Questions about Republicans’ plan to fund state highway fixes

“We can fix our roads without raising taxes,” Feb. 11 guest commentary.

Rep. Jon Becker’s column follows in the long line of elected officials who are unwilling to make tough choices. He argues that the easy way to fix Colorado’s roads is to dedicate 10 percent of state sales tax to finance bonds.

If The Denver Post is going to allow partisans to argue the pros and cons of critical issues facing Colorado, it should at least hold them to the same standards required of high school students writing essays.

Rep. Becker’s argument sounds “responsible and manageable,” to use his phrase. After all, he’s identified a funding source for roads “without raising taxes.” But governing is choosing, and tradeoffs have to be explored honestly. Becker, however, fails to identify which programs — currently funded by that 10 percent — he would cut back or eliminate to free up money for roads. That’s the tough choice that faces a leader.

I don’t blame Becker for advancing the cause of free-lunch conservatism. But it’s incumbent on The Post to require him to answer the obvious next question before publishing his guest commentary.

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Jon Becker buries his real solution to our infrastructure crisis in his second-to-last paragraph. He spends five paragraphs implying that the state already has funds to fix and maintain our roads, but then, near the bottom, admits his real solution — a “$3.5 billion bond.” His Republican solution, then, can be reduced to three simple words: big debt increase. He does not tell us how much of his touted sales tax diversion will go to pay the interest on this $3.5 billion loan (that’s what a bond is). The fact that he ignores the ongoing cost of repaying a bond leads me to assume that a lot, maybe all, of his sales tax diversion will go toward interest payments, leaving the Colorado Department of Transportation in no better position than now to address future road maintenance.