The RTD Board has approved a FasTracks Internal Savings Account that RTD staff estimates will hold $277 million by 2017. Staff plan to use this money to build the North Metro line to 72nd Avenue and complete RTD's funding commitment to the US 36 BRT project.
This money is coming from both savings and new revenue. The biggest savings are coming out of the Eagle P3 (Gold and East commuter rail) accounts. Enough construction milestones have passed and enough contracts signed for RTD to be able to better predict how much the project will end up costing. That means that less money needs to be held in the account that RTD has set up in case of cost overruns. Right now it looks like RTD is going to be able to transfer $72 million toward other projects.
In addition, careful accounting has found $10 here, $20 million there. Some of these savings may not materialize or be as big as RTD hopes, but overall they add up.
The biggest amount of money will come from new revenue. RTD is going to ask the State of Colorado for the ability to audit sales and use tax receipts so that RTD can confirm that buses and trains are getting the money that they are supposed to be getting. RTD will also ask the State for the ability to collect sales tax on all the items that the State of Colorado collects on. This would mean $127 million more money.
The best news is that RTD is going to start asking for money. The press release refers to these entities as "stakeholders" which is rather vague. Here is hoping that RTD points out to cities and counties that do not support transit within their borders that cities and counties that do are subsidizing their bus and train service AND saving them money on road repair.
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