Page 1
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
Legislative Council Staff
Nonpartisan Services for Colorado’s Legislature
Fiscal Note
Drafting Number:
Prime Sponsors:
LLS 24-0431
Rep. Lindsay
Date:
Bill Status:
Fiscal Analyst:
February 9, 2024
House Ag., Water, & Natural Res.
Alexa Kelly | 303-866-3469
alexa.kelly@coleg.gov
Bill Topic: PET ANIMAL FACILITY REQUIREMENTS BEFORE EUTHANASIA
Summary of
Fiscal Impact:
☒ State Revenue
☒ State Expenditure
☐ State Transfer
☒ TABOR Refund
☒ Local Government
☐ Statutory Public Entity
The bill requires an animal shelter or pet animal rescue to notify all licensed pet
animal shelters and pet animal rescues in Colorado at least three days prior to a pet
animal’s euthanasia so that another rescue or shelter can take possession of the
animal. It increases state revenue and state and local expenditures on an ongoing
basis.
Appropriation
Summary:
For FY 2024-25, the bill requires an appropriation of $509,541 to multiple state
agencies.
Fiscal Note
Status:
The fiscal note reflects the introduced bill.
Table 1
State Fiscal Impacts Under HB 24-1114
Budget Year
FY 2024-25
Out Year
FY 2025-26
Revenue Cash Funds $112,560 $112,560
Total Revenue $112,560 $112,560
Expenditures General Fund $396,981 $100,925
Cash Funds $112,560 $112,560
Centrally Appropriated $14,438 $19,669
Total Expenditures $523,980 $233,154
Total FTE 1.0 FTE 1.3 FTE
Transfers - -
Other Budget Impacts TABOR Refund $112,560 $112,560
General Fund Reserve $59,547 $15,139
Page 2
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
Summary of Legislation
The bill creates additional requirements for licensed animal shelters and pet animal rescues
under the Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA). The bill requires shelters and rescues to
notify all licensed animal shelters and pet animal rescues in Colorado at least three business
days before euthanizing a pet animal so that another rescue or shelter has the opportunity to
take possession of the animal.
If a shelter or rescue requests to take possession of the pet animal, the requesting shelter or
rescue has two business days to take possession, and the notifying shelter must hold the pet
animal until the requesting shelter takes possession. If a requesting rescue or shelter fails to take
possession, the notifying shelter must contact any other shelters or rescues that requested to
take possession of the pet animal. A notifying shelter or rescue is immune from civil liability for
actions caused by the transferred pet animal provided it provides the requesting shelter with all
material information about the pet animal.
The notification requirement does not apply if a veterinarian or shelter or rescue supervisor
determines that a pet animal is irremediably suffering, or is a dog that has been deemed
dangerous, ordered to be euthanized by a court, or has a documented history of unprovoked
biting.
The bill also requires the Department of Agriculture (CDA) to procure a system that will allow
shelters and rescues to contact all shelters and rescues in Colorado. The department may seek,
accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations for this purpose.
Background
PACFA is a program within the CDA that licenses and inspects all pet animal care facilities and
businesses in Colorado. Any entity that engages in selling, transferring, adopting, breeding,
boarding, training, grooming, sheltering, rescuing, or transporting pet animals is required to be
licensed under PACFA. Annually, PACFA employees issue approximately 2,200 licenses, conduct
3,000 inspections, and perform 750 complaint investigations. Approximately 137 complaint
investigations involve pet animal shelters or rescues. Any violation of PACFA regulations may
result in a warning, fine, or other penalties.
Assumptions
The CDA requires time to develop the required shelter notification system, hire additional staff,
and set up oversight mechanisms. This fiscal note assumes the requirements in the bill will be
enforced beginning January 1, 2025. See Technical Note.
