The state’s title board on Wednesday unanimously voted to approve the wording of a ballot measure that would allow Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s workers’ compensation insurance provider of last resort, to privatize.

Behind ballot measure No. 218 is Colorado Succeeds, a coalition of business leaders focused on education. The proposal would allow Pinnacol to become a fully independent mutual insurance company.

Under the proposal, Pinnacol would go private effective July 1, 2027.

Pinnacol would pay the state $150 million to complete the separation, money that would go into a “Skilled Workers and Trades Fund” for in-demand jobs, such as plumbers, electricians, and nurses. It would also fund capital equipment improvements. 

Additionally, the premium taxes that Pinnacol would pay to the state general fund, about $10 million annually, would be routed to the grant program to fund staffing and ensure sustainability.

Scott Laband, CEO of Colorado Succeeds, earlier estimated that the $150 million would be drawn down at about 5% per year, resulting in an annual payout of about $17.5 million. About 10% would go toward administrative costs and data collection. That leaves enough to fund 5,000 scholarships per year at $3,000 each.

Part of the discussion by the title board focused on trying to figure out how to explain to voters the current relationship between Pinnacol and the state.

The state doesn’t own Pinnacol, according to attorney Trey Rogers, who represented Colorado Succeeds at Wednesday’s hearing.

Yet calling it a political subdivision of the state, which is technically the relationship, isn’t going to make sense to voters, countered the title board’s Theresa Conley.

The board ultimately approved this language:

“A change to the Colorado revised statutes converting Pinnacle Assurance from a state subdivision that provides workers’ compensation insurance, to an independent mutual insurance company, to finance workforce development, and in connection therewith requiring Pinnacle Assurance to pay the state $150 million and taxes on insurance premiums, depositing these payments into a skilled workers and trade fund to provide scholarships for training in essential job categories, exempting scholarship payments from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limitation on state fiscal year spending, and requiring a risk plan to provide workers’ compensation coverage to employers that are unable to procure coverage in the voluntary market.”

The title board consists of representatives from the office of the attorney general and secretary of state, as well as from the Colorado General Assembly’s Legislative Legal Services. Its primary role is to ensure ballot measures meet the state’s single-subject rule.