City of Rifle blasts state for misusing severance tax dollars
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 R...