April 6, 2026 · Appropriations · 17,251 words · 15 speakers · 604 segments
. Thank you. The House Appropriations Committee will come to order. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representatives Basenacker. Here. Bottoms. Here. Gilchrist. Here. Joseph. Excused, sorry. McCormick. Here. Soper. Here. Taggart. Here. Tatone. Here. Zocay. Here. Madam Vice Chair. Here. Mr. Chair.
Here. Thank you, committee. Welcome. We have a number of bills to get through today. As I mentioned during announcements, I am laying House Bill 1365 over until tomorrow. That bill will not be heard until tomorrow at 7 a.m. With that, we will start, and I will also pass the gavel over to Madam Vice Chair, and I believe Rep. Taggart will present this first bill. Representative Taggart, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1348?
Thank you, Madam Chair. This bill is about changes to broadband infrastructure, its cash fund. Over a period of time, we have put, by legislation, approximately $5.3 million into broadband infrastructure for our corrections department. At present, there have been seven correction institutions that have put this broadband in place, but they have during this course they have saved about 1.3 million dollars of what we allocated to them and they would like to finish broadband infrastructure in Trinidad Arkansas Valley and Arrowhead correctional facilities and I move should I do the move now not yet not yet okay
Committee members, any questions for bill sponsors? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone here or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1348? Seeing none the witness testimony phase is closed Bill sponsors do you have any amendments Any amendments from the committee Seeing none the amendment phase is closed Rep Taggart, would you like to move the bill?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 26-1348 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1348? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representatives Basenacker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph Excused McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes. Mr. Chair Brown. Yes.
That bill passes on a vote of 9 to 1 with Joseph excuse. All right, committee, moving on to 1349. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1349 makes some authorized as a swap of general funds and cash funds in order to allow for an increased federal match that we are currently missing out on because one fund cannot count as a match in two different capacities. It can't count as a maintenance of effort as well as a federal match. So we are just swapping fund sources for these two programs. And I am happy to take any questions.
Committee, are there any questions for our bill sponsors? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1349? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, committee amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to remove the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1349 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Seconded by myself.
Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph excused McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That passes 10 to 0 with one excused. on to 1350, representative Taggart,
would you like to describe the bill? Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill is about legacy food programs that existed before our present healthy school meals for all. And this bill now funds these programs as opposed to where they were being funded by the general fund. They're now funded by the healthy school meals for all. But the bill also identifies if for any reason there aren't enough funds in HSMA that the general fund may come back into play if necessary.
Thank you, Rep. Zaggart. Are there any questions from the committee? seeing none is there anyone online or in the room which is a testify on 1350 seeing none the witness phase is closed Amendments Sponsors do we have any amendments
No.
Committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Rep Taggart, would you like to remove the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 26-1350 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Rep Zocchi. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representatives Basenacker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph excused McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes 10 to 0 with one excused. On to 1351. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill provides for a transfer from Healthy School Meals for All from that program fund to the state education fund over the last two fiscal years. $31 million was, you could say, borrowed from the state education fund to ensure this Healthy School Meals for All program was able to pay for the meals that it was providing. Those funds ultimately weren't needed, and there was enough in the HSMA program fund to support the program, but the dollars coming in were unknown at the time, and so this was a backstop. But now this bill is actually transferring money back from the program into the state ed fund to pay back what it had borrowed. And the bill also pauses for two years an annual statutory transfer that would have been coming from the state ed fund based on additional income tax revenue attributable to Proposition MM that was supposed to be transferred from the state education fund into the Healthy School Meals for All program. We are pausing that for two years in order to try and both stabilize the state ed fund and also assess the needs of the program. And we can revisit that transfer in two years.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Any questions? Seeing none, I believe we have a couple of people signed up to testify, or at least one. Would those folks who are interested in testifying on 1351 please come forward or we can pull them up online. Oh, sorry, they're not online. Okay. All right. Well, seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Are there any amendments?
No amendments.
Any from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1351 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Oh, I'm sorry. I will note that Rep. Joseph is here.
Representative Basinecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph McCormick Soper Taggart Tatone Zocay Madam Vice Chair Mr Chair Yes That bill passes 9 On to 1352 Madam Vice Thank you Mr Chair
I would like to. Representative Taggart, please tell the committee about House Bill 1352.
Thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 26-1352 is a very straightforward and simple bill that takes an evaluation that has been done by a third party over on an annual basis and moves it to every other year.
Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1352? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Bill sponsors, do you have any amendments for us today?
We do not.
Committee members, any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Representative Teckert.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 26-1352 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1352? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representatives Basenacker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That passes 11 to 0. All right. Chair Brown, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1353? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 1353 eliminates the requirement for the Department of Education to administer a state assessment in social studies to elementary school students and specifies that the department is only required to administer a state assessment in social studies to students enrolled in seventh grade in a public school. It's fairly simple. It will save about $302,000 in cash funds from the state education fund. I will note that my sixth grade daughter is quite peeved about this bill. All right. Are there any questions for our bill sponsors? Seeing no questions, move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1353? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Bill sponsors, do you have any amendments?
We do not.
Committee members, any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1353 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. any final discussion on House Bill 1353? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please poll the committee.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes on a vote of 10 to 1. All right, committee, on to 1354. Madam Vice Chair, or yeah, Madam Vice Chair, why don't you go ahead. Okay, House Bill 1354.
repeals the science teacher professional development program as of July 2027. It is reducing the appropriation by $1.5 million from the cash fund, which is the state education fund. but the department has shared that resulting program modules that have been created will remain available even if the balance of the appropriation is eliminated. Committee members, any questions?
All right, seeing none, is there anyone online or in person who wishes to testify on House Bill 1354? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? No amendments. Committee. No amendments. Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. All right, Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1354 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Totone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That passes unanimously. Moving on to 1355, Rep. Taggart, would you like to describe the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 26-1355 reduces an appropriation for out-of-school time grant program. I would like to say as a part of this, because I think everybody needs to hear this from those of us that had to craft these within the JBC, This was one of my bills, and every single one of us had to cut programs that meant a great deal to us personally and professionally, and this was one that I needed to do. This program does come to a conclusion at the close of this year. It had approximately $3 million left in the grant fund, and we cut $1.5 million of that.
Thank you, Rep. Taggart. Are there any questions for our bill sponsors? Seeing none, is there anyone online or in the room who wishes to testify on 1355? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Any amendments? Rep. Taggart, Rep. Serrata.
No amendments.
Committee, seeing none, the amendment page is closed. Rep. Taggart.
Mr. Chair, before I move that, I gave out an incorrect number. It's not 1.5 million, it's 1.75 million.
Thank you for your clarification.
I move House Bill 26-1355 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Speisenacker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes Gilchrist Yes Joseph Yes McCormick Yes Soper Yes Taggart Yes Titone Yes Zocay Yes Madam Vice Chair Yes Mr Chair Yes That passes unanimously
All right. Chair Brown, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1356? I would be delighted. House Bill 1356 repeals a local accountability system, including the local accountability grant program on July 1st, 2026. the local accountability system currently supplements the state accountability system the bill will eliminate the program while the bill has no fiscal impact the program funding will be eliminated in the long bill any questions for the bill sponsors seeing none we'll move on to witness testimony is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1356? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. The bill sponsors any amendments? All right. Committee members, any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1356 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Any final discussion on House Bill 1356? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That passes on a vote of 10 to 1. um representative taggart would you like to tell the committee about house bill 1358
thank you madam chair house bill 26 1358 is another program having to do with um out of school programming. We, in earlier years, in 23-24, put in place $24.5 million to be spread over a three-year period of this grant program. We are, in fact, cutting $5.2 million of that program for its last year, yielding $3.2 million for grant funding for these out-of-school programs.
Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1358? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? None. Any amendments from the committee. Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Representative Tackert. Thank you,
Madam Chair. I move House Bill 26-1358 with a favorable recommendation to the committee of the
whole. Second. Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1358? Seeing none,
Ms. Pope, please poll the committee. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Yes Yes Soper Yes Taggart Yes Tatone Yes Zocay Yes Madam Vice Chair Yes Mr Chair Yes.
