HB 22-1336

House Bill 22-1336, which has been signed into law, aims to simplify how certain court fees are managed in Colorado. Currently, a small portion of drug and alcohol-related fines goes directly to the courts to cover administrative costs; this bill changes where that money is kept, making it easier for the courts to manage these funds. Additionally, the bill combines two separate funds used for collecting fines into one fund to reduce inefficiency. This change affects how court fees are handled and should make the process more streamlined for both the courts and those paying the fines.

Official Summary

Current law allows the clerk of the court to retain 5% of the drug offender surcharge and the rural alcohol and substance abuse surcharge for the administration of the disbursement of the surcharges. The retained 5% of both surcharges are kept on a balance sheet account and expenses are identified to offset this revenue. To simplify the process by which this 5% of surcharge revenue is retained, section 2 of the act requires that the revenue be deposited directly into the judicial stabilization cash fund instead. Under current law, the courts' collections investigator program is funded by the fines collection cash fund and the judicial collection enhancement fund. To eliminate the inefficiency of administering 2 cash funds, section 1 eliminates the fines collection cash fund and requires all fines previously required to be deposited in that fund to instead be deposited in the judicial collection enhancement cash fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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