The General Assembly approved 20 legislative study committees to meet and recommend bills during the 2019 interim. The deadline for most of the committees to approve bills for consideration by the Legislative Council was November 4. The Legislative Council met last Friday, November 15, and considered bills recommended by 15 of those interim committees. This week we will provide a summary of the bills that the Legislative Council approved for introduction during the 2020 legislative session.

For more information on interim committees generally and how they operate, see “Interim Committees: Just the Facts, Ma’am“, posted 7/21/2017.

Energy Legislation Review Interim Study Committee

The Energy Legislation Review Interim Study Committee met four times over the interim and toured a number of facilities throughout the state including a wind project; oil and gas facilities; a wastewater reclamation facility; a generation station; a hydroelectric facility; and a net-zero, all electric community. The committee heard from a number of retail electric providers, renewable energy companies, oil and gas policy groups, state regulators, and county commissioners. The committee initially requested the drafting of six bills, one of which was withdrawn before the hearing at which bill drafts were considered, one of which was withdrawn at the hearing at which bill drafts were considered, and three of which the committee voted to recommend to Legislative Council for introduction. The Legislative Council approved all three of the recommended bills as follows:

Bill A: Concerning the valuation of property used to store electricity.
The bill ensures that clean energy resources and energy storage systems used to store electricity are assessed for purposes of property tax valuation in the same manner that renewable energy facility property is assessed.

Bill B: Concerning the establishment of a statewide standard for the sale of biodiesel‑blended diesel fuel in Colorado.
This bill establishes a statewide requirement starting in 2021 that all diesel fuel sold or offered for sale in Colorado between June 1 and September 15 of a given year contain at least 5% biodiesel, which increases to 10% biodiesel in 2023. The air quality control commission, in consultation with the director of the division of oil and public safety, must establish through rulemaking a waiver process for the biodiesel‑blending requirement and require labeling of biodiesel­-blended fuel to reflect the percentage of biodiesel included in the blended fuel.

Bill C: Concerning the transmission of renewable energy through transmission lines that cross property subject to a conservation easement.
The bill authorizes the installation and maintenance of electric transmission lines that transmit renewable energy across land that is subject to a conservation easement if the installation and maintenance is consistent with the conservation purposes of the conservation easement.

To review the bills recommended by the Energy Legislation Review Interim Study Committee, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Jennifer Berman. 

Making Higher Education Attainable Interim Study Committee

The Making Higher Education Attainable Interim Study Committee met five times during the 2019 interim, including tours of Emily Griffith Technical College in Denver and each of the three institutions of higher education at the Auraria Higher Education Campus. The committee heard testimony on a number of subjects, including the costs of higher education, state funding related to higher education, student degree and program completion, student debt, and programs and counseling that help prepare students for postsecondary education. The committee requested that staff draft eight bills, three of which were ultimately recommended to the Legislative Council. All three bills were approved by the Legislative Council.

Bill A: Concerning changes to the continuing administration of the Colorado opportunity scholarship initiative, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation.
This bill amends provisions relating to the Colorado opportunity scholarship initiative, including:

• Removing the definition of “tuition assistance” and replacing it with a definition for “financial assistance” that is tied to cost of attendance, as defined in the bill;
• Removing the statutory restriction that not more than 10% of money in the fund in a fiscal year may be awarded to state agencies and nonprofit organizations for student success and support services and for other services, and the requirement that a certain percentage of the money awarded for student success and support services and for other services be awarded to nongovernmental entities;
• Removing the requirement that the initiative be administered by existing personnel; and
• Changing the current provision that, to the extent practicable, scholarships must be equally distributed between students who are eligible for federal PELL grants and students within a certain range of income. Instead, the bill requires scholarships to be equitably distributed between students with an expected family contribution, as defined in the bill, of less than 100% of the annual federal PELL grant award and students with an expected family contribution between 100% and 250% of the annual federal PELL grant award.

The bill appropriates $5 million to the Colorado opportunity scholarship initiative fund to implement the initiative.

Bill B: Concerning a statewide plan for awarding college credit for work-related experience.
This bill requires an existing council charged with looking at general education courses (council) to implement a plan for determining and awarding academic credit for postsecondary education based on work-related experience.