State Revenue
The bill increases state revenue beginning in FY 2024-25 from registration fees, and may also
increase revenue from civil penalties and gifts, grants, and donations. Page 3
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
Fee impact on licensed animal shelter and rescue registrations. Colorado law requires
legislative service agency review of measures which create or increase any fee collected by a
state agency. These fee amounts are an estimate only, based on the maximum fee amount the
CDA is currently permitted to charge an animal shelter or rescue per state law, which is $700.
Current fees range from $350 to $450 depending on the type of entity, so this analysis uses
$420 as an average current fee per registrant, with an assumed increase of $280 per registrant.
The CDA currently has 402 registrants that are required to pay this fee. Actual fees will be set
administratively by the CDA based on cash fund balance, program costs, and the number of
actual registrants subject to the fee. Table 2 below identifies the fee impact of this bill.
Table 2
Fee Impact on Licensed Animal Shelters and Rescues
Fiscal Year Type of Fee
Current
Fee
Proposed
Fee
Number
Affected
Total Fee
Impact
FY 2024-25 PACFA Registration about $420 $700 402 $112,560
FY 2025-26 PACFA Registration about $420 $700 402 $112,560
Civil penalties. Under current law, any person who violates the Pet Animal Care and Facilities
Act is subject to a civil penalty. The bill may increase state revenue to the extent that the
provisions in the bill are violated, resulting in the collection of civil penalties. Any civil fines
collected are subject to TABOR and are credited to the General Fund.
Gifts, grants, and donations. The bill potentially increases state revenue to the Pet Animal Care
and Facility Fund from gifts, grants, or donations; however, no sources have been identified at
this time. Gifts, grants, and donations are exempt from TABOR revenue limits.
State Expenditures
The bill increases state expenditures in the CDA by approximately $511,000 in FY 2024-25 and
$208,000 per year in future years paid from the Pet Animal Care and Facilities Cash Fund and the
General Fund—see Technical Note. Additionally, expenditures will increase in the Department of
Personnel and Administration (DPA) by approximately $12,500 in FY 2024-25 and $25,000 per
year in future years, paid from the General Fund initially, and through CDA’s common policies
beginning in FY 2026-27. Expenditures are shown in Table 3 and detailed below.
Page 4
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
Table 3
Expenditures Under HB 24-1114
FY 2024-25 FY 2025-26
Department of Agriculture
Personal Services $61,595 $76,994
Operating Expenses $1,024 $1,280
Capital Outlay Costs $6,670 -
Legal Services $19,203 $19,203
Shelter Notification System $406,160 $86,430
Travel, Fleet, & Per Diem Costs $4,570 $8,940
Centrally Appropriated Costs
1
$12,277 $15,347
FTE – Personal Services 0.8 FTE 1.0 FTE
FTE – Legal Services 0.1 FTE 0.1 FTE
CDA Subtotal $511,499 $208,194
Department of Personnel and Administration
Personal Services $10,319 $20,638
Centrally Appropriated Costs
1
$2,161 $4,322
FTE – Personal Services 0.1 FTE 0.2 FTE
DPA Subtotal $12,480 $24,960
Total Cost $523,980 $233,154
Total FTE 1.0 FTE 1.3 FTE
1
Centrally appropriated costs are not included in the bill's appropriation.
Department of Agriculture. Starting in FY 2024-25, expenditures in the CDA will increase to
expand the administration of the PACFA program and maintain the shelter notification system.
Staffing. The CDA requires 1.0 FTE compliance specialist to respond to and investigate
complaints, conduct additional records inspections, manage the shelter notification
database, and perform general program management, education and outreach, and
rulemaking. This analysis assumes that the CDA will have a 26 percent increase in pet animal
shelter and rescue related complaints, or 36 new complaints per year, which are estimated to
require at least 10 hours per complaint; if additional complaints are filed, the CDA will seek
funding through the annual budget process. Costs assume an October 1, 2024, start date
and include standard operating and capital outlay costs.
Page 5
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
Legal services. The CDA requires 150 hours of legal services beginning in FY 2024-25, and
on an annual basis, to provide general counsel for rulemaking and the implementation and
ongoing administration of the bill. Legal services are provided by the Department of Law at a
rate of $128 per hour.
