Info sought on severance tax issue

By Mike Saccone, The Daily Sentinel

Published June 22, 2008 at 12:08 p.m.
Updated June 22, 2008 at 11:53 p.m.

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A former state senator from Colorado's eastern plains has filed an open records request to see if the governor's office or any other state body has used taxpayer funds to formulate a controversial ballot measure.

Former Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, said he filed the request for correspondence between the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the governor's office to see if taxpayer funds were improperly used to push for a ballot measure to increase the severance tax.

"My concern is this," Hillman wrote in the request. "Is it an appropriate and legal use of state tax dollars to have state employees working on rules for a proposed initiative that may not even be on the November ballot?"

The ballot question, which has Gov. Bill Ritter's support, proposes to raise more than $200 million in additional severance tax revenues by eliminating a tax credit energy producers can claim.

The "ad valorem" credit allows energy companies to subtract 87.5 percent of their property tax burden from their severance tax bill, which has substantially reduced the amount of money producers pay to tap Colorado's oil and gas resources.

The revenues would be used to underwrite "Colorado Promise" scholarships for low-income Coloradans and several other programs.

Evan Dreyer, spokesman for the governor's office, said state officials have been "very cognizant" of the line between official business and campaigning for the severance tax ballot question. Dreyer said he is confident Hillman will find no evidence of wrongdoing through his open records request.

George Merritt, spokesman for the campaign behind the severance tax initiative, said there is "absolutely" no way the state has worked in tandem with the state.

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