|
Colorado Contractors Association's Tony
Milo
The state's contractors scored a
big victory in the November elections
By Diana Murphy
 |
Tony Milo
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Colorado Contractors Association
Born Bronx, N.Y.
Age: 40
Married to Catherine. Two children: Alexandra, 10; Tommy,
8
Education
> B.A., James Madison College of Michigan State University,
1987
> M.A., Business, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Mich.,
1993
Career Highlights
> Deputy Director, Michigan Asphalt Paving Association,
1990 -1995
> Executive Vice President, Michigan Road Builders
Association, 1996 -2005 Led push for gasoline tax in Michigan
in 2001, which doubled funding for Michigan state highway
program
About Colorado Contractors Assn.
Founded in 1933, 370 members
Web site: www.coloradocontractors.org
|
Tony Milo took the reins earlier this
year as the new executive director of the Colorado Contr-actors
Association, AGC's heavy/ highway division in the state.
Milo, 40, has spent his entire career
working as an association professional advocating for business
and highway construction. Before joining CCA, he was executive
vice president of the Michigan Road Builders Association,
the state's heavy/highway and ARTBA chapter for nine years.
Before that, he served as deputy director of the Michigan
Asphalt Paving Association for six years.
In Milo's short tenure in Colorado, he
has already seen some major changes.
The passage of the federal highway bill
earlier this year was a big boost for the state, which could
receive as much as $2.46 billion over the next five years,
a 46.8% increase over the state's average TEA-21 funding.
"The industry had waited too long
for that," says Milo. "Roads and bridges here are
suffering because of it."
Although passage of the federal transportation
bill was a big relief for Colorado, that alone couldn't pull
the highway industry out of financial doldrums caused by years
of state budget cuts. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens said recently
that the state's transportation budget has declined 41 percent
since 2001, largely because of a budget-limiting referendum
passed back in 1992. Dubbed the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights,
or TABOR, it limits budget increases to a percentage of population
growth plus inflation and requires that any money collected
beyond that formula be refunded to taxpayers.
However, in November, Milo and his CCA
brethren led a broad coalition of civic and business leaders
in the successful passage of a referendum that gives the state
a five-year break from TABOR limits.
By 52 to 48%, Colorado voters approved Referendum C, allowing
the state to keep $3.7 billion that would have been refunded
to taxpayers under TABOR.
However, they rejected-by 50.6 to 49.4%-Referendum
D, a companion measure that would have let the state immediately
borrow $1.2 billion to fund transportation projects. Because
of that, the state's heavy/highway contractors will have to
wait until the next legislative session to see how much Referendum
C money can be spent on highways.
Milo characterized the Nov. 1 election
as a "75 percent victory" for the state's heavy/highway
industry. "It's certainly not all doom and gloom,"
he says. "The fact that C passed is a tremendous positive
for the state of Colorado and, ultimately, for roads and bridges.
Now, there is money for transportation. We're going to have
to fight for our fair share, but I think we're in the best
position to claim it. [Referendum] C would probably not have
passed if the industry had not stepped up to support it the
way we did."
Had C been defeated, the funding situation
would have been grim.
"We would have been stagnant,"
Milo says. "We'd have had the same amount of funding
we had but continue to lose purchasing power due to continually
having to put off much-needed infrastructure improvements."
Colorado's industry has other reasons
for optimism: the ongoing $1.6 billion Transport-ation Expansion
Project in southeast Denver will finish a year from now, and
there's the start of the nearly $5 billion FasTracks mass
transit initiative-approved by Denver-area voters in November
2004.
"There are definitely bright signs
on the horizon that suggest the public and our elected officials
are beginning to realize the importance of reinvestment in
infrastructure," Milo says. "We've worked aggressively
to increase our profile at the [state] Capitol, and now that's
beginning to pay off."
|
