Karen's Guest Opinion ran in the 10/22/24 edition of the Longmont Times-Call:

GUEST OPINION

Why you should vote yes on RTD’s Ballot Issue 7A

By Karen Benker

As I was campaigning this year to run for the RTD Board, virtually every person I met told me that they wanted rail to come to Longmont and asked me to work hard to make this finally happen. I told them that I would work from inside the agency to convince other RTD Directors to move this rail project forward and bring a train to our city.

One woman looked at me, sized me up, and only said “Give ‘em hell” and walked away. I told her I would do my best.

Here’s the background: Longmonters have been paying for the Northwest Rail line for 20 years, and we are the only Fastracks line that has not been built. We are tired of the delay and excuses from RTD. If you recall, voters raised the RTD sales tax by 0.4% in 2004 so that RTD could build a rail network across the metro area. To ensure the passage of this tax increase, RTD added the train to Longmont to the Fastracks plan to guarantee a large yes vote from Boulder County just before they put the measure on the ballot. And consequently, Longmont voters passed it with 59% of the vote and added many yes votes to the “passed” column that helped to pass the Fastracks initiative across the entire RTD district. Then RTD stalled on building our line.

The good news is that some pieces are starting to fall into place to start breaking ground on our train line. The state Legislature passed two bills this past session to provide additional funding to RTD and strict language telling RTD to have the rail line built no later than Jan. 1, 2029.

To add more pressure to build the rail line, three years ago, Gov. Jared Polis and the Legislature established the Front Range Passenger Rail District to build rail connecting Fort Collins to Pueblo. Guess what? The missing RTD rail piece to build this rail line through the Denver area is the NW line to Longmont.

So now we have the governor and state Legislature stepping in and telling the RTD to get this line built asap.

Longmont taxpayers have paid RTD $90 million over 20 years, and those dollars have been spent to pay for the construction of other metro rail lines. So far, we have received nothing in return. Not one dime.

Here’s the next step: RTD needs to de-Bruce from TABOR this year so it can 1) keep taxpayer funds to increase bus service that was cut during the pandemic and 2) save funds to build our rail line. Beginning this January, RTD has added two roundtrip bus trips between Longmont and Denver. This is a step in the right direction. Small step, but the right one.

To move forward and get RTD to build our rail line to Longmont, it needs to “de-Bruce” from TABOR this Nov. 5, which would allow it to keep all revenue that they raise from sales taxes, fare revenue, and state funds. Please vote yes on Ballot Issue 7A so RTD will have the revenue to expand service.

If RTD does not build our NW rail line, Mayor Joan Peck has announced that she will lead the effort to pull out of the RTD Fastracks deal. And I will help her.

At last, good things are happening on the rail front. Progress is being made, so let’s keep pushing and pulling RTD to get it done. It can happen. You can make it happen. Vote yes.

Karen Benker has previously served on Longmont City Council and served on the RTD Board where she was instrumental in building the SW Rail Line in 2000.