The act requires the department of education (department) to submit a report to the joint budget committee regarding part-time enrichment programs and single- and multi-district online education programs, including online schools, online programs, and supplemental online courses offered by in-person schools. The act authorizes the department to extend the authorization for the board of cooperative services that is currently administering the statewide supplemental online and blended learning program for up to 2 additional years prior to initiating a new 5-year designation.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under existing law, an individual licensed, certified, registered, or enrolled in good standing to practice a particular profession or occupation in another state or United States territory or through the federal government is eligible to apply for and receive a license, certification, registration, or enrollment in that profession or occupation in Colorado (accreditation) if the individual meets specific criteria. The act adds an individual licensed, certified, registered, or enrolled in good standing to practice a particular profession or occupation in another country to those individuals eligible for accreditation if the individual meets specific criteria.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Contingent upon voter approval at the November 2026 general election of a proposed initiative to amend the state constitution to change existing law on transportation funding and to increase the amount of state revenue dedicated to road transportation (proposed initiative), from January 1, 2027, through July 1, 2030, the act reduces:The excise tax on gasoline from $0.22 per gallon to $0.14 per gallon;The excise tax on special fuel from $0.205 per gallon to $0.13 per gallon; Certain vehicle registration fees, including late fees; andThe road usage fees from $0.06 per gallon to $0.04 per gallon and then, beginning in state fiscal year 2027-28, as necessary to offset the amount of state revenue diverted to transportation uses as the result of the proposed initiative. The act creates the support road transportation fund (fund) contingent upon voter approval of the proposed initiative. The fund consists of state revenue dedicated to road transportation by the proposed initiative. Money in the fund is used to replace certain transportation-related general fund transfers for payments for the financed purchase of assets or certificate of participation agreements, and to replace certain general fund transfers to the state highway fund. The money remaining in the fund after making these transfers is allocated as follows:60% is paid to the state highway fund;23% is paid to counties for certain transportation expenses; and17% is paid to cities and incorporated towns for certain transportation expenses. The act clarifies that state revenue collected to support road transportation, as defined in the proposed initiative, does not include enterprise fee revenue. The act creates the road enterprise to complete preventive maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, and reconstruction projects to improve the condition of the roadway surface of the state highway system. The road enterprise is authorized to impose fees for oversize and overweight vehicles and longer vehicle combinations. The creation of the road enterprise is not contingent upon voter approval of the proposed initiative. Contingent upon the proposed initiative being withdrawn or not submitted for the November 2026 general election, the act creates the transportation funding working group to evaluate and make recommendations to the general assembly, the transportation commission, and the governor concerning funding state and local surface transportation maintenance, repair, capacity, and safety. Lastly, the act reduces the July 1, 2026, transfer from the general fund to the state highway fund from approximately $50 million to $500,000.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act repeals the health-care delivery system reform incentive payments program in the Colorado healthcare affordability and sustainability enterprise (enterprise) and creates the hospital quality incentive program (incentive program) to use enterprise hospital provider fee revenue to make additional payments to hospitals that meet performance metrics in delivering safer and more effective care that improves patient outcomes and reduces preventable utilization to reduce health-care costs. Prior to implementing the program, the enterprise board shall approve the percentage of hospitals' reimbursement in the incentive program and the incentive program structure, performance measures, and scoring methodology. Once the incentive program is implemented, the total amount of payments made under the incentive program must not exceed 9% of the total reimbursements made to hospitals in the previous state fiscal year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the department of health care policy and financing, in coordination with the department of human services and the department of early childhood (state departments), to contract with a single county department of human or social services to administer a centralized member integrity service to conduct fraud investigations concerning eligibility for medicaid, the children's basic health plan, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, the Colorado child care assistance program, temporary assistance for needy families, and adult financial programs (public assistance programs), and benefit overpayments. The act creates the centralized member integrity service cash fund consisting of money recouped from member fraud investigations. The centralized member integrity service must be operational and utilized on July 1, 2027. On or before February 1, 2027, the act requires the state departments to establish aligned requirements for county departments of human or social services (county departments) to comply with through a performance-based contract established between the state departments and each county department. Prior to February 1, 2027, the state departments shall draft templates of the performance-based contract with the county departments for review and comment. On or before July 1, 2027, the state departments shall enter into a performance-based contract with each county department. The performance-based contract must establish requirements for the state departments and county departments to comply with in