That passes unanimously. All right. Thank you, committee. Moving on to 1366. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe the bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a bill to enhance state-directed payments for physician services. at Denver Health, and we are simply allowing revenue from Denver Health to draw down an additional set of federal funds at no additional cost to the state.
Committee, questions? All right, seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1366? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments?
No.
No amendments, committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1366 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes on a vote of 10 to 1. All right. Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1367? You bet. House Bill 1367 allows the state to retain federal matching funds in excess of 50% for services provided during the COVID-19 pandemic when the federal government provided an enhanced match. As background, the department can certify public expenditures by local governments that serve Medicaid clients as the state match for federal funds. The reconciliation process continues to this day, and this bill allows us to continue to use these certified public expenditures to reconcile payments eligible for enhanced match. Are there any questions from the committee? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1367? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors?
No.
Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1367 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Seconded by Rep Taggart. Is there any final discussion on House Bill 1367? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please poll the committee.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That passes unanimously.
All right 1368 Representative Taggart Go ahead Thank you Thank you Mr Chair This bill has to do with limited gaming fund transfer In the past several years, we have transferred $2.1 million from the gaming revenue to the Colorado Higher Education Competitive Research Authority, CHECRA. This bill eliminates that and those dollars for the next two years will be instead transferred to the general fund for budget balancing purposes.
Thank you, Rob Taggart. Any questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1368? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Any amendments, sponsors? committee any amendments seeing none the amendment phase is closed
uh rep taggart thank you mr chair i move house bill 26-1368 to the committee of the whole with
a favorable recommendation second seconded by madam vice chair uh committee uh sorry miss pope
please call the roll representatives basen ecker yes bottoms yes gilchrist yes joseph Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair.
Yes. Mr. Chair.
Yes. That bill passes unanimously. All right.
Chair Brown, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1369?
Thank you very much. House Bill 1369 repeals a particular section that requires the Department of Higher Education to contract for an online platform to assist post-secondary students in accessing public benefits. This platform was created in Senate Bill 22-182, and the bill required the department to contract for and support the use of an online platform. The department was provided an annual appropriation of $45,000 to maintain the statewide license from single stop. The department was also provided with some additional general fund previously. So the bill eliminates the need for $45,000 in general fund for this item in the 26-27 budget. Are there any questions from the committee? Seeing no questions, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1369? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Bill Sponsors, any amendments?
Nope.
Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Chair Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1369 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Rep Taggart. Any final discussion on House Bill 1369? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull a committee.
Representative Spacenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
Yes.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Chair Sirota.
Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown.
Yes. That passes on a vote of 10 to 1. Thank you very much. Madam Chair, why don't you go ahead and and describe 1370, if you will.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1370 reduces by a million dollars a required transfer of $15 million from the Limited Gaming Fund to the Colorado Travel and Tourism Promotion Fund at the end of every fiscal year. But the bill does send that million dollars from the Limited Gaming Fund to the Museum and Preservation Operations Account within the State Historical Fund for History Colorado as they have seen their revenues from Limited Gaming suppressed over the years, and this will help History Colorado perform their statutory obligations. Questions, committee? Seeing none, is there anyone online or in the room who wishes to testify? Oh, I'm sorry, Rep Soper. Go ahead.
Question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, I did have a question. What are, I guess, the obligations that History of Colorado is going to fulfill with this additional million dollars?
Rep. Serota? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Soper, I can get you the specifics, but in terms of being able to overall maintain their operations, they have been challenged. and they are responsible for storing all of the state's historical records and the like. And so I think this is to help perform their broad functions, not an expansion of any scope. Additional questions, committee? All right, seeing none, are there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1370? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments?
No.
Committee, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1370 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Rep. Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Yes.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick yes Soper no Taggart yes to tone yes Zocchi
madam vice-chair yes mr. chair yes that bill passes on about a 10 to 1 right representative Taggart would you like to tell the committee about House
bill 1371. Thank you, Madam Chair. House bill 1371 adds repeal dates for certain higher education programs that we have been paying a fee for service. I should point out this does not take place until June 30th, 2028, so the next two years will remain the same. And you can see the three programs listed in your documents, the improved health care access for older Coloradans, the career technical education apprenticeship alignment project, and the creation of career paths for student programs.
Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1371? Seeing no one the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors No Any amendments from the committee Seeing none the amendment phase is closed Representative Taggart Thank you madam chair I move House Bill 1371 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation Second. Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1371? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Basinecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Titone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes. Mr. Chair Brown. Yes. That passes on a vote of 10 to 1.
Chair Brown, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1372? You bet. House Bill 1372 extends the repeal date by one year of a particular section which regards the use of service-level agreements between the Auraria Higher Education Center and the institutions served by it. this section was added in Senate bill 25, three 16 and it established a use of service level agreements. It requires a study to evaluate the, the statutory design mission and governance. And it provided a direct general fund appropriation to a heck through balancing offsets. There you go. Any questions from the committee? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1372? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1372 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Any final discussion on House Bill 1372? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Basenecker. Yes.
Bottoms. No.
Gilchrist. Yes.
Joseph. Yes.
McCormick. Yes.
Soper. No.
Taggart. Yes.
Tatone. Yes.
Zocay. Yes.
Madam Chair Sirota. Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown. Yes.
That passes on a vote of 9 to 2. All right, moving on to 1374. Representative Taggart, go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1374 eliminates state funding and reimbursements for non-certified kinship care homes. homes. These are homes where a child is placed with a family or family-like relationships. It's important to point out there is also a certified program and gaining certification for kinship is relatively or is very straightforward and as these dollars were calculated they were calculated with the assumption that a good number of these non-certified kinship homes would in fact move over to being certified um thus it is a 5.5 million dollar general fund reduction
all right thank you very much rep taggart questions from the committee Representative Gilchrist Thank you Mr Chair This is a brutal vote but a necessary one
given our constraints on our budget. I just appreciate the committee, JVC, working so hard to find places where we can cut. I think my hope and commitment is that we work hard to make sure, and I know that this is the intention of so many members that we make sure our kinship families are supported as we've shifted the whole system to focus on placing our most vulnerable youth with kin, that they have the right support going forward. So it'll be a yes today, but a very, very hard vote and appreciate the work.
Thank you, Rip Gilchrist. Appreciate that. Any further questions from the committee? Seeing none, is there anyone online or in person who wishes to testify on 1374? It looks like I'll call up Jody Britton, Melanie Jordan, and Ashley Chase. Ashley Chase should be remote, and Jody and Melanie, Ms. Britton and Ms. Jordan should be in person. Oh, we have Melanie. All right, why don't you go ahead, Ms. Jordan, please introduce yourself, and you have two minutes to testify.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the Appropriations Committee. My name is Melanie Jordan. I'm testifying in an amend position on behalf of the Office of Respondent Parents Council. Absolutely acknowledge that there are many tough choices that this committee has to make, and understand that this is the policy choice that has to be made. We're just asking for some amendments to make sure that the process that these families go through is fair, and that they're able to continue to receive the support. So specifically would ask for amendments to address the notice that the families must receive and that that notice must include information about how they can become certified. Also would ask for amendments to specifically address the data piece. Currently the bill strikes non-certified in the reporting requirements for CDHS. There will still be non-certified families. They just will not be receiving the monthly payments, and we think it's important that CDHS continue to report on an annual basis about non-certified kinship families and about the reasons that they may not become certified so that if there ever is funding in the future, we're potentially able to right-size this policy and make sure that non-certified families are receiving support. There are some families, because of their backgrounds, that will not be eligible for federal certification, and so we need to know how many families those are in case we might be able to help them in the future. And then also just want to make sure that there's no prohibition against counties providing support to non-certified kinship. The way the bill is drafted right now, it could be read in that way, and we want to make sure that it's clear that even though there isn't a requirement for monthly non-certified kinship placements going forward, that there is still the ability for counties to provide one-time and emergency support for non-certified kin. Happy to answer any questions on our position and appreciate this potential of amendments being brought forward on seconds and the attention of this committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jordan. We appreciate your testimony. let's move on to online we have Ms. Chase. Ms. Chase you have two minutes to testify.
