Calling it a fee doesn't make it so. It may be a tax.

The distinction is important, since in Colorado new and higher taxes must be approved by a public vote.

If you can persuade fellow legislators that your money-raising scheme is a fee, you don't have to stage one of those awkward and expensive elections.

State Rep. Judy Solano wants her colleagues to increase the charges paid by everyone, from individuals to large trash collection firms, on the disposal of solid waste and used tires. The additional $4.7 million raised annually would go to three different funds and be spent on numerous grants and programs related to recycling, waste studies, grants and loans. "Rebates" would also be available to nonprofits, companies and local governments that do recycling.

The Brighton Democrat's proposal, House Bill 1288, has passed the Health and Human Services Committee and now awaits action in the House Appropriations Committee.

The distinction between fees and taxes has been crucial ever since the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, approved by voters in 1992, set up tax elections.

The legislature's drafting office drew up guidelines in 1993 that tries to tell you how to distinguish between a tax and a fee. Basically, there has to be a close connection between the charge and how the money is spent to make it a fee. If it's a universal charge spent on various government programs it's more likely to be a tax.

Some Republicans who voted on the bill in committee argue that the connection has been virtually broken and the proposed charges are taxes that should go to a vote.

But if the legislature passes the bill and it becomes law, it will go into effect until someone wins a court case challenging its legality.

The waste tire recycling fund has been around since 1994. It's supposed to promote the recycling of old tires into energy production or street paving materials. Apparently it's been running in place, since evidence before the committee indicated that there were 40 million waste tires in the state then - and there are 40 million now. If used tires were truly useful in recycling projects, they should theoretically pay you for them instead of you paying them to take them away.

The fee you pay to trade your old tire in on a new one has gone from 50 cents to a dollar, and HB 1288 would raise it again to $1.50.

In addition, the bill would impose new "tipping fees" on carloads and truckloads of trash taken to pickup points or landfills. The fee would be three cents a carload, six cents a pickup-load and 10 cents per cubic yard dumped by huge commercial trash companies.

The latter would presumably pass on their costs to you.

The original used-tire charge is in fact a fee because the proceeds go to dispose of them.

But about 70 percent of the tire-fee increase would go to a new "Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity Fund" that would have little connection to tires.

"There's no nexus, no connecting point, because the money is going to a laundry list of other 'wonderful' programs," says Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton.

The 20-page bill - so complex it had to be rewritten from the top shortly after introduction - hasn't yet been scheduled for a hearing in Appropriations.

Obama coming: James Crowe, chief executive at Level 3 Communications, is hosting a fundraiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama at his suburban home on March 18. The event will be closed. Neither Level 3 nor the campaign would confirm the event or the ticket price, but other sources said it will happen. If you don't get an invitation you can assume they don't want your money or your presence.

blakep@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5119.