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Rifle gets highest local payment

Post Independent Writer

Rifle received the highest 2004 severance tax payment in Garfield County from the Department of Local Affairs, followed by Parachute, Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.The severance tax amount is paid by coal and oil and gas companies to help mitigate the impacts on a community due to energy extraction and development. The tax money is distributed annually from the Local Government Severance Tax Fund and is based on the number of full-time employees residing in a municipality as reported by the energy companies each year.Rifle topped the list with more than $1.6 million, up from $155,000 received in 2003.Parachute received nearly $491,000 this year, more than the $103,000 allocated last year; Silt received $44,580, up from $2,300 the previous year; New Castle, which received nothing in 2003, came in at $12,240; and Glenwood Springs received $2,300, up from $312 last year. The town of Carbondale was the only municipality in the county that received less than the previous year, with $353 in 2004, down from $624 in 2003.Garfield County as a whole received severance tax payments of $2.67 million in 2004, over $384,000 received in 2003.In the five northwestern Colorado counties of Garfield, Mesa, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt, the city of Grand Junction garnered the highest amount at $1.9 million.- Heidi Rice


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