(1) The executive director of the department of regulatory agencies shall develop and implement a consumer outreach and education program, referred to in this section as the "program", for the purposes of informing consumers of their rights regarding regulated professions and occupations, decreasing regulatory violations, and ensuring public awareness of consumer protection information available from the department.
There is hereby created within the state treasury the consumer outreach and education cash fund for the purpose of developing, implementing, and maintaining the program. The fund shall consist of any surcharges that may be imposed by the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies within the department of regulatory agencies, including fines collected pursuant to titles 10, 11, 12, 40, and 42, C.R.S. The amount of each surcharge shall not exceed fifteen percent of the fine collected. The surcharges shall be adjusted as necessary so that surcharge revenues collected do not exceed two hundred thousand dollars annually. All moneys collected shall be transmitted to the state treasurer who shall credit such moneys to the fund. The moneys in the fund shall be subject to annual appropriation by the general assembly for the direct and indirect costs associated with the implementation of the program. Moneys in the fund not expended for the purposes of this section may be invested by the state treasurer as provided by law. All interest and income derived from the investment and deposit of moneys in the fund shall be credited to the fund. Moneys credited to the fund shall not be transferred to the general fund or any other fund; except that any unexpended and unencumbered moneys remaining in the fund at the end of any fiscal year that exceed ten percent of the fund's expenditures in that fiscal year shall be transferred to the general fund or another fund.
On or before November 1 of each year, the executive director of the department ofregulatory agencies shall provide a report to the joint budget committee of the general assembly that includes the amount of revenue collected from the surcharge in accordance with subsection (2) of this section for the previous fiscal year, a description of how the moneys were spent in the previous fiscal year, and a plan for how the moneys will be spent in the current fiscal year.
Source: L. 2008: Entire section added, p. 2246, § 1, effective August 5.