The act identifies a new at-risk measure to identify students who are at risk of below-average academic outcomes because of socioeconomic disadvantage or poverty in order to allocate resources through the state's public school funding formula to serve those students. The new at-risk measure includes: The percentage of students certified as eligible for the school lunch program based on documentation of benefit receipt or categorical eligibility, supplemented by the expansion of direct certification to participants in the medical assistance program and the children's basic health plan; and A neighborhood socioeconomic-status index that weights student needs based on socioeconomic-status index neighborhood factors linked to each student's census block group. The commissioner of education (commissioner) shall convene a working group to prepare for the implementation of the new at-risk measure in the 2023-24 budget year. The act specifies the membership of the working group. The act includes issues that the working group may consider in constructing and implementing the new at-risk measure, including collecting necessary data, constructing a neighborhood socioeconomic-status index linked to students' addresses, and testing the at-risk measure with actual student data, if available. Not later than January 31, 2023, the commissioner shall report findings and recommendations for the construction and implementation of the new at-risk measure to the education committees of the general assembly and the joint budget committee. The act requires the department of education to apply to the United States department of agriculture to obtain authorization for direct certification of students participating in the medical assistance program and the children's basic health plan. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, to implement the act, the act appropriates $34,997 to the department of education from the general fund and provides an additional .01 FTE for administration related to public school finance; and appropriates $128,341 from the general fund to the department and provides 0.4 FTE for federal nutrition programs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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Under current law, attorneys are not subject to the reasonable fee guidelines when requesting medical records on behalf of a client. The bill includes attorneys among the individuals who can request medical records on behalf of a patient and subjects them to the same reasonable fee limitations for the costs associated with obtaining copies of medical records. The bill caps the amount that can be paid as a reasonable fee at the maximum limit allowed under the federal "Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act". (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act requires, in state fiscal year 2022-23 only, and within available appropriations, that the department of education (department) distribute supplemental payments to facility schools approved by the department as of October 1, 2022. The supplemental payments must be above and beyond the current daily per pupil revenue rate as established for the 2022-23 state fiscal year. The act appropriates $5,134,000 to the department from the state education fund for supplemental payments to facility schools. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law allows the clerk of the court to retain 5% of the drug offender surcharge and the rural alcohol and substance abuse surcharge for the administration of the disbursement of the surcharges. The retained 5% of both surcharges are kept on a balance sheet account and expenses are identified to offset this revenue. To simplify the process by which this 5% of surcharge revenue is retained, section 2 of the act requires that the revenue be deposited directly into the judicial stabilization cash fund instead. Under current law, the courts' collections investigator program is funded by the fines collection cash fund and the judicial collection enhancement fund. To eliminate the inefficiency of administering 2 cash funds, section 1 eliminates the fines collection cash fund and requires all fines previously required to be deposited in that fund to instead be deposited in the judicial collection enhancement cash fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
On July 1, 2022, the act transfers: $350,394,004 from the general fund to the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund; $350,394,004 from the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund to the revenue loss restoration cash fund; $4,639,443 from the general fund to the capital construction fund; $122,225,865 from the general fund to the information technology capital account of the capital construction fund; and $500,000 from the general fund exempt account of the general fund to the capital construction fund. The state treasurer and the state controller transferred $110,000,000 from the general fund to the controlled maintenance trust fund to be appropriated in the 2022-23 state fiscal year for controlled maintenance budget requests prioritized by the office of the state architect as level one and level two priority projects. The act eliminates the requirement that the transferred money be appropriated for the 2022-23 state fiscal year. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, only nursing facilities that are within a locality that has increased its local minimum wage are eligible to receive annual supplemental payments to increase the minimum wage for nursing facility employees up to the minimum wage set by the locality. The act changes the definition of "eligible nursing facility provider" and makes other conforming changes to allow any Colorado nursing facility that meets the defined criteria to be eligible to receive wage enhancement supplemental payments, as defined in the act, to increase the minimum wage for nursing facility employees to at least $15 per hour. The act appropriates $2,389,627 from federal funds in the general fund to the department of health care policy and financing for medical and long-term care services for medicaid eligible individuals. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The licensing services cash fund (fund) consists mainly of fees charged for the issuance of drivers' licenses, driving permits, and state identification cards. The department of revenue (department) uses the fund primarily to fund the issuance of those documents. The Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account (DRIVES account) of the highway users tax fund consists mainly of vehicle title and registration fees and specific ownership tax transaction fees. The department uses the DRIVES account for the development and operation of the department's driver and motor vehicles services software platform commonly known as Colorado DRIVES. Effective July 1, 2022, the act merges the fund into the DRIVES account, which involves: Repealing the fund and requiring all money in the fund to be credited to the DRIVES account; Requiring all fees that had been credited to the fund to instead be credited to the DRIVES account; and Requiring all functions that had been funded from the fund to instead be funded from the DRIVES account. The act also requires DRIVES account investment earnings to be credited to the account. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, the department of human services (state department) may charge an administrative fee to an agency that receives commodities through a food distribution program on a monthly basis. The act changes this to allow the state department to collect an administrative fee at least once every calendar year or when an agency's account balance reaches $100 or more. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
When the marijuana tax cash fund (fund) was initially created, money in the fund was only available to be appropriated for fiscal years following the fiscal year in which it was received by the state. In 2020, the general assembly repealed this restriction, but in 2021, the restriction was inadvertently reinstated by legislation that made an unrelated conforming amendment. The act corrects this error, which permits the general assembly to appropriate money from the fund for the same fiscal year in which it is received. The reserve requirement for the fund is established as 15% of the amount appropriated for a fiscal year, instead of 93% of the beginning balance in the fund. This reserve excludes any money from the fund that is designated to constitute part of the state emergency reserve. The act also delays a portion of a statutory transfer from the fund to the public school capital construction assistance fund (BEST fund). A transfer of $100 million on June 1, 2022, is reduced to $50 million, and the state treasurer is required to transfer $30 million and $20 million from the fund to the BEST fund in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 state fiscal years. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act authorizes digital license plates to be used in lieu of metal license plates if the registration number and expiration date are visible from 100 feet away in sunlight. The plates need not display more than one color. The department of revenue (department) may permit messaging and other digital functionality on digital plates. The department will consult with the state patrol to adopt rules governing the use, requirements, approval process, proposals, relocation, and reporting of the plates. The department will review the implementation of the plates one year after promulgating the rules and submit a report to the transportation legislation review committee. The act is scheduled to repeal on September 1, 2027, but before the repeal, it will undergo a sunset review, which may suggest changes or that the act be repeal or continued. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)