Marissa Ventrelli at Colorado Politics reports on a rare and almost mythical event under the Gold Dome: a proposed new fee actually died. House Bill 1271 would have slapped new charges on beer, cider, wine, and spirits manufactured and distributed in Colorado, with the money funneled into three new “enterprises” aimed at prevention, jail and community services, and treatment programs tied to alcohol abuse. The bill went down Tuesday in the House Health and Human Services Committee on a 5-8 vote.
Ventrelli explains that supporters framed the measure as a way to help plug behavioral health funding gaps during a year when lawmakers are staring at an $850 million budget shortfall. Rep. Jennifer Bacon argued that the Behavioral Health Agency has greater needs than available funding, while backers insisted the alcohol industry should help shoulder the burden, much like tobacco and marijuana industries already do. Opponents pushed back that the industry is already under pressure from inflation, tariffs, and declining consumption, and warned lawmakers not to pile more costs onto businesses already struggling to stay afloat.
What really stands out is that even with the usual Capitol urge to create one more fee in the name of solving one more problem, this one could not get across the finish line. All Republicans voted no, and three Democrats joined them, including Rep. Karen McCormick, who said the state is struggling to fund what it needs but was uneasy about imposing additional fees on businesses. Even an amendment to exempt small businesses could not save it. That tells you somebody, somewhere under the dome, may finally be noticing that Coloradans are getting pretty tired of being nickel-and-dimed by government.
The Bullet Point Brief
- House Bill 1271 would have created three new “enterprises” and imposed fees of 5 cents per gallon on beer and cider, 7 cents per liter on wine, and 35 cents per liter on spirits. Because in Colorado government, every problem apparently comes with a calculator and a straw for somebody else’s wallet.
- Supporters said the money was needed for prevention, treatment, and recovery programs related to alcohol abuse, and pitched it as a way to make the industry help pay for the harms associated with its product. That is the modern legislative playbook in a nutshell: call it an “enterprise,” call it a “fee,” and hope nobody notices it still comes out of somebody’s pocket.
- Rep. Jennifer Bacon said the Behavioral Health Agency has greater needs than available funding, which is true enough as far as it goes. But needing more money is not proof that taxpayers or businesses need to be squeezed again. Sometimes the problem is not revenue. Sometimes the problem is what lawmakers choose to prioritize.
- Industry groups argued the alcohol sector is already dealing with inflation, tariffs, and declining beer consumption, and noted that brewers already pay more than $1 billion in taxes to the state each year. At some point, “part of the solution” starts sounding a lot like “designated piggy bank.”
- The bill failed 5-8, with three Democrats joining Republicans to oppose it. That is the headline within the headline. Even in a legislature that usually treats new fees like a love language, this one was a bridge too far.
My Bottom Line
Nice to see, and honestly a little hard to believe, that a proposed new fee from the legislature actually died.
Maybe, just maybe, even a few Democrats are beginning to notice what the rest of Colorado has been screaming for years: people are sick and tired of being taxed and fee’d to death. Families are stretched. Businesses are stretched. Everybody at the Capitol says they are worried about affordability, and then half the time they turn right around and dream up another clever way to make life more expensive. This time, at least, enough lawmakers decided not to do that.
And let’s deal with the central excuse here. Rep. Bacon says the Behavioral Health Agency has a greater need than available funding. Fair enough. But that is not automatically a revenue problem. It is a priorities problem. Legislators write the budget. Legislators decide what gets funded and what does not. Legislators have the power to refocus spending toward core needs instead of coming back, again and again, with another fee dressed up in bureaucratic perfume.
That is the part that ought to irritate people the most. The same crowd that insists every challenge demands a new stream of money somehow never manages to ask the harder question: what should government stop doing so it can better fund what actually matters? That takes discipline. It takes honesty. And it takes more courage than slapping a new charge on a product and pretending you solved something.
This bill deserved to die. Colorado does not have a shortage of government appetite. It has a shortage of government restraint. For one day, restraint won.
Source: Colorado Politics
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