SB 25-279
Fiscal Note
Legislative Council Staff
Nonpartisan Services for Colorado’s Legislature
SB 25-279: COLORADO CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE UPDATES
Prime Sponsors:
Sen. Ball; Pelton B.
Rep. Duran; Hartsook
Published for: Senate State Affairs
Drafting number: LLS 25-1021
Fiscal Analyst:
Aaron Carpenter, 303-866-4918
aaron.carpenter@coleg.gov
Version: Initial Fiscal Note
Date: April 7, 2025
Fiscal note status: This fiscal note reflects the introduced bill.
Summary Information
Overview. The bill incorporates the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice into the Colorado Code of
Military Justice around punishable offenses and the statute of limitations, and makes other clarifying
changes.
Types of impacts. The bill is projected to affect the following areas on an ongoing basis:
Minimal State Workload Local Government
Appropriations. No appropriation is required.
Table 1
State Fiscal Impacts
Type of Impact
Budget Year
FY 2025-26
Out Year
FY 2026-27
State Revenue $0 $0
State Expenditures $0 $0
Transferred Funds $0 $0
Change in TABOR Refunds $0 $0
Change in State FTE 0.0 FTE 0.0 FTE
Page 2
April 7, 2025 SB 25-279
Summary of Legislation
The bill incorporates the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice into the Colorado Code of
Military Justice around punishable offenses, and the statute of limitations. In addition, the bill
applies the state code to members of the state military force, except when ordered to active
federal service, clarifies a commanding officer’s authority to impose non-judicial punishment,
updates procedures around courts-martial, repeals courts of inquiry from the state code, and
requires the state military forces to defer felony prosecution to the district attorney when there
is concurrent civilian and military jurisdiction.
State Expenditures
The bill minimally increases state expenditures in two ways. First, to the extent policies require
updating for the state military force, workload to the Department of Military and Veterans
Affairs will increase. Second, to the extent the bill leads to more criminal cases in state court,
rather than military court, workload to the Judicial Department will increase. The fiscal note
assumes additional cases will be minimal and any workload from the bill will be minimal.
Local Government
Similar to the state, to the extent the bill increases the number of cases prosecuted by district
attorneys, workload will increase. This workload is assumed to be minimal.
Effective Date
The bill takes effect September 1, 2025, assuming no referendum petition is filed. It applies to
offenses committed on or after this date.
State and Local Government Contacts
Judicial Military Affairs
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.