sense Institute, says Colorado needs to better manage their existing sources of funding, noting in a recent study that money from delivery, rental car, and ride-sharing fees, among others imposed by the legislature are not being used as they should.
“Those fees are being used mostly for environmental purposes,” Stein told Complete Colorado, “I think that is inappropriate, I think that transportation fees collected from entities that use the roads, bridges and tunnels should actually go toward the maintenance of those facilities.”
The ASCE report evaluates 14 categories of the state’s infrastructure, assigning a letter grade to each of the categories: Aviation, dams, rail (B-), bridges (C+), energy, public parks, wastewater (C), drinking water, solid waste, storm water, transit (C-), levees, schools, and roads (D+).
The last ASCE Infrastructure report, released in 2020, gave Colorado the same overall grade of C-. However, in those five years the report says Colorado’s score increased in wastewater and dams, but decreased in the areas of aviation, energy, and roads. While aviation dropped from a B to a B-, this category was also the highest scoring area for the state and stood out drastically compared to the national average of D+ in aviation.
TABOR as villain
The report concludes that Colorado’s problem lies in aging infrastructure exacerbated by, among other things, a growing population (39% increase since 2000) and inadequate funding, specifically calling out the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment.
“In Colorado, where TABOR limits public funding decisions, clear communication with residents is especially critical. Education and outreach efforts should aim to build mutual trust between government entities and the public,” the report reads, in part.
But TABOR doesn’t determine how Colorado tax dollars are spent, but rather limits a portion of the state budget to an annual growth rate of population plus inflation. In other words, as the population has grown, so too has the revenue available for things such as infrastructure spending.
The state’s largest source of transportation funding, the Highway Users Trust Fund (HUTF), is already exempt from TABOR revenue limits, as are other fee-based enterprises related to bridge and tunnel maintenance.
Conflict of interest
Former state Senator Ray Scott says a big part of the funding problem is that state government has shifted transportation money into “multi-modal” projects (transit, bike lanes, etc.) which took focus away off roads and bridges,
“The evidence shows that the money is there, but the highway commissioners divert it,” Scott told Complete Colorado, “So what we end up with was this bizarre mix of green energy projects disguised as highway funding.”
Scott explained that Colorado was “swimming in money” from federal spending on the Covid-19 pandemic. Back then, according to Scott, lawmakers went to Gov. Polis asking to put $3 billion of that toward roads and bridges, but he wouldn’t do it.
“So we ended up with all these other crazy programs that now they can’t fund and we have a budget shortfall,” said Scott.
Transportation expert Randal O’Toole says there’s a self-serving element to the report’s call for more funding.
“ASCE has a conflict of interest here, as if they report low grades and it inspires legislators to spend more money on infrastructure, ASCE members benefit,” O’Toole told Complete Colorado.
O’Toole is author of the book Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What To Do About It, as well as director of transportation policy at Independence Institute,* a free market think tank in Denver.
“It was reports like this that stampeded Congress into passing the ridiculous 2021 infrastructure bill (IIJA),” said O’Toole.
*Independence Institute is publisher of Complete Colorado.
