Colorado Code
Article 40 - Initiative and Referendum
§ 1-40-124.5. Ballot Information Booklet

(1) (a) The director of research of the legislative council of the general assembly shall prepare a ballot information booklet for any initiated or referred constitutional amendment or legislation, including a question, as defined in section 1-41-102 (3), in accordance with section 1 (7.5) of article V of the state constitution.
(b) The director of research of the legislative council of the general assembly shall prepare a fiscal impact statement for every initiated or referred measure, taking into consideration fiscal impact information submitted by the office of state planning and budgeting, the department of local affairs or any other state agency, and any proponent or other interested person. The fiscal impact statement prepared for every measure shall be substantially similar in form and content to the fiscal notes provided by the legislative council of the general assembly for legislative measures pursuant to section 2-2-322. A complete copy of the fiscal impact statement for such measure shall be available through the legislative council of the general assembly. The ballot information booklet shall indicate whether there is a fiscal impact for each initiated or referred measure and shall abstract the fiscal impact statement for such measure. The abstract for every measure shall appear after the arguments for and against such measure in the analysis section of the ballot information booklet, and shall include, but shall not be limited to:
(I) An estimate of the effect the measure will have on state and local government revenues, expenditures, taxes, and fiscal liabilities if such measure is enacted;
(II) An estimate of the amount of any state and local government recurring expenditures or fiscal liabilities if such measure is enacted;
(III) For any initiated or referred measure that modifies the state tax laws, if the measure would either increase or decrease individual income tax revenue or state sales tax revenue, a table that shows the number of tax filers in each income category, the total tax burden change for each income category, and the average tax burden change for each filer within each income category. If the change in a tax burden shown in the table is an increase, the change must be expressed as a dollar amount preceded by a plus sign. If the change in a tax burden shown in the table is a decrease, the change must be expressed as a dollar amount preceded by a negative sign. The table must use the following income categories:
(A) Federal adjusted gross income of fourteen thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars or less;
(B) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to fifteen thousand dollars and less than thirty thousand dollars;
(C) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to thirty thousand dollars and less than forty thousand dollars;
(D) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to forty thousand dollars and less than fifty thousand dollars;
(E) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to fifty thousand dollars and less than seventy thousand dollars;
(F) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to seventy thousand dollars and less than one hundred thousand dollars;
(G) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to one hundred thousand dollars and less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars;
(H) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to one hundred fifty thousand dollars and less than two hundred thousand dollars;
(I) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to two hundred thousand dollars and less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars;
(J) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to two hundred fifty thousand dollars and less than five hundred thousand dollars;
(K) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to five hundred thousand dollars and less than one million dollars; and
(L) Federal adjusted gross income greater than or equal to one million dollars; and
(IV) If the measure contains a proposed tax change, as defined in section 1-40-106 (3)(i)(II), that reduces state tax revenue, a description of the three largest areas of program expenditure, as defined in section 1-40-106 (3)(i)(I).
(c) Repealed.
(d) The director of research of the legislative council of the general assembly may update the initial fiscal impact statement prepared in accordance with section 1-40-105.5 when preparing the fiscal impact statement required by this subsection (1).
(1.5) The executive committee of the legislative council of the general assembly shall be responsible for providing the fiscal information on any ballot issue that must be included in the ballot information booklet pursuant to section 1 (7.5)(c) of article V of the state constitution.
(1.7) (a) After receiving written comments from the public in accordance with section 1 (7.5)(a)(II) of article V of the state constitution, but before the draft of the ballot information booklet is finalized, the director of research of the legislative council of the general assembly shall conduct a public meeting at which the director and other members of the legislative staff have the opportunity to ask questions that arise in response to the written comments. The director may modify the draft of the booklet in response to comments made at the hearing. The legislative council may modify the draft of the booklet upon the two-thirds affirmative vote of the members of the legislative council.
(b) (I) Each person submitting written comments in accordance with section 1 (7.5)(a)(II) of article V of the state constitution shall provide his or her name and the name of any organization the person represents or is affiliated with for purposes of making the comments.
(II) The arguments for and against each measure in the analysis section of the ballot information booklet shall be preceded by the phrase: "For information on those issue committees that support or oppose the measures on the ballot at the (date and year) election, go to the Colorado secretary of state's elections center website hyperlink for ballot and initiative information (appropriate secretary of state website address).".
(2) Following completion of the ballot information booklet, the director of research shall arrange for its distribution to every residence of one or more active registered electors in the state. Distribution may be accomplished by such means as the director of research deems appropriate to comply with section 1 (7.5) of article V of the state constitution, including, but not limited to, mailing the ballot information booklet to electors and insertion of the ballot information booklet in newspapers of general circulation in the state. The distribution shall be performed pursuant to a contract or contracts bid and entered into after employing standard competitive bidding practices including, but not limited to, the use of requests for information, requests for proposals, or any other standard vendor selection practices determined to be best suited to selecting an appropriate means of distribution and an appropriate contractor or contractors. The executive director of the department of personnel shall provide such technical advice and assistance regarding bidding procedures as deemed necessary by the director of research.
