Republicans say an outcry this week among angry Colorado motorists--blindsided by the Ritter administration's steep spike in auto-registration fees--is just the first blast of mounting discontent at some $1 billion in tax and fee hikes pushed through the legislature by the governor and ruling Democrats despite a crippling recession.

"No one should be surprised at the reaction," Senate GOP leader Josh Penry said today following news reports of public fury at the dramatic hike in auto-registration fees that took effect Wednesday.

"You don't raise taxes and fees when the entire economy is in a tailspin," said Penry, of Grand Junction. "Just ask any Coloradan who got slapped with a fat increase on his old pickup at the very same time he is facing a pay cut or maybe even a layoff at work and can barely make ends meet at home."

Added Penry, "This is just the tip of the iceberg when you look at the range of back-door tax hikes and front-door fee hikes imposed by the party in power. In all likelihood, the public backlash has just begun."

At issue is Senate Bill 108, enacted this year by Democrats and signed into law by Ritter against unanimous Republican opposition. The measure, which became law with the start of the new fiscal year July 1, raises fees on motorists by some $250 million a year and opens the door to expanded tolling. The cost of registering the typical passenger car is rising $30 to $40, and some commercial trucks' fees will go up by more than $700.

A GOP effort to curb an obsolete tax on Colorado employers has been signed into law. It's part of a broader campaign, say legislative Republicans, to lighten the load on the businesses that create Colorado's jobs.

Senate Bill 37, authored by Senate GOP Caucus Chair Mike Kopp, of Littleton, reins in an outdated levy that would have ended years ago had it not been for lawmakers who kept raiding the proceeds for other programs. The bill picked up bipartisan support including the endorsement of Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter last week.

"It's a way to make it right with the businesss community in Colorado,"  Kopp says of the bill. He noted that the fact that the tax has overstayed its welcome for so long despite having outlived its purpose is a testament to the "staying power of taxes."

At issue is a tax assessed on the insurance premiums that employers pay to cover injured workers; that tax stokes two state funds that were set up decades ago to help defer the high costs associated with catastrophic on-the-job injuries. The two funds should have been topped off long ago, when both accounts were closed to new beneficiaries and were supposed to have become self-sufficient to pay all remaining claims.

Amid disclosures of staff bonuses and other questionable expenditures by Democrats at the State Capitol, two GOP senators want Gov. Bill Ritter to track, tally and spell out his administration's policy on any bonuses that may have been granted in the executive branch. The Republican demand comes after Ritter administration officials acknowledged the Democrat governor doesn't even know if bonuses have been awarded by his Cabinet agencies--despite massive state budget cuts and a spiraling recession.

As reported by Denver's KDVR-TV Fox 31 News, Republican Sens. Ted Harvey, of Highlands Ranch, and Mike Kopp, of Littleton, sent Ritter a letter Wednesday in which the lawmakers call for an accounting.

"Revelations about bonuses recently awarded to Senate Democrat staff in the General Assembly came as an affront to the many, many Coloradans who have faced the threat of furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs amid our nation’s devastating recession," the senators write in their letter. "So, we were dismayed to learn that your administration has not suspended the same practice, or at least established clear guidelines."

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Ritter's chief of staff, Jim Carpenter, said Ritter is trying to discourage executive directors from giving bonuses this year, but he can't guarantee they haven't been handed out.