HB21-1215 Summary

• Expands the Justice Reinvestment Crime Prevention Initiative to include Grand Junction and Trinidad (effective September 1, 2021) in addition to the existing north Aurora and southeast Colorado Springs target communities.

• Creates a statewide small business grant program for justice-system-involved persons, providing grants up to $5,000 per person per year (maximum three years) to support entrepreneurship training, business planning assistance, and ongoing technical support.

• Appropriates $3.5 million from the general fund to be divided as follows: 40% for Grand Junction expansion, 20% for Trinidad expansion, and 40% for the small business grant program implementation.

• Allows the Division of Local Government to contract with community development financial institutions, community foundations, and third-party grant administrators to manage the lending and grant programs, with administrative cost caps of 4-15% depending on entity type.

• Schedules the entire initiative for repeal on September 1, 2027, requiring the Department of Regulatory Agencies to conduct a sunset review before that date.