Thank you Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Ashley Chase and I'm a staff attorney and legislative liaison at the office of the child's representative. We're the state agency that provides attorneys for children and youth in a variety of case types including dependency and neglect I will just say ditto to everything that Melanie Jordan just testified to Those are the same concerns we have We understand the budget and the difficult decisions that have to be made We just want to mitigate the impact to these amazing kinship families that are stepping up to care for children and youth that find themselves in the child welfare system The only thing I will add to what Ms. Jordan stated, and I know it's the same for her, is that we are willing to provide as much legwork as needed to amend this bill in a palatable way. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Chase. We appreciate your testimony. Is there anyone else online or in the room who wishes to testify? Seeing none, committee, do we have any questions for these witnesses? Seeing none, we thank you for your testimony. With that, the testimony phase, the witness phase is closed.
Bill sponsors, do we have any amendments? Not yet.
Okay, not yet, all right. Maybe in the future. Committee members, amendments, no. Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to wrap up or move the bill and or move the bill?
Or sorry, Rep Taggart. That's okay, I've been called worse.
I forgot who talked first.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1374 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Basenacker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zocay.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes.
That bill passes 10 to two. Moving on to, sorry, 9 to 2. Boy, again, Rep Taggart is going to get me for my math again. 1375, let's see, Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe 1375?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill repeals the County Administration of Assistance Programs funding model and is reducing the appropriation that went along with that. we have this statutorily required funding model that requires a third party to develop an annually update for consideration by the Joint Budget Committee. However, it has not been a useful endeavor. I think both the counties feel that it is a point in time assessment, not quite representative of their workload, but also that we have never actually been able to utilize it or implement it, and it is not a good use of money, in particular due to the changes that are being contemplated this session to this county admin funding model. This particular study and model is no longer necessary.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1375? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Amendments, sponsors?
No amendments.
Committee? No amendments. Seeing no amendments, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1375 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Titone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes 10 to 1.
All right. Moving on to 1377. Representative Taggart, would you like to describe this one? Sorry, did I do 1360? Oh, shoot, I'm sorry. Madam Vice Chair, 1360, 1370, bleh, okay, let's start over again. 1376, Madam Vice Chair, would you like to describe 1376?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill is simply updating permissible uses of money for the excess federal Title IV-E reimbursement cash fund. And we are essentially ensuring that the cash fund uses are in alignment with federal requirements, but it will have, and it also carries an appropriation of $2.9 million from the cash fund for permanency services. Questions from the committee?
Seeing none, is there anyone online or in the room who wishes to testify on 1376? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed.
Sponsors, do we have any amendments? No.
Committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I slightly misstated the long bill carries that appropriation, and this bill just ensures that that appropriation is appropriate. I move House Bill 1376 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Representative Zokai, I guess. Sorry, Rep Taggart.
She beat you.
Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Bill Christ.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
Yes.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zocay.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Yes.
That bill passes 10 to 1. All right, moving on to 1377. Now, Rev Taggart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. where 1377 highlights an unusual situation that takes place within our budget. Federal funds are excluded from our TABOR calculation and have been since the TABOR amendment. In this particular case, those federal funds go through ICFOT, our Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing, to our managed care entities, which some of you folks may better know the term as RAISE, the Regional Accountable Entity. They flow through HICFA to the RAISE and then come back into human services. They are federal funds all the way along. This bill just calls out this very narrow exception to say these are federal funds that end up coming into the human services for the purposes of our mental health hospitals and our mental health transitional living homes And we want to continue to have those excluded from the TABOR calculation because they begin as federal funds.
Thank you, Rep Taggart. Questions from the committee? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1377? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Bill sponsors, do we have any amendments? Committee, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Rep Taggart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1377 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representatives Basenacker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Wilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes.
Mr. Chair.
Yes. That passes 9 to 2. All right. Moving on to 1378, Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill repeals some behavioral health resources that are administered by the BHA and reduces the appropriations for those programs. That would include the Building Substance Use Disorder Treatment Capacity Grant Program, the Recovery Support Grant Program, Safety Net Support Contracts, a behavioral health voucher program, and also addresses the high-risk families cash fund, which is a cash fund that was without a revenue source, and so we are ending that cash fund.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Questions from the committee? Seeing none, is there anyone online or in the room who wishes to testify on 1378? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, any amendments? Committee, any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Sorry, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1378 to the Committee of the Whole
with a favorable recommendation. Second.
Seconded by Representative Taggart.
Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spacenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. No. Taggart. Yes. Totone. Yes. Sochi. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes 9 to 2. All right. All right. Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1379?
Sure. This is the most consequential bill that we will do all day. This fixes an incorrect citation in the judicial stabilization fund and statute. It has no fiscal impact, but our crack team of JBC staff caught this, and so we are fixing it. It's just a citation error. Committee members any questions on this complex bill seeing none we move on to witness testimony is there anyone in the room or online Oh Rep Sober has a call Oh Representative Sober I sorry Thank you
I do have a question on this. I was just curious, why was it decided not to put this, like, in the revisor's bill, but to do a standalone bill? Chair Brown?
Yeah, that's a good question, Rep. Sober. I think it easily could have gone in the revisor's bill, but I don't know that the revisor caught it, and the JBC staff did, so that's why we ran a separate bill, because we thought we didn't run enough bills as a JBC, and so we thought, hey, why not run one more? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, thank you. That's the reason, as far as I know.
Thank you.
All right. Witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1379? Seeing none, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1379 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Wow, that was a chorus. I will give it to Representative Taggart.
Second.
Is there any final discussion on House Bill 1379? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Yes.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
Yes.
Taggart.
Yes.
Totone.
Yes.
Zocay.
Yes.
Madam Chair Sirota.
Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown.
Yes. That passes you new. Representative Taggart, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1380?
Thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 1380 is a bill that's probably overdue. We have waited patiently in the JBC for three years for the selection board, which comes from us as legislators, to create this ombudsman program for judicial discipline. and it has never taken place. So at this point, we have decided to repeal it and stop the program because it never got started.
All right. Any questions from the committee? Seeing none. Oh, I'm so sorry I keep missing. Just wave your hand so that my peripheral vision or the chair's peripheral vision will catch you, Representative Soper.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question for Representative Tigger, why did the program never take off? I mean, if they had three years to be able to do this, and this was all part of the major judicial reform package. I mean, I remember when the Chief Justice talked about this in the State of the Judiciary Address. This was probably four years ago, and this was considered like some major change to be able to help out with whistleblowers within judiciary. So what happened over the last three years?
Representative Taggart?
Thank you, Representative Soper. All I can assume is that the legislative group that was assigned this task have been too busy to do it. And they have been too busy to do it for over three years And at a certain point you have to say enough is enough Chair Brown Yeah thank you I just add that I think that we all support the admission of this particular entity
I know that there have been some conversations with the department about whether or not this was the appropriate venue. We're not really taking issue with that. I think the issue is this continues to be ongoing cost that has built into the general fund. And so I think this bill hopefully gives us an opportunity to revisit what the policy is and whether or not we can make that a different structure work in the future. And I think I will just add, I have heard from one of the original bill sponsors and they have shared that some work or at least conversations have been had. So perhaps committee members will engage with the sponsor and sort of hear what they have been working on, what their hopes are as we proceed. All right. Oh, Senator Representative Soper.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for those three responses. I appreciate that. I guess just another question to this. And I'm okay eliminating this. I mean, it just seemed like it was such a big deal four years ago to create this office, and then the next year was the legislation. It just seems odd that we went three years and nothing happened. But if nothing has happened, I mean, do we have an ongoing appropriation that judiciary has been spending money on to not do anything? Chair Brown?
