36

CDOT also claims that future risk aversion was a consideration, given that, according to a March press release, “there is no contractual guarantee for a
minimum level of revenue for Plenary Roads Denver.” Because, hey, maybe no one will use the HOV lane for the entire fifty years of Plenary’s contract.
Needless to say, interpretations of the deal’s financial implications have varied drastically.

“The taxpayer of Colorado will take a high financial loss on the deal compared to if the highway was publically financed,” Ken Beitel said. “There’s a number of benefits to keeping U.S. 36 as a Colorado public highway. Number one: it would mean that Colorado voters retain control of highway policy which allows flexibility to set the tolls at a reasonable level.” (It should be noted that there is a contractual maximum at which Plenary can set the tolls.)

Criticisms have been stoked by the fact that CDOT and Plenary haven’t yet released a full version of the contract (except to those who invest in the bond offering financing of the project).

“If you release things to investors you have to release it to the public as well,” Hammer told YS. “There wasn’t even an attempt to follow the law. If the government wants to withhold information that is public record—which is everything unless there is an exception—it can only withhold specific words and phrases.”

The specter of Goldman Sachs doesn’t help the appearance of impropriety. The Wall Street giant is the financial backer of Plenary Roads Denver, a consortium of Plenary Group (a mega-infrastructure deliverer mostly operating in Canada and Australia) and several Denver construction companies. Their $20 million bond is one-third of Plenary’s contribution, with the other $40 million coming from loans—and the high rate of return on the fifty-year bond (13.66%) only reinforces outrage from critics, convinced private financing hurts taxpayers.

Accordingly, 21,636 people signed a change.org petition pleading with the Colorado Senate to rescind the power of HPTE to sign off on the Plenary deal (it’s a bit late now), and a “Freedom Vigil” was held on February 19th outside of the CDOT headquarters.

In the end, the activist push wasn’t enough, obviously. (The petition fell 3,000 signatures short.) What’s more, following the deal news emerged that CDOT plans to follow suit with more public-private partnerships to streamline more transportation projects. Whatever the details, the difference will surely be in the degree of transparency—as Amy Ford told the Denver Post after the signing, “While we are done with this piece, we are not done with the conversation with the public.”