Furthermore, state institutions of higher education (institutions) are required to evaluate student learning from work-related experience and award appropriate academic credit for the experience. Also, institutions shall accept and transfer academic credit awarded for work-related experience as courses with guaranteed-transfer designation, unless the council creates a plan concerning awarding and transferring academic credit for work-related experience for courses with guaranteed-transfer designation.

Bill C: Concerning an improve student success innovation pilot program through the collaboration of multiple institutions of higher education to increase the number of students who successfully complete postsecondary education.
This bill creates the improve student success innovation pilot program (pilot program) in the department of higher education (department) to implement a program designed to incentivize collaboration among multiple institutions of higher education to improve student success and increase the number of students who complete postsecondary education.

When selecting a program or programs for the pilot program, the department and commission on higher education (commission) shall prioritize program proposals that address common barriers to student success and the completion of postsecondary education, as well as other factors.

The department and commission shall submit an annual report to the joint budget committee and the education committees of the General Assembly regarding the efficacy of the program.

The general assembly shall appropriate $20 million each year for the 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 fiscal years, from the general fund to the department to distribute to the state institutions of higher education selected to implement their projects. The pilot program repeals on July 1, 2024.

To review the bills recommended by the Making Higher Education Attainable Interim Study Committee, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Conrad Imel.

Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Study Committee

The Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Study Committee met six times during the 2019 interim to study issues relating to the prevention, treatment, harm reduction, recovery, and criminal justice aspects of opioids and other substance use disorders. The committee heard testimony from experts, state agencies, and laypersons on issues related to these aspects. The committee requested the drafting of five bills and voted to advance all five bills to Legislative Council, all of which the Legislative Council approved.

Bill A: Concerning the prevention of substance use disorders.
The bill requires the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) to promulgate rules that establish diagnoses of covered conditions for which nonpharmacological alternatives to opioids are appropriate. The bill establishes minimum requirements for health benefit plans regarding coverage for physical therapy and occupational therapy or for acupuncture, and requires the commissioner to conduct an actuarial study to determine the economic feasibility before including acupuncture as a covered alternative treatment.

The bill prohibits an insurance carrier (carrier) from limiting or excluding coverage for an atypical opioid or a nonopioid medication, which the federal food and drug administration approves, by mandating that a covered person undergo step therapy or obtain prior authorization if the atypical opioid or nonopioid medication is prescribed by the covered person’s health care provider. The carrier must make the atypical opioid or nonopioid medication available at the lowest cost-sharing tier applicable to a covered opioid with the same indication.

The bill precludes a carrier that has a contract with a physical therapist, occupational therapist, or acupuncturist (therapy provider) from prohibiting the therapy provider from, or penalizing the therapy provider for, providing a covered person information on the amount of the person’s financial responsibility for received services or from requiring the therapy provider to charge or collect a copayment from a covered person that exceeds the total charges the therapy provider submits. The commissioner must take action against a carrier that violates these prohibitions.

The bill continues the current opioid prescribing limitation indefinitely. The bill requires the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies (department) to consult with the center for research into substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies (center) and the state medical board to promulgate rules establishing competency-based continuing education requirements for physicians and physician assistants concerning prescribing practices for opioids.

The bill modifies requirements for adding prescription information to the prescription drug monitoring program (program) and allows the department of health care policy and financing and the health information organization network access to the program. The bill continues indefinitely the requirement that a health care provider query the program before prescribing a second fill for an opioid and requires each health care provider to query the program before prescribing a benzodiazepine, unless certain exceptions apply. The bill also requires the director of the division of professions and occupations in the department to promulgate rules designating additional controlled substances and other prescription drugs that the program must track. In addition to queries related to autopsies, the bill allows medical examiners and coroners to query the program when conducting a death investigation.

The bill directs the office of behavioral health in the department of human services to convene a collaborative with institutions of higher education, nonprofit agencies, and state agencies to gather feedback from local public health agencies and the institutions and other agencies concerning evidence-based prevention practices.

