Salazar, Limbaugh square off on shale
WASHINGTON — Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado today on the oil shale issue, while Democrat Salazar said the debate is not about lowering gas prices but about helping oil companies.
The day after the Bureau of Land Management unveiled preliminary rules for selling oil shale leases in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, Limbaugh quoted President Bush as saying that shale could provide fuel to meet energy needs for more than 100 years.
“But guess who’s standing in the way,” Limbaugh said. “Sen. Ken Salazar, Democrat, Colorado. “Even with $4 a gallon gasoline Salazar and his fellow Democrats are still preventing America from using our own resources to lower gas prices and create new jobs.”
Limbaugh accused Salazar of running as a moderate in 2004 and then acting as a liberal in office.
“The moral, in case you haven’t figured this out, is that new Democrats don’t exist except when they’re running for office,” Limbaugh said. “In office they’re the same old liberals they’ve always been and they don’t give a rat’s rear end about you or what’s right for the country, only about themselves.”
Salazar, interviewed later on 850 KOA, said that Limbaugh is “spreading falsehoods along with many of the people who want us to essentially give away the public lands of Colorado.”
Colorado controls 80 percent of the oil shale reserves in the entire country, Salazar said. The technology to develop that shale does not yet exist, he said, and there are unanswered questions about how much water it will take, where it will come from, and how many coal-fire plants will need to be built to process the shale.
Moreover, Salazar said, the BLM has said it will be 2015 at the earliest before oil can be extracted from the shale.
“This is not about the development of oil shale today that will help us with gas prices,” Salazar said “What this is about is trying to give millions of acres of land away to the oil companies so they can lock it up forever as part of their reserves.”
In an interview today with The Denver Post, Salazar pinned that strategy on the White House.
“It’s at the end of the day part of President Bush’s agenda and Vice-President Cheney’s agenda to essentially give away as much of the public oil and gas resources as possible during their term in office,” Salazar said.
Salazar put a moratorium into a spending bill last year, which bars the BLM from issuing final regulations. It expires Oct. 1.
A spokesman for Sen. Wayne Allard, a Loveland Republican who opposes the moratorium, said this morning that Salazar would fall 10 votes short if he tried to extend it through a Senate floor vote. Allard’s opposition kept the moratorium out of a spending bill for 2009 when that bill passed out of a committee earlier this month.
But Salazar said that the ban probably will not expire. Instead of passing individual spending bills, Congress is likely to pass what’s called a continuing resolution, which takes the language of most of this year’s current spending bills and rolls them into 2009. His language could be part of that continuing resolution.
Salazar, however, said in an interview with The Denver Post today that he does not have assurances that his language would be included in a continuing resolution.
“But certainly it is something we are going to fight for,” Salazar said.
By Anne C. Mulkern
7/23/08
DNC host’s tax-free gas evaporates
Angry reaction brings a halt to use of city pumps
The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city’s gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes.
The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes.
However, Public Works spokeswoman Christine Downs told City Council members just hours before that host committee members were fueling up at the city pumps. The city does not pay taxes on the fuel for its fleet, and Downs said the host committee would not either.
The disclosure brought immediate scrutiny. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said the practice “would seem” to be illegal and referred the matter to the state Department of Revenue.
Nonprofits, such as the host committee, are subject to state and federal gasoline taxes, according to the Department of Revenue.
The issue arose during the regular weekly meeting of Hickenlooper and City Council members. Downs requested authorization for a contract so the Public Works Department could be reimbursed by the host committee for use of “fueling facilities, fuel and car washes.”
Downs said the contract with the host committee started in March and that $9,700 in fuel and services had been purchased from the city so far. But the committee has yet to be billed. The city anticipates $466,125 in total revenues from the contract, Downs said.
City Councilman Charlie Brown raised the question of whether the host committee would be paying fuel taxes, and Downs said it wouldn’t.
“There’s something there that just doesn’t seem right to me because, in a sense, you’re saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz.
Hickenlooper said the practice isn’t unique to Denver.
“I do know for a fact that they’re doing the same exact thing in Minneapolis,” Hickenlooper said, referring to the city that along with St. Paul is hosting the Republican National Convention.
But Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said its members are getting their gas at public pumps.
“We’re not getting a tax break on fuel,” she said. “That’s not the setup at this end.”
In Colorado, consumers pay 40.4 cents per gallon in state and federal fuel taxes.
