News
Dear Editor:
Amendment 52 would be a disaster for Colorado. Facing uncertainties about water and massive dying forests all over the state, Amendment 52 will cripple the Department of Natural Resources just when Colorado needs it the most.
Proponents claim that the money will come from “surplus drilling dollars” and provide a “healthy down payment” on needed highway work along I-70. Neither claim is true. “Surplus” dollars don’t exist in Colorado. Amendment 52 takes that money from the Department of Natural Resources, forcing it to work with a drastically reduced budget. It would curtail or eliminate needed water projects and planning all over Colorado. It could eliminate work being done to help our forests and the devastation caused by the pine beetle, spruce budworm and aspen decline. These are vital to Colorado’s future.
Amendment 52 won’t help I-70 congestion. That will take many billions of dollars. Amendment 52 dollars are too little to do any good and is nothing like a “healthy down payment.” And it can’t go toward mass transit. It is strictly for asphalt. What good are more lanes when cars reach the tunnel? All we’ll have is a wider parking lot.
Amendment 52 is just a perpetual pork barrel for the pavement industry at the expense of Colorado’s forests, rivers and water supply. I-70 needs help, but not like this. It’s highway robbery, written into the state constitution.
Vote NO on this deceptive and disastrous amendment.
P.S.: I am currently the president of Colorado Trout Unlimited, served on CDOT’s I-70 PEIS Mountain Corridor Advisory Council and am a current member of both the Colorado River Basin Roundtable and the governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council. I also drive to Denver using I-70 on a regular basis.
Ken Neubecker
Carbondale
Amendment 52 would be a disaster for Colorado. Facing uncertainties about water and massive dying forests all over the state, Amendment 52 will cripple the Department of Natural Resources just when Colorado needs it the most.
Proponents claim that the money will come from “surplus drilling dollars” and provide a “healthy down payment” on needed highway work along I-70. Neither claim is true. “Surplus” dollars don’t exist in Colorado. Amendment 52 takes that money from the Department of Natural Resources, forcing it to work with a drastically reduced budget. It would curtail or eliminate needed water projects and planning all over Colorado. It could eliminate work being done to help our forests and the devastation caused by the pine beetle, spruce budworm and aspen decline. These are vital to Colorado’s future.
Amendment 52 won’t help I-70 congestion. That will take many billions of dollars. Amendment 52 dollars are too little to do any good and is nothing like a “healthy down payment.” And it can’t go toward mass transit. It is strictly for asphalt. What good are more lanes when cars reach the tunnel? All we’ll have is a wider parking lot.
Amendment 52 is just a perpetual pork barrel for the pavement industry at the expense of Colorado’s forests, rivers and water supply. I-70 needs help, but not like this. It’s highway robbery, written into the state constitution.
Vote NO on this deceptive and disastrous amendment.
P.S.: I am currently the president of Colorado Trout Unlimited, served on CDOT’s I-70 PEIS Mountain Corridor Advisory Council and am a current member of both the Colorado River Basin Roundtable and the governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council. I also drive to Denver using I-70 on a regular basis.
Ken Neubecker
Carbondale
