Colorado lawmakers hike fees to fill budget gaps
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
If you own a car, run a restaurant or go to court, expect to pay more in fees in coming years.
Why it matters: The Democratic majority at the state Capitol is using fees to fill spending gaps in an austere budget year — even though it works against their promises to reduce Coloradans' cost of living.
Catch up quick: The small-dollar increases are easy to overlook, but a handful of bills would generate big money for the state.
- House Bill 1303 would permit a $3 annual fee on car insurance, a $16.5 million a year total to spend on road safety projects.
- House Bill 1189 would allow county clerks to increase fees for staffing and mailing documents.
- Senate Bill 285 would raise fees on retail food establishments by 25% in the first year, generating $691,000 for the state health department to do inspections and permitting.
- A bill in the works would increase the bridge and tunnel impact fee by one or two cents to pull in $28.4 million over the next three fiscal years.
- A draft bill would give the judiciary the ability to increase costs for court filings and docket fees.
- An item in the state budget bill authorizes the Air Pollution Control Division to increase fees on the companies it regulates by $6.6 million in the first year and more in the future.
The intrigue: Two other bills reduce current tax breaks to add money to state coffers. One would increase state tax revenue by $135,000 at full implementation and the other would add about $11 million.
Between the lines: The reliance on fees, lawmakers say, is a result of the slimmed-down budget and the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which limits state spending and requires approval from taxpayers for tax hikes.
- Fee hikes don't count under the TABOR restrictions, despite efforts to put limits on their usage, meaning lawmakers haave the power to implement new fees
Caveat: Gov. Jared Polis signed the $40 billion state budget earlier this week and touted a $3.70 fee decrease. The temporary road safety and surcharge is set to drop by $3.70 for two years, reducing state revenue by $23 million.
- The fee currently ranges from $16 for a motorcycle to $39 for large trucks.
Other bills designed to save people money this session include abolishing extra fees on goods and services and limiting credit card swipe fees. For both, it's unclear how much an individual would save.
What they're saying: "We balanced [making] … Colorado more affordable for folks with looking at where we may need to have fees in order to get the [money] that we need to implement certain policies," Senate President James Coleman (D-Denver) told Axios Denver.