Bill Tracker

The bill creates the Feeding Colorado fund (fund) in the state
treasury. A voluntary contribution designation line for the fund will
appear on the state individual income tax return form (form) for the 5
income tax years following the year that the executive director of the
department of revenue (department) certifies to the revisor of statutes that

there is space available on the form and that the fund is next in the queue.
Once the fund is placed on the form, the department is directed to
determine annually the total amount contributed to the fund and report
that amount to the state treasurer and the general assembly. The state
treasurer is required to credit that amount to the fund, and the general
assembly appropriates from the fund to the department the costs of
administering money designated for the fund. After that amount is
deducted, the money remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year is
transferred to Feeding Colorado.
Following the statutory 2-year grace period for new tax check-offs,
the fund is required to achieve the minimum contribution amount of
$50,000 per year to remain on the form.
The fund is repealed on the sixth income tax year following the
year in which the director files the certification, unless it is continued by
the general assembly before then.

The bill expands the state sales and use tax exemption for food,
which currently exempts most food for domestic home consumption, by
also exempting from state sales and use tax most food that is not for
domestic home consumption and is instead prepared for on-site
consumption at a restaurant, grocery store, or other establishment or to be

carried out and consumed without additional cooking or preparation.

Legislative Interim Committee on School Finance. The bill
identifies a new at-risk measure to identify students who are at risk of
Capital letters or bold & italic numbers indicate new material to be added to existing law.
below-average academic outcomes because of socioeconomic
disadvantage or poverty in order to allocate resources through the state's
public school funding formula to serve those students. The new at-risk
measure will include:
  • The percentage of students certified as eligible for the
school lunch program based on documentation of benefit
receipt or categorical eligibility, supplemented by the
expansion of direct certification to participants in the
medical assistance program and the children's basic health
plan; and
  • A neighborhood socioeconomic-status index that weights
student needs based on socioeconomic-status index
neighborhood factors linked to each student's census block
group.
The commissioner of education (commissioner) shall convene a
working group to prepare for the implementation of the new at-risk
measure in the 2023-24 budget year. The bill specifies the membership
of the working group.
The bill includes issues that the working group may consider in
constructing and implementing the new at-risk measure, including
collecting necessary data, constructing a neighborhood
socioeconomic-status index linked to students' addresses, and testing the
at-risk measure with actual student data, if available.
The commissioner shall report findings and recommendations for
the construction and implementation of the new at-risk measure to the
legislative interim committee on school finance, the joint budget
committee, and the education committees of the general assembly.
The bill requires the department of education to apply to the
United States department of agriculture to obtain authorization for direct
certification of students participating in the medical assistance program
and the children's basic health plan.

The bill:
  • Expands the definition of service provider in the
Employment Support and Job Retention Services
Program (program) to include faith-based organizations
and churches, community centers, neighborhood
organizations, food banks, outreach providers, and local

entities that provide employment services to community
members;
  • Modifies the eligibility criteria for receiving services and
the list of reimbursable services under the program;
  • Appropriates $500,000 annually to the employment support
and job retention services program cash fund (fund) and
removes the requirement that the money be subject to
annual appropriations and instead continuously
appropriates the money in the fund;
  • Repeals the current repeal date on the program and extends
the program indefinitely; and
  • Modifies the current reporting requirements to require the
division of employment and training in the department of
labor and employment to report on the efficacy of the
program during the department's presentations at the State
Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and
Transparent (SMART) Government Act hearings.

The bill allows the state board of human services (state board) to
utilize eligibility processes from other public assistance or entitlement
programs when promulgating rules for redetermining and verifying
eligibility for the Colorado works program (works program).
When determining income requirements for the works program,
the bill requires the department of human services (state department) to
use an income conversion ratio for converting weekly and biweekly
income to a monthly amount using the lowest ratio or methodology that