(3) (a) There is hereby established in the state treasury the ballot information publication and distribution revolving fund. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection (3), moneys shall be appropriated to the fund each year by the general assembly in the annual general appropriation act. All interest earned on the investment of moneys in the fund shall be credited to the fund. Moneys in the revolving fund are continuously appropriated to the legislative council of the general assembly to pay the costs of publishing the text and title of each constitutional amendment, each initiated or referred measure, or part of a measure, and the text of a referred or initiated question arising under section 20 of article X of the state constitution, as defined in section 1-41-102 (3), in at least one legal publication of general circulation in each county of the state, as required by section 1-40-124, and the costs of distributing the ballot information booklet, as required by subsection (2) of this section. Any moneys credited to the revolving fund and unexpended at the end of any given fiscal year shall remain in the fund and shall not revert to the general fund.
(b) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, any moneys appropriated from the general fund to the legislative department of the state government for the fiscal year commencing on July 1, 2007, that are unexpended or not encumbered as of the close of the fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund and shall be transferred by the state treasurer and the controller to the ballot information publication and distribution revolving fund created in paragraph (a) of this subsection (3); except that the amount so transferred shall not exceed five hundred thousand dollars.
(c) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, any moneys appropriated from the general fund to the legislative department of the state government for the fiscal year commencing on July 1, 2008, that are unexpended or not encumbered as of the close of the fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund and shall be transferred by the state treasurer and the controller to the ballot information publication and distribution revolving fund created in paragraph (a) of this subsection (3).
(d) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, any moneys appropriated from the general fund to the legislative department of the state government for the fiscal year commencing on July 1, 2009, that are unexpended or not encumbered as of the close of the fiscal year and that are in excess of the amount of one million forty-two thousand dollars shall not revert to the general fund and shall be transferred by the state treasurer and the controller to the ballot information publication and distribution revolving fund created in paragraph (a) of this subsection (3); except that the amount so transferred shall not exceed one million one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred seven dollars.
(e) Notwithstanding any provision of this subsection (3) to the contrary, on August 11, 2010, the state treasurer shall deduct one million one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred seven dollars from the ballot information publication and distribution revolving fund and transfer such sum to the redistricting account within the legislative department cash fund.
Source: L. 94: Entire section added, p. 1688, § 2, effective January 19, 1995. L. 96: (2) amended, p. 1511, § 35, effective July 1. L. 97: (3) added, p. 384, § 1, effective April 19. L. 2000: (1) and (3) amended and (1.5) added, p. 298, § 4, effective August 2; (1) amended, p. 1623, § 8, effective August 2. L. 2001: (1) amended, p. 223, § 1, effective August 8. L. 2004: (3) amended, p. 410, § 3, effective April 8. L. 2005: (3)(a) amended, p. 759, § 6, effective June 1; (1)(c) repealed and (1.7) added, p. 1371, §§ 2, 1, effective June 6. L. 2007: (3)(b) amended, p. 2124, § 2, effective April 11. L. 2008: (3)(b) amended, p. 2325, § 2, effective April 7. L. 2009: (3)(c) added, (SB 09-224), ch. 441, p. 2445, § 2, effective March 20. L. 2010: (3)(d) added, (HB 10-1367), ch. 430, p. 2240, § 2, effective April 15; (3)(e) added, (HB 10-1210), ch. 352, p. 1639, § 14, effective August 11; (1.7) amended, (HB 10-1370), ch. 270, p. 1240, § 3, effective January 1, 2011. L. 2015: (1)(d) added, (HB 15-1057), ch. 198, p. 679, § 6, effective March 26, 2016. L. 2021: IP(1)(b), (1)(b)(II), and (1)(b)(III) amended and (1)(b)(IV) added, (HB 21-1321), ch. 474, p. 3397, § 4, effective July 7.
Editor's note: (1) Section 5 of chapter 284, Session Laws of Colorado 1994, provided that the act enacting this section was effective on the date of the proclamation of the Governor announcing the approval, by the registered electors of the state, of Senate Concurrent Resolution 94-005, enacted at the Second Regular Session of the Fifty-ninth General Assembly. The date of the proclamation of the Governor announcing the approval of Senate Concurrent Resolution 94-005 was January 19, 1995.
(2) Amendments to subsection (1) by Senate Bill 00-172 and House Bill 00-1304 were harmonized.
Cross references: (1) For the legislative declaration in the 2010 act amending subsection (1.7), see section 1 of chapter 270, Session Laws of Colorado 2010.
(2) For the short title ("Ballot Measure Fiscal Transparency Act of 2021") in HB 21-1321, see section 1 of chapter 474, Session Laws of Colorado 2021.