August 27, 2012 07:00 PM UTC

Max Tyler: "Get to work, CDOT."

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s been road construction projects popping up all over Jefferson County lately, with workers and trucks dotting streets from the Sixth and Simms interchange in Lakewood to the Youngfield ramp off I-70 in Wheat Ridge. And, if State Representative Max Tyler had his druthers, you may soon be seeing even more men in reflective vests and hard hats.

From Tyler’s office:

Rep. Max Tyler (D-Lakewood) received the Transportation Legislation Review Committee’s preliminary support today for finding ways to work with the Colorado Department of Transportation to speed up the process of turning its project designs into reality.  

“The Department of Transportation has got $1 billion in cash sitting in the bank, unused, for projects,” Rep. Tyler told a TLRC hearing today. “That money could go out on the road for construction projects faster.”

At Rep. Tyler’s request, TLRC staff will draft a letter asking CDOT how it plans to decrease the lag time between the approval, design and construction phases of projects, to identify the projects that can be moved forward, and asking what additional resources in engineering, planning or project management may be necessary to get these plans moving forward.

“The money’s just sitting there, earning hardly any interest, when it could be creating jobs and boosting the economy,” Rep. Tyler said.

The TLRC voted unanimously to have the letter drafted.

As any New Deal historian would tell you, capital construction is especially useful to pull local economies out of recession: it creates short-term jobs that can’t be outsourced while simultaneously bolstering local infrastructure.

By encouraging CDOT to speed up its project review and construction process, Tyler can now frame himself as a valiant job creator, slashing through red tape to improve the economy and infrastructure in Lakewood.

Sure, Republican Rick Enstrom and his allies can fire back that Tyler’s encouraging an already-too-big government to spend more money, but those attacks will fall flat. This money has already been allocated for construction projects. It can’t, for example, be returned to taxpayers or re-allocated to fill budget holes instead of potholes.

Tyler, then, is simply working to ensure that taxpayer money is actually being used to create jobs and improve the economy. Sure, the TLRC can merely recommend that CDOT quicken the pace at which it moves projects forward, but that Tyler spearheaded that recommendation process allows him to continue trumpeting his ability to use government to create jobs.