Colorado lawmakers consider repealing a fee tacked onto all deliveries in the state
State Rep. Dan Woog has constituents in liberal Boulder County and conservative Weld County, and he says both are tired of lawmakers "nickeling and diming" them with fees.
Woog introduced a bill to repeal a 29-cent fee that's applied to every delivery in Colorado, including pizza, groceries, Amazon purchases and office supplies.
"I do think there's a great awareness right now," Woog told CBS Colorado. "People feel it. They're having trouble paying their bills. They're putting some of their utility bills on their credit card. That's not a way to live. So I do believe many, many residents in Colorado feel this, or at least see that there are so many different fees that are nickeling and diming us to death, and we just need some common-sense legislation."
The delivery fee is one of several new fees embedded in a $5 billion transportation bill passed four years ago. The money funds not only roads and bridges but multi-modal projects, air pollution mitigation, incentives for electric vehicles, e-bikes, e-buses and EV charging stations.
The delivery fee alone is expected to cost Coloradans about $200 million between July of 2024 and June of this year.
Most of the money goes to the Highway Users Tax Fund, which is the main source of funding for road and bridge construction at the state and local level, while just over a third of the money goes to clean transit projects.
State Rep. Meg Froelich, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, says repealing the fee could cost Coloradans more.
"We certainly do hear concerns about the cost of living and rising costs," Froelich said. "While that is true, I will say we also hear, equally and loudly, about the state of our roads and transportation, and the cost of hitting a pothole and losing a rim, and missing days of work."
CDOT says the fee is a critical source of funding and points to the revenue it's generated as proof it hasn't hurt deliveries. It says other states are now considering a similar fee to fund transportation projects.
The bill died in the Transportation Committee, with Democrats opposed to repealing it and Republicans in support.