Bill B: Concerning measures to reduce the harm caused by substance use disorders.
The bill requires a carrier that provides coverage for opiate antagonists to reimburse a hospital if the hospital provides a covered person with an opiate antagonist upon discharge. The bill allows a pharmacist or pharmacy technician to sell a nonprescription syringe or needle to any person. The bill extends civil and criminal immunity for a person who acts in good faith to furnish or administer an opiate antagonist to an individual the person believes to be suffering an opiate-related drug overdose when the opiate antagonist was expired. The bill removes the requirement that entities must receive local board of health approval before operating a clean syringe exchange program. Finally the bill continuously appropriates the money in the harm reduction grant program cash fund to the department of public health and environment for purposes of the program and establishes an annual appropriation of an amount equal to the appropriation for the 2019-20 fiscal year plus $250,000.

Bill C: Concerning treatment of individuals with substance use disorders who come into contact with the criminal justice system, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation.
The bill requires the department of corrections (DOC), local jails, multijurisdictional jails, municipal jails, and department of human services (DHS) facilities to provide at least one opioid agonist and one opioid antagonist to a person in custody with an opioid use disorder throughout the duration of the person’s incarceration or commitment. Under the bill, a person may dispose of controlled substances at a safe station and request assistance in gaining access to treatment for a substance use disorder. The DOC and jails must ensure that inmates receive continuity of care before release. The executive director of the DOC, in consultation with the offices of behavioral health and economic security in DHS, the department of health care policy and financing, the department of local affairs, and local service providers must develop resources for inmates post-release that provide information to help prepare inmates for release and reintegration into their communities.

The bill requires a court to consider whether a person who is the subject of a petition to seal criminal records has entered into or successfully completed a licensed substance use disorder treatment program. Under the bill, the office of behavioral health in DHS may contract with cities and counties for the creation, maintenance, or expansion of criminal justice diversion programs, and the bill appropriates money to the office for criminal justice diversion programs.

Bill D: Concerning treatment for substance use disorders.
The bill requires updated community assessments every two years of the sufficiency of substance use disorder services in the community. The department of human services (DHS) must contract with an independent entity to compile the assessments. Insurance carriers must provide coverage for the treatment of substance use disorders in accordance with the American society of addiction medicine (ASAM) criteria for placement, medical necessity, and utilization management determinations in accordance with the most recent edition of the ASAM criteria.

The bill increases funding by $1 million for provider loan forgiveness and scholarships from the Colorado health service corps fund in the department of public health and environment (CDPHE).

Under the bill, a pharmacy that enters into a collaborative pharmacy agreement with one or more physicians may receive an enhanced dispensing fee for administering all injectable medications for medication-assisted treatment that are approved by the federal food and drug administration, and not just injectable antagonist medication.

DHS must commission a state child care and treatment study and final report to make recommendations concerning gaps in family-centered substance use disorder treatment. DHS must identify alternative payment structures for funding child care and children’s services alongside substance use disorder treatment of a child’s parent.

The bill prohibits managed service organization contracted providers, withdrawal management services, and recovery residences from denying access to medical or substance use disorder treatment services, including recovery services, to persons who are participating in prescribed medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders. In addition, the bill prohibits courts and parole, probation, and community corrections from prohibiting the use of prescribed medication-assisted treatment as a condition of participation or placement. The bill requires managed care entities to provide coordination of care for the full continuum of substance use disorder and mental health treatment and recovery services, including support for individuals transitioning between levels of care.

The bill appropriates money to the office of behavioral health in DHS to allocate to the center for research into substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies for the continued employment of grant writers to aid local communities in accessing federal and state money to address opioid and other substance use disorders in their communities.

The commissioner of insurance, in consultation with CDPHE, may promulgate rules, or seek a revision of the essential health benefits package, for prescription medications for medication-assisted treatment to be included on insurance carriers’ formularies. Insurance carriers must report to the commissioner of insurance the number of in-network providers who are licensed to prescribe medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders, and of that number, must indicate how many providers are actively prescribing medication-assisted treatment.

The bill requires insurance carriers to provide coverage for naloxone hydrochloride, or other similarly acting drugs, without prior authorization and without imposing any deductible, copayment, coinsurance, or other cost-sharing requirement.

DHS must implement a program for training and community outreach relating to, at a minimum, the availability of and process for civil commitment of persons with an alcohol or substance use disorder. The bill consolidates statutes to create a single process for emergency treatment that includes all substances.