Rep Tiger?
Thank you. Representative Soper, the bill was done such that the committee could spend upwards of $400,000 a year, but those expenditures have not taken place. We have not appropriated funding in any year for this because there's no one there to receive the appropriation because the initial team set to hire any staff for the ombudsman has yet to have met or engaged in any selection process. So there's never been an appropriation that we've, well, there was in the first year with the first bill, but we clotted back. Well, thank you.
All right. Did I ask for what you said? All right. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1380? Seeing none, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Representative Taggart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 26-1380 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Any final discussion? Oh, yes. Seconded by Representative or Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1380? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zocay.
Yes.
Madam Chair Sirota.
Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown.
Yes. Aye. That passes on a vote of 9 to 2. All right, moving on to 1381. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1381 eliminates a requirement that the Judicial Discipline Special Cash Fund begin each fiscal year with a balance of at least $400,000, and it transfers that $400,000 from that cash fund starting on June 6th of 2026. so at the end of this fiscal year. So after that transfer, the fund should have more than $62,000, which they have shared is adequate to begin an investigation if they need to, and if they do, then they are able to then ask for funding via an emergency interim supplemental or during the regular budget cycle, depending on when such time would occur. And we can address the funding there. We don't need to leave the balance just sitting in a cash fund unused. Thank you.
Questions from the committee? Oh, I'm sorry, Rep Soper.
Thanks, Andy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kind of tying to the last bill, I mean, there's no discipline on ombudsman, and judiciary is not necessarily, I get the impression, actively investigating judges. I mean, do we really need to keep anything in there? Because they could actually start an investigation just by asking for emergency funds.
Madame Boucher?
I think the $62,000 is minimal enough to be able to cover if the commission were to initiate an investigation. I think from my perspective, you would be hard pressed to initiate an investigation with no funding. And so having a little bit of money in the fund will help to make sure that they can initiate an investigation without waiting on a 1331 request from the JVC.
Additional questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1381? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Amendments, sponsors?
I don't have any amendments.
Do you have any amendments? No, I'm just kidding. Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1381 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
Yes.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes.
Mr. Chair.
Yes. that bill passes 10 to 1. 10 to 1. No I thought I heard Okay 10 to one That bill passes 10 to one 1383, Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill repeals the Employment Support and Job Retention Services Program and its supporting cash fund and it decreases fiscal year 27 appropriations to the Department of Labor and Employment by $500,000 total funds, including $250,000 general fund.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Committee members, questions? All right, seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1383? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Amendments. Bill sponsors, committee members, seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1383 to the Committee of the Whole.
Seconded by Representative Titone. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Yes.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick. yes soper yes taggart yes to tone yes zokai yes adam vice chair yes mr. chair yes
unanimous passes unanimously let's move on to 1384 mr. chair would you like sure or no go ahead Rep. Taggart, would you like to tell the committee about the bill?
Thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 1384 just specifies that revenue transferred from the state public school fund to the school work program, which is a voluntary program between districts and CDLE, the Department of Labor and Employment, is exempt from TABU.
Any questions from the committee? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1384? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Representative Taggart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1384 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Titone. Any final discussion on House Bill 1384? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Basenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Titone.
Yes.
Zokai. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes. Mr. Chair Brown. Yes. That passes on a vote of 9-2.
Okay. 1385. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1385, just for one year only,
specifies that 100 of the money appropriated for the public defender portion received this appropriation instead of splitting it between OSPD and the DAs Over the years, the CDAC has been awarded $750,000 over the last three fiscal years, but $200,000 still remains for future expenditure. So they said for this year only, they can manage not receiving this coming year's appropriation and just spend what they have already in that fund.
All right, questions. Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1385? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? Committee, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1385 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Rep. Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Totone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Yes. That passes 9 to 2. All right. Move. Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1386? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Under current law, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs administers a tuition waiver program for members of the Colorado National Guard to attend Colorado institutions of higher education. DMVA pays the full tuition for eligible students. The fund receives an annual appropriation from the General Assembly, and this bill reduces the DMVA reimbursement to IHEs with the understanding that IHEs will waive the remainder of the eligible students' tuition. This was a bill, there was a bill last session that the JVC worked on, and there was some confusion amongst, between the department as well as the institutions of higher education, and we believe this bill finally resolves those issues.
Representative Taggart. Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could just add to this as well, this program that we approved last year has been a significant request. And for the first time in several years, the amount of individuals that have signed up for our National Guard have, in fact, increased. And unfortunately, we had to turn away several people from the program this past year. and now having a joint 50-50 split between the Department of Higher Education and our Veterans Affairs Department will allow several more, many more National Guard members to attend our institutions of higher education.
All right. Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing no questions, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1386? Seeing no one the witness testimony phase is closed Any amendments from the bill sponsors Any amendments from the committee members Seeing none the amendment phase is closed Representative Taggart or Mr Chair
I move House Bill 1386 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation. Second.
Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1386? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Basinecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zocay.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes.
Mr. Chair.
Yes. That bill passes on a vote of 92. All right. Moving on to 1388. Let's see.
Rep Taggart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1388 transfers unexpended and unencumbered balance of the bond assistance program cash fund to the general fund, and it repeals the program effectively December 1st of next year.
All right. Questions from the committee? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1388? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Any amendments from our bill sponsors or the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Rep Taggart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1388 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representatives Basenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Patone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes unanimously.
All right, 1390, Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill removes the requirement for a third-party evaluation of the health disparities and community grant program, but instead there still will be an evaluation of the program's effectiveness for every grant cycle, but CDPHE will do it in-house and post that report publicly. this will reduce program costs by about $500,000, which will help absorb some of the reduction that is taking place in the long bill. The program is also receiving a reduction in the long bill, and this will ensure that more of the remaining funds are actually able to go out in community grants.
All right. Questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1390? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Are there any amendments from the sponsors or from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1390 to the Committee of the Whole.
Seconded. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Thank you. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representatives Basenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes unanimously. Moving on to 1391.
um and by share you want to go again chair um this bill uh extends the cash fund uh through and program through fiscal year 29 allowing the work to be completed on high schools and remaining child care facilities. There is a sweep of, I believe, $3 million from this cash fund that is reflected in a separate transfer bill, and the long bill also reflects a reduction of approximately $1 million and 7 FTE in general fund.
Okay, questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1391? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Bill sponsors, do we have any amendments or any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1390 to the committee of the whole with a favorable, no, 1391 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart.
Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Totone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes. 10 to 1. All right.
Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1393?
Sure. 1393 is in regards to maximum reserve requirements for certain cash funds. Specifically, it adjusts the public school construction and inspection cash fund and the health facility construction and inspection cash fund in the Department of Safety. And it allows these funds to hold a balance beyond the maximum reserve limitation for three years before decreasing fees. And we had a long discussion of the JBC about this particular bill, and this will help to make sure that the fees that come in when certain projects are being permitted are then also used for those same projects later so that we don't end up reducing fees and having some projects pay for other projects. Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1393? Seeing no on the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? No. Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1393 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation Second Seconded by Representative Taggart Any final discussion on House Bill 1393 Seeing none Ms Pope please pull the committee
Representatives Basinecker.
Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Detone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes. Mr. Chair Brown. Yes.
That passes unanimously. Representative Taggart, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1394?
House Bill 1394. Thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 1394 is in regards to the annual appropriation for the motorcycle operator fund. This fund has been continuously appropriated, And over these last two to three years, we have been modifying this to get, again, more control of our budget. So this bill just strictly takes it from being continuously appropriated to annually appropriated each year.
Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room who wishes to testify on, or online, who wishes to testify on House Bill 1394? Seeing no on the witness, testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? No. Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Representative Taggart.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1394 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1394? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper.
We lost. Here he comes.
Representative Soper. No. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown. Yes. That passes 10 to 1. All right, committee, on to 1395. Representative, or, yeah, Representative Taggart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1395 repeals the Wildfire Resilient Homes Grant Program. As you can see, this is a 53,000, 53.8,000 allocation. That just can't go very far from a wildfire resiliency standpoint, so we are repealing it.
