Local Funding for Vulnerable Road User Protection
HB1044 would authorize counties, cities and counties, and municipalities in Colorado to create or use a TABOR-exempt enterprise to impose additional local motor vehicle registration fees on passenger cars and light trucks. The bill ties the fee structure to vehicle weight, and optionally fuel efficiency, with higher fees allowed for heavier vehicles and, within the same weight class, for light trucks and less fuel-efficient vehicles. The first fee schedule could begin with registration periods starting January 1, 2026, and future maximums would be adjusted annually for inflation or deflation.
Revenue collected under the bill would have to be deposited into a dedicated local fund and used only for “vulnerable road user protection strategies.” Those strategies include a broad set of local transportation safety projects such as sidewalks, shared-use paths, bike lanes, medians, pedestrian refuge islands, lighting, crossing improvements, road diets, traffic calming, speed management, speed and red-light cameras, transit improvements, and other data-driven measures intended to reduce collisions and serious injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists, and other unprotected road users. The bill also allows local governments to run grant programs, prioritize projects in high-injury areas or transit-oriented corridors, and reduce or waive fees for owners who demonstrate economic hardship.
The bill would add a new article to Title 29 of the Colorado Revised Statutes creating a local funding mechanism for road safety projects. It would give local governments explicit authority to levy and collect vehicle registration fees through the Department of Revenue, establish dedicated cash funds for the proceeds, and define the fee revenue as not counting against a qualifying enterprise’s TABOR spending limit. It also sets statutory definitions for vulnerable road users, passenger cars, light trucks, transportation equity, and eligible safety strategies, while exempting state-owned vehicles from the fee.
The available voting history suggests the bill did not advance out of its first committee hearing: the House Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee voted 10-0 to postpone HB1044 indefinitely. That unanimous committee action indicates no recorded support in that setting for moving the bill forward, although no committee transcript is available to show the specific reasons. The bill text itself is strongly supportive of local action on traffic safety, equity, and vulnerable road user protection.
The main points of contention are likely to be the new local fee authority, the use of vehicle registration fees to fund transportation projects, and the bill’s attempt to structure those charges as fees rather than taxes for TABOR purposes. Potential concerns also include the higher charges on heavier vehicles and light trucks, the inclusion of fuel-efficiency as an optional factor, and the use of cameras and other enforcement or traffic-calming tools. Supporters would likely emphasize pedestrian and bicyclist safety, local flexibility, and equity, while opponents may focus on cost, fairness to vehicle owners, and constitutional or fiscal-limit issues.