TransportationWednesday, November 4
Front Range voters appear to be passing a sales tax for passenger rail to Colorado Springs and Pueblo
The AM Denver team
If you're hoping for a train south of Denver, voters look to be on board. In early returns at 8 p.m., 56.14% of voters approved the 0.333% sales tax in Ballot Issue 7A, and the Colorado Sun counted 55.55% in favor at 9:03 p.m.
The tax would add a fourth daily trip north to Fort Collins and two daily round trips south from Union Station to Sterling Ranch, Littleton, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Colorado Public Radio says the southern portion is proposed to begin service in 2032.
The rail tax by the numbers
- 0.333%
- sales tax, about 33 cents per $100 spent
- $295 million
- projected to be raised each year
- $580 million
- in bonds the district asked to be allowed to sell
Source: The Colorado Sun
- Exempt from the tax: food, gasoline, residential utilities, prescription drugs, medical supplies
- Starter service: three daily round trips, Denver to Fort Collins, 2029
- Tax length: permanent, with no sunset
- Also paid for: a new Amtrak station in Trinidad
Not every Front Range voter could weigh in. About 800,000 voters in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties got ballots with the measure but were ineligible after a May boundary change.
Sources: BizWest, The Colorado Sun, Colorado Public Radio, Denver Gazette