Colorado LegiSource

An informational and educational resource for the Colorado General Assembly by the Office of Legislative Legal Services.

Author: olls

  • 2022 Interim Committee Recap – Part 2

    Yesterday, we brought you Part 1 of the 2022 Interim Committees Recap series. Today in Part 2, we’re covering the remainder of interim committees and their recommended legislation, which were considered for introduction at the Friday, October 14, Legislative Council meeting. Click here to listen to the meeting.

    Transportation Legislation Review Committee

    The Transportation Legislation Review Committee met twice. At the August 9 meeting and the September 10 meetings, the committee heard presentations:

    • From public highway authorities;
    • From the Colorado Department of Transportation;
    • About climate reduction goals and reducing vehicle miles traveled;
    • From the Colorado Motor Carriers Association;
    • About driver education requirements;
    • From the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
    • About fleet license plates;
    • From the Regional Transportation District ;
    • From Bicycle Colorado and Denver Streets Partnership;
    • From Toyota;
    • From the Division of Motor Vehicles;
    • About transportation and Senate Bill 22-180;
    • From the Front Range Passenger Rail District;
    • From Colorado Association of Transit Agencies; and
    • About local transportation and Senate Bill 22-180.

    The committee also drafted and considered ten bills, but ultimately voted to advance the following bills:

        In addition, subject to current statutory requirements relating to the use of approved third-party providers, the department, to the extent feasible, is required to allow an owner of a rental vehicle fleet that is authorized to transfer license plates to maintain its own inventory of new number plates and to use a third-party provider to handle all or any portion of both its vehicle registration, lien, and titling needs and its number plate inventory ordering, management, and distribution needs.

        A person who fails to yield commits a class A traffic infraction and is subject to a fine of $70 and an $11 surcharge.

        The bill replaces the current driver’s education requirements for a minor who is under 18 years of age to be issued a driver’s license with requirements that the minor:

      1. Complete a 30-hour driver education course, which may include an online course, approved by the department; and
      2. Receive at least 6 hours of behind-the-wheel driving training with a driving instructor or, for minors who live in rural areas of the state, 12 hours of behind-the-wheel training with a parent, a legal guardian, or an alternate permit supervisor.

        The bill adds a requirement that a minor who is 18 to 21 years of age must successfully complete a 4-hour prequalification driver awareness program to be issued a driver’s license.

        A person who has been convicted of certain violent or sexual crimes is prohibited from providing behind-the-wheel driving instruction to minors. A commercial driving school is prohibited from employing such a driving instructor to provide behind-the-wheel driving instruction to minors. Each instructor employed by a commercial driving school must obtain a fingerprint-based criminal history record check to verify that the instructor has not committed a disqualifying crime.

        The bill also authorizes the department of revenue to cancel or deny registration of a commercial motor carrier that fails to cooperate with the completion of a safety compliance review within 30 days.

    Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning the Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems

    The Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning the Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems (BHDCJS) met four times during the 2022 interim. The committee heard presentations from multiple stakeholders, behavioral and mental health advocates, and representatives from state executive departments concerning the issues facing persons with behavioral health disorders who have been in contact, in one form or another, with the criminal or juvenile justice systems.

    The committee requested seven bills to be drafted. Of those, two were withdrawn prior to the September 29, 2022, meeting, and one was withdrawn at that meeting. The following four bills were recommended by the committee to the Legislative Council for consideration:

    • Bill A – Concerning issues related to juvenile competency to proceed. The bill addresses issues related to a determination of juvenile competency to proceed (competency) and restoration of competency (restoration). The bill allows:
      • The district attorney, defense attorney, guardian ad litem, department of human services, a competency evaluator, a restoration treatment provider, and the court, without written consent of the juvenile or further order of the court, to access competency evaluations and restoration evaluations, including all second evaluations; information and documents related to competency evaluations; the competency evaluator, for the purpose of discussing the competency evaluation; and the providers of court-ordered restoration services for the purpose of discussing such services;
      • Parties to exchange names, addresses, reports, and statements of physicians or psychologists who examined or treated the juvenile for competency;
      • The court or any party to raise, at any time, the issue of a need for a restoration evaluation of the juvenile’s competency; and
      • A juvenile to be examined by a competency evaluator of the juvenile’s own choice and to request a second evaluation in response to a court-ordered competency evaluation or a court-ordered restoration evaluation.

