Higher-ed life raft

Two lawmakers float plan for use of Roan leasing revenues

Monday, July 2, 2007

Up in Snowmass Village the other day, state transportation director Russell George suggested that funding needs for highways and roads could "result in a significant tax," voters willing.

Elsewhere, the state's Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform is examining proposals for the legislature that also could produce a tax-hike request, while college and university presidents are working out plans to catch up with the funding levels of their national peers. Higher- ed leaders say that goal would necessitate a boost in their budgets of $832 million.

You can also bet that voters eventually will be asked either to extend Referendum C's five-year timeout on state spending limits or approve a major overhaul of the state constitution as it affects spending and taxes - with an eye, of course, toward relieving budgetary pressure.

Then there are the many local tax requests that are surely on their way in the next couple of years. In Denver alone, voters this fall will be asked to fund ambitious infrastructure plans; next year they could face a request to boost the budget for schools.

Our purpose in reciting this litany of likely tax proposals is not to ruin our readers' week. Rather, we mean to point out why state officials should take seriously an idea from Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, and Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, to dedicate half of the revenue likely from natural gas production on the Roan Plateau to a trust fund for Colorado's colleges and universities. At some point voters are going to balk at the seemingly never- ending requests to raise taxes on themselves. Lawmakers need to look at alternative ways to fund some of these projects.

Colorado's share of the Roan's one-time lease payments could equal $1 billion - with hundreds of millions of other payments streaming in over subsequent years. If half of this bounty were deposited in a trust fund, the income could go a long way to buttressing higher education.

Of course, all of this assumes that the Bureau of Land Management actually goes through with its environmentally sensitive, carefully regulated plan to lease portions of the Roan Plateau for natural gas production. Unfortunately, some of this state's most powerful leaders are actively fighting to delay the leasing, which could kill its prospects altogether.

Sen. Ken Salazar went so far last week as to say he will block the confirmation of the president's nominee to head the BLM if that agency doesn't grant Colorado more time to review the leasing proposal.

Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar, meanwhile, attempted last week to deny the agency any funds to conduct the leasing, although the maneuver was rebuffed in the House.

The opposition to leasing is sincere and passionate, but we think opponents overstate the downside and fail to appreciate the potential benefits. These would accrue not only to consumers of natural gas - meaning just about everyone - but more specifically to the taxpayers of this state. Penry and White's proposal highlights the boon that Roan could represent for higher education without individual taxpayers being called upon, once again, to finance the rescue operation.