administering public assistance programs and establish corrective action protocols that are consistently utilized by the state departments. On or before September 1, 2026, the act requires the state departments to work together, and in consultation with the county departments, to establish a continuous quality improvement process to review data reported to the state departments by the county departments. The state departments must annually submit a report to the joint budget committee that includes an update on the continuous quality improvement process and data on the impact of the continuous quality improvement process. Beginning January 2027, and monthly thereafter, the state departments must establish a single, shared online dashboard used to publish county-level and statewide performance data for the public assistance programs on a monthly basis. This data must be published on each of the state department's website's in a publicly accessible format. Beginning July 1, 2028, the state departments must oversee a streamlined public benefits delivery model that consists of up to 12 cohorts of counties in the state that will coordinate public assistance program eligibility and distribute case processing work. The state departments shall enter into performance-based contracts with each cohort for administering a new public benefits delivery model to ensure public assistance programs are administered consistently and uniformly across the state. On or before July 1, 2026, the state departments must contract with a third-party contractor to help the state departments and county departments develop and implement a plan for transitioning to the new public benefits delivery model. The act establishes an implementation work group comprised of representatives of counties, the governor's office, the state departments, and nongovernmental organizations, to work with the third-party contractor to develop and implement the transition plan. The transition plan must be delivered to the joint budget committee by January 1, 2027. The act establishes the state cross-departmental policy alignment team to align the policies of the public assistance programs to improve service delivery and outcomes for recipients of public assistance benefits. The act makes a household eligible for fuel assistance payments if the household has not received low-income energy assistance program assistance in the previous 12 months and if it is eligible for the standard utility allowance under federal law. The act requires the department of health care policy and financing to certify to the department of revenue information regarding persons who are obligated to the state for overpayment of medicaid benefits and sets forth the process for distributing money withheld from a person's tax refund owed for overpayment of benefits. To implement the act, it includes appropriations from the general fund and various cash funds to the department of health care policy and financing, the department of human services, and the department of early childhood. The act appropriates money to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology and to the department of law from reappropriated money received by other departments. The act decreases the appropriation from the federal child care development funds made in the annual general appropriation act for the 2026-27 state fiscal year to the department of early childhood for intrastate child care assistance program redistribution by $222,598.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act updates the 'Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act' (act) with amendments to the act adopted by the Uniform Law Commission by:Defining 'Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act' for purposes of the act;Requiring the filing of a Hart-Scott-Rodino form with the Colorado attorney general (AG) within one business day after filing with the federal government (rather than contemporaneously);Requiring the AG to provide a secure means to accept and store materials they receive under the act;When receiving information from the attorney general of another state that has also enacted the act, requiring the AG to provide assurances to the other attorney general that the AG will maintain the confidentiality of the documents or information they receive;Requiring the AG to destroy or return the materials submitted to them within 120 days after the close of the transaction subject to disclosure under the act or the conclusion of any legal proceeding directly related to the transaction subject to disclosure under the act, whichever is later; andRequiring the AG to provide written notice and a 3-day period to cure before imposing civil penalties against a person for noncompliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino form filing requirements.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, the general fund reserve requirement is equal to 15% of the amount appropriated for expenditure from the general fund for that fiscal year minus:The difference between $100,000,000 and the proceeds of the sale of insurance premium and corporate tax credits that are credited to the health insurance affordability cash fund; andUnless money held in an escrow account in connection with the university of northern Colorado's college of osteopathic medicine is released, an additional $41,250,000. The act lowers the reserve requirement to 13% for state fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27 and then raises it back to 15% for state fiscal years 2027-28 and later.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, the state treasurer is required to transfer $10.5 million from the general fund to the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund every July 1 beginning on July 1, 2024, and ending on July 1, 2031. The act eliminates this annual transfer only for 2026, 2027, and 2028. The act decreases the cash funds appropriation from the multimodal transportation and mitigation options fund created in the annual general appropriation act for the 2026-27 state fiscal year made to the department of transportation for multimodal transportation projects by $10.5 million.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act repeals the office of the judicial discipline ombudsman, effective July 1, 2027, which was established in 2023 to act as an independent and confidential advisor on judicial discipline procedures and workplace culture.