“We’re a nonpartisan, nonprofit committee, but certainly, if the city feels that taxes are applicable, we will pay those, too,” said Chris Lopez, spokesman for the host committee. “So we would pay all applicable taxes on any of the fuel.”
The host committee, which is responsible for raising money to put on the convention, is using the city’s pumps “for safety and security reasons,” Lopez said.
“We know the gas is not tainted,” he said. “We use it as a safety and security measure.”
Hickenlooper said GM is “loaning” the host committee vehicles and he expects a large number to be hybrids. It wasn’t clear Tuesday whether host committee members are using those loaners or their personal vehicles.
Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said the city’s arrangement with the DNC host committee was “appalling.”
“I’m hoping this is not the first of many stories about how Colorado taxpayers are apparently subsidizing the Democratic convention,” Wadhams said.
After the meeting, Faatz said it was wrong for the DNC host committee to get a tax break.
“I am just troubled by not having the payment of taxes for what I consider to be a privately funded party, and that’s what the host committee is: it’s a private organization,” she said.
“If you’ve got a 14-gallon tank, on the average, that’s about $5.66 that they don’t have to pay for fill up,” Brown said.
Brown also questioned the need for car washes.
It also wasn’t clear Tuesday whether the Department of Revenue will investigate.
“We can’t talk about any individual taxpayer’s circumstance,” said department spokesman Mark Couch. “Tax-exempt organizations are not exempt from fuel taxes, so a nonprofit group is not exempt from fuel taxes. As to the individual circumstance involved here, we’d have to look into it and investigate to make any kind of determination.”
Denis Berckefeldt, spokesman for Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher, said Hickenlooper’s administration has been guilty in the past of doing business before a contract is executed.
“Is it unusual that it happens?” he asked. “No, because they do stuff like this. Do we like it? No.”
In January 2006, Gallagher complained to Hickenlooper in a letter about the “ongoing problem related to work being performed on behalf of the city before a contract for that work has been fully executed and properly signed.”
At that time, Gallagher wrote, an examination of 999 contracts found that in 790 cases - 79 percent - work began before the contracts were “fully executed.”
“We would have a problem with this because they’re clearly selling fuel to the host committee without a fully executed contract,” Berckefeldt said. “We have a real serious issue at the auditor’s office with the city doing business with anyone without a contract.”
by Daniel J. Chaconand Kevin Vaughan
7/22/08
Montrose cuts sales tax to 3 percent
— Montrose consumers got good news Tuesday when the city announced it is chopping its sales tax rate one-half of a percentage point.
The reduction to 3 percent fulfilled a promise the city made to voters in 2002 when they approved a tax increase for school construction. The five-year tax yielded $12 million that was paired with a school district property tax bond of $11 million.
With the $23 million, the school district built Johnson Elementary school for 500 students and added classrooms to Montrose High School, Olathe Middle/High School and four elementary schools. The money also paid for renovation and improvements to several other schools, according to a news release from the city and the school district.
Because the projects were completed under budget and ahead of schedule, there is money left to pay for extensive remodeling at Pomona Elementary School, adding classrooms at Columbine Middle School and improvements to the school district office, according to the news release.
The tax to allow the school building improvements began when a residents group called “It’s About Pride” started working on a plan to improve schools in 2000, according to the release.
By BEVERLY CORBELL
7/22/08
Officials must face rising costs of FasTracks
Regional Transportation District officials are wrestling with the difficult task of developing strategies and tactics needed to deal with the nearly $2 billion increase in estimated cost to complete the FasTracks program by 2017.
RTD introduced the FasTracks plans in late 2003. The proposal asked voter approval for a sales-tax increase of 0.4 cents to make it possible to pay for a 12-year mass transit project that would add 119 miles of light rail and commuter rail lines, 18 miles of bus rapid transit service and expanded bus service, including suburb-to-suburb connections.
Voters approved the tax increase in November 2004 for a project scheduled to be built at a cost of $4.7 billion. However, cost estimates increased dramatically with the skyrocketing increase in fuel and the fact construction material prices have increased by more than 30 percent since then.
Also, the slow economy dropped the sales-tax collections well below estimates. The two factors combined to create a budget problem for FasTracks.
“We are victims of the skyrocketing cost of fuel and construction materials and the depressed economy that has people putting money in the gas tank instead of shopping so sales tax revenues are down,” said Cal Marsella, RTD director. “There has been talk about looking at ways to increase revenues, extending the time to complete the project or cutting the scope of some of the lines. None of those are solutions we want to accept. So, we are trying to develop a series of scenarios to present at the annual project evaluation in August.