        If the court determines that the juvenile is incompetent to proceed and unlikely to be restored to competency in the reasonably foreseeable future, a time frame is set forth for the dismissal of charges based on the severity and type of charge.

        The bill requires facilities that utilize clinical restraints to implement procedures to ensure frequent and consistent monitoring for the individual subjected to the clinical restraint and uniform documentation procedures concerning the use of the clinical restraint.

        The bill limits the amount of time an individual may be subjected to a clinical restraint per each restraint episode and within a calendar year.

        The bill prohibits the use of an involuntary medication on an individual, unless:

      • The individual is determined to be dangerous to the individual’s self or another person and the treatment is in the individual’s medical interest;
      • All less restrictive alternative interventions have been exhausted; and
      • The involuntary medication is administered after exhaustion of procedural requirements that ensure a hearing, opportunity for review, and right to counsel.

        The bill requires the department of corrections (department) to submit an annual report to the judiciary committees of the senate and house of representatives with data concerning the use of clinical restraints and involuntary medication in the preceding calendar year.

        The bill requires the department to include specific data concerning the placement of individuals in settings with heightened restrictions in its annual administrative segregation report.

    Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee

    The Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee (WRARC) met three times during the interim and heard testimony from various water stakeholders in the state. On August 4, 2022, the WRARC asked requested 11 bills to be drafted to address various subject matters relating to water issues in the state. However, by the time the committee met on September 22 to select which bill drafts to advance for the consideration of the Legislative Council, nine of those requests were withdrawn. As a result, the WRARC voted to advance only the following two bills:

    • Bill A – Task Force on High-altitude Water Storage creates a task force to study the feasibility of implementing water storage in the form of snow in high-altitude areas of the state (task force). The task force must submit a report to the WRARC on or before June 1, 2024, which report:
      • Describes the feasibility of implementing high-altitude water storage in Colorado;
      • Describes findings and recommendations regarding issues considered by the task force; and
      • Describes any legislative proposals associated with the implementation of high-altitude water storage in Colorado, including identification of any state agencies that will be responsible for implementing legislative directives and identification of funding sources.

        The task force is repealed, effective December 1, 2024.

    • Bill B – Water Resources & Agriculture Review Committee converts the WRARC from an interim committee to a committee that may meet year-round. The bill also strikes obsolete language, removes limitations on the number of meetings and the number of field trips the WRARC may hold, and requires the WRARC to meet at least four times during each calendar year.

    Wildfire Matters Review Committee

    The Wildfire Matters Review Committee (WMRC) met five times during the 2022 interim and took one field trip. On September 28, 2022, the WMRC voted to advance the following five bills to the Legislative Council:

    • Bill A – Forestry and Wildfire Mitigation Workforce. The bill directs the Colorado state forest service (state forest service) to develop educational materials for high school students relating to career opportunities in forestry and wildfire mitigation. The bill also creates the timber, forest health, and wildfire mitigation industries workforce development program, which provides partial reimbursement to timber businesses and other related entities for the costs of hiring interns. The bill also authorizes the expansion and creation of forestry programs in the community college system and at Colorado mountain college. Finally, the bill directs the state board for community colleges and occupational education to increase the number of qualified educators at certain colleges that deliver wildfire prevention and mitigation programs.
    • Bill B – Wildfire Detection Technology Pilot Program. The bill requires the center of excellence for advanced technology aerial firefighting in the division of fire prevention and control (division) in the department of public safety to establish one or more remote camera technology pilot programs.
    • Bill C – Timber Industry Incentives. The bill creates the timber, forest health, and wildfire mitigation industries workforce development program in the state forest service, which provides partial reimbursement to timber businesses and other related entities for the costs of hiring interns. The bill also creates an income tax credit for tax years 2023 through 2027 for timber businesses and other related businesses.
    • Bill D – Updates To State Forest Service Tree Nursery. The bill requires the state forest service to make certain upgrades and improvements to its seedling tree nursery.
    • Bill E – Fire Investigations.  The bill directs the director of the division to report on the investigation of wildland fires in the state and creates the fire investigation fund to fund fire investigations.