Shelter Notification System. The bill requires the CDA to procure a system to allow animal
shelters and rescues to contact all animal shelters and rescues in the state. In FY 2024-25,
this requires 2,880 hours of computer programming services, billed at about $141 per hour
by the Office of Information Technology. The system will require an estimated 1,260 hours,
billed at about $67 per hour, of ongoing maintenance per year beginning in FY 2025-26.
Travel, fleet, and per diem. The CDA must also reimburse staff for travel expenses, lease a
fleet vehicle, and pay staff per diem. Staff is expected to travel about 200 miles per week,
approximately 10 days per year and required lodging for five nights. Expenditures for
FY 2024-25 travel expenses are prorated for the assumed enforcement start day of January 1,
2025.
Administrative law judge billing. After FY 2025-26, the CDA will have increased central
costs for administrative law judges (ALJ) provided by the DPA.
Department of Personnel and Administration. Starting in FY 2024-25, expenditures in the
Office of Administrative Courts in the DPA will increase to manage the increase in cases created
by complaints under PACFA.
Staffing. The DPA requires 0.5 FTE to hold additional administrative hearings beginning
January 1, 2025. As discussed in the CDA section, the fiscal note assumes that the
requirements in the bill will create 36 new cases per year, of which about half of the cases
are assumed to be settled prior to a hearing. This leaves approximately 18 cases that will
need to be heard by an ALJ. Each hearing requires approximately 25 hours of ALJ time,
resulting in about 460 additional hours of workload. If additional hearings are required, the
DPA will seek funding through the annual budget process.
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, which include employee insurance and supplemental employee retirement payments, are
shown in Table 3.
Other Budget Impacts
TABOR refunds. The bill is expected to increase the amount of state revenue required to be
refunded to taxpayers by the amounts shown in the State Revenue section above. This estimate
assumes the December 2023 LCS revenue forecast. A forecast of state revenue subject to TABOR
is not available beyond FY 2025-26. Because TABOR refunds are paid from the General Fund,
increased cash fund revenue will reduce the amount of General Fund available to spend or save. Page 6
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
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. Based on this fiscal note,
the bill is expected to increase the amount of General Fund held in reserve by the amounts
shown in Table 1, decreasing the amount of General Fund available for other purposes.
Local Government
Counties across the state often operate animal shelters or contract out the operation of these
facilities. On average, it costs a shelter an average of $30 per day to keep an animal in the
shelter. County animal shelters will incur increased costs of up to $150 per animal that would
otherwise be euthanized that would now need to be held so that another shelter can take
possession of the animal. The exact number of animals that would need to be held has not been
estimated.
Technical Note
The bill’s effective date is currently October 1, 2024. The fiscal note assume that CDA staff will
begin on that date to meet CDA’s implementation requirements; however, enforcement is
assumed to begin on January 1, 2025.
Under current law, the CDA may not charge a registration fee greater than $700. If the bill were
to include a provision that allowed the CDA to charge higher fees, then fees could be raised to
cover the costs associated with the bill and a General Fund appropriation would not be needed.
Effective Date
The bill takes effect October 1, 2024, assuming no referendum petition is filed.
State Appropriations
For FY 2024-25, the bill requires an appropriation totaling $499,222 to the Department of
Agriculture, of which $112,560 is appropriated from the Pet Animal Care and Facilities Cash Fund
and the remaining $386,662 is appropriated from the General Fund, and 0.8 FTE. Of this amount,
the following reappropriations are required:
$406,160 to the Office of Information Technology; and
$19,203 to the Department of Law, with an additional 0.1 FTE.
In addition, for FY 2024-25, the bill requires a General Fund appropriation of $10,319 to the
Department of Personnel and Administration, and 0.1 FTE.
Page 7
February 9, 2024 HB 24-1114
State and Local Government Contacts
Agriculture Counties Denver County Courts
Information Technology Judicial Personnel
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 the General Assembly website.