Ritter has considered asking voters to fund health care, transportation and higher education. But he's taken health care off the table, and now a tax increase on energy companies is the "most active conversation" inside the Capitol, he said Thursday.

"We're looking at next month as the month we really have to decide," Ritter told editors and publishers at the annual meeting of the Colorado Press Association.

Ritter has maintained that energy-producing counties must not get shorted in any tax increase. On Thursday, he mentioned colleges and transportation as two places he'd like to send additional money.

Colorado's severance taxes are the lowest in the Rocky Mountain region with the exception of Utah.

March is shaping up to be a critical month for the energy industry. The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is scheduled to release a draft of wide-ranging new rules on March 31.

Gas companies have fought hard against some of the planned changes. The Legislature's two Agriculture committees have scheduled a hearing Wednesday morning so lawmakers can voice their concerns to the oil and gas commission's staff.

Ritter tried to separate the tax question from the rule changes on Thursday.

"We are not in the business of trading off the rulemaking for a 1 (percent) or 2 percent change in the severance tax," Ritter said.

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