A new way for the government to skim from families has popped up in the Colorado House of Representatives, where Rep. Regina English, a Democrat, has introduced a pet tax for all pets — vertebrate and invertebrates.
Colorado House Bill 24-1163 would impose a tax of up to $8.50 on every pet, an annual fee.
But wait, there’s more: The government, in addition to requiring all pets to be registered and taxed by the Department of Agriculture, would be required to tell the government who the “designated caregiver” is for the pet. Failure to disclose the designee would result in a $25 fine. If the dog or cat pet is not spayed or neutered, the tax would be $16 annually per pet.
The bill requires the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture (commissioner) to develop, implement, and maintain an online pet animal registration system (system). The state registration and tax system would not deduct any locally levied dog licenses.
A fish aquarium with 10 fish would be charged $85 per year, and failure to designate a caregiver for the pet fish would be $250 per year.
According to World Population Review, 64.7% of Coloradans are pet owners who would be subject to this tax. Livestock such as cows, horses, sheep, and other grazing animals are not included. The bill does not specify is service animals are considered pets.
Denver and other cities in Colorado have ordinances limiting the number of dogs and cats that people may own. In Denver, a person may own up to five; if they have three dogs, they can only have two cats. All must be licensed, which is $15 a year for each dog. The city has a restriction of two rabbits per household and a person can own no more than 25 pigeons or doves.
Denver is said to have about 158,000 dogs in the metro area, which would give the state over $1.3 million in registration fees alone per year, not counting the $25 fee for not disclosing an alternate caregiver. Colorado Springs similarly limits households to four dogs and four cats.
An active dog mushing community in Colorado would be impacted by the new tax, but dog breeders are apparently exempted. Sales of pets are covered under Denver and Colorado sales taxes. Denver County has an 8.81% sales tax, which includes the state sales tax of 2.9%.
The new state pet registration tax would ostensibly be used to help connect owners with their pets after an emergency, should they be separated, according to the bill sponsor.
Colorado’s House of Representatives has been controlled by Democrats since 2012. In 2022, Democrats won a 46-19 majority. Once viewed as a swing state politically, Colorado has been trending Democrat, as younger people moved there from California and elsewhere. More than 200,000 people moved from California to Colorado from 2009 to 2019. According to The Visualist website, in 2020-2021, nearly 27,000 Californians moved to Colorado.
