Ritter says tax measures need to be filed soon.
Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday state officials will have to act in the next month if they hope to place a tax-increase proposal on the November ballot.
At an annual Colorado Press Association luncheon, Ritter said officials would need to file a measure by mid- to late March if they hope for it to be successful.
Ritter reiterated that he will not put a health care measure on the November ballot, saying that he and legislators have opted for more incremental health care reform this year.
Instead, Ritter said the most likely tax increase to land on the ballot, if any, centers on severance taxes.
Ritter has said repeatedly he would support only one tax increase on the November ballot. He told the association members that officials are still discussing whether a measure to raise transportation funding is doable.
But he said the most “active conversation” at the Capitol right now involves raising severance- tax revenue, which is money paid by the oil and gas industry when it takes resources out of the ground.
Ritter said such an increase could be accomplished by either doing away with a property tax exemption that oil and gas companies receive or raising the severance-tax rate.
Solar energy bill breezes through Senate panel.
A bill that would make it easier for homeowners with solar panels on their houses to get compensated for the excess power they produce breezed through a Senate committee Thursday.
House Bill 1160, which sets uniform standards for “net-metering,” passed unanimously in the Senate energy committee. Currently, the state is a patchwork of regulations for how customers receive compensation for the energy they put back into the grid.
The bill, sponsored by Sens. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, and Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, has a broad coalition behind it, including environmental groups and farmers. It now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