results in the lowest monthly income amount allowable under federal law.
Current law prohibits a person convicted of a drug-related felony
offense from being eligible for assistance under the works program unless
the person is determined by a county department of human or social
services to have taken action toward rehabilitation. The bill removes the
ban on eligibility.
The bill requires the state board to promulgate rules establishing
statewide standards and procedures that require counties to offer an
extension:
  • Beyond the 60-month lifetime maximum for all households
that demonstrate good cause, which includes an applicant
or participant who is a child-only case, the head of a single
parent household and has a child under one year of age,
experiencing hardship, or addressing family or medical
needs; and
  • From work requirements to all households that demonstrate
good cause, which includes for an applicant or participant
who is the head of a single-parent household and has a
child under one year of age, experiencing hardship, or
addressing family or medical needs.
The bill requires the state department to annually review and
promulgate rules as necessary to update the standard of need to ensure the
standard of need is equitable, promotes economic mobility and
self-sufficiency, and reflects the current economic status of the state.
The bill requires the state department to disregard any earned
income for at least the first 6 months an applicant or participant is
employed while enrolled in the works program. The bill requires that the
state department determine the amount of earned income that must be
disregarded after the first 6 months and ensure a gradual step down of the
amount of earned income disregarded and that the appropriate work
supports are made available to the applicant or participant.
Current law requires the state department to ensure the amount of
a basic cash assistance grant that an applicant or participant receives is
equal to or exceeds 102% of the need standard for a participant in a
similarly sized household on January 1, 2008. By the 2027-28 state fiscal
year, and each state fiscal year thereafter, the bill requires the amount of
the basic cash assistance grant to equal or exceed 50% of the federal
poverty guidelines established by the federal department of health and
human services for a similarly sized household for that fiscal year.
No later than January 1, 2023, the bill requires the state department
to begin phasing in the increase in basic cash assistance that is equal to or
exceeds 50% of the federal poverty guidelines.
The bill requires a county department to attempt to contact each
participant using each method of communication provided by the
participant in order to conduct exit and follow-up interviews upon case
closure. The bill expands the purpose of the exit and follow-up interviews
to include evaluating the participant's experience with the works program,
how well the program met the participant's needs and assisted the
participant in meeting the participant's goals, and informing the state
department of any changes to rules that are needed to improve the
participant's experience.
The bill requires the state department to monitor impacts to
counties' workload in the works program and consult with counties
regarding additional need for money to administer the works program.
Beginning January 2023, and each January thereafter, the state
department is required to submit a report to the general assembly on the
effectiveness of the works program.
Current law requires the state board to promulgate rules that
require a percentage reduction in the basic cash assistance grant upon the
imposition of a sanction affecting the grant, with the percentage to be
specified in the rules but not to be less than 25%. The bill requires the
percentage not to exceed one dollar.
No later than September 30, 2022, the bill requires the state
department to develop an outreach and engagement plan to promote
access to the works program for eligible persons.

The food pantry assistance grant program is set to repeal on June
30, 2023. The bill extends the food pantry assistance grant program
through July 1, 2028.
For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the bill appropriates $5 million
from the general fund. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the bill
appropriates $3.5 million from the general fund. For the 2024-25 state

fiscal year through the 2026-27 state fiscal year, the bill appropriates $2
million annually from the general fund to be used only for the purchase
of Colorado agricultural products; agricultural products that hold cultural
significance for indigenous first nations people, or for other cultures or
subcultural groups, including the ways in which those agricultural
products are produced; agricultural products sold by agricultural
producers located within 400 miles of the grant recipient; agricultural
products sold by indigenous first nations producers located within
Colorado and in neighboring states; and technical assistance.
The bill allows up to $100,000 annually of the appropriation to be
used to hire a nonprofit entity to provide technical assistance to a grant
recipient to train food pantries and assist in the location and purchase of
Colorado agricultural products. The bill also allows a grant recipient to
pre-purchase Colorado agricultural products.

The bill requires the department of human services to implement
a work management system across all counties to interface with the
Colorado benefits management system used to process and approve
applications for essential state public assistance programs such as the
supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), medicaid, and

Colorado works.
The bill integrates eligibility and enrollment for SNAP with
eligibility criteria for the Colorado low-income energy assistance program
to increase access.
The bill creates a community food access program (food program)
in the department of agriculture (department). The purpose of the food
program is to improve access to and lower prices for healthy foods in
low-income and underserved areas of the state by supporting small
grocery retailers. The small food business recovery and resilience grant
program (grant program) is established, to be overseen by the food
program. An advisory committee is established to assist the department
with the grant program. One-time grants not to exceed $25,000 will be
provided to small grocery retailers to help support infrastructure and other
necessary items to make fresh, healthy food more accessible to
low-income and underserved communities. The department is granted
authority to promulgate rules as necessary to implement the food
program.
The food program is repealed, effective September 1, 2027.

