This is the second of two articles summarizing this year’s interim committee actions. Since the end of the last legislative session several legislative committees held public meetings to discuss topics relevant to Colorado and to recommend legislation to the Legislative Council for approval for introduction in 2025. As mentioned in the first part of this series posted last week, this article contains the summaries of the last five of 10 committees and their recommended legislation. The Legislative Council met on Tuesday, October 15, to review interim committee legislation proposals. Click here to listen to the Legislative Council meeting.

Cell Phone Connectivity Interim Committee

The committee met four times and attended two field trips during the interim. It heard presentations from members of the telecommunications industry, including the Wireless Infrastructure Association, the Colorado Telecommunications Association, and the Colorado Communications and Utility Alliance. The committee had four bills drafted and recommended the following three bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Single Point of Contact Wireless Services. The bill requires the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in the Department of Public Safety to develop a single point of contact within the division to help ensure statewide coverage of the integrated public alert and warning system for wireless emergency alerts and the emergency alert system, provide technical assistance, and offer recommendations to improve current wireless alert systems in Colorado that address language and access needs.
• Bill B – Wireless Telephone Infrastructure Deployment Incentives. The bill requires the Colorado broadband office to implement a wireless telephone infrastructure grant program.
• Bill C – Local Government Permitting Wireless Telecom Facilities. The bill establishes requirements relating to a local government’s approval of an application by a telecommunications provider for the siting and construction of a new wireless telecommunications facility or for the substantial change of an existing wireless telecommunications facility.

Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems

The committee met three times during the 2024 interim and heard presentations from the task force and the Behavioral Health Administration. The committee requested five bills to be drafted and recommended all five bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – Deflection Supports Justice-Involved Youth. The bill makes changes to the youthful offender system related to housing arrangements and equitable treatment for youthful offenders; rehabilitative treatment and life skills programming; and clinician evaluations, tailored treatment plans, and client managers. It applies the standards for determining competency in juvenile delinquency cases to juveniles who have charges directly filed against them in adult court, juveniles whose cases are transferred to adult court, or juveniles subject to concurrent court jurisdiction. The bill imposes certain limitations on a case management plan’s contents, makes some sentencing requirements, and creates a grant program to provide defection services.
• Bill B – Behavioral Health Crisis Response Recommendations. The bill requires the a stakeholder group be convened to identify and compile a list of existing resources and model programs that communities throughout Colorado utilize when responding to behavioral health crises and to make the resources and information about the model programs publicly available. It requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the Department of Public Health and Environment, and the Behavioral Health Administration to provide information to the General Assembly regarding the reimbursement shortages and gaps within the continuum of care and the reimbursement and funding options that are available to address the shortages and gaps.
• Bill C – Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Defense. When a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is accepted by the court, the bill requires the court, in consultation with others parties, to determine whether a sanity examination requires the defendant to stay overnight for an extended examination and the number of days of the extended examination. It prohibits the court from ordering the defendant into custody in order to conduct the sanity examination and for a defendant from being dressed in prison or jail clothing or for restraints from being visible on the recording. The bill repeals the provision authorizing a narcoanalytic interview of the defendant.
• Bill D – Complementary Behavioral Health Services in Jails Grant. Under existing law, the Behavioral Health Administration administers the jail-based behavioral health services program. The bill requires the administration to provide funding to jails to administer services that complement a person’s primary course of treatment for a behavioral health disorder to persons in custody in the jail. A jail is required to use the funding to train jail staff to administer complementary behavioral health services and to provide complementary behavioral health services to persons in custody in the jail at no cost to the person. The bill requires the General Assembly to annually appropriate up to $50,000 for the administration of complementary behavioral health services as part of the program.
• Bill E – Competency in Criminal Justice System Services & Bail. Under existing law, when criminal charges are dismissed against a person receiving inpatient restoration services from the Department of Human Services, the department must stop providing services to the person. The bill permits the department to continue to provide services for up to 90 days after the person’s case is dismissed because the person is incompetent to proceed. It also allows the department to enter into an agreement with an organization to provide permanent supportive housing for a person whose case is dismissed because the person is incompetent to proceed, the person has been referred to the bridges wraparound care program, or has successfully completed a bridges wraparound care program. The bill states that a defendant’s competency status does not affect the defendant’s eligibility for release on bond and is not a basis for a no-bond hold or mental health stay and prohibits a court from considering competency status as a factor in setting or modifying a monetary condition of bond.

