Colorado § 43-4-1301 - Legislative declaration.

§ 43-4-1301. Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) Rapid and continuing growth in retail deliveries made by motor vehicles and in prearranged rides arranged through transportation network companies has increased and will continue to increase traffic congestion and air pollution from motor vehicle emissions, along with the adverse environmental and health impacts that result from such pollution, in nonattainment areas, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted communities and communities adjacent to highways;

(b) It is necessary and appropriate to offset and mitigate these impacts by creating a nonattainment area air pollution mitigation enterprise that has the business purpose of providing funding for and design and construction oversight and management of eligible projects that reduce traffic congestion, including demand management projects that encourage alternatives to driving alone, and thereby reduce travel delays, engine idle time, and unproductive fuel consumption or that directly reduce emissions by means such as retrofitting of construction equipment;

(c) Instead of reducing the impacts of retail deliveries and prearranged rides arranged through transportation network companies, by limiting retail delivery and prearranged ride activity through regulation, it is more appropriate to continue to allow persons who receive retail deliveries and benefit from the convenience afforded by unfettered retail deliveries and to allow transportation network companies that arrange prearranged rides to continue to provide that service without undue restrictions and to instead impose a small fee on each retail delivery and prearranged ride and use fee revenue to fund necessary mitigation activities.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that:

(a) The enterprise provides impact remediation services when, in exchange for the payment of air pollution mitigation per ride fees by transportation network companies and air pollution mitigation retail delivery fees by or on behalf of purchasers of tangible personal property for retail delivery, it acts as authorized by this section to mitigate the impacts of prearranged rides arranged through transportation network companies and residential and commercial deliveries on the state's transportation infrastructure, air quality, and emissions;

(b) By providing impact remediation services as authorized by this section, the nonattainment area air pollution mitigation enterprise provides a benefit to fee payers when it remediates the impacts they cause and therefore operates as a business in accordance with the determination of the Colorado supreme court in Colorado Union of Taxpayers Foundation v. City of Aspen, 2018 CO 36;

(c) Consistent with the determination of the Colorado supreme court in Nicholl v. E-470 Public Highway Authority, 896 P.2d 859 (Colo. 1995), that the power to impose taxes is inconsistent with enterprise status under section 20 of article X of the state constitution, it is the conclusion of the general assembly that the revenue collected by the enterprise is generated by fees, not taxes, because the air pollution mitigation per ride fee and the air pollution mitigation retail delivery fee imposed by the enterprise as authorized by section 43-4-1303 are:

(I) Imposed for the specific purpose of allowing the enterprise to defray the costs of providing the remediation services specified in this section, including mitigating impacts to air quality and greenhouse gas emissions caused by the activities on which the fees are assessed, and contribute to the implementation of the comprehensive regulatory scheme required for the planning, funding, development, construction, maintenance, and supervision of a sustainable transportation system; and

(II) Collected at rates that are reasonably calculated based on the impacts caused by fee payers and the cost of remediating those impacts; and

(d) So long as the enterprise qualifies as an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution, the revenue from the community access retail delivery fee collected by the enterprise is not state fiscal year spending, as defined in section 24-77-102 (17), or state revenues, as defined in section 24-77-103.6 (6)(c), and does not count against either the state fiscal year spending limit imposed by section 20 of article X of the state constitution or the excess state revenues cap, as defined in section 24-77-103.6 (6)(b)(I)(D).

Source: L. 2021: Entire part added, (SB 21-260), ch. 250, p. 1462, § 52, effective June 17. L. 2022: IP(2)(c) amended, (SB 22-141), ch. 81, p. 400, § 3, effective August 10. L. 2023: (2)(a) amended, (SB 23-143), ch. 153, p. 656, § 11, effective July 1. L. 2026: (1)(b) amended, (HB 26-1076), ch. 265, p. 1476, § 28, effective August 12.