RTD intends to issue up to $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds that would be used by private contractors to help build the FasTracks lines to Denver International Airport and Arvada-Wheat Ridge. Because these would be Private Activity Bonds, issued on behalf of a private party for construction of a qualifying transportation project, they would not count against RTD’s $3.7 billion TABOR cap on FasTracks sales tax revenue bonds, which voters approved in November 2004.

Nor would RTD or the taxpayers be on the hook for ultimate repayment.
It’s all part of RTD’s hunt for a way out of the financial bind preventing it from completing FasTracks the way it was promised to voters. RTD is currently about $2.2 billion short of the $6.9 billion it needs to finish it all by 2017.

RTD and its drivers and mechanics union have exchanged final offers that differ widely on wage increases, including whether they would be paid at all.

That’s because on the verge of going to binding arbitration, RTD has proposed a wage increase deal that rests on a triggering event – a reversal of its sales tax slide.

Meanwhile, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 has proposed a series of quarterly increases that would eventually raise wage rates by $1.52 an hour at the end of the third year in 2012.

The two sides are expected to submit final comments Wednesday on the list of 10 potential arbitrators – five submitted by each side – before the state Division of Labor selects one.

CDOT sent the first $35 million in federal stimulus money out on the street today when it put up ads on six road projects.

The centerpiece is a project that originally showed up on Colorado’s Most-Wanted list for bad bridges that needed replacing, during discussion of the FASTER transportation funding bill in the legislature this session.

That’s the complete replacement of four bridges on Interstate 76 in Adams County – the eastbound and westbound structures over the Union Pacific Railroad Dent Branch and the nearby eastbound and westbound structures over 74th Avenue, otherwise known as Colorado 224.

The job would use more than a third of this first blast of stimulus spending, at $13.5 million. By applying stimulus funds to this job, CDOT will be able to get a bit more done with the bridge replacement money, coming from higher auto registration fees, that would have been used on it.

A couple at the heart of the battle with RTD over eminent domain for FasTracks have settled with the transit agency to sell their property, and will now focus on battling Lakewood over zoning for a relocated site for their business.

Galen Foster and Kim Snyder, who have operated Pro-Tint for a quarter-century from their joint home-business on the southeast corner of Wadsworth Boulevard and 14th Avenue, will be able to stay on the property through next February, while they search for another business location and home.

Originally RTD wanted them out in three months.

“Being out in 90 days was a deal breaker,” Snyder said. “When they gave us until Feb 28, 2010, that was a huge concession.” They agreed to a sale price of $595,000.

A majority of metro Denver mayors recommended this morning that RTD ask voters this fall for another four-tenths of a cent increase in the sales tax to restock the beleaguered $6.9 billion FasTracks rapid transit program with construction and operating funds.

Not all of them believe it can pass, but 23 of the 38 mayors in the Metro Mayors Caucus agreed that it’s better to get the answer from voters sooner — yes or no on more tax money — than to wait until fall 2010. That’s because their recommendation includes looking at substantial hits to two lines ready to go to full build-out — the lines to Denver International Airport and to Arvada-Wheat Ridge — if voters don’t approve more money for the later lines at risk of not being built.

“There has to be risk to all corridors,” Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said.

A good Samaritan bus driver who got a jaywalking ticket — later rescinded — after he was hit by a pickup truck while helping an elderly passenger across a snowy street underwent four hours of reconstructive surgery on his right knee Monday.

Jim Moffett, 58, lost ligaments and tendons in his knee as a result of the accident Feb. 20 on Federal Boulevard at 62nd Avenue.

Doctors said the surgery was a success, said Donna Moffett, Jim’s wife. But it is too soon to say whether he will have a full recovery, she said.

RTD’s sales tax collections for January plummeted a stunning 13 percent off last year’s total, and worse, 18.5 percent under the transit agency’s budget projection. It’s an indication that the recession is deepening the impact on consumer spending in the Denver metro area.

At least two metro mayors are putting new proposals and pleas for unity on the table in their quest for consensus on the FasTracks funding crisis. They are trying to find ways to build the full program, which has a price tag $2.2 billion over RTD’s available funding. They may even be able to accept longer completion times for some of the rail lines, given what they see as the unlikely chance of persuading voters to approve a second FasTracks sales tax hike.