All right, questions. Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1395? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? Committee, seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Rep Taggart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1395 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second. Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Representative Basenecker.
Yes Bottoms Yes Gilchrist Yes Joseph Yes McCormick Yes Soper Yes Taggart Yes Tatone Yes Zocay Yes Madam Vice Chair Yes Mr Chair Yes That bill passes unanimously Moving on to House Bill 1397 Rep Taggart why don you keep us rolling
Mr. Chair, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I don't have 1397 in front of me.
That's all right. Would you prefer 1397? Okay. I'm going to have Madam Vice Chair go. Okay.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill repeals statutorily required appropriations for fiscal year 27 and future years so that we are not required to make the future projected increases. I think this is an example of a bill that had a low cost when first passed, but that was projected to have a very high cost in out years, and so we are working to just maintain current appropriations for the bill.
Okay, questions for the committee. Seeing none, is there anyone online or in the room who wishes to testify on 1397? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? Or committee? Seeing no amendments, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1397 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Seconded by Representative Totone. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spacenecker? Yes. Bottoms? Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Totone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes unanimously.
All right, moving on to 1398. Madam Vice Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill reallocates revenue to the MMOF, which is the Multimodal Transportation and Mitigation Options Fund that they receive from the retail delivery fee. Right now, 85% of the fee goes to local transportation projects, 15% goes to state projects, And this will specify 75% go to local transportation projects and 30% go to state projects. It has a budget neutral fiscal impact. But I will also say that this bill is related to the next bill, 1399, because that bill is eliminating a $10 million general fund transfer into the MMOF. and because of that reduction in general fund, we are trying to ensure that there are still funds available within the MMOR for the state obligations, including programs that is running like the busting.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Questions from the committee? Seeing none we move on to witness testimony We have three people signed up in person We will call up Bev Stables Megan McElop and Richard Morrow Ms. Stables, go ahead and get us started. You have two minutes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, or morning still, for 10 minutes. members of the committee my name is Bev Stables I'm here on behalf of the Colorado Municipal League and our 271 member municipalities I am here today to urge you to oppose House Bill 1398 the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund for local governments is not a luxury it is a lifeline it supports practical community-based transportation projects that make every everyday life safer more accessible and more affordable for the people who need it most seniors who can no longer drive rely on safe sidewalks reliable transit and accessible crossings to remain independent. People with disabilities depend on thoughtful infrastructure to fully participate in their communities, getting to work, school, medical appointments, and social activities with dignity. Reducing the local government share of this funding would directly limit those benefits for our communities. These investments also strengthen our local economies. When people can move safely and efficiently, whether by transit, walking, biking, or other forms, they can access jobs, support local businesses, and stay connected. Multimodal projects are often cost-effective solutions that reduce congestion, improve safety, and deliver long-term value to communities both large and small. And importantly, this fund plays a role in reducing emissions. Expanding transportation choices means fewer single-occupancy vehicle trips and cleaner air. Scaling back these efforts moves us in the wrong direction. As municipalities continue to plan for housing projects and develop infrastructure to accommodate growth, investments in multimodal transportation projects are essential. They help to ensure that we have vibrant communities. Because local governments conduct the on-the-ground planning for development, it makes sense that local governments receive the majority of multimodal funding. And since we are seeing deep cuts across so many priorities, a permanent reduction in the MMOF funding formula for local governments only makes it harder for us to develop the kinds of neighborhoods where we all want to work and live.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Ms. Stables. Let's move on to Ms. Malikoff.
You're up next. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning. My name is Megan McKillop, and I represent Colorado Counties, Inc., the association representing all 64 counties in Colorado. CCI is respectfully asking this body for a no vote on House Bill 1398. The bill shifts the allocation of MMOF retail delivery fee revenue beginning of July of this year. Under current law, 85% of those funds are supposed to go to local multimodal projects. This bill reduces that to 70%, a 15% reduction to the local share. Here's why that matters. Senate Bill 260 expanded the MMOF program and generated annual state revenues dedicated to multimodal transportation projects. These funds made multimodal accessibility and safety improvements possible for the first time in decades for many of Colorado's communities. Local governments supported Senate Bill 260 because of that promise. The retail delivery fee was structured with an 85% local allocation specifically because local transportation needs are substantial and local budgets are limited. Counties accepted that deal in good faith. This bill walks it back. And this is not happening in isolation. As I will note in my testimony on the next bill on the agenda, Senate Bill 25264 already transferred $71.4 million from the MMOF to the general fund, impacting local agencies' transit project planning and timelines. Previous MMOF allocations were already reduced significantly last year, potential affecting many existing MMOF-funded projects. Reducing the local share from 85% to 70% is another set in that same direction. The cumulative effect is real. Counties plan projects over multiple years. When funding shifts, projects stall. Communities wait longer for safer roads, better transit, impoverished pedestrian infrastructure, and importantly, lose dependency on federal funding. Please vote no.
Thank you very much. Let's move on to Mr. Morrow.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Rich Morrow. I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs at the Denver Regional Council of Governments. And we are the Metropolitan Planning Organization, federally designated for transportation planning and working with our local government members, as you might guess, overlap with CMLs and CCIs memberships. If I remember my numbers right, I think we have nine counties in the metro area and 49 municipalities. We also, our board has a position of oppose on these bills for basically the reasons that you've just heard. And I think you all maybe should have received, or at least the sponsors did a letter from our organizations opposing the bill. So the last thing I think I would say is if you absolutely have to do this, even though we would ask you not to approve these two bills, we don't see any reason why they can't be done or amended to apply for just one year, this budget year. These bills are written to permanently eliminate the existing statute, to permanently eliminate that $10.5 million transportation. and that's in, I think, 1399 and 1398 makes the percentage distribution change both permanently. So at a minimum, we would ask if you would consider just making those effective for this budget year. And if we have to come back next year and have this conversation again, so be it. Despite the projections that are out there, it's still a year away. So thank you.
Thank you. Do we have any questions for this panel? All right, seeing none, we appreciate your testimony. Thank you all for being here. Is there anyone else in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1398? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair, do we have any amendments? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1398 to the Committee of the Whole.
Second. Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. No. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes.
That bill passes on a vote of 10 to 1. All right, moving on to, oh, sorry. Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1399? Yes. Bill 1399 eliminates the annual transfer of general fund from the general fund to the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund This is an annual transfer of $10.5 million from the general fund to this fund. The transfer was established by Senate Bill 21 to 60. and as much as I appreciate the work of this fund and all of the things that it funds, we simply cannot afford it anymore. So I appreciate it's painful that we have to do this, but there are many, many programs like this. Any questions from the committee? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1399? It's the same three. Come on back. I don't have the list. Oh, sorry. Rinse and repeat.
Okay, good afternoon. We have tables here with CML. As you have just heard, MMOF funding for local governments really is critical to our efforts to create safe and walkable communities that work for all of our residents. I do just really want to emphasize how important this funding is to municipalities and local governments and the important work that they are doing every day to support strategic growth for all residents. I think this is really about fairness, safety, and smart planning. It's about making sure our transportation system works for everyone, not just those who can afford or are able to drive. and I really urge you to protect this funding and continue investing in solutions to keep our communities connected and forward-looking. At a bare minimum, we would ask that this transfer be limited to the coming fiscal year rather than seeing this permanent cut. We should really be increasing our investments in multimodal transit projects, not decreasing them. Thank you so much.