  • 2022 Interim Committee Recap – Part 1

    Several legislative interim committees have been holding public meetings since the end of the last legislative session to discuss topics relevant to Colorado and to recommend legislation to the Legislative Council committee for approval for introduction in 2023. This week, we’re providing a summary of each of committee and its recommended legislation. The Legislative Council met on Friday, October 14, to review interim committee legislation proposals. Click here to listen to the meeting.

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

    Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee

    The Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee met three times during the interim. The committee heard presentations from its student members about discipline in public schools, completing financial aid applications, increasing the number of school psychologists, substance use, educational standards, eating disorders, weight discrimination, and youth sexual health. The committee requested the drafting of three bills. The committee recommended all three bills to the Legislative Council.

    • Bill A – Disordered Eating Prevention. The bill creates the Office of Disordered Eating Prevention (office) in the Department of Public Health and Environment (department). The bill requires the office and the department to:
      • Create a resource bank for research and resources for treatment and services;
      • Collaborate with the Office of Suicide Prevention, the Behavioral Health Administration, and organizations within the healthcare industry to close gaps in care and provide support for individuals with disordered eating transitioning out of inpatient care;
      • Create outreach resources educating youth on how to seek care for disordered eating;
      • Partner with the Department of Education to inform teachers, administrators, school staff, and parents on disordered eating prevention and treatment;
      • Coordinate the Disordered Eating Prevention Research Grant Program; and
      • Prepare written information for primary care offices and providers throughout the state.

        The bill also creates the Disordered Eating Prevention Commission (commission) in the department consisting of seventeen members that have a personal connection to disordered eating prevention. The purpose of the commission is to provide leadership on disordered eating prevention in Colorado; set statewide data-driven, evidence-based, and clinically informed priorities for disordered eating prevention; serve as the advisor to the office of disordered eating prevention; provide a forum for government agencies, lawmakers, and community members to examine the current status of disordered eating prevention policies; provide a voice for youth on issues impacting youth; and provide forums for diverse perspectives and communities for support and information.

        The bill further creates the Disordered Eating Prevention Research Grant Program (grant program) in the department. The purpose of the grant program is to provide financial assistance to eligible applicants to conduct research on risk factors for disordered eating, the impact disordered eating has on Colorado, or public interventions that examine and address the root causes of disordered eating.

    • Bill B – Secondary School Student Substance Use. The bill creates the Secondary School Student Substance Use Committee (committee) in the Department of Education (department) to develop a practice or identify or modify an existing practice for secondary schools to implement that identifies students in need of treatment for substance use, offers a brief intervention, and refers students to substance use treatment resources. The bill requires the department to publish a report of the committee’s findings and submit the report to the superintendent of every school district and the chief administrator of every institute charter school that is a secondary school.
    • Bill C – Disproportionate Discipline in Public Schools. The bill requires each school district board of education, institute charter school board, or governing board of a board of cooperative services (BOCES) to adopt a policy to address disproportionate disciplinary practices in public schools. Each school entity must develop, implement, and annually review improvement plans if the data reported to the Department of Education shows disproportionate discipline practices at the local education provider. Each provider shall provide to the parents of students enrolled in the school written notice of the improvement plan and issues identified by the local education provider. The bill requires school districts to consider certain factors before suspending or expelling a student. The bill requires school districts to document in a student’s record and compile in the Safe School report any alternative disciplinary attempts before suspending or expelling a student.

    Legislative Interim Committee on Judicial Discipline

    The Legislative Interim Committee on Judicial Discipline met five times during the 2022 interim to examine Colorado’s judicial discipline system, including the topics outlined in Senate Bill 22-201. The committee heard presentations from Colorado’s Judicial Department, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, and experts in the field of judicial discipline, and the committee heard public testimony at each of its first four meetings. The committee requested the drafting of two bills and one resolution. Of those, one bill was withdrawn at the September 30, 2022, meeting and the other two pieces of legislation were recommended by the committee to the Legislative Council for its consideration.

