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July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Legislative Council Staff
Nonpartisan Services for Colorado’s Legislature
Final Fiscal Note
Drafting Number:
Prime Sponsors:
LLS 22-1056
Sen. Fenberg; Moreno
Rep. Esgar
Date:
Bill Status:
Fiscal Analyst:
July 11, 2022
Signed into Law
Erin Reynolds | 303-866-4146
Erin.Reynolds@state.co.us
Bill Topic: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR COUNTIES
Summary of
Fiscal Impact:
☒ State Revenue
☒ State Expenditure
☐ State Transfer
☒ TABOR Refund
☒ Local Government
☐ Statutory Public Entity
The bill grants county employees the right to organize under a collective bargaining
unit in counties with populations over 7,500, not including city and counties.
The Department of Labor and Employment is required to manage petitions, elections,
and enforcement related to county collective bargaining. Beginning in FY 2022-23,
the bill increases state and local government expenditures on an ongoing basis, and
may minimally increase state revenue.
Appropriation
Summary:
For FY 2022-23, the bill requires and includes an appropriation of $326,092 to the
Department of Labor and Employment.
Fiscal Note
Status:
The final fiscal note reflects the enacted bill.
Table 1
State Fiscal Impacts Under SB 22-230
Budget Year
FY 2022-23
Out Year
FY 2023-24
Revenue
- -
Expenditures
General Fund $326,092 $466,328
Centrally Appropriated $93,624 $125,751
Total Expenditures $419,716 $592,079
Total FTE 2.8 FTE 4.3 FTE
Transfers - -
Other Budget Impacts General Fund Reserve $48,914 $69,949
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July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Summary of Legislation
The bill grants county employees in counties with populations over 7,500 the right to organize and
engage in the collective bargaining process, as well as the right to refrain from these activities.
Applicability. The bill applies to 38 of the state’s 64 counties. City and counties are excluded, which
includes Denver and Broomfield. Counties with populations under 7,500 are also excluded, which as
of writing include the following 24 counties: Baca, Bent, Cheyenne, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley,
Custer, Dolores, Gilpin, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Jackson, Kit Carson, Kiowa, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral,
Ouray, Phillips, Rio Blanco, Saguache, San Juan, Sedgwick, and Washington counties.
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Municipalities,
special districts, school districts, county hospitals, and political subdivisions operating transit systems
are excluded. County employees eligible to form bargaining units exclude confidential, managerial,
executive, and temporary employees (who work less than 90 days in a calendar year).
Exclusive representatives. “Exclusive representative” is defined to mean the employee organization
certified or recognized as the representative of county employees in a bargaining unit; the county and
the exclusive representative have the authority and obligation to collectively bargain in good faith.
County employer requirements. County employers are required to:
annually inform county employees in a bargaining unit who are represented by an exclusive
representative of their rights;
give the exclusive representative reasonable access to county employees at work;
provide quarterly reporting of employee data to the exclusive representative; and
make payroll deductions for voluntary membership dues and other authorized payments (with
cancel or change requests managed by the exclusive representative).
Unless otherwise agreed to by a county in a collective bargaining agreement, nothing in the bill
impairs a county from carrying out county business. Nothing in the bill prevents a county
commissioner from carrying out their duties or prevents a county from convening or engaging
discussions with employees.
Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. The Director of the Division of Labor Standards and
Statistics in the Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) is required to interpret, apply, and
administer the collective bargaining process for county employers through rulemaking, hearings, and
appeals. The CDLE must establish procedures for the designation of appropriate bargaining units;
the selection, certification, and decertification of exclusive representatives; and the filing, hearing, and
determination of complaints of unfair labor practices.
Exclusive representatives—petition and election process. Beginning July 1, 2023, the CDLE must
certify an employee organization as the exclusive representative of a county employee bargaining unit
once majority support is established through a secret ballot election. Employee organizations in
existence prior to this date and established through majority support must be deemed certified. The
bill outlines the process for elections, related timelines, and required hearings where disputes among
exclusive representation petitioners exists. The bill also outlines timelines and procedures for
objections to election conduct and the process for decertification of exclusive representation.
