Trump’s plan lands with a thud

Colorado contractors say the president’s infrastructure proposals fall short.

President Donald Trump’s long-awaited plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure is going over like a flat tire with people who build roads in Colorado, underlining the state’s partisan divide on how to pay for them.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to generate $1 trillion in spending, but a draft proposal that became public this week appears to allocate far less, and the discouragement was clear Friday at the annual gathering of the Colorado Contractors Association.

“On first blush, it sounds like a token effort,” said Ted Ott, the CEO of Colorado Barricade Co., a specialized contractor that works with construction companies.

The early details suggest the plan includes $200 billion in federal spending over 10 years and puts state and local governments on the hook for 80 percent of highway projects — a reversal of the current ratio. Moreover, the proposal appears to prioritize states with a dedicated state revenue source for transportation money, potentially putting Colorado at a disadvantage.

“It’s a tenth of what it should be,” Ott said. “And I think everybody here would agree the need in Colorado is particularly historic.”

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper expressed concern about the direction — but suggested it may help prod state lawmakers to break the transportation spending gridlock at the Capitol.

“If we all work a little harder, we can all get something on the ballot and then we can compete with our neighboring states,” Hickenlooper told the contractors at the conference.

In an interview, the Democrat said the new ratio, in which the federal government covers only 20 percent of a project’s cost, “is a steep hill.”

“I think that’s going to make all of our jobs harder,” he said, even as he said if it’s “fair to every state, we’ll just have to deal with it.”

Trump touted the plan this week, saying it could help generate a $1.7 trillion investment in infrastructure from private companies and state and local governments.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat and leading advocate for more infrastructure spending, told the conference the plan is insufficient — and he doubts it can even pass Congress.

“If (Trump) thinks that $200 million is going to leverage $800 million from states and the private sector, he’s crazy,” Rendell said in an interview.

Colorado Senate President Kevin Grantham said Trump’s plan only reaffirms the need for the General Assembly to act this year — even though the two parties disagree about how to pay for transportation improvements.