Pension Review Commission and Pension Review Subcommittee

The Pension Review Commission met three times during the 2024 interim. It heard presentations from the Fire and Police Pension Association; the Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA); PNYX Group, a contractor engaged by the Pension Review Subcommittee to conduct an independent review of assumptions used to model PERA’s financial situation; and Segal Group regarding PERA’s signal light reporting for the hybrid defined benefit plan. In addition, the commission heard proposals for legislation from the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee met three times during the 2024 interim.  It heard presentations PERA, the Association, and the PNYX Group regarding the details of its draft and final reports; and the Segal Group and AON regarding various aspects of PERA. The Subcommittee also discussed proposed legislation for the Commission’s consideration and discussed its annual reports to the General Assembly and the citizens of Colorado. The commission requested that three bills be drafted and recommended the two following bills to the Legislative Council for introduction:

• Bill A – Income Tax Credit for PERA Retirees. The bill creates a refundable income tax credit that is available for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2025, but prior to January 1, 2027, for a qualifying PERA retiree, which means a full-time Colorado resident individual who is 65 years of age or older at the end of the 2025 or 2026 income tax year and has an annual federal adjusted gross income of no more than $38,000 as a single filer or $76,000 as a joint filer.
• Bill B – PERA Risk-Reduction Measures.  The bill requires the PERA board to conduct or cause to be conducted an actuarial study of PERA and a periodic actuarial audit of PERA every 4 years and aligns the timing of the study and the audit. In addition, the bill requires the state auditor to commission an independent review of the periodic actuarial audit by experts other than those already working on behalf of PERA. The bill specifies items that the experts commissioned to conduct the independent review are required to analyze.

Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Tax Policy & Task Force

The committee met three times during the interim. It heard presentations on the insurance premium tax from the Division of Insurance, the alternative transportation tax credit from the Department of Revenue and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, the business personal property tax from the Division of Property Taxation and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, and various other tax expenditures from the Office of the State Auditor. The committee requested ten bills for drafting and recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Adjusting Certain Tax Expenditures. The bill modifies ten tax expenditures. The bill disallows the income tax credit for unsalable alcohol after December 31, 2025. The bill allows a taxpayer to deduct 1%, rather than 2%, of the taxable gallons of fuel removed from a fuel terminal for purposes of the tax imposed on gasoline and special fuel. The bill extends two income tax credits by extending the income tax credit for a purchaser who installs an energy storage system in a residential dwelling through income tax years commencing before January 1, 2027, and the reducing emissions from lawn equipment income tax credit through income tax years commencing before January 1, 2029. The bill amends a definition of “agricultural compounds” that is incorporated into the definition of “wholesale sale” used for purposes of the sales and use tax statutes. The bill also identifies the purposes of the insolvency assessments paid insurance premium tax credit, the state refund income tax deduction, the dyed special fuels and off-road fuel tax excise tax exemption, the off-road fuel use refund, and the wholesale sales exemption from sales tax and identifies how to measure if those purposes are met.
• Bill B – Senior Housing Income Tax Credit Extension. The bill extends a refundable income tax credit that is available for the income tax years commencing on January 1, 2022, and January 1, 2024, so that the credit is also available for the income tax years commencing on January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2026.
• Bill C – Modification Long-Term Care Insurance Income Tax Credit. For income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2025, the bill both: increases the amount of federal taxable income a taxpayer may have and still qualify for the state income tax credit for purchasing long-term care insurance and annually adjusts that federal taxable income amount for inflation; and doubles the amount of the credit a taxpayer may claim and, for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2026, annually adjusts the credit amount for inflation.
• Bill D – Income Tax Expenditures for Service Members. The bill changes how income tax expenditures benefit individuals engaged in military service. Beginning with income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2027, it eliminates the state income tax subtraction for an amount equal to any compensation received for active duty service in the armed forces of the United States by an individual who has reacquired residency in the state to the extent that the compensation is included in federal taxable income. For income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2027, but before January 1, 2032, the bill allows a refundable income tax credit as a form of tuition assistance to an actively serving member of the Colorado National Guard who is eligible for tuition assistance under an existing statutorily-authorized program administered by the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs.
• Bill E – State Tax Expenditure & Grant Database. The bill creates an online database managed by the Department of Revenue that includes information on all qualifying state tax expenditures and state grant opportunities. The database must be created by December 31, 2026, and must be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

