HB 22-1411

House Bill 22-1411, which has been signed into law, deals with how Colorado manages federal funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The bill sets deadlines for local entities to spend or return unused funds and clarifies reporting requirements for these funds. It also reallocates some of the federal money within various state funds to support housing, transportation, and economic recovery initiatives. This means that specific amounts of money are now designated for different programs, such as affordable housing projects and community revitalization grants, ensuring that the federal relief funds are used effectively according to set timelines and guidelines.

Official Summary

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" (federal funds). The act modifies administrative requirements established by the United States department of the treasury (treasury) related to these federal funds, which were implemented through the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" cash fund, by: Establishing deadlines for a subrecipient, which is a person that carries out a program or project on behalf of the state but is not a program or project beneficiary, 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 determine whether money has been obligated; Requiring the state controller to transmit to the 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 the 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. The act substitutes money from the general fund or from a cash fund that included money that originated from the general fund for allocations of the federal funds that were made in 2021, as follows: $29,894,004 from the housing development grant fund; $36.5 million from the highway users tax fund that was distributed to counties, cities, and incorporated towns; $10 million from the Colorado startup loan program fund; and $98.5 million from the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund. The act transfers the following amounts from the economic recovery and relief cash fund: $70 million of federal funds to the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" cash fund to be used by the executive branch for any expenditures necessary to respond to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19; $15 million of federal funds to the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund; $1,437,172 of federal funds to the workers, employers, and workforce centers cash fund; and $10 million that originated from the general fund to the revenue loss restoration cash fund. House Bill 22-1409, concerning additional funding for the community revitalization grant program, required the state treasurer to transfer $20 million from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to the community revitalization fund. The act reduces the transfer to $19,278,042, with $4,478,042 from money in the economic relief cash fund that originated from the general fund and the remainder from money in the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund that originated from the general fund. House Bill 22-1379, concerning transfers from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to provide additional funding for the management of certain natural resources, appropriated $15 million of federal funds from the Colorado water conservation board construction fund to the department of natural resources for use by the Colorado water conservation board. The act expands the allowable uses of this money. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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