Bill E: Concerning measures to assist an individual’s recovery from a substance use disorder.
The bill annually appropriates $250,000 to the department of labor and employment to provide peer coaching and peer specialist training for individuals recovering from substance use disorders. The opioid and other substance use disorders study committee (committee) is continued for an additional four years, meeting every other year beginning in 2021.

The bill directs the state substance abuse trend and response task force to convene stakeholders to review progress on bills the committee introduces and the general assembly passes and generate policy recommendations related to opioid and other substance use disorders and to submit its annual report to the committee.

The bill modifies how the determination of child abuse, neglect, or dependency is made in situations involving alcohol or substance exposure.

The bill creates the recovery support services grant program in the office of behavioral health (office) in the department of human services to provide grants to recovery community organizations, and annually appropriates $3.5 million to implement the program. The bill also imposes the following requirements on the office and appropriates money for these purposes:

• Expanding the individual placement and support program; and
• Establishing a program to assist individuals with substance use disorders by providing the individuals with temporary financial housing assistance.

The bill imposes the following requirements on the center for research into substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies, and appropriates money to the center for these purposes:

• Designing and conducting a comprehensive review of Colorado’s substance use disorder treatment and recovery services to inform a state plan for the delivery of services across the continuum of care for individuals at risk of relapse;
• Conducting, through the statewide perinatal substance use data linkage project, ongoing research related to the incidence of perinatal substance exposure or related infant and family health and human service outcomes

To review the bills recommended by the Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Study Committee, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Yelana Love. 

Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force

The Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force met five times over the interim. Briefings and presentations were made by the Office of Legislative Legal Services, The Colorado department of Revenue (DOR), the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Colorado Municipal League, the Tax Foundation, the Coalition to Simplify Colorado Sales Tax, the Office of the State Auditor, and members of the public on a wide range of topics, including:

• 2019 sales and use tax legislation;
• The implementation of Senate Bill 19-006;
• The Colorado Municipal League’s standardized definitions project;
• The evaluation of tax expenditures by the Office of the State Auditor;
• The state’s use tax;
• Third-party administration; and
• The sunset review of the task force by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.

The task force requested the drafting of three bills and voted to advance two bills to Legislative Council, both of which the Legislative Council approved.

Bill A: Concerning the sales and use tax simplification task force, and, in connection therewith, extending the task force, modifying the task force’s duties, and removing the requirement that the task force undergo an evaluation by the department of regulatory agencies prior to the task force’s repeal.
The bill continues the sales and use tax simplification task force for five years, modifies the task force’s duties, and removes the requirement that the task force undergo an evaluation by the department of regulatory agencies before the task force’s repeal.

Bill B: Concerning certain address database systems used for sales and use tax collection.
The bill establishes a hold harmless provision for vendors who use the state’s geographic information system database (GIS database) to determine the jurisdictions to which sales or use tax is owed and to calculate appropriate sales or use tax rates for individual addresses.The department of revenue (department) must notify vendors when the GIS database is online, tested, and verified in writing by the department to be operational, supported, and available for use. The department must ensure that the GIS database data is at least 95% accurate based on a statistically valid sample of addresses from the database, or based on another acceptable method of proving accuracy. The executive director of the department must promulgate rules for the administration and use of the GIS database.

The bill specifies that the statutory section regarding certified address location databases used for collecting and remitting sales and use tax is repealed 90 days after the department notifies the revisor of statutes that a geographic information system that meets the defined scope of work set forth in the request for solicitation is online, tested, and verified in writing by the department to be operational, supported, and available for use. The department must notify the revisor of statutes no later than 15 days after the system is online, tested, and verified.

To review the bills recommended by the Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force, please visit the task force’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Esther van Mourik.

Tax Expenditure Evaluation Interim Study Committee

The Tax Expenditure Evaluation Interim Study Committee met four times over the interim to review the Office of the State Auditor’s tax expenditure evaluations. The committee heard from the Office of the State Auditor, the Colorado Department of Revenue, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Tax Foundation. The committee also heard from individual and business taxpayers who benefit from the tax expenditures reviewed by the Office of the State Auditor, and from their advocates. The committee requested the drafting of 19 bills, voted to advance five of these bills to Legislative Council, recommended five more of these bills to the Statutory Revision Committee, and sent a letter to the Joint Agricultural Committee recommending that the Joint Agricultural Committee review the sales and use tax exemptions for agricultural inputs. The Legislative Council approved the bills recommended to it for introduction.