Thank you to the chair and committee, Megan McKillop, representing Colorado Counties, Inc. we understand that the budget is under serious pressure and you all face a very large shortfall to balance this year's budget the equivalent of a seven percent cut to the general fund we are not dismissing that reality but we really need this committee to see what is happening to local transportation funding in a full context the pattern over the past several years is clear the legislature reduced mmof allocations significantly in april and may of last year to settle that year's budget deficit. Senate Bill 264, as I mentioned,
transferred $71.4 million from the MMOF directly to the general fund, impacting local agencies' transit project planning and timelines. Senate Bill 25257 eliminated the annual $7 million transfer to the Revitalizing Main Streets program, resulting in a total reduction of $49 million through 2031. The fiscal year from last year budget cut $64 million from the state highway fund with another $50 million cut the following year. Now this bill is ending the general fund transfer and investment to the MMOF two years ahead of schedule. Each of these actions taken alone is significant. Taken together, they represent a sustained retreat from the state's commitment to local transportation investment. Counties and local governments are absorbing cut after cut while trying to plan and deliver multimodal projects that their communities depend on. The state should not be balancing the budget on the backs of local governments, and we request a no vote on House Bill 1399. Thank you. Mr. Morrow. Thank you Madam Chair Rich Morrow again Director of Legislative Affairs at Dr Cog And again I confirm the testimony from my colleagues here And also, again, reemphasize the respect for the difficulties with this budget year. But especially with this bill, with the direct general fund decrease of significant amounts, I think we would be not doing our job if we didn't come to you and say and let you know about the effects of this and again re-emphasize that you could amend it to just take these funds this year without affecting this budget year and then in the coming months we could have the conversation about whether or not we can afford these programs in in in future years so I would just really end by just asking you to just make this bill effective for this one budget year thank you any questions for our witnesses seeing none we thank you so much is there anyone else in the room who wanted to testify on House bill 1399 seeing no one the witness testimony phase is closed any amendments from the bill sponsors no the amendments from the committee seeing on the amendment phase is closed. Representative Taggart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1399 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Seconded by Chair Brown. Any final discussion on House Bill 1399? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. No. Taggart. Yes. Titone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Chair Sirota. Yes. Mr. Chair Brown. Yes. Passes 10 to 1. All right. Moving on to 1400. Yeah. Representative Taggart. Why don't you tell us about 1400? Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1400 has to do with Paras allocations to trust funds that they have. This bill came to us by way of the Paraboard. They asked for flexibility in terms of where they allocate dollars to these various trust funds to assist them to avoid triggering the automatic adjustment provision, AAP, to any extent possible. And just if you're not familiar with the automatic adjustment provision, this would cause for providers, in particular, if this trigger went off, to in fact take a larger chunk of dollars to put into the unfunded liability. So giving them flexibility is important so they put it into the appropriate trust funds to avoid the AAP. Thank you. Rep Taggart, any questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1400? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Bill sponsors any amendments Seeing none Committee Seeing none the amendment phase is closed All right Rep Taggart Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1400 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. Second. Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. Yes. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes unanimously. On to 1401. Okay. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1401 is doing a few things. It is transferring $72.8 million from the unclaimed property trust fund to the general fund in fiscal year 26. It is also reducing a statutory transfer to the housing development grant fund from the UPTF from $30 million to $2.2 million to provide some funding to ensure emergency housing vouchers are able to be wound down and that hundreds of people don't immediately lose their access to housing. But it also cancels any future automatic transfers from the UPTF to the Adult Dental Fund and also to the Housing Development Grant Fund. For many years now, there has been an automatic transfer from the UPTF to the Adult Dental Fund within Medicaid to pay for those dental services. and we will stop that transfer going forward, as well as a statutorily required transfer of $30 million from the UPTF to the Housing Development Grant Fund, which was implemented in the statute in 2019 as an automatic transfer to occur if the state found itself under the TABOR cap. And so this is the first time since that has been on the books that this transfer would have taken place, and we will stop that transfer from happening in future years. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Questions? Oh, yeah. Rep Bottoms. So are these transfers from the UPTF, are they interest only or are they part of the body of the money? Madam Biser. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that the interest has been spoken for, but I can't say for sure how much of interest is going to the different sources of transfers being made, both to the Primary Care Stabilization Fund and any others that are taking place. Representative Taggart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's important to point out that the adult dental fund is not going away. We are funding it from the general fund as compared to taking it away from the UPTF fund, which we feel as a JBC is a more appropriate use of the general fund. So it's not going away. Thank you, Rep. Taggart. Rep. Soper. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I kind of have a, I guess, a two-in-one type question. for the $72.8 million that's going from the unclaimed property trust fund that's being swept up for the general fund for this fiscal year. Of this, I mean, what happens if you have, like, people actually step forward and claim their monies? What happens at that point? Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is still an enormous corpus of the UPTF available to pay out claims, and I don't think that is a near or long-term concern at present, but if that were to take place, that would be a general fund obligation. Any additional questions? Mr. Chair. Yes, Rep Soper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. um you know i understand i guess kind of the practical nature that probably people aren't going to step up uh and immediately claim 72.8 million in terms of knowing that not all that's being held is like liquid i mean we have things like gold bars and diamond rings that haven't been sold off that's part of this fund are these all liquid assets are some of these still needing to be liquidated or are we just balancing on the backs of things that happen to be within the vaults in the treasurer's office? Madam Chair? Thank you, Mr. Chair. They are not all liquid assets, but again, I don't believe, there has not been a concern expressed that we do not have enough liquid assets within the fund to be able to pay out claims that are coming in? My understanding is that there is over $1.5 billion in the unclaimed property trust fund at this point. And so we've also heard analyses of how other states handle their unclaimed property, where they actually have an actuarial analysis that indicates the level of funding that is required given the amount of people taking their property back out. I don't think there was any indication in this particular bill that it would violate the ability of the fund to maintain its obligations. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I would just note that as a reminder, ultimately the impact of this bill will be to stop future statutory transfers that are on the books currently from coming out of the UPTF to the general fund. So the net result will be more money staying in the UPTF. Rep Soper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess this is just a general statement, which is why this bill is incredibly hard because, I mean on one hand I don believe we should be taking money out of the Uncleaned Property Trust Fund On another hand the cutting off of the future statutory transfers well fulfills that principle So it hard because it hitting from both sides Thank you, Rep. Soper. Additional questions? All right. Seeing none, we have a couple of people signed up here. I will call up our folks who are in person, Allison Morgan, Kinsey Hastett, and Kathy Alderman. And then if we can pull up our folks who are remote at the same time, Amy Case Miranda, Peter Lafari, Stefka Fanchi, and Jonathan Capelli. and while we get started with the folks in person, we will pull up those folks online. Ma'am, go ahead. You have two minutes to testify. Go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us who you represent. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Kathy Alderman. I am the Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. We come in an amend position on House Bill 1401 today. We know the amendments are not likely to come in committee, but we would like to work together to discuss a very serious concern of ours with this bill. But first, we want to recognize the very difficult year the state is facing with this budget deficit, and we're appreciative of all the difficult decisions that have to be made. Thank you for your continued work, and we really do want to be part of the solution. House Bill 1401 repeals House Bill 191322, a highly negotiated deal on housing funding that CCH was part of. In fact, I sat at that table. Many other organizations whom you will hear from today were also in support of that negotiated bill. There are over 60 organizations that signed on to a letter to the JBC, and there were over 35 organizations that were at that table back in 2019. House Bill 19-13-22 would have transferred $30 million of unclaimed property funds in three consecutive years for affordable housing purposes. These transfers would not occur except in non-taper refund years, so as not to impact state revenue. This is the first year. since we passed that bill that we would see this transfer. In the face of extraordinary budget year, we understand why the state needs to take $27.8 million of the $30 million to backfill the state budget, and we're appreciative of the $2.2 million that's being used for emergency housing vouchers, which are critical resources to keep households stably housed and prevent them from entering the costly and dangerous cycle of homelessness. However, we think it's short-sighted to prohibit future year transfers, or at least the discussion of future year transfers. Potential future transfers of funds will not impact this year's budget. And repealing a bipartisan and carefully negotiated deal by so many organizations and stakeholders fails to honor the promise to Coloradans for a significant one-time investment in housing for some of our most marginalized community members, including families experiencing homelessness, the school-age children, people living in nursing homes, households experiencing generational poverty, veterans living with a disabling condition, and very low-income households. So we would just ask that we continue to have this conversation and work out a more acceptable resolution. Thank you, Ms. Alderman. Let's move on. