Longmont City Council gives lukewarm endorsement to Regional Transportation District ballot measure

The Longmont City Council has officially thrown its political weight behind a Regional Transportation District ballot measure that, if approved, would allow the public agency to continue to collect, retain and spend all of the revenue it receives without regard to the limitations set forth in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Approved by voters in 1992, TABOR, as its called, generally limits the amount of revenue governments can retain and spend and requires voter approval for certain tax increases. In 1999, voters exempted RTD from TABOR's revenue and spending limitations through the period required to pay certain bond debt. That debt will be paid off in November 2024.

The City Council endorsed RTD's ballot measure in a 5-2 vote during its regular session on Tuesday, with Councilmembers Diane Crist and Marcia Martin casting the two "no" votes.

Crist said Thursday that she did not endorse the agency's ballot measure largely because she wanted a firm commitment from RTD to reinstate more regional bus service to and from Longmont, first.

"It just seems reasonable ... and good business practice to get it in writing that there's that commitment," Crist said.

Longmont Mayor Joan Peck said Friday that she endorsed RTD's ballot measure mainly because she wants to see one-way bus service restored between Longmont and Denver's Union Station. Peck acknowledged and shared her constituents' frustrations concerning the lack of services the city is receiving from RTD. If more bus service is not restored and a path to finish the Northwest Rail Line from Denver's Union Station to Longmont is not finished in accordance with the timeline laid out in Senate Bill 24-184, Peck said that she would begin a petition for Longmont and the rest of the northwest corridor to exit the FasTracks portion of RTD.

FasTracks is RTD's 2004 voter-approved plan to expand transit across the Denver metro region, including rail service to Longmont. However, such rail service has never arrived in Longmont despite local taxpayers dumping millions of dollars into it.

Martin said Thursday that FasTracks did not factor into her decision to vote against endorsing RTD's ballot measure. Instead, she wanted to send a message to RTD not to mess with local bus service in and to Longmont. Martin, though, acknowledged and was appreciative of the $450,000 RTD put toward Longmont's microtransit program in 2024 and the additional $350,000 the agency will give toward the program in both 2025 and 2026. Admittedly, Martin said that if she thought the resolution to endorse RTD's ballot measure had a chance of failing, she would have ultimately supported it.

"It's really a moral dilemma when you have to choose between voting to hold RTD accountable and voting for 'de-Brucing,'" Martin said. "I hate the TABOR amendment and vote for 'de-Brucing' whenever I can."

"De-Brucing" describes a large variety of ballot languages that voters can approve to remove some TABOR spending and revenue limits from a local government, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. It refers to the person who was behind the TABOR tax limitation measure – Colorado Springs real estate investor Douglas Bruce.

Currently, RTD is forecasting that TABOR revenue growth limitations would result in refunds, district-wide, of $2.406 million in 2027 and $3.653 million in 2029, according to RTD CFO Doug MacLeod. Because RTD does not project sales and use tax collections by jurisdiction, but rather by the district as a whole, the agency was unable to provide an estimate specific for Longmont. RTD serves eight counties across the metro area.