In cash-strapped Colorado, lawmakers tap an unorthodox pot of money for priorities. But is it too risky?

Facing a billion budget gap this year Colorado lawmakers turned to a source of money they had mostly ignored for the past several years to pay for a few priorities the unclaimed property trust fund The legislature looks poised to tap the fund for two bills in the waning days of the legislative session even as critics chief among them Treasurer Dave Young argue against drawing from a fund made up of lost money not taxes to cover the cost of ruling body services The trust fund holds money from Coloradans old savings accounts unpaid wages insurance payouts and other cash lost on the way to its rightful owners The treasurer s office has a long-running campaign to return that money called the Great Colorado Payback The fund accounts for chosen billion that doesn t belong to the state but it nonetheless has proven a tempting a source for a constantly cash-strapped legislature Over the past two decades lawmakers have pulled more than million from the trust fund to pay for programs according to the treasurer s office and not a single penny has been paid back That s left it with about billion in cash and about billion in liabilities That deficit could grow A bill that would give safety-net wellbeing care facilities a lifeline following the pandemic and another supporting fire departments across the state could add chosen million to that debt if lawmakers pass them by the end of the legislative session on Wednesday A third bill also sought to tap into the fund but it died in committee Monday It s not a tax fund It s a trust fund commented Young a Democrat There indeed aren t any taxes in this though there might be chosen tax refunds that have gotten trapped in there The importance of the programs justifies the unorthodox budget move backers of the bills stated especially when lawmakers spent the year making deep cuts to state spending It s a tight budget year so we re looking everywhere to fund things noted Sen Barbara Kirkmeyer a sponsor of the medical care bill and a member of the Joint Budget Committee There are certain services we have to provide as a leadership and that s things people can t do for themselves We have to look into it Helping safety-net hospitals Senate Bill would use the trust fund loan to seed an account to help keep safety-net hospitals afloat throughout Colorado with matching money provided by state hospitals and the federal administration The bill aims to backstop critical vitality care infrastructure while saving Medicaid money by treating people before their ailments progress into costlier hospital stays That helps put the proposal in a class of its own in the view of Kirkmeyer a Brighton Republican She also emphasized that the bill taps the money as a loan not as a simple cash grab The proposal might be well intentioned but it still creates unnecessary pitfall Young disclosed The general fund will have to repay the loans if the trust fund ever falters and more existentially tapping it could disincentivize companies from depositing lost money to the state They too could argue they re investing the money in critical programs while holding onto it for its rightful owners he noted Loans from the fund often don t pass the smell test because of the terms written into law Young announced The loans tend to be interest-free with a single bulk repayment when they re due decades from now and no repayment plan I don t think anyone could go to a bank and get a deal like that Young announced I don t think anyone could get a mortgage and say We ll pay it back in years in one lump sum with zero interest Sen Jeff Bridges the chair of the budget committee revealed the use of the fund for loans instead of direct spending made him somewhat less uncomfortable though still deeply uncomfortable given the state s budget situation Still he commented people should assume the loans will be forgiven instead of paid back by future lawmakers We have to be cautious The fund generally collects more money every year than it doles out stated Bridges a Greenwood Village Democrat even as he praised Young for the campaign to connect people with lost money Given the state s fiscal problems the bills tapping the fund this year didn t bother him though he warned that this can t be a pattern that continues We have to be thoughtful we have to be cautious Bridges who is running for treasurer in stated But for what s running this year I think the fund can handle those expenditures Young cautioned that new avenues of reuniting people with money along with a more proactive approach to finding folks who have lost cash in the fund make it hard to calculate how much money the state could deem truly lost and unclaimable The really assertive way the band has gone about using tools and finding people has made it hard to judge We really want to get people those asserts Young explained Related Articles Live updates Executives react to killed AI bill hospitals-pharma fight nears end immigrant protections finalized Colorado House advances labor bill after negotiations collapse with business leaders Gov Jared Polis Colorado House passes immigrant protection bill amid new Trump lawsuit against state Is Colorado inviting Trump s retribution Plus book removals in schools and more from the legislature Live updates Lawmakers debate whether Colorado is inviting Trump s retribution with immigration bill Pulling money from the lost property trust fund has caused various breaks in the Democratic caucus Rep Brianna Titone an Arvada Democrat has railed against bills looking to tap into the fund and supported pushing one bill back to committee to change it She like Bridges is running for treasurer next year There are arguments on both sides including that the money is just sitting there Titone mentioned But I don t view it that way I view this as other people s property and we should be treating it as such The debate also shows the complexity of state funding Rep Andrew Boesenecker a Fort Collins Democrat is sponsoring House Bill The bill would tap into the trust fund to create a revolving loan fund for local fire departments Those entities are now bearing the brunt of latest property tax cuts approved by the legislature moves that in turn put other types of property at liability We obviously have an obligation to protect people keep property safe wherever we can Boesenecker commented But that comes at a cost and so multiple of our fire prevention districts are already strapped so that revolving loan fund and zero-interest loan fund are critical there Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot