GOP chides Dems for going on a 'fee spree'

Exasperated Republicans accused Democrats on the Senate floor this morning of raising wide-ranging fees on ordinary Coloradans in order to avoid seeking voters' permission for a tax hike.

The debate erupted amid discussion of House Bill 1100, which attempts to attach a new fee to birth certificates--and came only days after a proposal by another Senate Democrat, John Morse of Colorado Springs, to slap a $25 fee increase on marriage licenses.

The Republicans point to numerous fee hikes authored by Democrats during the 2008 session alone, ranging from Keller's and Morse's to  one that would assess higher fees on ozone-depleting compounds. 

"Will enough ever be enough?" the GOP's Sen. Josh Penry, of Grand Junction, said to colleagues.

"When do we stop the fees? We have a fee on marriage, we have a fee on weddings--did we forget caskets?... I'm sure that's coming before the end of the session," Penry said. "There is no end to the appetite to spend more money."

HB 1100's sponsor, Democrat Sen. Moe Keller, of Wheat Ridge, said the 75-cent

surcharge on each copy of a birth certificate would be used to provide "additional resources and outreach" for parents of children with birth defects.

Republicans, however, said the measure represented yet another attempt this session to enact a new tax in the guise of a fee, sidestepping the constitutional requirement to seek voter permission.

"While the children-with-special-needs program is a worthy cause, this is essentially not a fee but a tax on everybody seeking a new copy of their original birth certificate," said Republican Sen. Greg Brophy, of Wray.

Several GOP senators took the floor to challenge ruling Democrats to find the money within the current budget rather than ding the public for more.

"Here, you have a worthy program and you say the only way you can fund it is to take it out of the mouths of schoolchildren or perhaps out of environmental protection," said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, a Broomfield Republican. "Nonsense. While our budget is expanding rapidly, perhaps some of the growing dollars can go to this worthy program instead of having to take it out of somewhere else."

Democrat Senate leader Ken Gordon said Republicans should point to where in the budget they would cut to accommodate the Democrat spending measure. Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe, of Eaton, reminded Gordon and the Democrats that, only weeks ago, the GOP had in fact come up with millions of dollars in proposed budget cuts that both sides tentatively agreed to before that effort was shot down by Gov. Bill Ritter.

"If you want to have that debate and look at that within this bill, I would gladly, gladly go there," Renfroe told Gordon.

Gordon also complained that there isn't enough money in the budget to cover the needs for which his caucus members seek to raise fees.

"Sometimes I feel that people think that the budget just has a lot of extra money in it that really is being not used for anything useful and therefore you can always say, 'take it from somewhere else,' " Gordon said.

That drew a laugh from Senate GOP leader Andy McElhany after the floor debate was over.

"Some people around here think that taxpayers just have a lot of extra money in their pockets that is not really being used for anything useful," McElhany said. "Probably a lot of the people who think that are sitting across the aisle."

Added McElhany, "Let's face it, they're going on a fee spree--from fee to shining fee."