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. My name is Kinsey Hasted, and I'm the Director of State and Local Policy for Enterprise Community Partners. Enterprise is one of the nation's leading affordable housing organizations. I'm here to respectfully ask for one change to House Bill 1401, to strike the provision fully repealing existing statute that provides for a transfer of million from the UPTF to the state Housing Development Grant Fund in non refund years Last week Enterprise was proud to join a letter of more than 60 organizations asking the same of the JBC These groups included housing authorities non and for affordable developers funders including CHFA, community-based organizations, and diverse advocates from across the state. We are not asking for the $28 million that would have otherwise gone to the Housing Development Grant Fund this year for the first time since 2019, and that this bill will sweep to the general fund. We are asking that this legislature not preclude the possibility of future transfers, instead leaving room for JBC and other members to discuss with the affordable housing community how state funds might be better or appropriately dedicated to the Housing Development Grant Fund in the future if UPTF transfers are not desirable. the HDGF administered by the division of housing is critical to addressing our state's lack of affordable housing because these are the most flexible state dollars for developers and local governments to fill financing gaps and execute successful rental and for sale projects particularly those offering deeper affordability to the lowest income Coloradans I also want to raise that the passage of Proposition 123 does not negate the need for funding the HDGF, particularly in lean times when our lowest income neighbors struggle the most. Prop 123 is explicitly intended to be additive to the state's affordable housing funding, not a substitute to previously established resources. Plus, the JBC has proposed sweeping $130 million from Prop 123, all of which would have otherwise gone to affordable rental and land banking through OEDA and CHAFA. We do appreciate the $2.2 million being transferred for vouchers, and I appreciate your consideration. Thank you very much. Appreciate your testimony. Let's move on. Ms. Morgan. Allison Morgan, Colorado Bankers. We are opposed to 1401, although I have to say stopping the transfer out of unclaimed property is the correct part of the bill. But unclaimed property laws were established with clear and narrow purpose to protect consumers. When a bank account is abandoned, a paycheck goes uncashed, or a safe deposit box is left inactive, those assets are not the state's money. They are held in trust for the rightful owner. Colorado, like every state, stepped into this role decades ago as a custodian, not a claimant. The creation of the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund reflects that responsibility to safeguard assets, maintain accurate records, and ensure they are returned no matter how much time has passed. That principle matters. Every year, Coloradans recover hundreds of millions of dollars, or excuse me, millions of dollars that they didn't even realize they had that can use to pay family bills or settle in a state. Sweeping money from this fund undermines that trust. It sends a message that these custodial assets can be treated as a backstop for budget gaps rather than an obligation that's owed to citizens. But this fund is not a rainy day account. It's not a petty cash fund. It is a trust fund held by the state for the citizens of Colorado. It is a fiduciary responsibility. Banks understand this duty well and we are asking this legislature to step up and remember the responsibility that the treasurer office holds for this responsibility as well Please vote no Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Let's move online to Ms. Case Miranda. Ms. Case Miranda, you have two minutes. Please introduce yourself and who you represent. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. My name is Amy Case Miranda. I'm testifying today on behalf of the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, which is primarily public housing authorities. We appreciate the difficult job of balancing the budget that you were charged with, but we respectfully ask that you would consider an amendment, if not today, in the near future, that would limit the repeal of the transfer from unclaimed property to the Housing Development Grant Fund. beyond the current year should future years allow for revenues to not be capped by the table limits. Two reasons for this in particular. One, HGG grant funding is the most flexible and cost-effective governmental funding source available to affordable housing developers and operators because its utilization doesn't trigger the federal cost-cutting, Sorry, federal cross-cutting requirements, such as Buy America, Build America preference, Section 3, Davis-Bacon, like HUD funds do. These requirements add hundreds of thousands of dollars to some of our development projects. That is not to say DOH is not doing a fine job stewarding the HDG money. They are. They're very diligent in underwriting, awarding, authorizing expenditures, and long-term compliance monitoring. The other reason is because despite the relentless optimism we move forward in our work to address the housing crisis, we know that it took generations to create and it will likely take decades to solve. Therefore, we would request that you not presuppose or pre-limit future investment in this significant need, overriding the will of many, many stakeholders in 2019 negotiating in good faith. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Case Miranda. Let's move on to Mr. Peter Lafari. Mr. Lafari, you have two minutes. Please introduce yourself. Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. My name is Peter LaFarri. I serve as Chief Executive Officer of Maker Housing Partners with a public housing authority up here in Adams County, Colorado, and I'm here today in an amend position on 1401. I want to acknowledge the reality of which you're facing, and I appreciate the difficulty of the decisions before you, but I want to be clear. 1401 need not go quite so far. The bill just doesn't respond to a short-term budget challenge. It proposes to permanently repeal the commitment this body made back in 2019, as my colleagues have mentioned earlier. the housing development grant fund is a critical part of our project capital stacks these are dollars that go further they close gaps they get projects built they get projects built for the most disadvantaged coloradans those that find themselves on the losing end of just about every trade-off analysis. These are 30% of AMI units. These are intellectually and developmentally disabled Coloradans. These are our foster youth who have aged out. These are are unhoused Coloradans. These are the folks that so often are left without the critical resources they require to live a life of dignity, respect, and opportunity. And so why is it so important? It's also important because, you know, Prop 123 is being reduced, and Prop 123, as another source, was never meant to be the sole source. It was meant to be layered. Layering matters in housing finance, we have 8 to 12 sources per affordable housing project development, not for the faint of heart for those that develop market rate housing with two or three. When you remove those layers, as this is contemplating, projects just don't happen. Kids are traumatized and they do not have safe and stable place to live. Thank you, Mr. Flaffari. Your time has expired. Please amend. Let's move on to Ms. Stefka Fanchi. Ms. Fanchi, you have two minutes. Please introduce yourself. Hi there. Thank you, Mr. Chair and the members of the committee. My name is Stefka Fanchi and and I'm representing Elevation Community Land Trust. We develop permanently affordable homeownership units across the state and are currently active in 15 Colorado communities. I'm also representing the Colorado Affordable Homeownership Alliance, which is a group of other nonprofit homeownership developers. I'm testifying today in an amend position. We are already seeing substantial cuts to Proposition 123, and the will of the voters was clear it was meant to be additive to existing funding and not replace or supplant it. We are finally making progress, and while we understand it is a very difficult budget year, and we thank you for your very difficult work this session, we ask that you limit this to one year and not extend to future years. The crisis of affordability is compounding at a rate that we have not yet caught up with. This cut deepens the crisis now and handicaps our future efforts, leaving many Coloradans in the lurch. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate your testimony, Ms. Fanchi. And finally, we have Jonathan Capelli. You have two minutes to testify. Please introduce yourself. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Jonathan Capelli. I'm Executive Director of the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, which is a coalition of 25 nonprofit and public affordable housing providers working on homelessness, workforce housing, and home ownership. And you've heard from a number of our members today. So echoing a lot of what you heard, we're in an amend position for this bill. Back in 2019, as Kathy said, there was a large group of nonprofits, for-profit housing providers, municipalities, counties, just a whole bunch of stakeholders that came together to brainstorm how to increase funding for affordable housing, and 1322 was the result of that effort. We understand that you're facing, the state we're all facing, a very challenging funding environment right now, but as you consider repealing the bill, just want to raise a couple things to your attention, some of which you've heard, which is that, one, as you've heard, the Housing Development Grant Fund is our most flexible housing fund for low and very low-income housing, And so this and future transfers is really important for our work. And then as Peter said even if you choose to repeal it this year doing so for future years doesn have any effect on the budget this year So it not totally clear to us why it being repealed completely if the rationale is because of the current budget situation And then as Kathy was saying, when, you know, or I think it was Kinsey actually, when Prop 123 was passed, there's this pretty explicit language in there that said, there's this maintenance of effort language. You can find that in Section 6 of HB 23-1304, that it was supposed to supplement, not replace existing funds. And so this is the exact kind of program that that language was speaking to when we put that language into Prop 123. And we're already getting Prop 123 cut by about 40 percent. And you'll see a bill tomorrow that adds another $20 million cut to that. So, you know, in short, we just really hope you consider admitting this bill to allow so that it doesn't repeal this tool for future years at mid-time. