“Why does Ritter hate Weld County?” I haven’t see that sign yet but it is a reasonable question.  Among some elected officials the belief is that Governor Bill Ritter has declared war on Weld County.  We are starting to see the crippling effects of Ritter’s new oil and gas regulations.

Property taxes on oil and gas provide 40 percent of the revenue for Weld County’s annual budget.  Last week on my show, Weld County Assessor Chris Woodruff predicted that because of the new regulations, coupled with lower commodity prices, revenue from the oil and gas industry could be off by as much as one third in 2011 and 2012.  Oil and gas companies, along with their high paying jobs, say they are headed to states where the business climate is more friendly.

As bad as that sounds for Weld County, the Kersey school district will be in even worse shape. According to Chris, the district’s budget is 85 percent oil and gas property taxes.  Maybe the Platte Valley School District can install windmill to make up for the the looming budget gap.

Thanks to Governor Ritter and his environmental policies, Weld County is seeing high paying jobs go to other states and its tax base rapidly eroding.  Ritter won Weld County in 2006.  He won’t win it in 2010.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 3:52 am and is filed under Weld County, oil and gas, taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.