Bill A: Concerning certain requirements that must be included in a tax expenditure bill.
Current law requires a legislative declaration stating the intended purpose of a new tax expenditure or the intended purpose for extending an expiring tax expenditure. The bill expands that law by:

• Requiring a statutory legislative declaration, not nonstatutory;
• Requiring a bill that creates a new tax expenditure to include a repeal of the expenditure after a specified period of tax years and a bill that extends an expiring tax expenditure to extend the expenditure only for a specified period of tax years; and
• Requiring the statement of the intended purpose to be part of a tax preference performance statement, which includes:
  • The classification of the type of the tax expenditure; and
  • Detailed information regarding the legislative purpose of the tax expenditure, which, at a minimum, includes clear, relevant, and ascertainable metrics and data requirements that allow the tax expenditure to be measured for effectiveness in achieving the intended purpose.

Bill B: Concerning the repeal of the state sales tax exemption for long-term lodging.
Under current law, the sales tax exemption for long-term lodging exempts stays of 30 days or more at hotels, apartment hotels, lodging houses, motor hotels, guesthouses, guest ranches, trailer coaches, mobile homes, auto camps, or trailer courts and parks from the state sales tax on lodgings. The bill limits this exemption so that it only applies to natural persons.

Bill C: Concerning modifications to the state’s net operating loss deduction.
Currently, Colorado taxpayers can claim a net operating loss deduction on their Colorado tax return. Unless statute otherwise provides, the state deduction is currently allowed in the same manner that a similar deduction is allowed under the internal revenue code to determine federal taxable income.

Under current law, corporate taxpayers in Colorado are allowed to carry forward their net operating loss deduction for the same number of years as allowed for a federal net operating loss. For many years, taxpayers were limited to a 20-year carryforward period for both state and federal taxes. The federal “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA), enacted in 2017, allowed federal taxpayers unlimited years to carry forward net operating losses. Because Colorado’s statute specifies that net operating losses may be carried forward “for the same number of years as allowed for a federal net operating loss”, the TCJA’s change resulted in the same change to Colorado’s law. The bill partially decouples the corporate net operating loss deduction from the federal net operating loss deduction by returning the state’s carryforward period to 20 years.

The bill also repeals a state provision that was effective only for financial institutions, so that, for purposes of the period of years a loss can be carried forward, financial institutions will now be treated the same as any other taxpayer.

Bill D: Concerning the creation of the legislative oversight committee concerning tax policy.
The bill creates the legislative oversight committee concerning tax policy (committee), and the associated task force (task force).

The committee must consider the policy considerations contained in the tax expenditure evaluations prepared by the state auditor and is responsible for overseeing the task force. The committee may recommend legislative changes that are treated as bills recommended by an interim legislative committee.

The task force must study tax policy and develop and propose for committee consideration any modifications to the current system of state and local taxation.

The task force also may, upon request by a committee member, provide evidence-based feedback on the potential benefits or consequences of a legislative or other policy proposal not directly affiliated with or generated by the task force, including legislation introduced by the general assembly that affects tax policy.

Bill E: Concerning modifications to the sales tax exemption for certain energy uses.
Under current law, the sales tax exemption for energy use exempts from state sales tax the sale and purchase of electricity, gas, fuel oil, steam, coal, coke, or nuclear fuel used in processing, manufacturing, mining, refining, irrigation, construction, telegraph, telephone, and radio communication, street and railroad transportation services, and all industrial uses, and newsprint and printer’s ink used by newspaper publisher and commercial printers. The bill modifies this sales tax exemption to apply only when the energy is used by a metered machine.

To review the bills recommended by the Tax Expenditure Evaluation Interim Study Committee, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Pierce Lively. 

Prison Population Management Interim Study Committee

The prison population management interim study committee met five times during the 2019 interim to study strategies to reduce the prison population and reduce recidivism and to monitor prison population reform legislation passed by the General Assembly. The committee heard testimony on a wide range of issues from prison population drivers, recidivism drivers, inmate treatment needs, community corrections, juvenile sentencing, and many more. The committee requested the drafting of three bills and voted to advance all three bills to Legislative Council. Bill A was withdrawn before the Legislative Council vote, and is not described in this article. Bills B and C received favorable votes by Legislative Council.

