(1) The treasury department shall maintain a list of all warrants and checks drawn upon the state treasurer by the office of the state controller and of those warrants and checks issued and outstanding. Such lists shall be open during regular business hours for the inspection and examination of every person desiring to inspect or examine the same.
(2) Warrants and checks shall be paid in the order in which presented to the treasury department for payment. The state treasurer may validate any warrant or any check presented for payment after six months from its date of issue for a period of time not longer than thirty days from the date upon which it is so presented.
(3) All paid warrants and checks shall be canceled and, after being microfilmed or copied through image technology such as optical storage and other recognized state-of-the-art storage technologies, shall be destroyed pursuant to part 1 of article 80 of this title. The treasury department is authorized to enter into an arrangement that allows any bank holding canceled warrants or checks to microfilm or copy through other recognized state-of-the-art storage technologies and to store said warrants and checks for the benefit and use of the treasury department, but no bank shall destroy any canceled warrant or any canceled check without written authorization from the treasury department. Any bank producing microfilm or using other recognized state-of-the-art storage technologies pursuant to this subsection (3) shall transmit such microfilm or the product of such other recognized state-of-the-art storage technologies to the treasury department, where it shall be kept and stored. The treasury department is not authorized to enter into such an arrangement if the cost of the service charged by the bank exceeds the cost which the state would incur by providing the same service.
Source: L. 71: R&RE, p. 97, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 3-6-6. L. 73: p. 171, § 1. L. 81: (3) amended, p. 1070, § 3, effective May 21. L. 84: (3) amended, p. 702, § 2, effective April 5. L. 93: (3) amended, p. 1258, § 2, effective June 6. L. 2010: (1) amended, (HB 10-1181), ch. 351, p. 1631, § 29, effective June 7. L. 2014: Entire section amended, (HB 14-1391), ch. 328, p. 1452, § 9, effective June 5.
ANNOTATION
Warrants are paid in order of priority of presentation to the state treasurer, not in the order in which they may have been drawn. Nance v. People, 25 Colo. 252, 54 P. 631 (1898).
Preferred claim must be paid first where revenue shortage. In the case of a shortage of state revenue, a preferred claim must be paid before an earlier presented warrant for a non-preferred claim. Stuart v. Nance, 28 Colo. 194, 63 P. 323 (1900).
For writ of mandamus to compel payment of warrant, see Kephart v. People ex rel. Am. Sav. Bank, 28 Colo. 73, 62 P. 946 (1900).