The act requires the department of education (department) to apply to the United States department of agriculture for a statewide community eligibility provision if the department determines participation in a statewide community eligibility provision will maximize federal funding. The act requires the department to annually establish options for, and communicate the options to, school food authorities to maximize federal funding. A school food authority that chooses an option other than those established by the department will not receive healthy school meals for all program (program) funding and must use other eligible funding sources to cover the costs of serving free meals to all students at the schools of the school food authority. The act delays the implementation of the local food purchasing grant, the wage increase or stipend program for school meals food preparation and service employees (wage increase or stipend program), and the local school food purchasing technical assistance and education grant program until the 2025-26 budget year. The act requires the department to create a policy for school food authorities to maximize the collection of household income application forms for the national school lunch program to increase federal funding for the program. School food authorities that choose to participate in the program shall apply the policy to maximize the collection of household income application forms. The act creates the healthy school meals for all program cash fund (cash fund). On July 1, 2024, the state treasurer shall transfer the balance of the healthy school meals for all program general fund exempt account to the cash fund. The act creates the healthy school meals for all program technical advisory group (advisory group). As soon as practicable, the department shall convene the advisory group. The advisory group shall collaborate with school districts, the office of state planning and budgeting, and a representative from the department of agriculture to: Identify ways to maximize federal reimbursements; Reduce costs of the program; Review cost-savings options, including minimizing food waste; Strengthen the long-term resiliency of the healthy school meals for all cash fund; Create model revenue scenarios; Provide options and recommendations to balance program revenues and expenditures; and Draft a report with legislative and administrative recommendations and submit it to the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate, or any successor committees; the joint budget committee; the state board of education; and the governor. On January 1, 2024, the local school food purchasing program (purchasing program) and the local school food purchasing technical assistance and education grant program (grant program) repealed. The act recreates the purchasing program and the grant program, and extends the programs through the 2024-25 budget year. The act eliminates the authorization for department expenditures in excess of the appropriated amount to participating school food authorities for the wage increase or stipend program. The act amends appropriations related to the program, the purchasing program, and the grant program in the general appropriations act for the 2024-25 state fiscal year. Senate Bill 23-221, enacted in 2023, appropriated money from the general fund for the program. The act amends this appropriation so that the money for the program is appropriated from the state education fund created in section 17(4) of article IX of the state constitution. APPROVED by Governor April 29, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 29, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act requires the state treasurer to transfer all unexpended and unencumbered money in the controlled maintenance trust fund on July 31, 2024, to the general fund. APPROVED by Governor April 29, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 29, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
When the funding source for an appropriation is a cash fund, the state agency receiving the appropriation annually calculates an amount equal to the recorded depreciation of capital assets acquired, repaired, improved, replaced, renovated, or constructed with the appropriated money. The state controller credits the recorded depreciation amount from the cash fund that was the source of the funding for the appropriation to a capital reserve account established by the agency in the cash fund. The act exempts the money in the wildlife cash fund from being credited to the capital reserve account. A state agency terminating a lease for private leased space must calculate the annual reduction in the cost of leased space and the general assembly must transfer to the capital construction fund an amount equal to the reduction in the cost of leased space from the fund that was the source of the funding for the lease. The act exempts the money in the wildlife cash fund from being transferred to compensate for the reduction in private leased space. On July 1, 2024, the act requires the state treasurer to transfer $1,198,224 from the capitol complex renovation fund to the wildlife cash fund and $273,204 from the capitol complex renovation fund to the division of parks and wildlife to be used by the division for the same purposes as other lottery proceeds distributions made pursuant to section 3 (1)(b)(II) of article XXVII of the state constitution. The act reduces the appropriation from the wildlife cash fund made in the annual general appropriation act for the 2024-25 state fiscal year to the department of natural resources for use by the division of parks and wildlife for the annual depreciation-lease equivalent payment by $199,068. APPROVED by Governor April 29, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 29, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the financial assistance program for students experiencing homelessness (program) in the department of higher education (department). Beginning in the 2024-25 academic year, the act requires all Colorado public institutions of higher education (institutions) to provide financial assistance to a Colorado resident student (qualifying student) who is between the ages of 17 and 26 and who has experienced homelessness in the state at any time during high school. The institutions shall provide financial assistance to cover the remaining balance of the qualifying student's total cost of attendance in excess of the amount of any private, state, or federal financial assistance the student receives. Subject to available appropriations, the act requires the Colorado commission on higher education to provide institutions money to cover 50% of the remaining balance of financial assistance for qualifying students. The institutions are required to designate an employee to serve as a liaison to qualifying and prospective qualifying students. The institutions shall notify qualifying students of their eligibility for remaining balance financial assistance. The act requires the department to add one employee as a navigator to provide guidance to prospective qualifying students when selecting institutions and completing applications for admission and financial aid. The act requires the department to enter into a data-sharing agreement with the department of education in order to identify prospective qualifying students. The act clarifies student eligibility to participate in the foster