Bill B: Concerning measures to manage the state prison population.
Under current law, the Centennial south campus of the Centennial correctional facility is only able to house inmates under limited circumstances. The bill opens the facility for close custody inmates and requires that, for each inmate who is housed at the facility, an inmate must be removed from a private prison until the facility is full.

The bill directs the department of corrections (department) to study how to end the practice of using private prisons by 2025 in a responsible way.

The bill adds the following to the list of achievements that allow an inmate to receive earned time: Showing exemplary leadership through mentoring; community service; and distinguished actions benefiting the health, safety, environment, and culture for staff and other inmates.

Under current law, an offender is not entitled to an evidentiary hearing for resentencing when the offender is rejected for placement in a community corrections program. The bill requires the sentencing court to provide the offender with an evidentiary hearing, or in the alternative a new sentencing hearing, for termination from a community corrections program.

The bill amends the escape statutes to exclude direct sentences, transitioning from the department to a community corrections program, or placement in an intensive supervision parole program from the concepts of custody or confinement for purposes of escape. The bill lowers the penalties for escape and attempted escape crimes. The bill creates a new crime of absconding if the location of a person on intensive supervision parole or a person in a community corrections program is unknown to the authorized agency responsible for the person’s supervision.

Bill C: Concerning a study to examine operational processes within the criminal justice system.
The bill requires the department of corrections (department) to conduct a study to examine how individuals proceed through the various stages of criminal proceedings, including the various sentences and programs to which a person may be sentenced or placed. Subject to available appropriations, the department shall issue a request for proposals for an entity to assist with the study. The department must produce a report of its findings to the joint budget committee and the judiciary committees of the General Assembly.

To review the bills recommended by the Prison Population Management Interim Study Committee, including Bill A, which was withdrawn, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Michael Dohr. 

Zero Waste and Recycling Interim Study Committee

The Zero Waste and Recycling Interim Study Committee met during the 2019 interim to study waste and recycling infrastructure, composting, and zero-waste efforts in Colorado. On October 22, 2019, the Committee considered four bills drafts and subsequently voted to approve two of the drafts for the consideration of the Legislative Council on November 15, 2019. The Legislative Council approved both bills for introduction.

Bill A: Concerning the expansion of market mechanisms for the further development of recycling.
The bill directs the pollution prevention advisory board (board) within the department of public health and environment (department) to recommend to the department a structure and governing guidance for a recycling market development center to support the development of end-market businesses within the state. The bill also directs the department to conduct a literature review of what industry and other states are doing around the country regarding producer responsibility and to create policy and legislative recommendations regarding the feasibility of requiring producers to design, manage, and finance programs for end-of-life management of their products and packaging as a condition of sale.

The bill also allows the board to use the recycling resources economic opportunity fund and the front range waste diversion cash fund to reimburse eligible recycling businesses for locally assessed personal property taxes paid in the current tax year in this state on personal property. The bill directs the board to establish a formula to use in awarding personal property tax reimbursements.

The bill also requires the department, on and after October 1, 2020, to administer a statewide campaign to educate Colorado residents concerning recycling. The requirement is repealed, effective September 1, 2021.

Bill B: Concerning the development of a statewide organics management plan to promote compost use.
The bill tasks the executive director of the department of public health and environment (executive director) or the executive director’s designee and the commissioner of agriculture (commissioner) or the commissioner’s designee with developing an organics management plan (plan) on or before September 1, 2022. The department of public health and environment may incorporate the plan into the department’s existing work regarding organics management if its existing work meets the standards established for the organics management plan.

In developing the plan, the executive director and the commissioner must study and make recommendations regarding organic waste management practices to encourage compost use on soil to promote carbon storage. The executive director and the commissioner must also complete two statewide surveys as part of the plan: A survey that examines end uses for the major categories of organic waste feedstock generated within the state; and a survey that examines existing organic waste generation facilities and processing capacity. On or before February 1, 2023, the executive director must submit a report summarizing the plan to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over energy or agricultural matters.

To review the bills recommended by the Zero Waste and Recycling Interim Study Committee, please visit the committee’s website. For questions concerning the legislation, please contact Richard Sweetman.