Colorado transportation officials are considering a variety of tax and fee increases to raise as much as $1 billion in additional money each year for the state’s roads and bridges.
Today a special transportation finance panel appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter will get initial results of a six-month investigation of financing alternatives by the panel’s technical committee.
The options include:
Impose a “highway maintenance fee” on all registered vehicles in Colorado. The fee could vary by vehicle weight and would not require voter approval, state officials say. An average fee per vehicle of $68 could raise about $340 million a year to pay for maintenance of the state highway system.
Ask voters to increase Colorado’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel. The current tax on gas is 22 cents a gallon, and it’s 20.5 cents a gallon on diesel fuel.
Raising the tax to 41.3 cents a gallon on gas and 39.8 cents a gallon for diesel would bring $300 million a year to the highway fund, according to the committee’s analysis.
Ask voters to support a “visitor tax” on car rentals and lodging, with proceeds going to transportation projects.
Increase Colorado’s income tax from the current 4.63 percent and dedicate additional revenues to transportation. This also would require voter approval. Increasing the income tax by 0.37 percentage points, to 5 percent, would raise an extra $501 million a year for transportation by fiscal 2009-10, officials said.
They could also consider a combination of the proposed taxes and fees.
The technical committee is offering options to Ritter’s panel for raising $340 million, $500 million or $1 billion in additional money annually for roads and bridges.
The lower levels can cover maintenance needs and make a dent in maintenance projects that have been deferred, officials said.
“At the $1 billion level, the opportunities to invest (in) other transportation improvements – such as congestion mitigation – further increase,” they added.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