In 2021, the state received $3,828,761,790 from the federal
coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund as part of the federal American
Rescue Plan Act of 2021. For purposes of complying with the

requirements established by the United States department of the treasury
(treasury), the general assembly established administrative requirements
related to the expenditure of this federal money. Section 1 of the bill
modifies these requirements by:
  • Establishing deadlines for a subrecipient, which is a person
that carries out a program or project on behalf of the state,
to expend or obligate this money, and if not, to return this
money to the state for the state to either expend or return to
treasury, depending on the timing;
  • Requiring the state controller to transmit to treasury any
money that was obligated by December 31, 2024, but not
expended by December 31, 2026;
  • Requiring the department of revenue to provide the state
controller with any information about any increases in the
state's net tax revenue, which is necessary for calculating
the state's revenue reductions for 2022 and 2023;
  • Clarifying that the compliance, reporting, record-keeping,
and program evaluation requirements established by the
office of state planning and budgeting and the state
controller apply to a person regardless of whether the
person is a beneficiary or a subrecipient and regardless of
whether the person receives the money directly from a
department or from a subrecipient; and
  • Permitting the state controller to report any expenditures to
treasury as a government service to the extent of the
reduction in the state's revenue due to the COVID-19
public health emergency relative to the revenues the state
collected for the state fiscal year 2018-19. Sections 3
through 6 make conforming amendments related to this
change.
The bill also substitutes money from the general fund or from a
cash fund that included money that originated from the general fund for
money that was allocated in 2021 legislation from the federal coronavirus
state fiscal recovery fund, as follows:
  • $29.5 million from the housing development grant fund
(section 7);
  • $36.5 million from the highway users tax fund that was
distributed to counties, cities, and incorporated towns,
which is accomplished by replenishing and reclassifying
the federal funds that were initially used (section 8);
  • $10 million from the Colorado startup loan program fund
(section 9), with the freed up federal funds being
transferred to the revenue loss restoration cash fund
(section 6); and
  • $98.5 million from the affordable housing and home
ownership cash fund (section 10).
Sections 2 and 6 include conforming amendments related to the
reclassification of the money paid to the counties, cities, and incorporated
towns.

The bill creates the healthy school meals for all program (program)
in the department of education (department) to:
  • Reimburse school food authorities that choose to
participate in the program (participating school food
authorities) for free meals provided to students who are not
eligible for free or reduced-price meals under the federal
school meals programs;
  • Provide local food purchasing grants to eligible
participating school food authorities;
  • Provide funding to participating school food authorities to
increase the wages or provide stipends for individuals
employed to prepare and serve food; and
  • Provide assistance to participating school food authorities
through the local school food purchasing technical
assistance and education grant program.
The portion of the program that provides reimbursement for school
meals begins operating in the 2023-24 budget year. The remaining
portions of the program begin operating in the first full budget year after
the state of Colorado begins participating in the federal demonstration
project to use medicaid eligibility to identify students who are eligible for
the federal school meals programs (demonstration project).
A participating school food authority must:
  • Provide free meals to all students enrolled in the public
schools that the participating school food authority serves
and that participate in the national school lunch program or
national school breakfast program;
  • Provide to the department annual notice of participation;
and
  • Maximize the amount of federal reimbursement by
participating in the federal community eligibility provision
to identify students who are eligible for the federal school
meals programs.
The amount of reimbursement distributed pursuant to the program
is equal to the federal free reimbursement rate multiplied by the total
number of meals served minus any other federal or state reimbursement
the school food authority receives for providing meals.
The bill requires the department to:
  • Participate in the federal community eligibility provision
for the state as a whole, if that option is available; and
  • Apply to participate in the demonstration project.
Under the bill, a participating school food authority that creates a
parent and student committee to advise on food purchasing (advisory
committee) is eligible to receive a local food purchasing grant (grant) to
purchase Colorado grown, raised, or processed products for school meals.
Each eligible participating school food authority must comply with
reporting requirements. The bill establishes the amount of the grants,
limits on how the grant money may be spent, and the required
membership of the advisory committee. The department must annually
review a sample of the invoices for purchases made using grant money to
ensure compliance with purchasing requirements.
The bill creates the local school food purchasing technical
assistance and education grant program (grant program) under which a
statewide nonprofit organization distributes grants to promote the
purchase of Colorado grown, raised, or processed products by
participating school food authorities and to assist participating school
food authorities in preparing meals using basic ingredients rather than
processed products. The nonprofit organization must report annually to
the department concerning implementation of the grant program.
The department must submit to committees of the general
assembly a biennial report concerning implementation of the program.
The department must contract with an independent auditor to conduct a
biennial financial and performance audit of the program. The report and
the audit must include implementation of the program, implementation of
the local food purchasing grants, use of the additional amount for
increasing wages or providing stipends, and implementation of the grant
program.
The bill directs the general assembly to appropriate annually, by
line item in the annual appropriation bill, the amount necessary to
implement the program, including a specified amount for the grant
program.
Current law caps state income tax itemized deductions for
taxpayers who have federal adjusted gross income of $400,000 or more
at $30,000 for single filers and $60,000 for joint filers. The bill applies
the cap to both itemized and standard income tax deductions for taxpayers
who have federal adjusted gross income of $300,000 or more and lowers
the cap to $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. The
amount of revenue generated by the changes to the cap must be
appropriated to fund the program. If the program is repealed, the changes
to the cap no longer apply.
The bill takes effect only if it is approved by the voters at the
November 2022 general election. This approval is a voter-approved
revenue change that allows the state to retain and spend all revenue
generated by the changes to the cap on state income tax deductions.

