Colorado Looks To Privatize State Turnpike

President Obama is in St. Paul, Minneapolis today, using a bus and train station as a backdrop to ask Congress for $300 billion to update the nation's roads and railways.

The president says an overhaul of corporate taxes could provide some of the money needed by the U.S. Highway Trust Fund, which is set to go broke as early as August.

The fund needs $100 billion over the next six years just to maintain current spending levels. But Obama and Congress don't want to raise gas taxes to make up the gap.

Neither do lawmakers in Colorado, where transportation officials are expected to sign a controversial pact to give a private company control of the state-run Boulder Turnpike (U.S. 36).

These public-private partnerships are becoming popular across the country, as a key source of transportation funding, the gas tax, is shrinking.

From the Here & Now Contributors Network, John Daley of Colorado Public Radio reports.