Beauprez: Dump gasoline tax

Guv hopeful would make up revenue by sales levy hike

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez said Friday that he favors scrapping Colorado's gasoline tax and replacing it with a statewide sales tax to fund road improvements.

"You've got to come up with some sort of a revenue system that's other than the gas tax . . . because that's a declining revenue source," Beauprez said during a freewheeling hourlong meeting with the Rocky Mountain News editorial board.

Everyone, including Democratic candidate Bill Ritter, agrees Colorado needs a more sustainable source of transportation funding because state and federal gasoline tax revenues are shrinking as Americans drive more fuel-efficient cars.

Initially, Beauprez suggested a penny-on-the-dollar statewide sales tax, which would generate an estimated $670.5 million - or 30.5 percent more than the $513.6 million in state gasoline tax revenues projected for the 2005-06 fiscal year by the state budget office.

When told that a 1 percent sales tax would be a tax increase, Beauprez spokesman John Marshall said the penny-per-dollar figure was calculated a year ago when a sluggish economy was generating less revenue.

He stressed that Beauprez wanted to keep the sales tax switch "revenue neutral" - to simply replace the gasoline tax that he would kill. Currently, that means the proposed transportation sales tax would only need to be a fraction of a penny (0.77 percent), to generate $516.3 million a year.

"The good thing about (a sales tax) is, as the economy grows, then you've got a sustainable, increasing source of funds . . . instead of this declining resource we've got right now," said Beauprez, a U.S. representative from Arvada.

While some state lawmakers said the idea has merit, it was blasted by a tax critic, and Democrats called it a "smoke-and- mirrors" gimmick that would force seniors and the poor who don't drive to subsidize gas-hogging Hummer owners.

"How about somebody in a wheelchair? How about grandma who doesn't drive anymore? Why should she pay higher taxes to subsidize somebody who drives a gas-guzzling SUV?" said Douglas Bruce, an anti-tax crusader and El Paso County commissioner. "It's just not fair."

Beauprez, though, said he likes the sales tax because "it's easy to implement, and I think it's very, very fair and equitable." Even people who don't drive and tourists who fly to Aspen and shuttle to a resort rely on the transportation system to move labor and goods, he said.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer took a different view.

"This is just another gimmick and another smoke-and-mirrors tax trick from the congressman," Dreyer said. "If you add this idea to all the other bait- and-switch tax schemes he's come up with so far, it would take nine years to generate the same amount of transportation revenue that Referendum C provided this year alone."

Ref C, which Ritter backed and Beauprez opposed, was an initiative approved by voters in November that allowed the state to keep millions of dollars that would have been refunded to taxpayers.

Ritter has said as governor he would name a blue-ribbon task force to examine "all funding options" to make up for declining gasoline tax revenues.

As Americans rely more on fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrids to combat rising pump prices, revenue from the 22- cent-a-gallon state gasoline tax and the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax aren't keeping pace with increasing traffic and pressure on roads and highways. In the search for more sustainable ways to pay for transportation improvements, some are touting taxes on tire sales or vehicle mileage.

"I think Beauprez's on the right track," said state Sen. Dave Owen, a Republican on the Joint Budget Committee. "You need some dedicated dollars for highways outside of general fund surplus, because in five years that's going to go away" when the Ref C tax reprieve expires.

Voters, of course, would have to approve a new sales tax, Owen said. "But it might appeal to a lot of voters because it's being offset by eliminating the 22-cent (a gallon) gas tax."

Yet, he acknowledged, "it may be a hard sell because it would probably hurt the most vulnerable, the seniors and the poor people. A lot of them don't drive and they would have to pay more in sales tax."

Democratic State Rep. Bernie Buescher, who is chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said, "There's some merit to Mr. Beauprez's proposal for going from this per-gallon tax to a sales tax. But we need to deal with these things comprehensively - not piecemeal."

Noting that Beauprez has proposed cutting the state income tax from 4.62 percent to 4.5 percent, Buescher said that would slash about $135 million from transportation funding.

"The transportation (industry) interests that I talked to have been very upset about his proposal to cut the income tax, because that comes out of transportation funding. So now Beauprez is finding out a way to put some money back into transportation to cover up the mistake he made earlier," Buescher said.

Marshall said Beauprez's Fiscal Accountable Plan is a "flexible tool" that allows cutting the income tax in times of surplus.

"It doesn't say that we will, come hell over high water, cut that income tax," he added.

"At some point good ideas and positive thinking have to win out over people who just want to sit around and ring their hands and say: 'No we can't,' " Marshall said.

Beauprez on the issues

In a meeting with the Rocky Mountain News editorial board Friday, gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez offered his views on a variety of issues.

• On voter registration: "Why wouldn't you require proof of citizenship for the right to vote? We let somebody dummy up anything they want to for the right to vote."

• On the state budget: "You can't continue down the path of K-12 (education), Medicaid and corrections taking more and more of the budget."

• On holding a constitutional convention to reform the state constitution: "It's clearly an option. If you're going to go there, you better have some sense of what you're going to get. You start building a consensus."

• On Gov. Bill Owens: "Bill has done some very good things. There's a whole lot more that needs to be done."

• On the need to place underprivileged kids in preschool: "Six years of (elementary) education doesn't make up for the deficit they experience in the first four years of life."

• On opponent Bill Ritter's approach to education: "Bill is beholden to the Colorado Education Association. He can't buck the system."

• On the need for education reform: "There's a reason why people are clamoring for more private school options."

• On tax credits for education: "For every $2 you direct to a targeted education initiative, we'll give you a $1 tax credit. I think the money would pour in."

• On encouraging parents to read to their children: "Drag parents back into the game of being what they've always been, the primary educators of their children."

• On providing early childhood education: "This challenge can be met in community partnerships that already exist."

• On Ritter's record as Denver district attorney: "There's a broad perception Bill Ritter has been soft on crime. The prevailing philosophy was hug a thug. It's disgusting."

• On the governor's race: "This is as tough a political year as we've seen. It's messy for Republicans. We're polling somewhere from 4 to 8 points (behind Ritter)."

• On withdrawing his support of Amendment 38, which would make it easier to place measures on the ballot: "I was wrong. We ought to be asking ourselves if the ease of the initiative process in Colorado is the way we want to continue to do business. The guy with the biggest checkbook often controls the outcome."

• On potentially having Democrats control both the legislature and governorship: "Do you want to hand the reins over to one party? The state likes divided government. If ever there was a reason to be concerned about divided government, now is the time."

• On whether he will campaign with President Bush: "I'm quite certain you'll see the president in Colorado."

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486