youth financial assistance program. The act appropriates $1,668,381 from the general fund to the department for aid for students who experienced homelessness during high school. The act appropriates $26,055 from the general fund to the department of education for the homeless student scholarship program. APPROVED by Governor April 29, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 29, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the transfer, on July 1, 2024, of: $160,844,354 from the general fund to the capital construction fund; $70,811,334 from the general fund to the information technology capital account of the capital construction fund; $500,000 from the general fund exempt account of the general fund to the capital construction fund; $84,875,462 from the controlled maintenance trust fund to the capital construction fund; and $1,000,000 from the marijuana tax cash fund to the information technology capital account of the capital construction fund. Notwithstanding any provision of law that requires such a transfer, the act also prohibits the state treasurer from transferring money from the legal services cash fund to the capital construction fund or to any other fund if the joint budget committee of the general assembly notifies the state treasurer before the scheduled transfer date not to make the transfer after the attorney general notifies and certifies in writing to the joint budget committee that the transfer: Is not compliant with federal and state laws governing the money to be transferred; Is legally preempted by state constitutional restrictions or a federal law governing the money to be transferred; or Unlawfully transfers money in a manner that may terminate the qualification as an enterprise of any enterprise lawfully enacted under the provision of the state constitution known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). APPROVED by Governor April 29, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 29, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Joint budget committee. Under current law, the department of transportation (department) administers business and tourist-oriented directional sign programs (sign programs). As part of the sign programs, the department may: Erect, administer, and maintain signs within highway rights-of-way and issue permits for business signs to be installed on those signs; and Issue permits and adopt rules for the erection, administration, and maintenance of tourist-oriented directional signs. The bill creates the Colorado roadside improvement and outdoor recreational industry promotional enterprise (enterprise) and allows the department to contract with the enterprise to implement all or part of the sign programs. In addition to implementing the sign programs, the enterprise assists in maintaining rest areas and administers the outdoor recreational industry promotional grant program. To finance these purposes, the enterprise may impose a fee on persons who participate in the sign programs. The fee must be collected at rates that are reasonably calculated based on the fair market value of the costs of implementing, modernizing, improving, and maintaining the sign programs and inflation. In maintaining rest areas, the enterprise may work with the department, other state agencies, local governments, or private entities as necessary to assist in modernizing rest areas and in the maintenance of roadside in Colorado and reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness within state public rights-of-way. In administering the outdoor recreational industry promotional grant program, the enterprise shall collaborate with the Colorado outdoor recreation industry office to administer the grant program and award grants for promoting the outdoor recreational industry. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The department of revenue (department) owns, maintains, and provides to vendors a GIS database that enables vendors to determine the jurisdictions to which sales or use tax is owed and to calculate appropriate sales and use tax rates for individual addresses. The act establishes that any vendor that properly uses and reasonably relies on the information in the GIS database to determine the tax rate and local taxing jurisdictions to which sales or use tax is owed is held harmless in an audit by a local taxing jurisdiction for an underpayment of or failure to remit a tax, charge, or fee if the underpayment or failure to pay results solely from an error or omission in the GIS database data. The act requires the department to update the GIS database within 30 days after receipt of updated or corrected information from a local taxing jurisdiction, provide a reasonably convenient method for a local taxing jurisdiction to report an error in the GIS database data, and ensure that the jurisdictional boundaries and tax rates data is at least 95% accurate. APPROVED by Governor April 19, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 19, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires local taxing jurisdictions, which are limited to jurisdictions for which the department of revenue does not collect, administer, and enforce a local lodging tax, to apply the same reporting requirements or standards to an accommodation's intermediary as to a marketplace facilitator that is obligated to collect and remit a local lodging tax. The act prohibits local taxing jurisdictions from requiring additional reporting information from an accommodation's intermediary. The act also prohibits a local taxing jurisdiction that has passed an applicable marketplace facilitator law from auditing a marketplace facilitator for sales facilitated by the marketplace at any time other than when the marketplace facilitator is filing tax returns with the local taxing jurisdiction. The act does not prohibit a local taxing jurisdiction from requesting information maintained by an accommodation's intermediary that is in connection with an audit related to a local lodging tax or from requesting and obtaining additional information or data from a marketplace facilitator or accommodation's intermediary to be provided on a voluntary basis or prohibit a home rule municipality, for purposes unrelated to the administration of local taxes, from passing an ordinance regulating a marketplace facilitator or an accommodation's intermediary, including an ordinance governing the issuance of information or data by a marketplace facilitator or accommodation's intermediary to the home rule city. APPROVED by Governor April 19, 2024 EFFECTIVE January 1, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act clarifies that the department of early childhood (department) may use the remaining money annually appropriated from the preschool programs cash fund (fund) to provide additional preschool services for children who are in low-income families or who meet at least one qualifying factor and to provide services for the furtherance of the universal preschool program. The act prohibits the general assembly from appropriating the full balance of the fund prior to the start of a state fiscal year. The unappropriated balance in the fund is the reserve. The department may submit a request for a supplemental appropriation from the reserve to the joint budget committee. APPROVED by Governor April 18, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 18, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)