The bill creates the healthy school meals for all program (program)
in the department of education (department) to reimburse school food
authorities for free meals provided to students who are not eligible for
free or reduced-price meals under the federal school meals programs. The
program begins operating in the 2023-24 budget year, subject to the state
being selected to participate in the federal demonstration project to use

medicaid eligibility to identify students who are eligible for the federal
school meals programs (demonstration project).
A school food authority that chooses to participate in the program
(participating school food authority) must:
  • Provide free meals to all students enrolled in the public
schools that the participating school food authority serves;
  • Provide to the department annual notice of participation;
and
  • Maximize the amount of federal reimbursement by
participating in the federal community eligibility provision
to identify students who are eligible for the federal school
meals programs.
The amount of reimbursement distributed pursuant to the program
is equal to the federal free reimbursement rate multiplied by the total
number of meals served, minus any other federal or state reimbursement
the school food authority receives for providing meals.
The bill requires the department to:
  • Participate in the federal community eligibility provision
for the state as a whole, if that option is available; and
  • Apply to participate in the demonstration project.
Under the bill, a participating school food authority that creates a
parent and student committee to advise on food purchasing (advisory
committee) is eligible to receive a local food purchasing grant (grant) to
purchase Colorado grown, raised, or processed products for school meals.
Each eligible participating school food authority must comply with
reporting requirements. The bill establishes the amount of the grants,
limits on how the grant money may be spent, and the required
membership of the advisory committee. The department must annually
review a sample of the invoices for purchases made using grant money to
ensure compliance with purchasing requirements.
Under the bill, a participating school food authority may receive
an additional amount to increase the wages for individuals employed to
prepare and serve food.
The bill creates the local school food purchasing technical
assistance and education grant program (grant program), under which a
statewide nonprofit organization distributes grants to promote the
purchase of Colorado grown, raised, or processed products by
participating school food authorities and to assist participating school
food authorities in preparing meals using basic ingredients rather than
processed products. The nonprofit organization must report annually to
the department concerning implementation of the grant program.
The department must submit to committees of the general
assembly a biennial report concerning implementation of the program.
The department must contract with an independent auditor to conduct a
biennial financial and performance audit of the program. The report and
the audit must include implementation of the program, implementation of
the local food purchasing grants, use of the additional amount for
increasing wages, and implementation of the grant program.
The bill directs the general assembly to appropriate annually, by
line item in the annual appropriation bill, the amount necessary to
implement the program, including a specified amount for the grant
program.