CAPITOL COWBOY _______________________________2/11/2016_

The 2nd Session of the Seventieth General Assembly has completed its first
month. 90 Days left to go.
I have a change to my duties this year: Chair of the Capitol Development
Committee. The Capital Development Committee (CDC) is a statutory year
round committee responsible for reviewing funding requests for capital
projects from all state agencies, and making prioritized recommendations to
the Joint Budget Committee. Some of the bills we bring forward facilitate this
committees job.
I am still the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and a member of
Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources and Business Labor and
Technology Committees.
As the Senate Majority Whip, I have a lot to do but the main job of the Whip is
to make sure that the Senate Majority party members are present in the
Senate chambers for voting on legislation.
One of the top issues of this legislative session is funding for Transportation.
I held a meeting in January of interested stakeholders to hear proposals
regarding transportation funding and I am involved in pending legislation to
address the issue. We will be having more meetings with the stakeholders in
the near future.
We all know that repair, maintenance and capital construction of our roads
and highways affects all corners of our state both in safety and economics.
CDOT Director Shailen Bhatt says the state's gas tax should be increased to
pay for road repairs and transportation improvements. Oil and gas
production is down and severance taxes to the state and affected counties are
being reduced, drastically harming our communities who rely on those jobs
and revenues. We see a slowdown in the economy and thus in revenues, and
we see some dark clouds on the horizon even though we have 3% more
revenues in this fiscal year.
We all love the low price of gasoline but it is not predicted to stay this low for
much more time. Raising gas taxes seems reasonable right now, perhaps, but
might not when gas prices rise.
DONT FORGET TO PARTICIPATE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD CAUCUSES
MARCH 1, 2016
Senator Randy Baumgardner, Senate District 8,
Rio Blanco, Moffat, Summit, Grand, Garfield, Routt and Jackson Counties
randy.baumgardner.senate@state.co.us
303-866-5292
Follow the Legislature on www.leg.state.co.us