Public debt of state - limitations

• Currency: Current through 11/8/2022 Election
• Citation: Colo. Const. art. XI § 3

The state shall not contract any debt by loan in any form, except to provide for casual deficiencies of revenue, erect public buildings for the use of the state, suppress insurrection, defend the state, or, in time of war, assist in defending the United States; and the amount of debt contracted in any one year to provide for deficiencies of revenue shall not exceed one-fourth of a mill on each dollar of valuation of taxable property within the state, and the aggregate amount of such debt shall not at any time exceed three-fourths of a mill on each dollar of said valuation, until the valuation shall equal one hundred millions of dollars, and thereafter such debt shall not exceed one hundred thousand dollars; and the debt incurred in any one year for erection of public buildings shall not exceed one-half mill on each dollar of said valuation; and the aggregate amount of such debt shall never at any time exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars (except as provided in section 5 of this article), and in all cases the valuation in this section mentioned shall be that of the assessment last preceding the creation of said debt.

Cite as Colo. Const. art. XI § 3

Source:

Entire article added, effective August 1, 1876, see L. 1877, p. 61. L. 09: Entire section amended, p. 317. L. 20: Entire section amended, effective December 4, 1920, see L. 21, p. 181. Initiated 22: Entire section amended, see L. 23, p. 234, effective December 21, 1922. L. 92: Entire section amended, p. 2317, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, L. 93: p. 2163, January 14, 1993.

ANNOTATION

I. GENERAL CONSIDERATION.

Law reviews. For comment on Johnson v. McDonald appearing below, see 8 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 152 (1936).

Annotator's note. L. 19, ch. 161, referred to in next to the last paragraph of this section, was repealed by L. 31, ch. 122, § 147. For present provisions regulating the registration of motor vehicles and providing for the fees therefor, see § 42-3-101 et seq.

The purpose of this section is to prevent the pledging of state revenue for future years or the creation of obligations that would require future revenues from a tax otherwise available for general purposes. Submission of Interrogatories on House Bill 99-1325, 979 P.2d 549 (Colo. 1999).

Purpose of people in adopting this section was to keep the state substantially on a cash basis, prohibit the pledge of future fixed revenues, forbid the contracting of debts which must be paid therefrom, and to make certain that one general assembly shall not paralyze the next by devouring the available revenues of both. In re Senate Resolution No. 2, 94 Colo. 101, 31 P.2d 325 (1933); In re Colo. State Senate, 193 Colo. 298, 566 P.2d 350 (1977).