“We want to establish priorities for each option and describe the impact each option might have. But the RTD board of directors unanimously endorse building FasTracks as designed and completing the projects on time. Now, we have to achieve those goals.”
Marsella said major factors remain unresolved, including the cost of buying or leasing right-of-way from the railroads for the commuter rail lines, completion of public-private partnerships and determining costs for construction materials.
“The resolution of those issues will have a major impact on the budget,” Marsella said. “We also hope to increase revenues through fare increases, re-evaluation of our pass programs and a plan to generate parking revenues. All those elements figure into how we will deal with the FasTracks budget issue.”
O’Neil Quinlin, RTD board representative from the area, said the budget challenge has been steadily building because of two major factors — increased costs and lower-than-expected revenues.
“I feel now we as a board need to make strategic decisions and make them soon,” he said. “We know going into the process there aren’t any good options or easy solutions. All these will be really tough decision that have an impact on people’s lives. Personally, I don’t know how this challenge will turn out.”
FasTracks projects include extending the Southwest Corridor south into Highlands Ranch and the Southeast Corridor south to Sky Ridge Medical Center. However, those two extensions are part of the final years of the project and scheduled to be completed until 2017. RTD recently purchased land from the City of Englewood on Lucent Boulevard, the planned location of the Highlands Ranch station.
Several RTD riders said they want to see FasTracks completed as planned and on time but at least two of them had different opinions of the best way to deal with the issues.
Conrad Pennington, local resident, said while he wouldn’t relish the idea, he’s willing to vote to approve paying more in sales taxes to get FasTracks up and running as planned.
“I live in Highlands Ranch and the Lucent station would be a great help to me in my commute,” he said as he waited on the platform at Mineral Station. “I work downtown but frequently have to drive to work because I have to go to Golden and to Boulder. If FasTracks is completed as planned, I could ride light rail to both areas and never have to drive downtown.”
But Sandra Blum disagrees.
“I want to see all the new lines completed on time but I don’t want to pay more or higher fares to get that done,” the Lone Tree woman said as she waited for the train at the Dry Creek station. “I voted for FasTracks and I did it partially because I felt there was promise to build this with the money provided and get it completed as scheduled. I know about rising prices. I see it every day. But RTD needs to devise a solution to get FasTracks built without taking more money out of our pockets.”
By Tom Munds
7/22/08
Jobless rate in state highest since 2005
Unemployment stood at 5.1% in June, up from 4.9% in May
Colorado’s unemployment rate ticked up to 5.1 percent in June from 4.9 percent in May. It’s the highest rate since September 2005.
The number is also significantly worse than one year ago, when Colorado unemployment was 3.7 percent.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment notes that June is generally a month of rising unemployment throughout Colorado as student workers enter the job market. The department said that pattern held true as 49 of Colorado’s 64 counties recorded higher unemployment rates.
Government job-trackers at the state and federal level release unemployment rates, which are based on surveys of workers as well as a separate survey of employers that yields the official job-creation numbers.
Colorado had 2,389,400 jobs in June, 1.34 percent above June 2007 numbers, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The year-over-year rate of growth has slowed in eight of the past nine months, dating back to October. In September 2007, the number of Colorado jobs was 2.49 percent higher than September 2006, and job growth remained above 2 percent until March.
“Although employment growth has been positive, it has been too modest to absorb the state’s expanding labor force,” Donald J. Mares, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said in a statement.
The state labor department said the largest contributor to job growth has been the government sector, which showed a gain of 10,200 jobs and accounted for roughly one-third of net job gains since last June.
Education and health services gained 9,700 positions, while professional and business services, trade, transportation and utilities, and leisure and hospitality each added more than 6,000 new workers since last June. Natural resources and mining employment rose 3,200, and other services trended up 1,800.
Two industries susceptible to the turmoil in the housing and credit markets - construction and financial services - fell 5,000 and 1,700, respectively, over the past year. Manufacturing, down 4,800, and information services, off 1,700, also shed jobs in the past 12 months.
Colorado’s best and worst
Counties with lowest June unemployment rates: * Yuma 2.8 percent
* Cheyenne 2.8 percent
Counties with highest June unemployment rates: * Costilla 9.2 percent
* Conejos 8.3 percent
Published in the Rocky Mountain News
by David Milstead
July 18, 2008
