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Gov. Ritter signs tax bills into lawGene Davis, DDN Staff WriterThursday, February 25, 2010 | |
Candy, soda, Amazon purchases and select software will now be taxed after Gov. Bill Ritter yesterday signed into law a group of controversial bills that will suspend or eliminate a series of tax credits and exemptions.
Ritter’s signature caps a month-long legislative process that pitted Republicans vs. Democrats in a heated and often bitter partisan battle. Republicans have consistently positioned the nine bills as business-killing measures, while Democrats say they are showing the leadership that’s necessary in the worst fiscal environment since the Great Depression. The nine bills are expected to generate $15.6 million in revenue this fiscal year and $132.6 million next fiscal year.
“Signing these bills was not something I wanted to do,” Ritter said in a statement. “But it was something that was necessary in order to keep the budget balanced and to continue positioning Colorado for a strong and healthy recovery. My sincere thanks to those lawmakers who supported this package of bills and made the difficult but right decision for the future of Colorado.”
However, Republican lawmakers say the right decision by the government would be to cut bureaucracy, not to implement so-called tax hikes on businesses. The GOP this month proposed an alternative budget-balancing plan that includes a .24-percent reduction in state payroll spending for the current fiscal year and a 4.39-percent reduction for next fiscal year. The Republican senators said their budget plan would have eliminated the need for the bills Ritter signed into law yesterday
“It is appalling that Democrats can’t find a way to balance the budget that doesn’t involve raising taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars,” said a statement issued yesterday by Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray.
Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said earlier this month that the Republican budget balancing plan looks like something the lawmakers put together on the back of a cocktail napkin without much thought. He pointed out that Ritter’s administration is reducing personnel costs by more than $100 million. Additionally, the executive branch workforce has shed 1,000 employees since the economy started to decline in 2008, according to Dreyer.
“The Senate Republicans fail to grasp the magnitude of the $2 billion shortfall we’ve already closed and the $1 billion shortfall we still face,” he said earlier this month.
The new taxes signed into law yesterday include:
Ą House Bill 1191 will levy the 2.9-percent state sales tax on candy and soda;
Ą House Bill 1192 will change the so-called loophole created by the 2006 Department of Revenue rule that exempted Internet downloads or load-and-leave software form the state sales tax. Republicans and representatives from a group of software companies say that taxing the “off the shelf” part of “modified off the shelf software” would send high paying jobs out of the state. But supporters say the state tax would merely mirror the tax that most other states implement on such software;
Ą House Bill 1193 will force out-of-state online businesses that do more than $100,000 in Colorado to either collect the state sales tax or send a letter to customers detailing their purchases and how much sales tax they owe the state.
The tax exemption bills will go into effect March 1.
| Comments: |
| Mile High @ 2010-02-25 13:47:35 | The whole problem with the Colorado Recession is, that it was brought on by Governor Ritter jopining forces with the EPA, Ken Salazar, and other evironmentalist groups and puttting a crimp in Colorado drilling for their own oil and mining for their own resources. Our economic problems have been manufactured. |
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| Ivan Ya @ 2010-02-25 22:22:37 | Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said earlier this month that the Republican budget balancing plan looks like something the lawmakers put together on the back of a cocktail napkin without much thought. You have
been using this quote in every
article on state taxes this month,
time to get out and interview some
new people. |
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| Thelma L. Colvin @ 2010-02-26 18:34:50 | I am proud of Gov Ritter for taking such a controversal stand to get Colorado moving again. People are not realizing that to balance the budget in such an economy,its take real sacrifice. People do not want to make that sacrifice. However it would help if the oil and mining companies would help. Colorado taxes our mineral companies much less than other western states. |
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| Tips WeightLoss @ 2010-03-18 23:42:27 | Walk Closely,equipment credit truth clean service office on turn correct terms tell earn achievement violence than danger subject war difference too us domestic rate trust stand pocket connection appearance photograph member die forest company survey identify include dry these surface sure organization high in withdraw introduce offer easily severe drive study house among western picture responsible match admit century great many phase may art fish watch access laugh appearance while education cos approach relevant practical experience variation environment support separate procedure herself blow relatively factory style herself |
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