Court Opinion

ID: 9785805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:25:50.489667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:04.556876
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COATS,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority’s decision not to answer question number one, but because I am of the opinion that it should have exercised similar restraint with regard to question number two, I respectfully dissent.
The majority’s approach to both interrogatories makes clear its understanding that the nature of custodial funds, and therefore the scope of the Governor’s right and obligation to administer funds received from sources *1206outside the state, is not a matter of legislative prescription but rather one of constitutional interpretation. Despite implicitly acknowledging that legislation attempting to limit custodial moneys is necessarily ineffectual, and that the court’s answer to these interrogatories can affect no ongoing case or controversy, the majority seizes the opportunity to refine its concept of “custodial moneys” and, correspondingly, alter the relative powers of the three branches of government over spending. Its subtle, but to my mind radical, departure from existing law gives to the judicial branch an almost unlimited discretion to decide, in each individual case, whether moneys appropriated to the state by the federal government may be directly administered by the governor or must be further appropriated by the general assembly.
It is well-established in this jurisdiction that it is solely the prerogative of the legislature to appropriate state moneys, and likewise, it is solely the prerogative of the executive to administer moneys once appropriated. See Colorado General Assembly v. Lamm, 738 P.2d 1156 (Colo.1987); Colorado General Assembly v. Lamm, 700 P.2d 508 (Colo.1985); Anderson v. Lamm, 195 Colo. 437, 579 P.2d 620 (1978); MacManus v. Love, 179 Colo. 218, 499 P.2d 609 (1972). This duty of the executive extends to funds held in trust by the state, regardless of the source or government appropriating them. See MacManus, 179 Colo. at 221, 499 P.2d at 610. If funds are merely distributed to the state, and not designated for any purpose other than the general revenue, they clearly must be appropriated by the general assembly before they can be administered; however, if they are accompanied by directions for their use, it is the responsibility of the executive to see that they are applied to the purposes for which they were directed. See Lamm, 738 P.2d at 1169.
Until today, it has been accepted that the breadth or narrowness of the appropriation was a matter for the appropriating government — not the state legislature, unless the state legislature was itself the appropriating authority. The flexibility, or discretion, permitted the administering authority became an issue in our prior analyses only to the extent that such discretion could be used to contradict major legislative budgeting determinations or dramatically alter the objectives of the appropriating authority in making the appropriation in the first place. See Lamm, 738 P.2d at 1173. Thus, we have previously found that the governor’s transfer of funds from one executive department to another, despite arguable statutory' authority for doing so, violated the general assembly’s plenary power of appropriation. Lamm, 700 P.2d at 520.
Similarly, we have recognized that allowing the state the flexibility to transfer portions of federal block grants to uses other than those for which the grants were initially designated is not consistent with the governor’s authority to administer appropriated moneys. Lamm, 738 P.2d at 1173. This conclusion, however, did not result from any failure of the federal government to provide sufficient guidance for expenditure of the funds. We expressly found an inconsistency with the governor’s authority for the reason that such transfers alter the initial objectives of the federal government and affect the allocation of state funds for objectives similar to those affected by the transfer of block grant funds. Id. By pointedly separating our reference to “flexibility” from the rationale that gave it significance, the majority recasts our prior holdings into a concern for specificity of purpose and designates the judiciary as the sole arbiter of adequate specificity. See maj. op. at 1202 (quoting Lamm, 738 P.2d at 1173).
Although the court ostensibly gives its blessing to a statute excluding from the definition of “custodial moneys” any federal funds disbursed in the terms of the Jobs Act of 2003, it is clear from its rationale that the proposed statute is superfluous. The kind and degree of flexibility that are permissible, according to the majority rationale, will be determined by the courts, in the totality of the circumstances of each case, regardless of legislative action. While this court is constitutionally permitted to answer interrogatories from the legislature, it has always exercised its discretion to refuse such requests except upon solemn occasions, concerning matters of great importance. See Colo. Const, art. VI, § 3 (“The supreme court shall *1207give its opinion upon important questions upon solemn occasions when required by the governor, the senate, or the house of representatives. ...”); Board of County Comr’s v. County Road Users Assoc., 11 P.3d 432, 439 (Colo.2000)(The Colorado Constitution authorizes the supreme court to issue an advisory opinion “upon solemn occasions when required by the governor, the senate, or the house of representatives.”); In re Interrogatories, 111 Colo. 406, 407-408, 141 P.2d 899, 900 (1943); In re Senate Resolution Relating to Senate Bill No. 65, 12 Colo. 466, 468, 21 P. 478, 479 (1889)(The framers of our constitution specified that the supreme court jurisdiction should be exercised in other than purely appellate or supervisory circumstances only when relating to public rights and “propounded upon solemn occasions, and it must possess a peculiar or inherent importance not belonging to all questions of the kind”). In my opinion, having once decided that the legislature cannot constitutionally limit the authority of the executive to administer moneys appropriated from sources outside the state, the majority should have refused to answer the interrogatories, or at most, answered merely that the proposed legislative action is necessarily inconsequential in determining the scope of the executive’s constitutional authority.
Instead, in answering the interrogatory, the majority carves out a greater role for the judiciary in the spending process. While the courts may not themselves distribute federal funds given to the state, they will henceforth, on a case-by-case basis, decide whether the executive or the legislative branch will be entitled to that privilege. From this point on, the distribution of federal moneys to the states for particular, named purposes will not necessarily amount to an appropriation to be “administered” by the state. Rather, the courts must decide, based on all (but apparently not any specific or delineated) relevant factors and circumstances whether such federal directions are specific enough for the moneys to be treated as an appropriation to be “administered” or merely as an undesig-nated gift, requiring “appropriation” by the state.
By failing to recognize its departure from our prior holdings, the majority not only minimizes the judiciary’s increased power over federal grants; it also gratuitously criticizes the governor, suggesting that he exceeded his constitutional authority by spending more than a hundred million dollars in federal disbursements. For the reasons I have briefly outlined, I strongly disagree. To me it is clear that the governor and attorney general were right in concluding, at least until today, that these federal moneys were custodial in nature and were to be administered by the executive. Ironically, Congress’ choice to limit these federal funds to government services like those for which the state legislature had most recently made appropriations ensured that they could not be used to alter the objectives of either the state or federal government and thereby limited the discretion of the state administering authority precisely as required by our prior jurisprudence.
As a practical matter, I also fear that today’s holding will have the exact opposite effect of that envisioned by the general assembly’s proposed legislation, making it less rather than more clear whether future federal disbursements (except those using this identical formula) will be considered custodial moneys. Because I consider the majority’s answer to the second interrogatory to be an unjustified departure from our prior holdings construing the state constitution and because I believe it will work an unwise shift of power among the three branches of state government, I respectfully dissent.