Romer v. Board of County Com'rs of County of Pueblo, Colo.

• Citation: 956 P.2d 566
• Decision Date: 06 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96SC626,96SC626
• Parties: 98 CJ C.A.R. 1497 Roy ROMER, Governor of the State of Colorado; The Department of Human Services, State of Colorado; Barbara McDonnell, in her official capacity as the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services; The State Board of Human Services; and Bruce D. Bass, Dr. Carole Custer, Shirley M. Baty, Cami Learned, Shirl McGuire-Beldin, and Youlon D. Savage, in their official capacities as members of the State Board of Human Services, Petitioners, v. The BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF PUEBLO, COLORADO, Respondent.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

Page 566

956 P.2d 566

98 CJ C.A.R. 1497

Roy ROMER, Governor of the State of Colorado; The Department of Human Services, State of Colorado; Barbara McDonnell, in her official capacity as the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services; The State Board of Human Services; and Bruce D. Bass, Dr. Carole Custer, Shirley M. Baty, Cami Learned, Shirl McGuire-Beldin and Youlon D. Savage, in their official capacities as members of the State Board of Human Services, Petitioners, v. The BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF PUEBLO COLORADO, Respondent.

No. 96SC626.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

April 6, 1998.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing April 27, 1998.

Gale A. Norton, Attorney General, Martha Phillips Allbright, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Richard A. Westfall, Solicitor General, Paul Farley, Deputy Attorney General, Wade Livingston, First Assistant Attorney General, State Services Section, Denver, for Petitioners.

Wm. David Lytle, Special Assistant County Attorney, Terry A. Hart, Clifford J. Hofmann, Jr., Pueblo, for Respondent.

Justice SCOTT delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In Board of County Commissioners v. Romer, 931 P.2d 504 (Colo.App.1996), we granted certiorari to decide a single question: Does a county department of social services have standing to compel the State Department of Human Services to reduce statewide social services expenditures? ¹ We hold that it does not.

In Romer, the court of appeals, concluding that the county has exclusive control over its own budgetary and financial matters and that current state expenditures would result in a deficit, determined that the county "has statutory authority to seek judicial review of the Department's actions." Id. at 508-09. Because we see no such legislative grant of authority to counties of an express right to seek judicial review of the actions of a superior state agency, we disagree. We hold that a county does not have standing to obtain judicial review of the actions of the state department, a superior agency, in order to reduce social services expenditures. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Factual and Legal History

The petitioners before us are trial defendants Roy Romer, Governor of the State of Colorado; the Department of Human Services; Barbara McDonnell, the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services; and the State Board of Human Services and its members in their official capacity (collectively, the "Department"). ² The plaintiff in the trial court and the respondent before us is the Pueblo County Board of County Commissioners (County). Before discussing the facts of this case, we briefly review Colorado public assistance law.

A. Colorado Public Assistance Law

Under the Colorado Human Services Code, §§ 26-1-101 to -201, 8 C.R.S. (1997) (Human Services Code), the costs of our state public assistance programs are shared by the federal government, the county, and the state. ³ See Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs. v. Board of County Comm'rs, 697 P.2d 1, 6 (Colo.1985). State and county agencies have "funding responsibility together with general state control over public assistance programs," Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs., 697 P.2d at 5, which include medical assistance, adult foster care programs, child welfare services, programs for the aging, and programs established pursuant to the Colorado Medical Assistance Act. See § 26-1-109, 8 C.R.S. (1997).

Under current law, eighty percent of the overall program and administrative costs of public assistance are paid by the federal government and the state; the remaining twenty percent are paid by the county. See § 26-1-122(1)(d), (3)(b), (4)(b), 8 C.R.S. (1997); Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs., 697 P.2d at 6. The funds representing the county's twenty percent contribution are collected from the proceeds of an ad valorem tax levied on property located within the county. See § 26-1-125, 8 C.R.S. (1997); Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs., 697 P.2d at 7. The county's contribution to the costs of public assistance programs results from the social services mill levy, the proceeds of which are maintained in a county social services fund. See § 26-1-123, 8 C.R.S. (1997).

A county's share of the program costs varies from program to program. For example, the state bears the entire cost of Old Age Pension payments, see Colo. Const. art XXIV; Low Income Energy Assistance Program costs are financed entirely by the federal government, see § 26-2-122.5, 8 C.R.S. (1997); while the county pays five percent of the program costs of the aid to the needy, disabled home care, and adult foster care programs, see § 26-1-122(4)(e), 8 C.R.S. (1997).

