Opinion ID: 1128329
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overview of Public Assistance

Text: Prior to statehood, the territory's county governments were charged by various legislative provisions with the responsibility of providing relief to poor persons who either had no relatives in the territory or whose relatives could not or would not support them. See Ch. 68, C.R.S. (1868) (chapter entitled Paupers). These provisions continued in force upon the admission of Colorado into the Union. See Colo. Const. sched. § 1 (1876); ch. 76, Colo.Gen.Laws (1877). Indeed, substantially similar provisions remained in effect until 1981. See §§ 30-17-101 to -117, 12 C.R.S. (1977), repealed and reenacted by Ch. 367, §§ 30-17-101 to -206, 1981 Colo.Sess.Laws 1451. The reenacted provisions deleted all language requiring county responsibility for public assistance programs, except for the obligation to provide burial services for indigent persons. See §§ 30-17-102, -104, 12 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.). The state first assumed some responsibility for public assistance programs in response to the economic environment engendered by the Great Depression. In 1933, the General Assembly created a state relief committee and declared that providing the necessaries of life was a State, County, City and Town purpose. Ch. 51, sec. 1, 1933 Colo.Sess.Laws 385 (codified at ch. 141, § 2, 4A Colo.Stat.Ann. (1949)). At an extraordinary session, the General Assembly reaffirmed that relief served both a state and county purpose and expressly provided that adoption of the new legislation did not relieve counties of their former duties under the Paupers statute. See Ch. 15, § 1, 1933-34, Colo.Sess.Laws 71 (2d Ex.Sess.) (codified at ch. 141, § 1, 4A Colo. Stat.Ann. (1949)). In response to the passage by the federal congress of the Social Security Act in 1935, Pub.L. No. 74-271, 49 Stat. 620 (codified, as amended, at 42 U.S.C. § 301, et seq. (1982)), the General Assembly enacted the Welfare Organization Act of 1936. See ch. 5, 1936 Colo.Sess.Laws 27 (2d Ex.Sess.) (codified, as amended, at ch. 141, §§ 13 to 29, 4A Colo.Stat.Ann. (1949)). This act created state and county welfare departments and established a pattern of joint state and county funding responsibility together with general state control over public assistance programs, including federally assisted programs. See id. See generally Colorado Legislative Council, Report to the Colorado General Assembly: Public Assistance Administration, Research Pub. No. 135 (Nov. 1968). The present version of the Code retains much of the structure first announced by its depression era predecessors. It establishes the duties of the state and county departments of social services; [4] grants authority to the executive director of the Department to issue rules governing the internal administration of both state and county departments; and authorizes the State Board of Social Services, a component body of the Department, to issue rules governing the scope and content of programs, the rights and responsibilities of persons affected by such programs, and the fiscal and personnel administration of the county departments. § 26-1-108(1), (2), 11 C.R.S. (1982). Furthermore, the State Board of Social Services, by rule, has authority to establish minimum personnel standards and qualifications, which rules govern the employment of support staff. Id. §§ 26-1-108(2), -119, -122; Dempsey v. City & County of Denver, 649 P.2d 726 (Colo.App. 1982). The Department's rules and regulations are binding on the several county departments. § 26-1-108(2), 11 C.R.S. (1982). Colorado State Board of Social Services v. Billings, 175 Colo. 380, 487 P.2d 1110 (1971). Some decisions, however, remain within the authority of county departments, such as the choice of county director, whether certain specialized training shall be given to county department employees, and whether certain optional specialized programs should be adopted. §§ 26-1-117(1), -118(8), -122(4)(e), 11 C.R.S. (1982). It is clear, however, that the county social services departments are agents of the State Department. Id. § 26-1-118(1); Board of County Commissioners v. State Board of Social Services, 186 Colo. 435, 528 P.2d 244 (1974). The federal government, the state and the counties contribute funds to public assistance programs in Colorado. Section 26-1-109(2)(a) authorizes the Department, with the written approval of the governor and the attorney general, to accept federal funds for public assistance programs under the terms and conditions of applicable federal statutes. To obtain federal aid for such programs as aid to the blind, families with dependent children (AFDC), the needy disabled and the elderly, the state program must operate in and be mandatory for all political subdivisions of the state. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 302(a)(1), 602(a)(1), 1202(a)(1) and 1352(a)(1) (1982). The federal share of financing for various public assistance programs ranges generally from fifty percent to ninety percent, depending on the nature of the expenditure and the type of the program. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 303(a)(1), (4)(B) (fifty percent of certain old age assistance expenditures); 42 U.S.C. § 603(a)(3)(B) (ninety percent of AFDC program costs). Other special federal assistance programs may be one hundred percent federally funded. