Would this put a damper on your online shopping? How about home deliveries from your favorite restaurants?
Colorado has imposed a 27-cent fee on retail deliveries for buyers that applies to items subject to sales tax and delivered by car, which include purchases from Amazon and DoorDash.
The new fee, which went into effect July 1, is intended to raise revenue for Colorado road projects and transit and electric vehicle programs. The fee is projected to raise $1.2 billion over the next decade. The fee is set to increase with inflation.
According to the personal finance website Capital Counselor, Amazon ships about 1.6 million packages every single day. Expressed another way, the online retail giant ships more than 66,000 orders per hour or 18.5 orders per second.
The delivery fee was part of a transportation funding bill passed by the Colorado Assembly in 2021. New fees imposed under the legislation also affect ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber.
A statement from a spokesperson from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis urges Coloradans to take a long view of the new fee, noting a recent reduction in motor vehicle registration fees and a delay in the implementation of a 2-cent-per-gallon tax increase on gasoline set to also go into effect on July 1, now has been pushed back to 2023.
“Colorado roads have been costing Coloradans time and money for far too long. Through strong bipartisan collaboration we passed a bill that gives cost relief by both reducing fees, such as the vehicle registration fee, and by reducing the real costs Coloradans pay on vehicle maintenance by finally fixing our dang roads. While Gov. Polis was on the record seeking a gas tax reduction as a top priority in this bill, he was able to get a major vehicle registration fee reduction of $11.10 per vehicle that saves Coloradans money, and maybe even more importantly, time,” according to the statement.