City Council Agenda and Packet 1997 01 14

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sition team to develop the preliminary guidelines for the public purchasing cooperative and to assist in drafting leg- islation. The primary purpose for the cooperative is to offer high quality health care at affordable prices to all public entities across the state. The cooperative is officially being called Public Employers Group Insurance. The final legislation is not drafted at this point, but the guidelines set forth for the purchasing cooperative are favorable to municipalities. Municipal participation would be voluntary, and flexibility would be provided on plan selection and design. Support Allocation of state sales and use tax from motor vehicles for highway purposes (Jan Gerstenberger) —Again this year the Transportation Legislation Review Committee (TLRC) has endorsed a pro- posal from Sen. Ray Powers and Rep. Ron May to re -enact the "Noble Bill," an annual allocation to the HUTF of a portion of the state's sales and use tax collections attributed to the sales of automobiles and auto related acces- sories such as tires, batteries, and motor oil. The proposal would transfer to HUTF an additional $150 million per year that is currently going to the state's general fund. It would divide the money among the state, counties, and municipalities on the commonly used 60- 22 -18- percent formula. The funds would be subject to the same spending limits as the current HUTF funds: for highway purposes with no money for administration. As included last year, each local government would be required annually to certify to the state treasurer that receipt of these addi- tional HUTF monies would not exceed the allowable fiscal year spending (or the entity has received prior voter approval to spend the revenue). If such certification is not provided, then that entity's share of the funds reverts to the state. Support (but work for clean -up December 6, 1996 amendments to the certification process and amendments to allow the funds to be spent for any transportation purpose, not just highways) County road and bridge mill levy (Jan Gerstenberger) —Defer action on •any legislation at this time and monitor road and bridge mill levy practices in counties and assess county reaction to specific ownership tax legislative strategy. State bridge fund (Jan Gerstenberger)—A bill will sunset the set -aside of a portion of the motor fuel tax revenues for the state special bridge fund, and allow the funds to revert to the HUTF, increasing the amount distributed to each municipality and county. Support Rural transportation authority (Jan Gerstenberger) —It is anticipated that a bill similar to CML- supported SB 96 -232, Concerning the Creation of the "Rural Transportation Authority Law," will be introduced again this year. The power to create rural transportation authorities is authorized for any area of the state that is not included in the boundaries of the RTD area in the Denver metro area. Urban areas over 1 million population now have the ability to create public highway authori- ties (43-4 -506, C.R.S.). In general, SB 232 allowed municipali- ties and counties to create a transporta- tion authority for the purpose of "rural transportation activities," which are defined generally as any type of trans portation (highway, bus, rail, etc). It gives the authority a variety of rev- enue- raising powers sales or use tax up to 0.4 of 1 percent, annual motor vehicle registration fee up to $10 per vehicle, tolls and user fees and charges, transportation expansion fee on building permits, head tax on employees and occupation tax on businesses not to exceed $2 /month, local improvement district, value capture area for property tax and sales tax —and the ability to CML Statehouse Report 7