[TakeFive]

D-MET Transport
short for Denver Metro Transportation Plan

Comment: I've rearranged the deck chairs for reasons. Looking at different cities and what they've done is both helpful and confusing. There's no way of knowing what assumptions like escalators they've used when they throw out all these crazy numbers.

Assuming voter approval in November of 2018 and to be more realistic, relevant and understandable I'm using estimated 2019 dollars as a constant. Any increases in revenue over time are likely to be matched by comparable increases in population, construction and operating costs anyway.

Sales Tax
A five-tenths increase in sales tax should raise about $320 million per year or $8 billion over 25 years. Sales tax revenue to be divided equally by DRCOG and RTD or $4 billion each over 25 years.

Property Tax
Taking the easy way here. A property tax increase as needed to raise $7.5 billion over 25 years or $300 million per year. This revenue will be split into three equal shares: one-third to DRCOG, one-third to RTD and one-third to the respective counties (on behalf of municipalities).

Over 25 years RTD and DRCOG will each get $6.5 billion while $2.5 billion will go to the counties. The total tax revenue generated over 25 years will be $15.5 billion. It's hard to know how much Federal funding can be added but I'm now thinking something in the neighborhood of 75-80 percent or ~$12 billion which would create a grand total of $27.5 billion. There's also the potential for additional funding from utilizing P3's.

That's a start and I'll define the role of DRCOG next.