Transportation Legislation Review Committee

The Transportation Legislation Review Committee had an ambitious interim that included three meetings and a one-day site tour during which it toured ten sites, including several mobility hubs and other projects and facilities that are part of the state surface transportation system. The committee heard presentations from a wide variety of agencies and groups including state transportation agencies, transportation authorities and districts that provide transportation infrastructure and services, and other diverse groups such as the American Automobile Association, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 101, Bicycle Colorado, the Colorado Association of the Chiefs of Police, the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, the Colorado Task Force on Drunk and Impaired Driving, the Cross Disability Coalition, the Denver Regional Council of Governments,  Greater Denver Transit, Green Latinos, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Petroleum Marketers Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Regional Air Quality Council, and the Utah Transit Authority. The committee recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Increase Transportation Mode Choice Reduce Emissions. The bill concerns measures to increase transportation mode choices in order to reduce emissions. It establishes deadlines by which the Department of Transportation must present a statewide mode choice assessment, adopt rules establishing mode choice targets for 2030 to 2050, and present triannual reports regarding the mode choice targets to the transportation legislation review committee. It also specifies that certain entities required to prepare mode choice implementation plan include certain information about the mode choice targets, a multimodal transportation gaps summary, and an analysis of certain projected greenhouse gas emissions.
• Bill B – Motor Vehicle Regulation Administration. The bill prohibits as vehicular document piracy the making, distributing, advertising, selling, promoting, completing, altering, or producing of a document that simulates or closely resembles an official document related to the administration of the motor vehicle or identification statutes without the express written permission of the Department of Revenue. It makes the “Uniform Power of Attorney Act” apply to the motor vehicle statutes, repeals the requirement that a service-connected disability be permanent in order for a veteran to be eligible to register a motor vehicle without paying fees, and repeals certain license plates. The bill makes changes to the statutes regarding driver’s licenses and identification documents.
• Bill C – Local Funding for Vulnerable Road User Protection. The bill authorizes a county, city and county, or municipality or a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights exempt enterprise created by a city, city and county, or municipality to generate additional fee-based funding for local transportation system strategies that improve safety for vulnerable road users. The fees must be based on vehicle weight and may also be based on vehicle fuel-efficiency and must be reasonably calculated based on the impacts to vulnerable road users caused by the fee payers and the costs of remediating those impacts. Fee revenue may only be expended for local transportation system strategies that improve safety for vulnerable road users.
• Bill D – Railroad Investigative Report Confidentiality. The bill repeals a requirement that investigative reports of railroads made for the public utilities commission be kept confidential and replaces that requirement with a grant of rule-making authority to make ongoing investigations and security information confidential. The confidentiality rules must not make final reports of investigations confidential and must require the timely release of information if public knowledge of the information would protect the public safety, health, or welfare.
• Bill E – Paratransit Services. Paratransit services are defined as complementary parallel transit services for individuals with disabilities who are unable to utilize regular or fixed route transit services for some or all of their transit needs. The bill requires any political subdivision of the state, public entity, or nonprofit corporation that provides paratransit services in the state: to establish, in coordination with local public entities providing emergency services, a plan to communicate information and provide paratransit services during emergencies; to ensure that fare collection technology for paratransit services is comparable to that offered for regular or fixed route services; and, before reducing the service area for paratransit services, to consult with affected community members and conduct an impact analysis. It creates a task force to study and make recommendations regarding the standardization of and best practices for paratransit services in the state.