Colorado Legislative Council Staff

STATE and LOCAL

CONDITIONAL FISCAL NOTE

TABOR Refund Impact

 State General Fund Expenditure Impact

State Cash Fund Revenue and Expenditure

School District Revenue Impact

TITLE:            CONCERNING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL EMERGENCY CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS.

Summary of Legislation

            This bill would submit a question to the registered electors of the State of Colorado at the next general election in November 1998 to create the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund in the State Treasury. All interest derived from the deposit and investment of moneys in the fund would be credited to the fund. Between FY 1997-98 and FY 20010-2, the State Treasurer would annually transfer from the General Fund to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund the lesser of $50 million or the amount of state revenues that are in excess of the fiscal year spending limitation imposed by Section 20 (7)(a) of Article X of the State Constitution. Revenues transferred to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund would be considered to constitute a voter-approved revenue change, and would not be included in state or local government fiscal year spending for purposes of Section 20 of Article X of the State Constitution, and the state’s General Fund appropriation limit under Section 24-77-102 (17), C.R.S.

            Applications from school districts for grants for emergency capital construction projects would be submitted to the Department of Education by July 1, 1999 for any grant to be appropriated for FY 2000-01, and no later than July 1 of each year thereafter. The Department of Education would evaluate grant applications, and would conduct investigations prior to making recommendations to the State Board of Education regarding approval of the grant applications. The State Board of Education would annually notify the General Assembly and the Joint Budget Committee of the amounts of grants awarded. The General Assembly would appropriate moneys from the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund beginning in FY 2000-01 equal to the amount awarded by the State Board of Education.

            The bill would take effect following proclamation by the Governor of the vote of the registered electors at the 1998 general election. Since the bill is conditional upon voter approval, the bill is assessed as having conditional state and school district fiscal impact.

State Revenues

            The amount of the annual transfer to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund would be the lesser of $50 million or the amount of state revenues that are in excess of the fiscal year spending limitation imposed by Section 20 (7)(a) of Article X of the State Constitution. It is anticipated that the fund will receive $50 million annually beginning in FY 1998-99.

TABOR Refund Impact

            Section 20 of Article X of the Colorado Constitution, limits the maximum annual percentage increase in state fiscal year spending. Once total state revenue from all sources that are not specifically excluded from fiscal year spending exceeds these limits for the fiscal year, the state constitution requires that the excess shall be refunded in the next fiscal year unless voters approve a revenue change as an offset. Based on the current Legislative Council economic forecast, it is projected that the state will be in a TABOR refund position during each of the next five fiscal years. Any increase or decrease in state revenue from changes in fees, fines, licenses, or other revenue sources will affect the amount of the state revenue to be refunded.

State Expenditures

          School Emergency Capital Construction Grants. The State Treasurer would annually transfer from the General Fund to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund the lesser of $50 million or the amount of state revenues that are in excess of the fiscal year spending limitation imposed by Section 20 (7)(a) of Article X of the State Constitution. Projected TABOR Excess revenue and the projected transfer to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Projected TABOR Excess Revenue and Projected

Transfer to the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund

(in millions of dollars)

            Program Administration. The Department of Education will incur administrative expenses beginning in FY 1999-00 in order to provide staff support to the State Board of Education in prioritizing the grant awards from moneys in the School Emergency Capital Construction Fund. The Department of Education indicates that 2.0 FTE Contract Labor, Principal Consultant, would be required. Expenses associated with administration of the program are identified in the Table 2.

Table 2. SB 98-168 Department of Education Administrative Expenses

Election Expenditure Impacts (For Informational Purposes Only)

            A General Fund line-item in the 1998-99 Long Appropriations Bill will fund the costs of publicizing any initiative or referendum proposal in newspapers and for printing and distribution of the Blue Book to all electors. The General Assembly spent $291,267 GF for one state-wide ballot proposal on the November, 1995 ballot and $1,042,014 GF for the 12 proposals that appeared on the November, 1996 ballot.

            The 1996 General Election fixed costs for mailing the Blue Book to 1.35 million registered voters was $174,036 for postage and $3,800 for obtaining mailing addresses. These costs will be the same regardless of the number of issues on the ballot. Variable costs included: Spanish translation of $11,215; newspaper publication of $644,828; printing costs of $206,806; and other costs of $1,328. Total costs were $1,042,014 GF. Fixed costs totaled $177,837 and variable costs were $72,015 per ballot issue.

            Based on the costs incurred for the 1996 Blue Book, one ballot issue cost $249,852 to print and mail to the public. The $72,015 of incremental cost would be added for each issue to the basic mailing costs of $177,837.

School District Impact

          School districts would be eligible to apply to the State Board of Education for grants to be used for emergency capital construction projects. Grants would be awarded beginning in FY 2000-01.

Spending Authority

          The fiscal note would imply that no appropriations or spending authority are required in FY 1998-99 to implement the provisions of the bill.

Departments Contacted

          Legislative Council                Education