“Well, another day, another dollar / After I’ve sang and hollered,” begins Blackfoot’s “Highway Song.” In Colorado, it’s more like another day, another TABOR-dodging transportation fee collected — after politicians have sung and hollered about fixing our roads.

Alas, that dollar keeps ending up someplace else, leaving Coloradans stuck in traffic singing the same “highway song… on and on.”

Fortunately, Colorado voters may finally get the chance to flip the script so that transportation dollars actually fix roads, highways and bridges.

In 2021, the Democrat-run legislature passed Senate Bill 260, overriding voters’ clear rejection of a transportation tax increase in 2018. SB260 repackaged those tax hikes as “fees” on every Uber ride, Amazon package, UPS shipment and Grubhub delivery — plus a $5.23-a-day rental car fee.

“(SB260) changed the state’s focus for transportation from highway infrastructure to environmental mitigation,” reports the Common Sense Institute’s Ben Stein, former chief financial officer of CDOT.

That’s called a bait-and-switch.

“Historically, transportation-related fees have been used to upgrade and maintain the infrastructure,” Stein told me in March. “But the legislature and the governor have decided, for the most part, that’s not how the money will get spent.”

These burdensome fees aren’t fixing highways — they’re financing electric vehicle charging stations, EV subsidies and bike lanes most Coloradans won’t use. What good are charging stations if you can’t get to them in the first place?

At its core, Stein observes, Gov. Jared Polis’ Transportation Vision 2035 is “an environmental mitigation document” — where precious little fee money supports roads. “Routing resources at this time to environmental mitigation when the pavement is crumbling may not be the wisest choice,” Stein said.

Even rental car fees fund rail projects that tourists will never use. They don’t improve the roads those visitors drive on.

This is nonsense. And its impacts are detrimental.

Since January, at least five studies have classified Colorado’s roads among America’s worst. The Reason Foundation put our highway system at #43. We can’t blame the mountains since neighboring Utah charted #8.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave Colorado infrastructure a C- this year, grading our roads a D+. Only 34% of them are in good condition. Colorado drivers lose $1,705 annually in wear and tear — “more than double the national average” — while deteriorated and congested roads cost nearly $1,900 per motorist, or 35% above the national average.

A study from DC-based nonprofit TRIP calculated an $11.4 billion annual hit to Colorado motorists — up to $3,060 per driver in some areas — largely due to “a lack of adequate investment in transportation.” And, according to CDOT, every time I-70 shuts down, it saps economic activity by $2 million — draining communities and businesses that rely on highway access.

Here’s the thing: The state’s transportation failures aren’t just creating costly problems — they’re risking lives. Last year, several Colorado congressional representatives asked then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to investigate CDOT’s lax safety oversight. They documented a 400% surge in highway construction accidents along I-25 North and multiple fatalities, including CDOT workers. Despite receiving 42.2% federal funding, CDOT reportedly skirts safety protocols.

These are the consequences of systematically diverting funds from essential infrastructure toward transit and environmental mitigation. Those projects have their place, but not at the expense of crumbling roads.

Yet Polis and his Democratic legislature would rather engineer your lifestyle choices — deliberately funneling fees they didn’t let you vote for into transit and environmental mitigation projects that benefit a fraction of Coloradans while roads deteriorate for everyone else.

It’s their way or the highway, except they’ve left nothing for the highways.

Polis fantasizes about doubling transit ridership, but RTD’s Denver commuter share has plunged from 4.8% before the pandemic to just 3% today. Policymakers keep taking a left turn on a red light, tossing money at empty light rail cars while Coloradans vote with their cars — boosting vehicle miles back to pre-pandemic levels.

Residential development around light rail stations won’t help families in Redstone or Grand Junction, where terrain is more difficult and infrastructure needs are critical. But progressive pipe dreams remain intact thanks to your delivery fees, even while you’re dodging potholes on the morning drive.

“The combination of our geography and demography, inflation, revenues and prioritizing of environmental concerns is mathematically such that the roads are going to continue to deteriorate,” Stein warned. Unfortunately, he stressed, a tax increase may eventually be necessary.

Thankfully, two proposed constitutional amendments for the 2026 ballot would bring about some much-needed change. The initiatives, in their early stages, would require most delivery fees, ride-sharing fees and taxes on motor vehicles and fuel to — brace yourself — fund roads. They’d also mandate two-thirds of sales tax revenue from vehicle parts, equipment, materials and accessories go to highways, roads and bridges. One proposal sunsets after a decade; the other is permanent.

If last week’s theatrical special session proved anything, it’s that it’s up to the voters to force fiscal sanity on Colorado’s infrastructure crisis. Until our tax dollars fund actual roads rather than subsidizing fantasy projects, highways will keep deteriorating — costing lives, time and prosperity along the way.

That’s the chorus our politicians keep singing. These amendments offer a chance to change the tune — and finally stop Colorado’s highway song from droning on and on.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.