“Crisis” and “courage.”
Both words were invoked numerous times at a hearing Monday for a bill that could raise up to $300 million a year for Colorado roads and bridges by hiking vehicle-registration fees, limiting how low vehicle-ownership taxes can drop and tacking a $6-a-day surcharge on rental-car transactions.
After nearly two hours of testimony, the committee voted 3-2 to send the bill to the Appropriations Committee.
“We are at a total crisis,” said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, describing the poor condition of many roads and at least 122 structurally deficient bridges in Colorado.
At the state affairs committee hearing on Senate Bill 244, chaired by Romer, several dozen speakers backed the measure aimed at providing emergency funding.
“I admire your guts to bring this to the public,” Broomfield Mayor Pat Quinn told the Senate committee. He was among local government leaders supporting the measure.
In addition to the rental-car fee, the bill would add $25 to annual vehicle-registration fees and $15 for trailers.
If a family has three vehicles registered by the same person, it would pay the additional fee on only two of the vehicles.
The bill also would establish a $75 base on a combination of annual ownership taxes and fees paid by vehicle owners, instead of allowing the tax to drop as low as $3.
Currently, the tax declines based on the age of the vehicle. Those already paying less than $75 would continue to pay the lower rates.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car vice president Jane Hylen was one of two speakers to oppose the bill.
It “is heaping a huge tax on our customers,” Hylen said, adding that more than half of her firm’s rentals are by local residents, not tourists.
“I feel our customers and those of other rental-car companies are unduly burdened with this fee,” said Hylen, who also was representing other major rental-car firms in Colorado.
The “modest fee increases” do not solve “the full transportation needs for the state of Colorado,” said Mark Mehalko, an executive with a transportation engineering firm.
“It’s a small step to get us where we need to be,” said Mehalko, who also is on the board of directors of MOVE Colorado, a business and civic group lobbying for more transportation funding.
Romer asked whether Mehalko’s group and other business interests would withhold endorsements from legislators who oppose SB 244.
“Some in this body are fearful the business community won’t cover their back,” Romer said, referring to legislators who are skittish about backing higher fees on motorists.
Sens. Bill Cadman and David Schultheis, Republicans from Colorado Springs, responded in the negative to Romer’s suggestion.
