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Our View: Divident roulette |
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Saturday, 20 October 2007 |
Lawmakers play for oil, gas revenue Colorado Springs Gazette editorial We don’t have a detailed proposal for how to spend Colorado’s drilling dividend — the $300 million the state is raking in annually from the oil and gas boom — but you can be sure the politicians do. A Denver newspaper reports that legislators already have drafted 17 bills detailing how they want to divvy up the dough. There will be more, no doubt, before the gavel brings the 2008 legislative session to order. That has potential beneficiaries jockeying for position. And that’s not altogether a bad thing.
There’s always a strong possibility, if and when they get their hands on the money, that they’ll squander it. But if they can succeed in husbanding it in wise and appropriate ways, these resources might help keep at bay future tax increases.
As well, the drilling dividend reminds the public that the drilling boom has an upside — something they don’t read about much, since most of the focus is on the negative aspects of energy development. And understanding that there are two sides to this coin is itself a good thing.
We see merit in Sen. Josh Penry’s plan to place some of the money in a higher-ed trust fund, while directing the rest to the communities that are most impacted by the drilling boom (which only seems fair). Other bills reportedly would direct some of the money to state parks and wildlife projects. You can almost be sure that there will be proposals to blow it on “economic development activities” or alternative energy gimmicks.
There’s never a lack of ideas in the Statehouse about how to spend money. But one rule of thumb we would like to see applied is that the drilling dividend be used in ways that mitigate the need for the tax increases that almost surely are coming if all the blue ribbon commissions now at work get their wish lists fulfilled.
It won’t be nearly enough money to fund all these recommendations, of course. But if taxpayers draw a line in the sand and simply say, “that’s all there is, folks, divvy it up among yourselves,” they might be spared the need to dig deeper.
And if these revenues can be used to avoid tax hikes, every Colorado taxpayer would reap some small piece of the drilling dividend. That, in turn, would help build a constituency in support of energy development, which will serve as a balance against the anti-drilling forces that obviously have influence in the halls of power.
Energy consumers also would benefit in a roundabout way, because their energy costs will be lower than they might be if the energy development adversaries get their way and more oil and gas fields are placed off limits.
If a portion of the drilling dividend were going to state colleges and universities, for instance, politicians that are prohigher ed but anti-drilling will face a dilemma. “I’m delighted (the Legislature) is taking a look at higher education as a possible recipient of some of the funds,” University of Colorado President Hank Brown said last week. “We would be very grateful if a slice of the (revenue) stream would be available,” added David Skaggs, executive director of the Department of Higher Education.
This must have Gov. Bill Ritter squirming, caught between his need to appear pro-education and his fondness for pandering to the anti-drilling crowd. It would make it a little tougher to continue his knee-jerk opposition to drilling on the Roan Plateau and in the Vermillion Basin if this deprives state universities of the funds they say they desperately need.
Even a good chunk of the drilling dividend won’t satisfy some politicians’ appetites for more money. But maybe by throwing them this bone, and saying that this will just have to do, taxpayers can put off the gang of panhandlers that is lining up for a chance to plead their cases. |