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State Demography Office (DOLA), County Population Spreadsheets: https://demography.dola.colorado.gov/assets/html/county.html. Page 3
July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Collective bargaining between a single county and an exclusive representative of more than one
bargaining unit of county employees must be consolidated upon request of the county.
Collective bargaining agreements. An agreement negotiated between an exclusive representative
and a county, with the approval of the Board of County Commissioners, constitutes the collective
bargaining agreement between the parties. Agreements must be for a term of at least 1 year and no
more than 5 years. The bill details what disciplinary and grievance processes may and may not be
included in an agreement. The exclusive representative and county must make a good faith effort to
complete negotiations so that the terms of a collective bargaining agreement may be effectively
considered by a Board of County Commissioners during the adoption of the county budget. The
Board of County Commissioners is not obligated to make an appropriations of funds necessary to
fund the terms of a collective bargaining agreement reached after October 15 of the year prior to the
budget year if the representative has not been certified prior to June 1 of the current year, unless
otherwise agreed to by both parties.
Impasse resolution and fact finding. If an impasse arises on one or more issues during the
negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement, the exclusive representative and the county shall
engage in and share the costs for the dispute resolution process established in the bill or an alternative
procedure established by mutual agreement. If the parties remain at an impasse following mediation,
either party may request fact finding in accordance with rules promulgated by the CDLE. The CDLE
is required to maintain a roster of qualified fact finders with credentials outlined in the bill. Unless
the parties otherwise agree, the fact finder will make a recommendation to accept the final offer of the
exclusive representative or the final offer of the county on each issue in dispute. In arriving at a
recommendation, the fact finder must consider financial ability of the county employer to meet costs,
public interest and welfare, comparable community's salary and benefits, and other factors outlined
in the bill.
Enforcement authority. The CDLE and hearing officers have the authority to enforce the bill through
appropriate administrative remedies, actual damages related to employee organization dues, back
pay, including benefits, reinstatement of the county employee, other remedies to address any loss
suffered from unlawful county conduct, and declaratory or injunctive relief or provisional remedies,
including temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions. The CDLE may request the
appropriate district court to enforce orders.
Publicly available information. The CDLE is required to post and maintain on its website the current
versions of this bill (Article 3.3), rules, all hearing officer decisions and orders, all final judgments and
written decisions of fact finders, and all administrative determinations of certification and
decertification of exclusive representatives.
Unfair labor practices. The bill outlines unfair labor practices as they relate to county employers,
including anti-discrimination provisions and precluding use of public funds to support or oppose an
employee organization, among others. Employee organizations may not interfere in the selection
process, nor fail to fairly represent a public employee, and must not threaten, facilitate, support, or
cause a county employee to participate in a strike, work stoppage or slowdown, group sick out, or an
action that widely disrupts day-to-day county functions. Aggrieved parties may file a claim with the
CDLE. Page 4
July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Background
State collective bargaining. House Bill 20-1153 created the Colorado Partnership for Quality Jobs and
Services Act which enabled the creation of a collective bargaining system between covered state
employees and the executive branch, and required the state to establish a single partnership
agreement, which it did with Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions (CO-WINS). The
resulting Colorado Partnership Agreement went into effect on November 18, 2021.
About 26,000 state employees are covered by the act, including some working for institutions of higher
education as classified employees. The fiscal note for HB 20-1153 included $6.6 million for 47.2 FTE,
including human resources (HR) staff and attorneys, both directly for large state agencies and
centrally for the smaller state agencies, with legal services provided for State Personnel Board matters.
Of this amount, 5.0 FTE were allocated to the CDLE to investigate and adjudicate claims assuming it
would handle approximately 93 unfair practices disputes annually, with 84 appeals per year.
