John Pritchard -- Oh ye of little faith! :-)
This year I'll put money on getting solid funding support from Colorado. For the past 6-9 months there has been a well-organized effort by the two Colorado C&TSRR Commissioners Lon Carpenter and Peter Foster, the Commission's lobbyist Hugh Fowler, members of the CTSMC, and a number of Colorado state legislators to insure that the railroad receives financial support this legislative session. You probably remember Hugh as the senator who introduced the original C&TS legislation in the Colorado legislature some 35 years ago and later paid for the SP freight bill out of his own pocket to bring 463 to Antonito from Gene Autry's ranch.
I've heard through the grapevine that the first official hearing regarding the C&TS's funding requests before the Capital Development Committee on Jan. 8 in Denver went quite well. As you know the session in Colorado won't be over until early May, but a good start. One item to watch for will be a request for a fiscal 2008 supplemental appropriation to be considered early in the Colorado session so that the trackwork program can crank up once things get warm enough in spring.
I probably should also mention that it's been at least four years since the "matching" requirement has ended up in either state's legislation. Could happen, but I doubt it. Also, just a nit, but there is no "Interstate Railroad Authority". I wish that was the legal term -- much clearer -- but the statutes speak of the C&TSRR Compact and the C&TSRR Commission.