Opinion ID: 1128329
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pueblo County Public Assistance Expenses

Text: The events precipitating the public assistance deficit in Pueblo County's 1981 fiscal year budget began in 1979. In fiscal year 1979, Pueblo County imposed a public assistance levy of 5.3 mills. Funds from the property tax revenues generated by this levy, certain other taxes, [8] and reliance upon $13,271,115 from state sources, including approximately $740,000 from the county contingency fund, constituted the sources from which Pueblo County's $15,916,675 public assistance costs were to be funded. However, the General Assembly did not appropriate enough money for the county contingency fund to permit the Department to pay all counties the full amounts to which they were entitled according to the formula in section 26-1-126(3) of the Code. Thus, during its fiscal year 1979 Pueblo County received approximately $22,000 less in county contingency fund payments than had been expected. [9] The Department's 1979 County Budget Letter predicted a controversial legislative session in 1980 because the rate of inflation at that time exceeded the permitted rate of growth in government spending. The letter anticipated increases in various public assistance program expenses at seven percent generally, but contained no prediction regarding the adequacy of funding for the county contingency fund. However, in the fiscal 1980-1981 budget the General Assembly again failed to appropriate sufficient sums to cover the total county contingency fund obligations due eligible counties under the section 26-1-126(3) formula. As a result, Pueblo County received $65,000 less from the county contingency fund than had been projected for the county's 1980 fiscal year. The 1980 County Budget Letter sent to all counties by the Department predicted that legislative funding for the county contingency fund in 1981 would be insufficient and counseled counties to plan on receiving no more than 90% of claims against the contingency fund. The letter also predicted a net increase in program caseloads and warned that, because the General Assembly had previously rejected requests for supplemental appropriations to the county contingency fund, it was unlikely to approve such a request during the coming year. Pueblo County prepared its fiscal 1981 budget on the assumption that during 1981 it would recover 100% of the county contingency fund advancements to which it would be entitled under the formula established by section 26-1-126(3). Pueblo County received a separate letter in 1980 from the Department concerning funding for the foster care program in 1981. This letter stated that [n]o county will be reimbursed more than its allocation for foster care and cautioned the county to budget carefully. The county, however, paid more than its total foster care allocation that year. In 1980, anticipating a total expenditure of $23,300,000 for public assistance programs in its fiscal year 1981, as compared to expenses of $19,500,000 during fiscal year 1980, the Board sought permission, pursuant to section 26-1-125(3) of the Code, to increase its public assistance mill levy. The increase requested, 1.0 mill, was approved by the Division of Local Government, raising Pueblo County's public assistance levy to 6.3 mills. The County simultaneously received permission to increase its levy for other county services by .44 mill. [10] The county also imposed a wage and hiring freeze and laid off forty-one employees in other departments in an attempt to reduce overall expenses. In March 1981, the Board received a letter from the Department stating that the appropriation for the county contingency fund was less adequate than previously anticipated. The letter announced that advancements from the fund in March would be reduced to seventy-five percent of the amount claimed and that no further sums would be available from the county contingency fund for the remainder of that state fiscal year. In fact, the appropriations for that fund were later determined to be adequate to meet only seventy-five percent of the total annual amounts due the counties under the formula established by section 26-1-126 of the Code. The shortage in anticipated county contingency fund advancements for Pueblo County was $235,845. By the end of county fiscal year 1981, Pueblo County's total public assistance deficit stood at approximately $539,000. In May 1981, the Board determined that all available funds for public assistance programs in the county would be exhausted prior to the end of the year. It then notified the Department that all Social Services operations would be terminated in the county on November 1, 1981. When meetings among officials of the Department and the Board failed to resolve the funding dilemma, the Department, on August 18,1981, ordered the Board to continue to provide full assistance payments and... social services and filed this action seeking judicial enforcement of its directive. [11] The complaint also sought an order requiring the Board to expend such funds as might be necessary to administer public assistance programs in the county. The Board filed its answer and counterclaim, and Corsentino intervened to press his constitutional challenges to the Code.