By Katherine Tomanek | Post Independent
A letter to state Sen. Marc Catlin and state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco has been prepared by the city staff of Rifle regarding the diversion of Local Government Severance Tax Funds to address budget shortfalls at the state government level.
The Local Government Severance Tax Fund was originally created to help support communities impacted by resource extraction activities, like oil and gas, which sometimes leads to a “boom and bust” economy of those communities. The “bust” of that equation was to be offset by the Local Government Severance Tax Fund.
The city of Rifle relies on the Energy Impact Assistance Fund (EIAF) from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) for their projects. Some of these funds include $1 million for the Railroad Avenue from Fifth Street to Ninth Street project and $2 million for the water plant construction.
“They (the state of Colorado) are looking at taking money, a significant chunk away from the Energy Impact Assistance Fund and using it to fund general fund operations at the state level,” said city manager Patrick Waller. “They already do interest sweeps, where they’ll sweep any interest that comes out of this money and use it to support the general fund.”
Waller said that if the state takes a large chunk out of the EIAF, then it will make getting that funding for capital projects much harder.