Since the passage of the HB 20-1153, an additional $8.8 million and 5.0 FTE has been appropriated or
is in the pending FY 2022-23 Long Bill for costs stemming from the state's collective bargaining
agreement, including:
$1.0 million and 1.0 FTE for a pay equity study;
$1.4 million and 4.0 FTE for an employee tuition reimbursement program and additional Colorado
State Employee Assistance Program support staff;
$5.5 million to increase to shift differentials and on-call pay; and
$0.9 million to create a minimum wage standard.
In addition, a 3.0 percent across-the-board salary increase was negotiated for state employees for
FY 2022-23 through the agreement at a cost of $75.3 million; however, this same percentage increase
was paid to all state employees the prior year, prior to the agreement going into effect.
Assumptions
Similar to the fiscal note for HB 20-1153, this fiscal note has included only the initial administrative
staff required by CDLE and applicable counties to engage in the collective bargaining process with an
initial exclusive representative. The fiscal note assumes that county employees will begin engaging
in the collective bargaining process immediately and that each county will require its own staff to
support and engage in collective bargaining with their employees.
The fiscal note has not made assumptions about potential salary and benefit increases negotiated
under future collective bargaining agreements since these amounts are speculative and may have been
incurred without future agreements. County employers will be required to share public employee
data with the exclusive representative, which also may require additional staff and information
technology processes not currently included in the fiscal note. Finally, no assumption has been made
about the funding source for expenditures, as counties will have differing resources available.
State Revenue
To the extent additional civil cases related to collective bargaining are filed with the trial courts, filing
fee revenue to the Judicial Department will increase. This revenue is subject to TABOR. Page 5
July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
State Expenditures
The bill increases state General Fund expenditures in the CDLE by about $420,000 in FY 2022-23 and
$590,000 in FY 2023-24 and ongoing. Workload may minimally increase in the Judicial Department.
Expenditures are shown in Table 2 and detailed below.
Table 2
Expenditures Under SB 22-230
FY 2022-23 FY 2023-24
Department of Labor and Employment
Personal Services $220,582 $266,949
Operating Expenses $3,915 $4,455
Capital Outlay Costs $24,800 -
Legal Services $59,142 $177,426
Travel Costs $3,263 -
Mailings - $3,108
Software Licenses $14,390 $14,390
Centrally Appropriated Costs
1
$93,624 $125,751
FTE – Personal Services 2.5 FTE 3.3 FTE
FTE – Legal Services 0.3 FTE 1.0 FTE
Total Cost $419,716 $592,079
Total FTE 2.8 FTE 4.3 FTE
1
Centrally appropriated costs are not included in the bill's appropriation.
Department of Labor and Employment. Costs will increase for the Division of Labor Standards and
Statistics in the CDLE to administer the collective bargaining process through rulemaking, elections,
and hearings.
Staff. The division requires a total of 3.3 FTE on an ongoing basis, including 1.2 FTE Program
Management, 0.8 FTE Compliance Investigator, 0.5 FTE Administrative Law Judge, and 0.8 FTE
Program Assistant beginning in FY 2022-23. First-year staffing costs are prorated for the General
Fund pay date shift, assume the primary program manager and assistant will begin July 1, 2022,
the remainder of staff will begin January 1, 2023, and that an additional program manager is
required for program implementation. Standard capital outlay costs are included.
Legal services. The CDLE will have costs for 600 hours in FY 2022-23 and 1,800 hours in FY 2023-24
for legal services provided by the Department of Law at a rate of $98.57 per hour. This is
equivalent to 0.3 FTE and 1.0 FTE respectively in the Department of Law.
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July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Travel, mailing, and licenses. Beginning in FY 2023-24, travel costs assume four overnight trips
and four day trips related to investigations. Mailing costs assume 1,554 mailings per year at a cost
of $2.00 per mailing. All staff requires computer licenses at $2,878 per year beginning in
FY 2022-23.
Judicial Department. The bill may increase workload in the trial courts of the Judicial Department to
the extent that agency actions are appealed through judicial review. Additionally, workload will
increase to the extent that the CDLE or any party requests a district court to enforce orders, or seek
temporary relief and restraining orders. No change in appropriations is required.