As might be expected in a state of urban as well as rural and agricultural centers, the funding burden for these statewide programs does not operate equally among the various counties. Some counties have residents with greater social services needs than others, while some counties have taxable property with much greater value than other counties. As a result, some counties must impose taxes at a higher mill levy than their sister counties in order to generate sufficient funds to pay their share of administrative and program costs. See §§ 26-1-123, 26-1-125, and 26-1-126, 8 C.R.S. (1997).

Addressing this inequality, the General Assembly created a county contingency fund (Contingency Fund) to provide additional state funds to counties with relatively greater social services needs but a relatively lower assessed value of taxable property. See § 26-1-126. In essence, as is relevant to Pueblo County and the case before us, the contingency fund statute, section 26-1-126, provides that if Pueblo County imposes a property tax of 3.0 or greater mill levy and the proceeds of such a tax do not generate sufficient funds to pay the county's obligations as set forth in section 26-1-122, 8 C.R.S. (1997), or, generally, the twenty percent share of administration and public assistance program costs, the county is eligible for payments from the Contingency Fund. See § 26-1-126(2); Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs., 697 P.2d at 8. Under the funding scheme of the Contingency Fund, however, the state is only obligated to advance fifty percent of the difference between the county's obligation and monies raised by the social services mill levy (the shortfall). See § 26-1-126(3), 8 C.R.S. (1997). In effect, then, this funding scheme requires the county itself to match, dollar-for-dollar, any payments made out of the Contingency Fund. See Colorado Dep't of Soc. Servs., 697 P.2d at 21-23. Hence, any shortfall is covered by both other county funds as well as any Contingency Fund advancements.

In Colorado Department of Social Services, we examined the legislative history and earlier amendments to our Human Services Code and held that by establishing the Contingency Fund, the General Assembly intended to obligate the state to pay each county for fifty percent of any shortfall. ⁴ Justice Kirshbaum, writing for a unanimous court, opined that: "By replacing the word 'may' with 'shall,' the General Assembly indicated an intent to make mandatory the advancement of funds to qualifying counties. The references ... to the [State] Department's responsibility for funding eighty percent of public assistance programs subject to funds made available for that purpose, indicates that the contingency fund provision requires additional funding." Id. at 22. However, while our interpretation of the plain language of the Contingency Fund Statute in that case was sound, the General Assembly amended that statute.

Finding disfavor with a result that obligated the state to make unlimited appropriations to the Contingency Fund to cover county shortfalls, the General Assembly responded by amending the Human Services Code, enacting House Bill No. 1376 on June 11, 1985 (the Act). See 1985 Colo. Sess. Laws, ch. 58 at 289-90. The Act consisted of three principal provisions. The first provision enacted section 2-4-215, 1 C.R.S. (1997). Section 2-4-215 served to clarify the rules of statutory construction by making it clear that legislation passed by one session of the General Assembly cannot bind any future legislative session to appropriate any sums of money. ⁵ The second provision of the Act added section 26-1-126.5, 8 C.R.S. (1997), to the Human Services Code. Section 26-1-126.5, in effect, amended the contingency fund statute or section 26-1-126 by emphasizing that the existence of the Contingency Fund does not "result in any state liability for amounts not appropriated" to that fund and by expressly stating that the General Assembly has complete discretion to "determine annually the level of funding" in the Contingency Fund. § 26-1-126.5. Finally, the third provision of the Act added a new subsection, section 26-1-126(5), 8 C.R.S. (1997), to the contingency fund statute. Section 26-1-126(5) provides, in pertinent part:

If state and county appropriations are insufficient to meet the administrative and program costs of public assistance and the administrative costs of medical assistance and food stamps, then the executive director of the department of social services and the state board of social services shall act pursuant to sections 26-1-121(1)(c) and 26-1-122(5) to reduce the rate of expenditures so that it matches the available funds.

In this fashion, the legislature acted to alter the result that would otherwise follow from our decision in Colorado Department of Social Services. See § 26-1-126.5.

B. Stipulated Facts

The facts of this dispute are based, in substantial part, upon a joint stipulation of facts filed before the trial court. This case involves State fiscal years 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991. During those years, the General Assembly did not appropriate sufficient money to the Contingency Fund so as to allow the County to meet its social services obligation or its twenty percent share burden. ⁶ Accordingly, the County received $1,612,187...