(1) The following appropriations shall be appropriations of the first class and shall be first paid out of the revenue of the state against which they are chargeable:
(a) All appropriations made by the general assembly for the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the state government;
(b) All appropriations made by the general assembly for the institutions of higher education and for the penal, charitable, and eleemosynary institutions of the state government;
(c) All interests on the public debt of the state government;
(d) All appropriations of funds derived from state continuing mill levies for the support of penal, eleemosynary, and educational institutions and other state purposes, other than the general revenue fund, shall be appropriations of the first class and shall be expended as such for the purposes for which levied and appropriated.
(2) All other appropriations made by the general assembly shall be appropriations of the second class.
(3) In case there are insufficient revenues to pay all appropriations made by the general assembly in full, the appropriations of the first class, designated in subsection (1) of this section, shall be first paid in full and the balance of revenue available shall be thereafter prorated among the second class appropriations designated in subsection (2) of this section.
Source: L. 41: p. 636, §§ 1, 2. CSA: C. 153, § 16(1). CRS 53: § 130-1-1. C.R.S. 1963: § 130-1-1.
ANNOTATION
When revenue is exhausted, unpaid appropriations are void. Under §§ 2 and 16 of art. X, Colo. Const., when the revenue of a given fiscal year is exhausted, the remaining unpaid appropriations for that year are void. People ex rel. Seeley v. May, 9 Colo. 80, 10 P. 641 (1886); Opinion of Judges, 13 Colo. 316, 22 P. 464 (1889); Henderson v. People ex rel. Wingate, 17 Colo. 587, 31 P. 334 (1892); Goodykoontz v. People ex rel. Sawyer, 20 Colo. 374, 38 P. 473 (1894); People ex rel. Colo. State Hosp. v. Armstrong, 104 Colo. 238, 90 P.2d 522 (1939).
Merely allocating revenues is not as "appropriation". A statute merely allocating and classifying prospective revenues to specific purposes is not an "appropriation bill", within the meaning of §§ 32 to 34 of art. V, Colo. Const. People ex rel. Colo. State Hosp. v. Armstrong, 104 Colo. 238, 90 P.2d 522 (1939).