Gov. Ritter is the chief proponent of a $321 million tax hike on energy produced in Colorado that is on the November ballot. Advertisements current blanketing the state claim that the scheme just removes a subsidy created thirty years ago to the oil and gas industry that is no longer necessary and creates an unfair advantage for the energy producers.
Nice try Governor.
A group of nine Democrat and Republican legislators who were actually involved in the original legislation to create what is known as the Severance Tax – and whose memories are better than the Governor – set the record straight in a letter to Mr. Ritter. They point out that, “The local severance tax remained undistrurbed. It would continue to be collected locally as a property tax, at a special assessment rate of 87.5%, three times higher than the 29% rate for commercial property and ten times that of residential property.”
The former legislators go on to admonish Ritter saying, “Few people realize—and your website completely ignores—the fact that before the state tax is collected, oil and gas is already being taxed locally at a rate that is three times higher than any other industry or business in the state of Colorado.”
The nine legislators ask the Governor the right question; “The bill that passed in 1977 established the state oil and gas severance tax that we know today, raising $8 million in the first year and growing to $139 million last year. How can a tax increase be a subsidy?”
Before we vote, the Governor owes the state an answer to their question. The full text of their letter can be accessed here.