    • Bill A – Submitting to the Registered Electors of the State of Colorado an Amendment to the Colorado Constitution Concerning Judicial Discipline. The concurrent resolution amends section 23 of article VI of the Colorado Constitution as it relates to judicial discipline. The resolution clarifies the commission on judicial discipline’s (commission) duties and authority. The resolution repeals the authority of the commission and special masters to conduct formal judicial disciplinary proceedings and creates an independent adjudicative board (board) to conduct formal proceedings and hear appeals of the commission’s orders imposing informal sanctions. A panel of the board may dismiss a complaint, impose informal sanctions, or impose formal sanctions. The resolution sets the standards of review to be used by the supreme court when it reviews a panel’s decision and requires a tribunal of seven randomly selected court of appeals judges to review a panel’s decision in cases involving a Colorado supreme court justice, a staff member to a justice, or a family member of a justice, or when more than two justices have recused themselves from the proceeding. The resolution requires judicial discipline proceedings be made public at the commencement of formal proceedings. The resolution clarifies the circumstances in which the commission may release otherwise confidential information. Finally, the resolution creates a rule-making committee to propose rules for the commission. The supreme court approves or rejects each rule proposed by the rule-making committee.
    • Bill B – Judicial Discipline. The bill establishes rule-making procedure for rules governing the commission on judicial discipline (commission) and judicial discipline adjudicative board (board) proceedings. The bill also clarifies who provides administrative staff support for board proceedings. The bill permits a person to submit a request for evaluation of judicial misconduct by mail or online and also permits a person to submit a confidential or anonymous request for evaluation. The bill establishes a process for the office of judicial discipline to provide complainants with information about the judicial discipline process and about the status of the complainant’s request and any subsequent investigation and disciplinary or adjudicative process. The bill requires the commission include certain information in its annual report and make the information available online. The bill repeals the statute establishing the legislative interim committee on judicial discipline because the committee is not authorized to meet after the 2022 legislative interim.

    Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Tax Policy

    The Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Tax Policy met four times during the interim. The committee heard presentations on severance taxes, sales and use taxation of services, national perspectives on property taxes, and collecting excise tax from delivery sellers under House Bill 20-1427. Additionally, the state auditor’s office presented tax expenditure evaluations. The committee also set the scope of tax policies to be considered by its subordinate Task Force Concerning Tax Policy to include applying state income tax to federal adjusted gross income and options for expanding sales and use tax to apply to services.

    The committee requested nine bills for drafting and recommended five to the Legislative Council for introduction:

    Pension Review Commission and Pension Review Subcommittee

    The Pension Review Commission (commission) met twice during the interim. It heard presentations from the Fire and Police Pension Association (FPPA) and the Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA). In addition, the commission heard proposals for legislation from its own Pension Review Subcommittee. The Pension Review Subcommittee itself met three times to: (1) Hear presentations regarding House Bill 22-1029 – Compensatory Direct Distribution to PERA and the Direct Distribution to PERA; (2) Discuss proposed legislation and questions to be submitted to PERA; (3) Hear from PERA regarding answers to their submitted questions; and (4) Discuss its annual reports to the General Assembly and the citizens of Colorado.

    The Pension Review Commission requested that three bills be drafted and ultimately recommended one bill to the Legislative Council for introduction as follows:

    • Bill A – Temporary Tax Credit for Public Service Retirees.  Although the bill as originally requested and drafted increased the pension or annuity income tax deduction, the commission amended the bill in committee to create an income tax credit for public service retirees. The bill creates an income tax credit for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2023, but prior to January 1, 2025, for a qualifying public service retiree. A “public service retiree” means a full-time Colorado resident individual who is 55 years of age or older at the end of the 2023 or 2024 income tax year and who is a retiree of a Colorado public pension plan administered pursuant to the Colorado Revised Statutes or a retiree of a public pension plan administered by a local government of the state of Colorado.

    Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force

    The Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force met four times during the interim. It heard presentations from the Colorado Department of Revenue, the Colorado Counties Inc. (CCI), the Colorado Municipal League (CML), local government representatives, and private industry stakeholders. A general discussion relating to the SUTS system, the retail delivery fee, Colorado sale and use taxes, including taxes on construction materials through the building permit process, the simplification of the state sales return, and local lodging taxes with an opportunity for public comment occurred. In addition, the task force heard an overview of the Wayfair v. Lakewood complaint and sales and use tax expenditure evaluation reports from the Office of the State Auditor.

