DENVER -- Cash-strapped Colorado is taking heat for giving a $42,083 tax break on the hottest electric sports car on the planet.

But hurry! The 38-percent tax credit on the $109,000 Tesla Roadster expires Dec. 31.

Colorado has provided tax breaks on hybrid and zero-emission vehicles for nearly a decade to encourage less-polluting vehicles.

But the payback is magnified by the Tesla's steep price tag and zero-emission status. A buyer would reap 85 percent of the difference between the price of the electric Roadster and the price of a comparable gas-powered sportscar, a Lotus Elise.

The generous Tesla tax credit has car-lovers stunned and amused and some taxpayers fuming with anger.

"Colorado is broke, but they can offer a $42,000 rebate on a sports car," one critic emailed 7News.

"Is the thin air up there distorting people's better judgment?" joked Jeremy Korzeniewski on green.autoblog.com.

That bodacious deal is partly why state lawmakers earlier this year passed a measure to cap the clean-machine tax credit at no more than $6,000.

But that law doesn't take effect until January, giving eco-minded -- and rich -- motorists a couple months to buy the sleek two-seater that flies from zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds.

“Someone who can afford a $109,000 car does not need a $40,000 tax credit,” said Rep. Mark Ferrandino, a Denver Democrat and member of the Joint Budget Committee.

“I do think it's ridiculous that people are buying a luxury car and getting a tax credit that's equal to, greater than what most people by a normal car for," Ferrandino added. “For every car that's bought over this time, we're losing $43,000 roughly on this car, so that's money that we won't have coming into the state otherwise that would help us.”

It's timely news for Tesla Motors, which is launching its first Colorado showroom -- they call it a "gallery" -- on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall Friday night. Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes said the company had several motives for expanding to Colorado, including the tax credit.

"It's no coincidence that we try to go to markets where they have laws on the books that try to promote clean cars," Reyes told the Denver post.

Rachel Konrad, another Tesla Motors spokeswoman, said the company has already sold six cars in Colorado this week alone.

State officials expected no more than 10 taxpayers to take advantage of the Tesla tax credit, said Mark Couch, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Most of the state's clean-car tax credits go to owners of hybrid vehicles, whose break ranges from 50 percent to 75 percent of the difference in cost between their cars and comparable gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles, he added.

So, the tax credit for a Toyota Prius is a comparatively paltry $3,110, while the tax break for a Honda Civic Hybrid is $2,640.

"But," snarky auto-blogger Korzeniewski wrote, "we urge you to buy the Tesla instead, because you could then get a loaded Ford Mustang GT with all the money you save just for ironies (sic) sake."