Centrally appropriated costs. Pursuant to a Joint Budget Committee policy, certain costs associated
with this bill are addressed through the annual budget process and centrally appropriated in the Long
Bill or supplemental appropriations bills rather than in this bill. These costs are shown in Table 2.
Other Budget Impacts
General Fund reserve. Under current law, an amount equal to 15 percent of General Fund
appropriations must be set aside in the General Fund statutory reserve beginning in FY 2022-23. Based
on this fiscal note, the bill will increase the General Fund reserve by the amounts shown in Table 1.
Local Governments
The bill will increase staffing costs in 37 counties by up to $32.1 million starting as early as FY 2022-23.
These costs are shown in Table 3 and detailed below.
Applicable counties. The bill applies to 38 counties. Adams County is excluded from this analysis
as it has authorized collective bargaining matching the scope of the bill. While Pueblo and Las Animas
counties have authorized collective bargaining, the bill permits variations from current agreements.
Table 3
Collective Bargaining Administrative Costs for Counties
County Size Number of Counties
Per County
Staffing Costs
Total Staffing Costs
by County Size
Large Counties 9 $2,144,950 $19,304,550
Medium Counties 25 $436,892 $10,922,290
Small Counties 3 $100,000 $300,000
County Total $30,526,840
Administrative costs. The fiscal note assumes that all counties will begin hiring legal and human
resources staff with expertise in labor law and benefit plan administration to prepare for, negotiate,
manage, and renew collective bargaining agreements. Some counties may delay hiring until
employee interest in organizing a collective bargaining unit is expressed.
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July 11, 2022 SB 22-230
Per county staffing costs represent the average cost for all counties depending on their size as follows:
large counties include the 10 urban counties that have over 150,000 in population, excluding
Adams County;
medium counties include 25 counties with a population between 10,000 and 150,000; and
small counties include the 3 remaining counties with populations between 7,500 and 10,000.
Mediation and fact finding. Costs for mediation and fact finding may occur in future years during
collective bargaining negotiations, to be shared by the county and the exclusive representative. These
costs are initially estimated at $100,000 for large counties and $50,000 for small counties.
Salary and benefits. As discussed in the Assumptions section, the fiscal note does not estimate
potential salary or benefit increases resulting from collective bargaining agreements. For
informational purposes, the fiscal note includes the total FTE and total salary for a sample of counties
in Table 4.
Table 4
Sample of County Public Employees' Total Salaries
Sheriff's
Departments
Human Services
Departments
Public Works
Departments
County (Population) FTE
Total Salaries
FY 21-22 FTE
Total Salaries
FY 21-22 FTE
Total Salaries
FY 21-22
Larimer (356,938) 514 $54,934,580 464 $37,133,217 119 $12,267,668
Weld (323,763) 463 $49,082,729 374 $30,712,000 171 $16,914,820
Montrose (42,765) 99 $8,374,165 84 $5,555,985 62 $5,013,579
Summit (30,983) 109 $10,853,510 22 $2,129,779 73 $7,008,615
Yuma (10,063) 23 $1,401,533 17 $1,112,374 50 $2,940,489
Effective Date
The bill was signed into law on May 27, 2022, and takes effect July 1, 2023, except that Section 8-3.3-106,
C.R.S., in Section 2 and Sections 3 through 5 of this act take effect July 1, 2022.
State Appropriations
For FY 2022-23, the bill requires and includes a General Fund appropriation of $326,092 to the
Department of Labor and Employment, and 2.5 FTE. Of this amount, $59,142 is reappropriated to the
Department of Law with 0.3 FTE.
State and Local Government Contacts
Counties Judicial Labor and Employment Law
The revenue and expenditure impacts in this fiscal note represent changes from current law under the bill for each
fiscal year. For additional information about fiscal notes, please visit: leg.colorado.gov/fiscalnotes.