Want to Support Colorado's Fallen Firefighters? A New License Plate Is on the Way

The Bottom Line

If you've ever wanted a visible way to support the families of firefighters who died in the line of duty, this bill creates a direct path. It establishes a new special license plate that requires a charitable donation to an eligible, long-standing nonprofit, giving Colorado drivers a way to financially back the families of our state's bravest.

What This Bill Actually Does

Colorado loves its special license plates—we have dozens of them, from ski country designs to state parks and wildlife. House Bill 26-1032 adds another meaningful option to the bumper-buffet: the Fallen Firefighter Special License Plate. But this isn't just a standard vanity plate you can casually check a box for at the DMV. To get it, you actually have to put your money where your bumper is.

Under the proposed law, anyone wanting this plate must first make a donation to a specific type of designated nonprofit organization. The Department of Revenue will vet and approve these nonprofits at least once every five years. To qualify, an organization must be tax-exempt, based right here in Colorado, and have been doing this work for at least 15 years. This longevity requirement is crucial—it ensures that only deeply established community pillars are entrusted with this program, preventing pop-up charities from forming just to harvest license plate cash. Their mission has to be laser-focused: providing counseling, support, legal aid, job training, or scholarships to the families and children of firefighters who have died in the line of duty. The nonprofit gets to set its own minimum donation amount required to hand over the qualifying certificate.

Once you have that certificate in hand, you take it to the DMV. Along with your normal vehicle registration taxes and a standard $14.80 digital plate production fee, you'll pay an additional one-time fee of $50. That $50 is split right down the middle: $25 goes to the Highway Users Tax Fund (which pays for road maintenance across the state) and $25 goes to the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account (which funds the DMV's internal tech and operations). You can put the plate on standard passenger cars, trucks, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles under 16,000 pounds.

What It Means for You

If you're a driver who wants to show solidarity with first responders, this bill offers a very tangible, verifiable way to contribute. Starting as early as January 1, 2027 (or whenever the Department of Revenue gets the printing presses ready), you'll be able to swap out your standard green-and-white mountains for a design honoring fallen firefighters.

Financially, here is what it looks like for your household wallet. First, you'll need to make the required donation to an approved nonprofit. Because the nonprofit sets that minimum threshold themselves, your initial cost will depend entirely on their rules. Then, at the DMV, you'll pay the extra $50 in one-time special fees, plus the $14.80 plate production fee, on top of whatever your normal annual vehicle registration costs.

If you already have a personalized vanity plate—maybe it has your initials or a clever joke—you don't have to give that up. The bill specifically allows you to transfer your existing combination of letters and numbers to the new Fallen Firefighter background. You'll just have to turn in your old plates, pay the standard vanity transfer fees, and keep up with your annual personalized plate renewal costs.

Beyond the fees, the real takeaway here is the direct impact on families. Unlike some specialty plates where the extra fees just go into a general state bucket, this setup ensures that a private, vetted nonprofit doing on-the-ground work gets a direct financial boost before the state even prints the plate. If you're passionate about supporting the surviving spouses and kids of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, this gives you a state-backed avenue to do so while showing your support every time you hit the road.

What It Means for Your Business

For most Colorado business owners—whether you run a tech firm, a restaurant, or a retail shop—this bill won't change your daily operations, compliance requirements, or tax filings. There are no new mandates hidden in this text. However, if you run a company with a local fleet of vehicles, like a plumbing business, a landscaping crew, or a real estate agency, you are absolutely allowed to outfit your noncommercial or recreational motor vehicles and trucks under 16,000 pounds with these plates. It can be a subtle but powerful way for a local business to publicly align its brand with supporting first responders.

The most significant business impact here falls squarely on the nonprofit sector. If you manage or sit on the board of a Colorado nonprofit that works with first responder families, this bill could be a massive, durable fundraising driver. Earning that "designated organization" status from the Department of Revenue means every single Coloradan who wants this plate will be funneling donations directly into your organization year after year.

To be eligible to issue the required certificates, your nonprofit must meet strict criteria:

• Be located in Colorado and hold tax-exempt status
• Have been in existence for at least 15 years
• Specifically provide counseling, legal aid, job training, or scholarships to the families of fallen firefighters

If your organization fits that bill, you'll want to review your administrative capacity. You will need to submit an annual statement to the state verifying your status, and you'll need to determine what minimum donation amount makes sense. Most importantly, you will need the staff and operational bandwidth to process a steady influx of donations and efficiently issue the required certificates to drivers so they aren't left waiting before their DMV appointments.

Follow the Money

Whenever we talk about license plates at the Capitol, we are secretly talking about road funding. Based on the fiscal note, the state expects this plate to perform similarly to the existing Fallen Heroes plate, issuing around 1,500 to 1,600 plates a year. That demand is projected to generate about $100,000 in annual state revenue. About $30,000 of that in the first year goes right back out the door to the Department of Revenue to cover IT programming in the DRIVES system and the physical production of the plates by Colorado Correctional Industries.

The rest of the money filters down to our roads. The $25 portion of the fee that goes to the Highway Users Tax Fund (HUTF) is split up under the state's standard formula: 65% goes to the State Highway Fund for major state projects, 26% is distributed to county governments, and 9% goes to municipalities. In its first full fiscal year, the bill projects about $38,725 will hit the HUTF. That breaks down to exactly $25,171 for state highways, $10,069 for county roads, and $3,485 for municipal streets. So while the primary goal is supporting firefighter families through private donations, those $25 DMV fees will send a steady trickle of thousands of dollars to your local city and county for pothole repairs and road maintenance.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1032 is currently In Committee. The latest official action came on 05/14/2026: House Committee on Appropriations Lay Over Unamended - Amendment(s) Failed.

That means the bill is still in the committee stage, and it is currently sitting in the Finance. To keep moving, it would need to clear committee and then survive floor votes in both chambers.