Joe Kirkmeyer Promises $6B Road Fund Without Tax Hike

Joe Kirkmeyer wants to double road funding without raising taxes. That’s the pitch. Six billion dollars in the first four years, handed to regional leaders instead of Denver bureaucrats. It sounds good on a campaign flyer. It’s harder to square the circle when you look at the math.

Kirkmeyer, a former Weld County Commissioner and state senator, is running for governor. He’s leaning on his experience owning a dairy farm and a flower shop to claim he understands the small business grind. He says rural Colorado is too often an afterthought. He’s right about that. The Western Slope feels it every time a decision made in the Capitol ignores the reality of living 300 miles west of I-70.

But let’s look at the affordability crisis he’s promising to fix. Colorado ranks 47th in affordability. Home prices have doubled in less than eight years. That’s not a policy nuance; that’s a housing emergency. Kirkmeyer wants to get government out of the way for businesses and agriculture. He’s already done some of that. He’s balanced budgets. He’s built highways. He’s advocated for water storage.

The Shoshone Water Rights purchase is his big infrastructure play. He’s backing the Colorado River District’s move to secure those rights for the Western Slope. Other parties wavered on the size of the call and future uses. Kirkmeyer didn’t. He sees water as the defining issue of the state’s future. Protecting agriculture means protecting water. That’s a solid link.

His transportation plan is the most specific promise on the table. Six billion dollars. No tax hike. Just reallocation. He wants to shift planning power from the top-down Denver model to regional leaders. For folks in Delta, Montrose, or Ouray, that means local voices deciding on road maintenance instead of a committee in the capital. It’s a tangible shift.

Yet, the affordability numbers don’t lie. Housing costs are 48th in the nation. Families are leaving because they can’t stay. Kirkmeyer says the state must live within its means. He’s been a legislator long enough to know that “living within means” often just means cutting programs people rely on. He doesn’t specify which ones. He talks about reducing unnecessary spending. We all know what that usually means in practice.

He’s running because he thinks Colorado is being left behind. He’s right. But fixing the $14 million highway project or the $6 billion road fund doesn’t automatically make a house affordable. You can pave the road to the new subdivision, but if the price tag is $800,000, the road doesn’t matter.

Kirkmeyer’s plan focuses on supply-side fixes for business and agriculture. Less red tape. More infrastructure. It’s a classic conservative playbook. It might work. Or it might just make it easier for developers to build more expensive homes while locals pay the price.

The bottom line? If elected, Kirkmeyer promises a Western Slope that isn’t ignored. He promises water security. He promises roads. He promises lower costs. But he doesn’t specify how he’ll stop the home price doubling. That’s the gap. Locals get better roads and water rights. They still pay the mortgage.