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 8623(a)(1)(B) (1982) (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LEAP)). The federal monies received by the state are held separately from state funds. The Code designates the state treasurer as ex officio custodian of these funds and authorizes the treasurer to disburse such funds for their designated purposes. See § 26-1-109(2)(b), (c), 11 C.R.S. (1982). These federal monies are included within the calculation of the state's share of public assistance costs, which is eighty percent of overall program and administrative costs. Id. § 26-1-122(3)(b), (4)(b). [5] The counties are also responsible for certain expenses of public assistance, not to exceed twenty percent. Id. § 26-1-122(1). [6] The budget and appropriation processes for state and county public assistance program budgets are well established. The state fiscal year commences July 1 annually. § 24-30-204, 10 C.R.S. (1982). The Department begins work on its budget in the July preceding the next state fiscal year. The Department considers a variety of data in assessing state welfare needs, including actual expenses incurred in previous and current years and various indicators of general economic and social conditions. The budget contains separate funding requests for each program and fund. It must be submitted to the State Office of Planning and Budget by October 1, and, as modified there, is presented as part of the overall state budget to the General Assembly in December. Legislative committees hold hearings on the budget, which is eventually approved by the General Assembly prior to the commencement of the fiscal year. The General Assembly is required to make adequate appropriations for public assistance based upon the budget submitted by the Department. § 26-1-121(1)(a), 11 C.R.S. (1982). In the event the initial appropriation fails to meet the costs of public assistance programs, the General Assembly may supplement appropriations to redress the imbalance. See Colo. Const. art. V, § 32. Any unobligated and unexpended balances in state funds are credited to the general fund. Id. § 26-1-121(2). Upon approval of its annual budget, usually near the July 1 date upon which the state fiscal year begins, the Department sends a County Budget Letter to each board of county commissioners. The letter includes projected fluctuations in caseloads, rate increases for programs and facilities, and provides estimates of the adequacy of the appropriations adopted by the General Assembly for the programs established by the Code. Because the counties employ a fiscal year based on the calendar year, see section 29-1-103(1), 12 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.), and typically begin their budgeting process in the fall of each year, each county is aware of the Department's appropriated budget for the first six months of the county's next fiscal year and has some indication of the Department's budget priorities for the remainder of the county's next fiscal year well in advance of the commencement of the county budgetary process. The public assistance budget prepared by each county in the fall must be submitted to the Department for review before it may be adopted by a board of county commissioners as part of the county's overall budget. § 26-1-124, 11 C.R.S. (1982). [7] The Department neither approves nor disapproves preliminary county budgets; it uses these budgets as an aid in monitoring the adequacy of present and future state budgets. The Code requires the board of county commissioners of each county to include in the annual county tax levy sums sufficient to defray the total costs of that county's public assistance programs, up to a maximum of twenty percent of such costs. Id. § 26-1-122(1). The sums derived from the tax levy, together with the appropriate state and federal funds advanced to each county by the state treasurer upon warrants issued pursuant to vouchers from the Department, are deposited in a county social services fund in each county for payment of program and administrative costs. Sums are disbursed from that fund, upon proper warrants, by the director of the county program to appropriate programs and to eligible recipients. See id. §§ 26-1-109(2)(c), -122(4)(b). Two particular aspects of the public assistance financing scheme bear special explanationfoster care funding under section 19-3-120, 8 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.), and the county contingency fund established by section 26-1-126, 11 C.R.S. (1982). The Children's Code requires the State Board of Social Services to adopt a method for allocating funds for foster care. The Children's Code also provides that no county may exceed its particular allocation for foster care. § 19-3-120(1), 8 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.). Section 19-3-120(2)(d) and (e) provides that the Department shall reimburse a county department for eighty percent of the total county allocation as described in section 26-1-122. Thus, foster care is a fixed or capped program, where the total expenditures are limited, as compared to an entitlement program in which total costs depend primarily on the number of eligible recipients served. Section 26-1-126 creates a county contingency fund funded by the General Assembly. The Department is required to make advancements from this fund to counties qualifying for such payments. A county is eligible for payments from this fund if a 3.0 mill levy would provide less than that county's actual required share of public assistance costs. Section 26-1-126(3) provides a method for calculating the amount to be advanced each month to qualifying counties. Because data concerning actual expenditures in each county does not arrive at the Department until approximately two months after funds for a particular month have been advanced, in practice the Department authorizes advancements from this fund based upon estimated claims. The Department later recoups from or reimburses to the counties the amounts of prior advancements that have exceeded or fallen short of the actual amount to which a particular county was entitled.