Committee backs bill letting municipal utilities keep unclaimed customer deposits for local assistance programs

The Colorado House Energy and Environment Committee voted unanimously to recommend Senate Bill 68, which clarifies how unclaimed customer utility deposits may be handled by municipally owned utilities and allows those funds to be used for local customer-assistance programs.

The bill’s sponsors said the measure aligns state statute with the Colorado Constitution and existing municipal practice. Representative Pascoe, a co-prime sponsor, told the committee that Colorado Springs Utilities relies on Article V, Section 35 of the Colorado Constitution to retain unclaimed deposits and to run local assistance programs. “This bill ... is an opportunity to get aligned constitutionally and to promote local control,” Pascoe said.

Why it matters: Sponsors and municipal utilities said the change preserves local control of municipally owned utilities while keeping safeguards so funds intended for low-income assistance still reach people in need. April Speak, Community Relations Supervisor at Colorado Springs Utilities, said the utility’s local program, Project COPE, is need-based and supplements the state’s Low‑Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP). “The average amount in unclaimed deposits over the last five years has been about $21,000,” Speak said, and Colorado Springs Utilities matched up to $500,000 and provided more than $1.72 million to over 2,400 customers through Project COPE in 2024.

Panel testimony and amendment: Daniel Hodges, executive director of the Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities, explained that 28 Colorado cities and towns operate municipal electric utilities and that those utilities and Energy Outreach Colorado (EOC) had discussed a mutual approach that lets municipal utilities either send their unclaimed deposits to EOC for statewide assistance or retain them for a local program. He said the bill’s amendment clarifies that the unclaimed‑deposit statute does not apply to municipal utilities in a way that would conflict with constitutional protections for municipal functions.

Committee action and next steps: An amendment (L001) clarifying that municipal unclaimed-deposit programs are harmonized with the uniform unclaimed property act and the state constitution was adopted by unanimous voice. Representative Pascal moved the bill as amended to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation; the committee reported the bill out unanimously. The committee did not record dissenting votes on the floor; the transcript recorded the committee’s action as “unanimous in favor.”

What remains unclear: Witnesses told the committee that EOC had no objections in conversations before the bill’s introduction and that municipal utilities and the Energy Office had been consulted, but committee members asked how much of EOC’s funding in practice originated from municipal utilities; sponsors said that precise statewide dollar amounts were not available during the hearing and referred questions to program experts.

The bill moves to the Committee of the Whole for further consideration.