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the state treasurer to transfer money from certain cash funds to the general fund. On June 12, 2026, the state treasurer is required to transfer $16,747 from the local governmental entity backfill cash fund to the general fund. On June 28, 2026, the state treasurer is required to transfer $5.3 million from the school and child care clean drinking water fund to the general fund. On June 30, 2026, the state treasurer is required to transfer the following amounts to the general fund:$1,057,001 from the scale-up grant fund;$796,959 from the qualified apprenticeship intermediary grant fund;$200,000 from the immediate payment fund;$500,000 from the Colorado uninsured employer fund;$750,000 from the records and reports fund;$9.2 million from the kickstarter program master account, in consultation with collegeinvest;$200,000 from the electronic recording technology fund;$250,000 from the tobacco settlement defense account within the tobacco litigation settlement cash fund;$1 million from the Colorado bureau of investigation identification unit fund;$11 million from the information technology revolving fund;$10 million from the technology risk prevention and response fund;$15 million from the small business recovery and resiliency fund;$1 million from the supplemental state contribution fund;The unexpended and unencumbered balance of the controlled maintenance trust fund;$1 million from the account for the department of public safety within the indirect costs excess recovery fund;$800,000 from the unused state-owned real property fund;$5.4 million from the supplier database cash fund;$215,000 from the fixed-wing and rotary-wing ambulances cash fund;$5,162,373 from the community impact cash fund;$3 million from the mobile home park water quality fund; $7,252,996 from the severance tax operational fund; and$19.4 million from the local government severance tax fund. On July 1, 2026, the state treasurer is required to transfer the following amounts to the general fund:$400,000 from the peace officers behavioral health support and community partnership fund;$117,551 from the child care facility development cash fund;$427,113 from the multidisciplinary crime prevention and crisis intervention grant fund;$111,191 from the law enforcement workforce recruitment, retention, and tuition grant fund;$686,890 from the state's mission for assistance in recruiting and training (SMART) policing grant fund;$15 million from the 'Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act' cash fund; andAn amount equal to the unexpended and unencumbered balance of the electrifying school buses grant program cash fund minus $799,200. On June 30, 2027, the state treasurer is required to transfer the following amounts to the general fund:$20 million from the information technology revolving fund;The unexpended and unencumbered balance of the decarbonization tax credits administration cash fund; $5 million from the community impact cash fund;$11,150,000 from the severance tax operational fund; and$27.3 million from the local government severance tax fund. On June 30, 2027, and on each June 30 thereafter through June 30, 2033, the state treasurer is required to transfer $400,000 from the mobile home park resident empowerment loan and grant program fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act repeals the teacher recruitment education and preparation program (TREP) after the 2026-27 budget year. The act repeals the teacher recruitment and preparation program and pathways in early technology early college high schools working group on July 1, 2027. On July 1, 2026, the act requires the state treasurer to transfer $799,200 from the electrifying school buses grant program cash fund to the state education fund. The general assembly declares that TREP may receive funding from the state education fund. For the 2026-27 state fiscal year, the act caps the amount that a district receives for a student participating in TREP under the school finance formulas at $7,104. The act increases the cash fund appropriation to the department of education for state share of districts' total program funding and decreases the cash fund appropriation for extended high school in the 2026-27 long bill in order to fund TREP for the 2026-27 state fiscal year. The amount of the changes is contingent on whether House Bill 26-1364, concerning the calculation of the consumer price index for the 2025 calendar year, becomes law.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
If an audit of a medicaid provider who provides nonemergency medical transportation services or pediatric behavioral therapy is initiated after July 1, 2026, for services provided from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2023, the act authorizes the department of health care policy and financing (HCPF) to determine and recover overpayments to a provider using statistical sampling and extrapolation. If an audit identifies a statistically significant pattern of alleged overpayments to a provider, the act authorizes the state auditor to use the same statistical sampling and extrapolation methods to audit services provided by the provider from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2025. If the audit identifies an alleged overpayment, HCPF is required to issue a notice of the alleged overpayment within 60 days after the alleged overpayment is identified. The notice of alleged overpayment must include the basis of the alleged overpayment, the rationale for the alleged overpayment, the methodology used to calculate the alleged overpayment, and information on how HCPF identified the alleged overpayment. If HCPF enters into a contract for the purpose of conducting an audit, the contract must not be a contingency-based contract based on a percentage of the amount of recovery collected from the provider. After HCPF completes an audit of a provider, the state auditor's office is required to conduct an examination to determine that proper statistical sampling and extrapolation methods were used by HCPF when determining whether overpayments were made to a provider. The state auditor shall annually present a report of the findings to the legislative audit committee and the joint budget committee. The act reduces the general fund appropriation to HCPF for medical and long-term care services for Medicaid-eligible individuals by $6,861,775 and increases the cash fund appropriation to HCPF for medical and long-term care services for Medicaid-eligible individuals by $13,723,550.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