    The task force requested that four bills and one resolution be drafted and ultimately recommended one bill and one resolution to the Legislative Council for introduction as follows:

    • Resolution A – Uniform Sales & Use Tax on Construction Materials. Resolution A urges municipalities that locally collect their taxes to cooperate on a uniform administration of sales and use tax on construction materials, to standardize information on building permits, and to speed up the issuance of certain documentation. It also requests that the Colorado Municipal League update the task force on these efforts.
    • Bill B – Electronic Sales & Use Tax Simplification System. The electronic sales and use tax simplification system (SUTS) is a one-stop portal designed to facilitate the collection and remittance of sales and use tax. For the purpose of improving the system, the bill requires the department to make certain changes to the system and permits it to make others. It also prohibits the department from imposing certain convenience fees for payments through SUTS and requires the department to promote SUTS for the purpose of increasing the awareness, participation, and compliance by retailers and local taxing jurisdictions.
  • Mark Your Calendars, Session Starts on Monday, January 9, 2023.

    Mark Your Calendars, Session Starts on Monday, January 9, 2023.

    By Ed DeCecco

    With all due respect to The Mamas and Papas, Monday is a fine day of the week too. Yes, we sometimes get a little sad on Sunday night anticipating it, and of course Friday is objectively better. Still, the word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Mōnandæg, which loosely means “the moon’s day,” and the moon is awesome. Plus, there is Monday Night Football, and there is an internet myth that it is the least likely day of the week to have rain, and … wait, I can’t do this. I’ve tried to be cheerful, but I’m with the majority of the rest of the world—Mondays kind of stink!

    Or at least they usually do, but Monday, January 9, 2023, is certainly an exception. On that date, the 74th General Assembly of the State of Colorado will convene its First Regular Session.

    The reason session is starting on a Monday is a combination of constitutional provisions. Section 1 of article IV of the state constitution requires the newly elected Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Secretary of State to take office on the second Tuesday of January, which this year falls on January 10, 2023. And section 3 of article IV of the state constitution requires the election returns for these officers to be transmitted to the Speaker of the House, “who shall immediately, upon the organization of the house, and before proceeding to other business, open and publish the same in the presence of a majority of the members of both houses of the general assembly, who shall for that purpose assembly in the house of representatives.” Under section 3, members of both houses are also required to decide the winners if the general election ends in a tie or is contested. To ensure the statewide officers can take office in a timely manner and to comply with its constitutional duties, the General Assembly must convene earlier than the second Tuesday in January.

    Luckily, the General Assembly has some flexibility on when it starts. Section 7 of article V of the state constitution requires the General Assembly to meet in regular session at 10 a.m. “no later than the second Wednesday of January each year.” Thus, the General Assembly will start on the second Monday of January, instead of the second Wednesday, which is the default start date.

    When this last occurred in the 2019 legislative session, the General Assembly adopted House Joint Resolution 18-1021 to set the convening date on the Friday prior to the second Tuesday and to make related changes to the deadlines set forth in Joint Rules 23 and 24. It then passed another resolution in 2019 to restore the deadlines after the session to their prior form.

    While everyone enjoys a two-for-one deal when it is a BOGO at King Soopers, it is less appealing with legislation. So this time around, the General Assembly adopted House Joint Resolution 22-1025, which created Joint Rule 22A to establish alternative deadlines that only apply for the 2023 legislative session. This rule only applies for this session, and it repeals on January 1, 2024. Joint Rule 23 and other related rules will apply again thereafter, or at least they’ll apply until the next time the General Assembly has to create a one-time rule to address this type of situation, which will be in 2027.

    An early convening date means earlier bill request deadlines. This year, each returning legislator must submit three of their five bill requests to the Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) no later than November 29, 2022. Each legislator who is newly elected to the General Assembly must submit three of their five bill requests to the OLLS no later than December 13, 2022. Both of these dates are a few days earlier than usual. A number of other deadlines have also been slightly altered, and you can find those deadlines in House Joint Resolution 22-1025, or in this handy document.

    One deadline that is not included in the resolution or rules but that warrants mention is sine die. Under section 7 of article V of the Colorado Constitution, sessions are limited to 120 days in length, and in most years, the General Assembly uses all of its allotted time. If that is the case again in 2023, then, barring any unforeseen circumstances,[1] the General Assembly will adjourn on Monday, May 8, 2023. So now we have at least two Mondays to look forward to in 2023!

     

    ______________________________________________________________________

    [1] The author has assured the LegiSource Board that he vigorously knocked on wood after typing this sentence, so as to avoid the cosmic response of an increased likelihood in 2023 of the application of Joint Rule 44 (g), which applies to the counting of legislative days during a temporary adjournment during declared disaster emergency.

