DOLA outlines reductions, seeks CORA administrator and defends transfers amid budget gap

Representative Sirota opened the Smart Act hearing by telling the committee the session exists to consider the governor’s budget submission and the difficult choices it contains: “We are fulfilling our joint rule 25 obligation,” she said, and warned members the administration’s proposal is meant to close an $850 million structural gap.

Representative Brown and DOLA staff then walked lawmakers through department-specific requests. DOLA’s top priority was a permanent Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) administrator: a roughly $61,000 general-fund request to fund half of a full-time equivalent to manage a sharply growing caseload. DOLA Chief Financial Officer Jeff Alexander framed the ask in fiscal context: “DOLA’s general fund is only 0.4% of the state's total general fund,” but the department says CORA demands rose from about 408 in 2024 to more than 5,120 in 2025 and that dedicated capacity is required to meet statutory response times.

DOLA also described several reductions and transfers intended to help balance state finances in a tight year. The department proposed a recurring transfer of $400,000 annually from the mobile-home-park loan and grant fund for seven years, a one-time $400,000 transfer from its peace-officer behavioral health fund for mental-health grants, a roughly $100,000 reduction in payments to the state IT office, and an early repeal or pause of a childcare facility development grant that would eliminate about $250,000 in year one and transfer an estimated $117,000 in unspent balances.

Several members pressed DOLA about equity and local impacts. Representative Basenecker warned that mobile-home park residents include veterans, people with disabilities and very low-income households and asked whether taking $400,000 from a program tied to park preservation would blunt support for acquisitions. Director Maria de Cambra said the department would follow up with more detailed data and argued that, given the price of many park acquisitions, a $400,000 annual transfer would not be transformative but could be used for technical assistance or modest acquisition support.

The severance-tax transfer drew sustained concern. Committee members sought clarity on a proposed $10 million move of local-severance-tax dollars into the general fund; DOLA and JBC staff said the governor’s request would take severance-related energy impact fund dollars (severance, not mineral royalties) in a one-year move under the TABOR cap. Senator Kirk Meyer and others urged DOLA to consult local governments and stakeholders about the fiscal hit to counties and special districts.

DOLA also flagged an administration request involving Prop 123 (the affordable-housing finance fund). During the department’s remarks de Cambra described a Prop 123-related diversion proposed in the supplemental package; later OEDIT presenters described a related but not identical JBC request (S02) that would divert $110 million from AHFF to the general fund in FY 2026–27. DOLA and OEDIT emphasized that awards already made will not be clawed back but that the potential diversion would reduce future program capacity.

On operational improvements, DOLA highlighted faster contracting and program changes meant to speed housing delivery — reporting a fall in contracting execution times from roughly 240 days to 126 days overall and to 33 days when excluding borrower time — and pilots to shorten permit and plan review using AI with several local-government partners.

Next steps: staff agreed to provide additional district-level breakdowns, follow up on mobile-home-park funding questions, and supply data on CORA caseload composition. The committee recessed after DOLA’s presentation and moved on to hear OEDIT and CHFA on Prop 123 implementation.