Amazon recently announced this year’s Prime Day results, a 2-day sales event which ended last week; it was its “biggest” ever, with more than 300 million items purchased worldwide. Normally, Prime Day would be a great chance to score some deals, but this year there was a cloud hanging over this online holiday in Colorado — a 27-cent state fee on all retail deliveries.

If soaring 9.1% inflation and gas prices just under $5 wasn’t enough to make you upset, since the beginning of July every time you pick up your phone to order any retail delivery, you’re being hit with this new “fee.” And yep, that fee-free delivery that was included as part of your Amazon Prime membership isn’t fee-free any longer, unfortunately.

It doesn’t just stop there. Any Uber or Lyft you take now has a 30-cent fee for most rides. Talk about highway robbery. The nonprofit Colorado Health Foundation says Coloradans are more concerned about household finances than anything else, with 86% saying the state’s cost of housing is an extremely serious or very serious problem. We shouldn’t be adding fees or taxes to anything right now given we’re on the brink of a recession.

This is the result of a fee increase Gov. Jared Polis and his allies in the legislature passed in 2021. All told, lawmakers approved a $5.2-billion bill (largely funded by fee increases) — without voter consent. The intention at the time was to help Colorado pay for transportation infrastructure. But really, this was a way for the legislature to chip away or go around TABOR. They realized that if they called something a “fee” instead of a “tax,” they could evade TABOR and raise revenue without ever having to ask voters.

There’s also a small bit of irony here too. The same governor and the same legislature that enacted the delivery and ride-sharing fees last year, delayed a two-cent gas fee this year as an election ploy. But now, adding insult to injury as the cost of living and state spending hit all-time highs, some cities in Colorado are looking at the new fees and taxing them as a source of additional revenue.

These taxes and fees are also starting to hurt small businesses. According to media accounts, small businesses are already starting to voice their concerns about the fees as well. With the increased fees comes a big bookkeeping burden that most of them are facing, further complicating operations.

Absent a new law being passed that would repeal these fees, not much can be done at the current moment to ease this unnecessary burden on Coloradans. The organization I represent, Advance Colorado Institute, has joined with others like Americans for Prosperity to ask our legal system to step in. We have sued the state and argue these “fees” should have ultimately been brought to the voters for their approval. But that doesn’t do anything to ease the pinch everyone is feeling in their pocketbooks right now.

Given how this all has unfolded, one thing is clear: Polis and the legislature’s plan to boost transportation funding backfired. If they had given voters their say, and they voted down these exorbitant fees, we’d be in a much better spot as we face the economic uncertainty we’re all feeling.

Michael Fields is president of the Advance Colorado Institute.