(1) The general assembly hereby
finds and declares that:
(a) Retail deliveries are increasing and are expected to continue to increase
in urban and rural communities;
(b) The motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries are some of the most
polluting vehicles on the road, which has resulted in additional and increasing air
and greenhouse gas pollution at the local community level from idling delivery
vehicles in neighborhoods;
(c) The adverse environmental and health impacts of increased local
emissions from motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries can be mitigated and
offset by investing in the charging and fueling infrastructure needed to support
widespread public adoption of electric motor vehicles and zero emission vehicles
and by replacing the state's dirtiest passenger vehicles with zero emission vehicles;
(d) Instead of reducing the impacts of retail deliveries by limiting retail
delivery activity through regulation, it is more appropriate to continue to allow
persons who receive retail deliveries to benefit from the convenience afforded by
unfettered retail deliveries and instead impose a small fee on each retail delivery
and use fee revenue to fund necessary mitigation activities;
(e) It is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interest of the state and all
Coloradans to incentivize, support, and accelerate the use of electric motor vehicles
throughout the state and to enable the state to achieve its electric motor vehicle
adoption goals as set forth in the Colorado energy office's Colorado Electric
Vehicle Plan 2020 because widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles:
(I) Reduces emissions of air pollutants, including hazardous air pollutants
and greenhouse gases, at the community level that contribute to adverse human
health effects such as asthma, heart attacks, and lung cancer, and adverse
environmental effects, including but not limited to climate change, and helps the
state meet its statewide greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets established in
section 25-7-102 (2)(g) and its transportation sector greenhouse gas pollution
reduction targets established in the Colorado energy office's Colorado
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap and comply with air quality
attainment standards;
(II) Helps businesses and governmental entities operate more efficiently and
helps individuals and families save money over time by reducing fuel and
maintenance costs associated with the use of motor vehicles;
(III) Reduces the social costs of emissions of greenhouse gases and other air
pollutants by reducing such emissions; and
(IV) Reduces higher emissions of air pollutants in local communities,
including disproportionately impacted communities, where there is increased
exposure to transportation-related air pollution and where, as many studies
confirm, increased exposure to traffic and air pollution results in a higher risk for
adverse health outcomes;
(f) Retiring a relatively small number of high-emitting passenger vehicles
and replacing them with low or zero emission vehicles would have a relatively large
impact on emissions reductions, as shown by a 2009 study that found that ten
percent of passenger vehicles are responsible for more than thirty percent of
nitrogen oxide emissions and nearly fifty percent of hydrocarbon emissions;
(g) One of the best ways to incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption
of electric motor vehicles in both urban and rural areas is to reduce range anxiety
and inconvenience for electric motor vehicle users by building readily available,
robust, easy to use, and efficient electric motor vehicle charging and fueling
infrastructure in communities and along major highway corridors throughout the
state;
(h) Another way to incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption of
electric motor vehicles, promote equitable access to electrical motor vehicles and
less expensive electrical alternatives to motor vehicles, and encourage clean travel
is to provide incentives in communities, including but not limited to
disproportionately impacted communities, for acquisition or use of electric motor
vehicles or electric alternatives to motor vehicles and use of transit. Creating
access to electric motor vehicles or electric alternatives to motor vehicles for
communities, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted communities,
addresses inequities by allowing individuals who cannot afford to upgrade to more
fuel efficient motor vehicles to upgrade to motor vehicles that produce little or no
emissions in their communities.
(i) By reducing motor vehicle emissions, incentivizing, supporting, and
accelerating the adoption of electric motor vehicles at the community level
effectively remediates some of the impacts of retail deliveries by offsetting a
portion of the increased motor vehicle emissions resulting from retail deliveries.
(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that:
(a) To incentivize, support, and accelerate the construction of electric motor
vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure in communities throughout the state;
incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption of electric motor vehicles by
businesses, including transportation network companies, governmental entities,
and individuals; and thereby increase access to electric motor vehicles, minimize
and mitigate the environmental and health impacts caused by transportation-related emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and allow the state and
its citizens to reap the environmental, health, business and governmental
operational efficiency, and personal motor vehicle total ownership cost savings
benefits of widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles, it is necessary,
appropriate, and in the best interest of the state to create a community access
enterprise that can provide specialized business services, including impact
remediation services, that help communities, businesses, and governmental entities
construct the electric motor vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure needed to
support widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles, including light-duty,
medium-duty, and heavy-duty motor vehicles and motor vehicles used to make
retail deliveries, and thereby assuage range anxiety concerns, supply chain
disruption concerns, and any other concerns that currently disincentivize the
widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles;
(b) The specific focus of the enterprise is the equitable reduction and
mitigation of the adverse environmental and health impacts of air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions at the community level through support of the adoption
of electric motor vehicles and electric alternatives to motor vehicles at the
community level, including but not limited to within disproportionately impacted
communities throughout the state;
(c) The enterprise provides impact remediation services when, in exchange
for the payment of community access retail delivery fees by or on behalf of
purchasers of tangible personal property for retail delivery, it acts to mitigate the
impacts of residential and commercial deliveries on the state's transportation
infrastructure, air quality, and emissions by:
(I) Funding the construction of electric motor vehicle charging infrastructure
that supports the use of clean and quiet electric motor vehicles, including motor
vehicles used to make retail deliveries;
(II) Specifically supporting and incentivizing the retirement of old and
inefficient motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines and the
adoption of electric motor vehicles, electric alternatives to motor vehicles, and
transit use in communities, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted
communities, that generally bear the greatest burden of the environmental and
health impacts of transportation emissions due to disparities in transportation
pollution exposure;
(III) Providing outreach, education, planning funds, or training to support the
successful applications for funding and the performance of entities receiving funds;
(IV) Contributing to the comprehensive regulatory scheme required for the
planning, funding, development, construction, maintenance, and supervision of a
sustainable transportation system; and
(V) Providing additional remediation services to offset impacts caused by fee
payers as may be provided by law;
(d) By providing remediation services as authorized by this section, the
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;
(e) 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
community access retail delivery fee imposed by the enterprise as authorized by
section 24-38.5-303 (7) is:
(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 fee is assessed, and contributes 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
(f) 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).