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2016 Op. Colo. Att'y Gen. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.sag/sagco2016 and id is 1 raw text is: CYNTHIA H. COFFMAN Attorney General DAVID C. BLAKE Chief Deputy Attorney General MELANIE J. SNYDER Chief of Staff FREDERICK R. YARGER Solicitor General 4.7 RALPH L. CARR COLORADO JUDICIAL CENTER 1300 N Broadway, 10th Floor Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone (720) 508-6000 STATE OF COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF LAW FORMAL ) OPINION ) No. 16-01 of ) February 29, 2016 CYNTHIA H. COFFMAN ) Attorney General Governor John W. Hickenlooper, through his Chief Legal Counsel, Jacki Cooper Melmed, requested this opinion under § 24-31-101(l)(b), C.R.S. (2015). This opinion analyzes the constitutionality of a legislative proposal to create an enterprise that would administer Colorado's Hospital Provider Fee (HPF). The HPF, a part of the State's Medicaid program, is a fee that is collected from Colorado hospitals, used to obtain matching funds from the federal government, and spent to increase the compensation hospitals receive for serving low-income patients. If organized as an enterprise, the HPF would be exempt from the spending limits contained in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Colo. Const. art. X, § 20 (TABOR). QUESTION PRESENTED AND SHORT ANSWER Question: Under current case law interpreting the requirement that enterprises be government-owned businesses, may the General Assembly establish a TABOR.- exempt enterprise to collect and administer the Hospital Provider Fee? Answer: Yes. Considering both judicial interpretations of TABOR and the General Assembly's prior decision to classify the HPF as a fee rather than a tax, organizing the HPF as an enterprise would not contravene the three considerations that determine an entity's status as a government-owned business: an HPF enterprise would (1) lack the power to tax, (2) provide government services in exchange for involuntary fees levied on service recipients, and (3) be financially distinct from its parent agency.

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