Colorado voters will decide Tuesday whether to give state lawmakers more oversight over how federal grant money, private donations and other outside funding sources — known as “custodial” dollars — are spent.
Amendment 78 needs approval from 55% of voters to pass. Check this page after polls close at 7 p.m. for results.
The Colorado General Assembly has an appropriation process to decide how state tax revenue is spent each year, but custodial funds from outside the state government aren’t subject to that process.
For example, the $1.7 billion in federal relief dollars that Colorado received last year from the CARES Act, wasn’t subject to the legislative appropriation process. It was spent by Gov. Jared Polis’ office through an executive order, angering Republicans who complained they were left out of the decision making.
Proponents of the ballot measure say it would provide greater transparency and accountability to state spending by requiring lawmakers to determine how the state spends custodial money, which could affect federal emergency relief and grant dollars, money from legal settlements, funding for transportation projects that are currently allocated by an independent commission and private gifts and donations, like those collected by public colleges and universities.
The ballot measure would create an appropriation process where members of the public can provide input. It would also place all custodial funds into a centralized account, with interest from that account flowing into the state’s general fund.
Opponents argue it’s a political ploy to stymie a Democratic administration, and that it would create unnecessary work for lawmakers, who already review custodial spending broadly.
The legislature and state agencies would need to hire new employees, at a cost of nearly $1 million, to deal with new requirements created by the measure, according to nonpartisan legislative staff.
The Committee for Spending Transparency raised and spent nearly $1.3 million. Most of that cash went to collect signatures to get the measure on the ballot. All of the money came from the dark-money nonprofit Unite for Colorado, which doesn’t disclose its donors.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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