From The Tri-Lakes Tribune (Nicole Chillino):
Several months ago, [Dick Brown] said he became concerned about the state of Colorado’s budget with respect to water due to the loss of severance tax, the largest source of revenue to Colorado Water Conservation Board projects. According to him, severance tax is paid by producers of minerals, mining, oil and gas pay on their operations, with oil and gas paying about 90 percent of the total tax revenue received. In large part as a result of the loss of oil and gas production on the Western Slope, revenues from the severance tax have dropped off, he said. Brown added that he and Gary Barber came up with a fee on containers of non-alcoholic beverages to fill in the gap created by the loss of revenue to go toward the state water conservation board, the state engineer and toward projects for municipal and agricultural water use. “The real common denominator in a lot of the things that we want is the sale and production of non-alcoholic beverages that are basically water; they’re flavored water,” he said…
The Colorado Water Congress has appointed a subcommittee to evaluate the state budget, Brown said. It is his plan to introduce the idea to the subcommittee in the anticipation of putting it on the November ballot. It could take another year or two before it appears on the ballot, he said, but he and Barber thought it necessary to get people thinking about a solution to help finance a long-term water supply.
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