« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Colorado charging taxes on taxes.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  January 22nd, 2010 at 06:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Via Big Government:

Coloradans must pay a $1.50 waste-tire fee every time they dispose of an old tire at a retail outlet. And according to an “FYI Memo” from the state department of revenue, “ Effective August 5, 2009, the waste tire recycling development fee is considered part of the purchase price and is subject to sales tax.”

Based on the revenue of the waste-tire fee from previous years, this means the state and other sub-governments could collect a grand total of anywhere between $300,000 to $500,000…all because they are taxing a fee.

Memo here.  Three guesses which political party controls the executive and legislative branches of the state government of Colorado…

Moe Lane

PS: We will now pause while people complain that it’s technically a sales tax on a government fee, not a tax.  Wait, what?

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Tags: , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • partyof1

    people don’t owe taxes on their estate after they die just because they’ve already paid taxes on that money at every level.

  • jayburd

    otherwise they’d be throwin’ used tires into the bay in protest. Maybe they ought to do a necklace or two instead.

  • http://www.phxgonline.com phxg

    One I am familiar with is the Colorado Mills Public Improvement Fee (PIF) http://www.lakewood.org/index.cfm?&include=/FN/PIF/MillsPIF_updated.cfm

    Basically, 1.4% added to your purchase and then taxes (7.6%) collected on top of that. I don;t recall the exact reasoning that started these fees but it is rooted in a philosophy of only those “users” of the area will be subjected to the fee. Of course it sounds good until you have to use that service.

    AZ has the tire fee too.

  • muffin

    a FEE is a TAX. Why do these folks think we’re all stupid?

  • RedBeard

    They just count on there being enough stupid voters to allow them to keep their jobs. Judging by the 2008 election results, the Stupid Voter Plan seems to work.

  • Achance

    The Left’s greatest weakness is the fact that they believe that everybody who doesn’t agree with them is stupid.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    If they were actually taxes, it would require a vote of the people for approval, what with our Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) constitutional amendment.

    It’s for this reason that Clear the Bench this fall.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    The farmers went in to renew the tags on that trailer they finally needed to use that they just keep parked in the back 40. Yeah, I gotta pay that $10 late fee….plus the $18 tags.

    What do you mean there’s a $100 late fee and the registration fees are double what they were last year? Who in Sam Hill decided to do that?!?!?

    Sorry, Mr. Farmer. You gotta pay that late fee on your 5 other trailers too. The folks at the DMV were kind enough to have the names, addresses & phone numbers of all the state legislators in the area that voted for it on a slip of paper to hand to people.

    I have to admit it was odd to see an armed security guard at the DMV. You wouldn’t think you’d need one of those in a place like that…

    What’s that? Oh, right. Elections have consequences.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    The people who use a particular government service ought to be the ones that pay for it whenever possible. That way I’m not subsidizing YOUR pet project.

    The biggest problem in Colorado, is that there is no statutory requirement that the fees collected are actually used to cover the cost of what the fee is collected for. The money just goes into the General Fund. When you have a Democrat Governor like we do, that can go to hire people during a hiring freeze, or fur coats for your mistress, or whatever else you fancy.

  • NeoKong

    Luxury.
    Where I live they get five bucks a tire.

  • mcrill

    Of course you can’t expect a Democrat controlled state to actually abide by the laws on the books. They always have this insatiable urge to find a way around it, hence calling them fees to dodge TABOR. Infuriating doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about it.

  • http://www.phxgonline.com phxg

    The only problem I have with the use fee structure in that if it’s going to be in place, it ought to eliminate the remaining or a % of the overall taxes collected since it’s specifically set for the project/activity at hand. AND be comparable to the user.

    (sort of off the topic)
    i.e. If FAA use fees are to be implemented, the rate charged to a Cessna 210 traveling IFR , say DEN-MCI ought to be in line with the user (in this case a private citizen). As opposed to the fee imposed upon a Southwest 737 traveling the same route.

    BTW I’m moving back to Arvada in 3 months. w00t

  • USNJIMRET

    The amount isn’t the issue, because it can always be adjusted.

  • Richard Mullins

    but the way it seems to be done in Colorado doesn’t seem right. It’s not like the tires are going to be recycled themselves. Down here in Texas I think it’s $2 a tire and you do have an out if you want to keep the old tires. At some point, you can get Fee’d to death in the same way one will get taxed to death.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    This state went from solid red to solid blue in the span of , what, 10 years? And yes, I know, it was clever marketing, and a whole lot of money poured into the state by some very smart leftists.

    But the people should have known better. Decades of familiarity with what Dems are . Plus, I’m disposed to be resentful because CO people hate TX people so passionately,

    Probably a bunch of California people moved in.

  • NeoKong

    I mean like what the hell are you going to do with them….? I don’t even think the trash guys would take them. It’s sort of like the the price of cold medicine when you feel sick. Brother you got no choice.

    You have to pay it.

  • Old_Crow

    For those of us stuck in NY (can’t sell our homes in this depression market) we just saw the ‘fee’ to register our cars increase 150% to ‘bail’ out the commuter railroad. Now it costs over $100 to register a vehicle here – and the railroad still plans on increasing fares…

  • jayburd

    Then spend the money on something,,,say,,, state sponsored daycare.

  • Richard Mullins

    there are recyclers for Tires and oil. I’m sure if you wanted to you could always take the Tires and the oil to the recycler.

  • sharonmcp

    has added a fee to my power bill to help pay for the building of a new nuclear plant that won’t even be servicing our area.

    They also asked for a rate increase, but in a rare display of common sense, our ‘esteemed’ Governor with no chance of being Senator, urged the PSC to say no.

  • buzzyboop

    Pennsylvania, of course being a union-infested Northeastern state, has one of the highest cigarette taxes at $1.35/pack, in addition to the Federal tax of $1.01 per pack. All that tax is also subject to state and local sales taxes, up to 8%. Therefore, you pay a tax-on-tax of $0.19 per pack.

    Cheers, Frank

  • Richard Mullins

    gird. It’s kind of sad that I have to pay for fixing all there mistakes. I’m happy for the electrical market here, even though some bash it for the high prices(well it cost money to make electricity ya know).

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Colorado hasn’t been a solid red State for a long time. Have you forgotten about Pat Schroeder and Gary Hart? The liberals dumped an obscene amount of money into Colorado in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles so they could tout The Colorado Model. It’s not sustainable though….they simply can’t continue to dump that much money into one state every cycle.

    We’ve always had the extreme left group in the People’s Republic of Boulder. Denver, like any other metropolitan area leans significantly left. Big-City dwellers just seem unable to live without their government handouts. But as we’ve recently seen in Mass., even they have their limits.

    Because of the current political climate, we have a great chance to replace many of our liberal federal and state representatives with conservative ones. The real challenge will be to hold them accountable to governing in a conservative manner. If we can’t, we’ll be right back here again.

  • audax

    ..moved to TEXAS! We elected Bill Owen Governor, Mike Coffman Treasurer, and gave them a Republican State Senate and House and all they could do was reduce the income tax from 5% to 4.75%. I moved. That’s not why we elected them. Now it’s a blue State…Alas..so enjoyed living in Summit County….

  • E Pluribus Unum

    I agree, there’s an opportunity right now to swing CO back over. It better be done sharply and with a mind toward taking and holding territory, and fumigating and de-Democrating the whole place.