  • New Water Demand Management Agreement on the Colorado River (Updated)

    New Water Demand Management Agreement on the Colorado River (Updated)

    by Thomas Morris

    Editor’s note: This article was originally posted September 19, 2019. We are reposting it on September 22, 2022 with updated information.

    What happens when the demand for a commodity exceeds supply? Economic theory predicts that the price for the commodity will increase. We’re all aware that water in Colorado is relatively scarce; in particular, the northern Front Range is highly dependent on water imported from the Colorado River, which is subject to increasing demands and dwindling supply. Are increases in the price of water sufficient to address this deficit?

    As we’ll see, due to multiple layers of state, interstate, and federal law and a combination of climate change effects, prolonged drought, and demand increases, our Colorado River water supply is at risk, and more is required to avoid fairly serious adverse consequences than simply relying on the market to equalize the supply and demand for water.

    The law of the river. The use of Colorado River water is strictly governed by the so-called “law of the river,” which is a complex interplay of interstate compacts, federal statutes and regulations, United States Supreme Court decrees, and applicable state law.

    To avoid having California’s rapid growth gobble up available Colorado River supplies, in 1922 the seven states in the Colorado River basin[1] entered into an interstate compact. The Colorado River Compact (codified in article 61 of title 37, C.R.S.) allocated 7.5 million acre-feet[2] (Maf) of water per year to the upper basin states (including Colorado) and 8.5 Maf to the lower basin states, for a total 16 Maf.[3] Later, the upper basin states entered into the Upper Colorado River Compact (codified in article 62 of title 37, C.R.S.), pursuant to which 51.75% of the upper basin’s supplies were allocated to Colorado.

    Naturally, the states presumed that the river’s supplies were adequate, even plentiful, to meet these allocations. Indeed, from 1905 to 1921 the flow at the boundary between the upper and lower basins was about 18 Maf. Unfortunately, the 1922 compact was negotiated during a time of relatively high flows: rather than more than 16 Maf of flow per year, actual supplies under current conditions may be as low as 14.8 Maf. Moreover, climate change is likely to reduce this supply even more:

    Colorado River flows decline by about 4 percent per degree Fahrenheit increase . . . . Thus, warming could reduce water flow in the Colorado [River] by 20 percent or more below the 20th-century average by midcentury, and by as much as 40 percent by the end of the century.[4]

    Despite this somewhat grim outlook, the upper basin’s ability to comply with its delivery obligation to the lower basin is enhanced by two facts:

    • The 1922 compact states the delivery obligation as 75 Maf over 10 years rather than 7.5 Maf each year; and
    • Numerous reservoirs with significant storage capacities are located in the upper basin. These reservoirs, including Lake Powell[5] and several reservoirs referred to as the Aspinall Unit, store excess supplies in wet years and release them in dry years to comply with the delivery obligation.

    Staving off a shortage declaration through demand management. The federal Bureau of Reclamation operates the Aspinall Unit as well as Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which is the lower basin’s primary reservoir. Pursuant to an agreement[6] between the seven compacting states, the bureau operates the Aspinall Unit and Lakes Powell and Mead to maintain the water level in Lake Mead above 1,075 feet in elevation. If the water drops to that level, the bureau makes a “shortage declaration” that triggers mandatory restrictions on water diversions and usage in the lower basin. A shortage declaration may also be the first step toward a determination that the upper basin has failed to comply with its delivery obligation, which would result in the curtailment of upper basin diversions that postdate the 1922 compact.

    In order to reduce the risk of a shortage declaration occurring, the upper and lower basins have both recently adopted updated drought contingency plans.[7] Congress has approved the plans.[8]

    In particular, the upper basin’s drought contingency plan involves three elements:

    • Augmentation, consisting of weather modification efforts to increase precipitation and the removal of phreatophytes (plants that have deep root systems that draw water from near the water table and often consume an unusually large amount of water);
    • Operating the Aspinall Unit to benefit storage in Lake Powell; and
    • Demand management.

