| Summary |
Joint Budget Committee. Section 2 of the bill requires
metropolitan districts created after July 1, 2021, to annually pay the state
an amount equal to the total of all severance tax ad valorem credits
claimed for property taxes that are imposed by the metropolitan district.
This money will be allocated like severance tax revenues.
Section 3 requires the director of the office of state planning and
budgeting and the executive directors of the departments of revenue,
natural resources, and local affairs, or their designees, to review and
analyze the following elements of the state severance tax:
•
Data collection;
•
The tax structure;
•
Tax expenditures; and
•
The allocation of the tax revenues.
Based on this review and analysis, these persons are required to
prepare written recommendations for any changes to the severance tax to
the joint budget committee, to be submitted no later than January 1, 2022.
Currently, 50% of state severance tax revenues are deposited into
the severance tax trust fund, which is then typically split between the
severance tax perpetual base fund (perpetual base fund) and the severance
tax operational fund (operational fund). Money in the operational fund is
currently used for core departmental programs and, if there are sufficient
available revenues, for transfers to funds that support natural resources
and energy grant programs (grant program transfers).
Sections 4 and 6 repeal the grant program transfers, with some,
but not all, of the recipient programs receiving alternative funding from
severance tax revenues. Subject to annual appropriation, section 5
authorizes the Colorado water conservation board to direct the state
treasurer to transfer money from the perpetual base fund to the following
cash funds that previously received grant program transfers:
•
The water supply reserve fund;
•
The interbasin compact committee operation fund; and
•
The water efficiency grant program cash fund.
The general assembly is also given the authority to directly appropriate or
transfer money into the perpetual base fund and the water supply reserve
fund.
If less than 100% of the money available in the operational fund
is used for the current core programs, then, under section 4, the general
assembly may also appropriate money from the operational fund to the
following cash funds that previously received grant program transfers:
•
The species conservation trust fund;
•
The division of parks and wildlife aquatic nuisance species
fund; and
•
The conservation district grant fund.
The transfers from the operational fund are subject to the same limits that
they had as grant program transfers. On July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022,
the state treasurer is required to transfer $9,456,005, which is enough to
fully fund the appropriations to these 3 cash funds for those fiscal years.
The operational fund reserve that was maintained for the grant
program transfers is repealed and the remaining operational fund reserve
is increased to be twice the current fiscal year's appropriations.
Sections 7 to 13 are conforming amendments related to the repeal
of the grant program transfers, and in some instances, to reflect the new
funding from severance tax revenues.
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