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cappelli. Committee members, do we have any questions for our panel? All right, seeing none, thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you for being here. And we thank those online as well. All right, are there any additional folks who wish to testify either online or in person? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Sponsors, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phases, or committee members, do we have any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. All right, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1401 to the Committee of the Whole. Second. Seconded by Rep. Zocci. Please, Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick. Yes. Soper. No. Taggart. Yes. Detone. Yes. Zokai. Yes. Madam Vice Chair. Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes 9 to 2. All right. Moving on to 1403. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is slightly complicated but has a net neutral fiscal impact preventing the reversion from the IT capital account to the general fund of the annual depreciation lease equivalent payments made on completed IT capital projects. but given that the actual ADLE payments in the future are going to be based on the General Assembly's budget decisions, it's not possible to estimate the reversions to the general fund prevented by the change laid out in the bill. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Do we have any questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on 1403? Seeing none, the witness phase is closed. Bill sponsors, do we have any amendments? I don't have any amendments. Great. Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1403 to the Committee of the Whole. Second. Seconded by Rep. Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll. Representative Spasenecker. Yes. Bottoms. No. Gilchrist. Yes. Joseph. Yes. McCormick yes Soper yes Taggart yes to tone yes Okay Madam vice Yes mr Chair Yes that bill passes 10 to 1 All right moving on to 1403 Representative Taggart sorry 1404 excuse me 1404 Rep Taggart would you like to describe the bill? Thank you, Mr. Chair. House Bill 1404 discusses transfers from the tobacco education fund to the preschool preschool programs cash fund. For those of you that may not be aware, the tobacco education programs fund originated in 2020 from the tax holding fund, which was an additional tax on nicotine in particular. And so this bill has $10 million going from the tax holding fund to the tobacco education program fund to the preschool program's cash fund. All of that is $10 million, and it reduces the general fund transfer of $10 million. So it's net to the preschool cash fund, but the source is different than in the past. Thank you, Rep Taggart. Do we have any questions? Seeing none, is there anyone in the room who wishes to testify on 1404? We have one person signed up remotely. If we could pull up Mr. Nick Torres. If they are there. There he is. Mr. Torres, welcome. Thank you for joining us. You have two minutes to testify. Please go ahead and introduce yourself.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm Nick Torres here representing the American Lung Association here in respectful opposition. We, of course, recognize the weight of the incredibly difficult budget decisions this year, but we were disappointed to see the proposal to redirect this voter approved tobacco prevention revenue. $10 million represents a significant portion of the grant making portfolio of community level grants that go out across the state to reduce tobacco use and help prevent youth addiction. Our state is really fortunate to have really talented and effective staff in the tobacco prevention program. And so the Lung Association is hopeful that the program will do what they can, of course, to reduce the impacts on the community level grantees. But also like to point out there, their work is made even more challenging because of uncertainties at the federal level with tobacco prevention funding. And so we do appreciate the legislature's commitment to reducing the burden of tobacco use in our state. This year, Colorado was one of only a handful of states to earn an A for tobacco prevention and cessation funding in our annual state's tobacco control report. And, you know, we're also hopeful that this year's revenue transfer can be limited to just the single one time transfer so that our state can continue the important work of reducing the burden of tobacco use. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Torres. Questions for this witness from the committee? All right, seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Thank you for being here today. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1404 Seeing none the witness phase is closed Sponsors do we have any amendments Committee, any amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. All right, Rev Taggart.
Mr. Chair, I move House Bill 1404 to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Madam Vice Chair. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spasenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Yes.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Vice Chair.
Yes.
Mr. Chair.
Yes. That bill passes 10 to 1. All right. Would you like me to tell you about House Bill 1406?
Wait, are we still?
Oh, I'm sorry. I was a bill ahead. Yes, Madam Vice Chair. We're moving on to 1406.
Madam Vice Chair, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Please describe 1406 for us.
This bill takes actually a different tack than House Bill 1403. and it is repealing requirements related to ADLE payments that are appropriated in the long bill and set aside for capital construction projects. It's repealing a mechanism that diverts ADLE payments into the Capital Complex Renovation Fund through fiscal year 30 for certain building projects in the Capital Complex, and it is also repealing the Capital Complex Master Implementation Fund and a related mechanism that allows for an annual transfer of $2.5 million from the general fund to that fund.
Questions for our sponsors. Seeing none, is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1406? Seeing none, the witness page is closed. Sponsors, amendments, committee members, amendments. Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move House Bill 1406 to the Committee of the Whole.
Second.
Seconded by Representative Taggart. Ms. Pope, please call the roll.
Representative Spacenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper. Yes. Taggart. Yes. Tatone. Yes. Zocay. Yes. Madam Vice Chair.
Yes. Mr. Chair. Yes. That bill passes 10 to 1. Okay, now.
Mr. Chair, would you like to tell the committee about House Bill 1407?
Thank you, Madam Chair. This bill, 1407, concerns state money that is used to refinance the American Rescue Plan money. The bill transfers a total of $35.7 million to the general fund on June 30th of 2026 from five total funds, including four funds that were created to hold coronavirus state fiscal recovery money from the American Rescue Plan Act and the State Highway Act, where some ARPA funds were expended. instead of general funds. The transfers include from the behavioral and mental health cash fund, the discretionary account of the ARPA refinance state money cash fund, the economic and relief cash fund, the revenue loss restoration cash fund, and the state highway fund. Any questions for our bill sponsors? Seeing none, we'll move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1407. Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? None. Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Chair Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1407 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Seconded by Representative Zocay.
Any final discussion on House Bill 1407? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representative Spacenecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
No.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
No.
Taggart.
Yes.
Tatone.
Yes.
Zokai.
Yes.
Madam Chair Sirota.
Yes.
Mr. Chair Brown.
Yes. That passes 9 to 2.
Representative Taggart would you like to bring us home with House Bill 1408 Thank you Madam Chair House Bill 1408 is a technical and timing bill and it's something we have run into on the JBC these last couple of years and probably existed before that. This bill calls out that all state agencies from all branches of government will give a base budget to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting by September 1st. And what's key to that is that that also includes legislation that was enacted the year before. The reason for that is there was a major piece of legislation that was enacted last year for the judicial branch, and it did not get into the budget or did not get into the submission early enough to be included by OSPB. And that's critical that that happen. Likewise, on November 1st, we also want to make sure all common policies are included in the submissions by our agencies and branches of the government so that we have an all package come November 1st when we look at budgets for next year. So again, primarily technical and timing related, but very, very important that we have a total budget picture when we go to start trying to balance that budget.
All right. Any questions for the bill sponsors? Seeing none, move on to witness testimony. Is there anyone in the room or online who wishes to testify on House Bill 1408? Seeing no one, the witness testimony phase is closed. Any amendments from the bill sponsors? Any amendments from the committee? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed.
Any, Representative Taggart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move House Bill 1408 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation.
Second.
Seconded by Representative Titone. Any final discussion on House Bill 1408? Seeing none, Ms. Pope, please pull the committee.
Representatives Basinecker.
Yes.
Bottoms.
Yes.
Gilchrist.
Yes.
Joseph.
Yes.
McCormick.
Yes.
Soper.
Yes.
Haggard.
Yes.
Tatone Yes Zokai Yes Madam Chair Sirota Yes Mr Chair Brown Yes That passes unanimously All right committee thank you very much for your work today
We will convene at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning to hear another 15 or so bills, 20 bills maybe, including the long bill itself. Thank you again. Until then, House Appropriations is adjourned. Just so you know, there's going to be, among the other bills introduced today, a comment, if you will, that is going to be sponsored by the DEMs on the committee. Thank you. Thank you.