{"id":41184,"date":"2022-04-13T23:10:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T05:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democrats-plan-to-suspend-colorados-new-gas-fee-until-two-months-after-the-november-election\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:59:37","slug":"democrats-plan-to-suspend-colorados-new-gas-fee-until-two-months-after-the-november-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democrats-plan-to-suspend-colorados-new-gas-fee-until-two-months-after-the-november-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats plan to suspend Colorado\u2019s new gas fee \u2013 until two months after the November election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Micah
Micah Fry puts gas in her car Thursday at the Marathon Gas Station on north Main Avenue. Over the last month, Colorado\u2019s average regular unleaded gas price has increased almost 20% to $3.966, according to AAA gas data. On Friday, Durango set a record for its highest recorded price for regular unleaded fuel at $4.356 per gallon. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado Democrats want to delay implementation of a new 2-cent-per-gallon gas fee, but only until two months after the November election.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1351, the cornerstone of Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 work this year to slash the cost of living in Colorado, would cost $28 million as the Legislature backfills the lost revenue. The measure also calls for reducing the state\u2019s vehicle registration surcharge fee at a cost of $35 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to give relief to our constituents and to Coloradans who, over the course of the last few months, have seen a very significant increase in gas prices,\u201d said state Rep. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat.<\/p>\n

Gas cost an average of $3.94 per gallon in Colorado on Tuesday, according to AAA, up more than a dollar from a year ago.<\/p>\n

The legislation is part of a $157 million fee-relief package being pushed by Democrats in the Legislature this year. Critics, mainly business groups and Republicans, have said the relief is too small and point out that Democrats are offering breaks on programs that they passed and pushed for.<\/p>\n

The new gas fee, which is slated to begin July 1, was enacted through Senate Bill 260, a major transportation funding bill passed by the Legislature in 2020 and signed into law by Polis. The measure will raise billions of dollars for transportation projects and also enact fees on deliveries and Uber and Lyft rides.<\/p>\n

The legislation had limited GOP support, and conservative groups and activists are now suing to invalidate the measure. House Bill 1351 would push back the fee\u2019s start date by six months to January 2023.<\/p>\n

The relief package comes amid rising election-year pressure by Republicans on Polis, who is seeking a second term, and Democrats over the rising cost of living, especially increasing gas prices.<\/p>\n

The GOP has invoked higher prices at the pump in campaign ads and on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden was in Iowa on Tuesday to announce that he\u2019s trying to reduce gas prices by about 10 cents per gallon at some gas stations by planning, through his administration, an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of a 15% ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures.<\/p>\n

Polis has urged Congress to suspend the federal gas tax and his spokesman says the governor supports \u201cany efforts to reduce state fees on gas as long as road funding is backfilled from other sources.\u201d The Democrat has also criticized the oil and gas industry for not using all of their permits in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, center, bids farewell to Colorado House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, right, after a news conference on the west steps of the State Capitol about legislative plans for the upcoming session Jan. 10 in Denver. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, a Loveland Republican, said the measure is all politics. He called it \u201cjust part and parcel of the bill of goods that the people of Colorado have been sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts said the timing of the relief in House Bill 1351 and the upcoming election \u201cwasn\u2019t necessarily related.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s about what I\u2019m hearing from my constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $63 million cost of House Bill 1351 will be deducted from the state\u2019s cap on government growth and spending under the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights, which is expected to be exceeded by as much as $2 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. That means the Legislature is essentially using House Bill 1351 to decide how to spend the $63 million instead of it being sent back to taxpayers through the TABOR refund process, which can include an income tax cut and direct-to-taxpayer checks.<\/p>\n

Roberts defended the plan as beneficial to Coloradans, especially those in rural parts of the state, such as the mountain communities he represents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe delayed it as long as we could with the funding that\u2019s available to fill in the loss in revenue,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI\u2019m open to pushing it out even further. We wanted to get the bill introduced and I think the conversations with the Joint Budget Committee are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The JBC, however, doesn\u2019t appear amenable to stretching the delay period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not discussed that,\u201d said Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and vice chairman of the powerful panel.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1351, which is also sponsored by Democratic Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood and Rep. Barbara McLachlan of Durango, was introduced March 31 without fanfare. Its legislative declaration notes that gas price increases in Colorado have come in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. But Polis was pushing for the gas-fee relief as early as last year.<\/p>\n

A gallon of gas cost an average of $3.34 per gallon in Colorado on Feb. 15, according to AAA, which was before the war in Ukraine began. On April 12, 2021, the cost was $2.90.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not putting it solely on Ukraine,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cbut it certainly is part of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Bill 1351 is scheduled to get its first committee hearing on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1351 is the cornerstone of Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 efforts to slash cost of living<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,394,94,14,2336,1427,221,819,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-colorado-state-house-of-representatives","tag-colorado-state-officials","tag-energy-general","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84882,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184\/revisions\/84882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41184"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}