FORT LUPTON PRESS
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S E RVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1906
VOLUME 120
ISSUE 13
WEEK OF MARCH 30, 2023
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 , 2020
Engineer tells Nebraska Colorado THE SEASON FOR SHARING has right to South Platte River flow
VOLUME 117
BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
Coloradans could get up to $2.5 billion in tax refunds
ISSUE 48
Colorado’s state water engineer BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN has a message for the Nebraska officials doubling down on their commitment to a $567 million canal Coloradans will receive more than $2.5 across the border: billion in tax refunds from the state as You can build it, but the water long as there isn’t a recession, accordmay not come. ing to two quarterly economic and tax Colorado state engineer Kevin revenue forecasts presented this month Rein acknowledges a historic to the legislature. compact gives Nebraska the right to An economic downturn is increasbuild the canal at the South Platte ingly likely, however, given international River west of Julesburg. But in a financial instability, including stubborn five-page response to Nebraska’s inflation and the banking industry’s first official evaluation of the plan, headline-grabbing struggles over the tacking closely to the direction set past month. by Colorado’s attorney general, Nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff Rein says the actual water Nebraska said the state government will collect is counting on may never show up. $2.75 billion in tax revenue in excess The Nebraska report by an engiof the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap on neering firm makes multiple asgovernment growth and spending in the sumptions that Colorado disputes, current fiscal year, which ends June 30. in particular whether the water will The legislature is required to refund that be “physically available, or whether money. it’s legally available at the time The Governor’s Office of State Planwhen it’s physically available,” Rein ning and Budget expects the TABOR said in an interview. cap to be exceeded by $2.7 billion in the The Nebraska study “does not current fiscal year. adequately consider future deThe cap, set by a 1992 constitutional velopment” by Colorado of water amendment passed by Colorado voters, in the upper section of the South is calculated by multiplying the prior Platte, a stretch running back from year’s limit by inflation and population Washington County all the way up growth rates. through Greeley, Boulder County The money will predominantly be and Denver, Rein’s letter says. The refunded to taxpayers in April 2024 in compact doesn’t give Nebraska any the form of checks tied to people’s say over how much upper section income — with higher refund amounts water Colorado can use from the going to higher earners — as long as the South Platte or how much water Jordan Harman is gathering the macroinvertebrate from the South Platte River for legislature doesn’t change the refund must be available at a key river PHOTO BY BELEN WARD formula this year, as it did in 2022. testing the water quality. gauge at Balzac, a ghost town near The forecasts are provided to the ColoBrush. Nebraska has a right to take it, from rado. rado General Assembly to help lawmakOther failings of the study, Rein October to April. Colorado takes pains in its official ers draft the state budget for the next adds, include relying on lower Nevertheless, Nebraska is itching response to say it has always honfiscal year. The data presented in March section flows of irrigation water to start. ored a 1923 compact with Nebraska to the legislature’s powerful Joint Budget returning to the river that Nebraska Nebraska is in talks to option or on how the South Platte operates, Committee, which drafts the budget, doesn’t have a right to; not acbuy up land around Julesburg and and always will. The letter, with is considered the most important each counting for diversion rights at to the west for canal construction, extensive input from the Colorado year because it’s used to set spending. Julesburg Reservoir; and ignoring Rein said. Grassed-over scars of Attorney General’s Office, is not The good news for the legislature is that the canal would be iced over Nebraska’s unfinished attempt at a meant to be a hard “no,” Rein said. that it will have all the money it’s entitled and unable to deliver water across Perkins Canal in the late 1800s are Every year before First United Church inColoFort Lupton and theSEE Fort Lupton Food and Clothing Bank provide community SEE REFUNDS, P17 the border during Thanksgiving, some of the time visible Methodist across northeastern SOUTH PLATTE, P14 members with food boxes. This will be the program’s 10th consecutive year. Above, Joe Hubert, left China Garcia and Sue Hubert with Change 4 Change, another organization that helps with the food drive. See more on Page 2.
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