"State lawmakers probably will have to put a tax or fee hike before the voters sometime over the next several years to address the state’s transportation-funding shortfall, state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, said in an interview with Political Notebook.

Schwartz, who will be up for re-election in 2010, said one avenue might be raising the state’s gas tax, which has remained the same since the early 1990s, when the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights came into effect and barred state lawmakers from periodically raising the levy."

Oil Commission Hearing Sees Schwartz's Snowmass "Chalets" v. McNulty's Burbs

A Face the State Staff Report

June 24, 2008

Hundreds of people, including several state lawmakers, turned out to Denver's Paramount theater Monday for the the first day of a week-long rulemaking hearing by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. While "balance" and "reasonable" were the buzzwords of the day, the debate quickly heated up on how to craft energy policy that would protect both jobs and the environment.

• - More