    Demand management in this context means, roughly, a temporary, voluntary, and compensated reduction in consumptive water use by specific water rights owners. In Colorado, demand management could involve a front range metropolitan water provider (whose water rights postdate the 1922 decree and thus whose diversions would be curtailed if the upper basin failed to meet its delivery obligation) paying a senior agricultural user on the western slope to temporarily not divert water from the Colorado River or its tributaries. The metropolitan water provider would then be able to continue to export Colorado River water to its Front Range water users. As the saying goes, water flows uphill toward money.

    The General Assembly recently supported the development of demand management programs by enacting SB 19-212. The bill appropriates $1.7 million from the general fund to the department of natural resources for use by the Colorado Water Conservation Board.  The board will use this money for stakeholder outreach and technical analysis to develop a water resources demand management program.

    The days of hoping that Colorado River supplies will somehow recover or that the lower basin will, by some miracle, substantially reduce its water consumption enough to avoid a shortage declaration are over. Colorado is preparing for a hotter, drier climate in which water demands continue to increase while supplies diminish. Water demand management is one of the primary tools (along with conservation and the development of additional storage) that will be used to adapt to this new normal.

    In the article originally posted in 2019, the author posed the question “Are increases in the price of water sufficient to address this [water] deficit?” Following is an update that suggests the answer to this question is a resounding “no”, as the Colorado River water supply continues to dwindle.

    UPDATE:[9] On August 16, 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation within the federal Department of the Interior released its “Colorado River Basin August 2022 24-Month Study”, which sets the annual operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead in 2023 in light of critically low reservoir conditions. The key findings include:

    Lake Powell’s water surface elevation on January 1, 2023, is projected to be 3,522 feet, which is 178 feet below full (3,700 feet) and only 32 feet above the minimum level required in order to continue to produce power at Glen Canyon Dam (3,490 feet). The Department of the Interior will limit 2023 releases from Lake Powell in order to protect it from declining below 3,525 feet at the end of December 2023. The Department will also evaluate hydrologic conditions again in April 2023.

    Lake Mead’s water surface elevation on January 1, 2023, is projected to be 1,047.61 feet, which reflects an unprecedented shortage condition that requires shortage reductions and water savings contributions from the Lower Basin States and Mexico, as follows:[10]

      • Arizona: 592,000 acre-feet, which is approximately 21% of the state’s annual apportionment;
      • Nevada: 25,000 acre-feet, which is 8% of the state’s annual apportionment; and
      • Mexico: 104,000 acre-feet, which is approximately 7% of the country’s annual allotment.

    There is no required water savings contribution for California in 2023 under the current operating condition.

    The Department and the Bureau of Reclamation continue to share and update information concerning the increasing risks impacting Lake Powell and Lake Mead. For more information, visit https://www.doi.gov/news.

    _________________________________________________________________

    [1] The seven states of the Colorado River Basin are Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California. The upper basin consists mainly of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah; New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California are mainly in the lower basin.

    [2] An acre-foot is the amount of water required to cover one acre to a depth of one foot. An acre is about the size of a football field, including both end zones.

    [3] For comparison, Colorado consumes about 5.3 Maf per year, but this includes water that has been reused multiple times. See the state water plan, Figure 5-1. https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cowaterplan/plan

    [4] http://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-colorado-river-76280

    [5] Lake Powell is located directly above the boundary between the upper and lower basins; releases from Lake Powell are the primary method by which the upper basin complies with the 1922 compact.

    [6] Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead”, 72 FR 62272 (11/2/07); https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2007-11-02/pdf/E7-21417.pdf

    [7] Agreement Concerning Colorado River Drought Contingency Management and Operations; https://www.usbr.gov/dcp/docs/final/Companion-Agreement-Final.pdf

    [8] Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act; https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr2030/BILLS-116hr2030enr.pdf

    [9] This update was prepared by the LegiSource board, not the original author.

    [10] These reductions and contributions are required pursuant to the 2019 Drought Contingency Plans and Minute 323 to the 1944 U.S. Mexico Water Treaty.

  • Have roads. Will travel.

    Have roads. Will travel.

    by Patti Dahlberg

    According to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Historic Timeline featured on its website, CDOT has been around in some form or another since 1910 – amazingly, only about six years after the first automobile reportedly showed up in Colorado and about 15 years after the first sale of an American-made gasoline car. The introduction of the automobile in Colorado and the commitment to improving the roads “paved the way” for easier travel throughout the state. In many ways, the story of CDOT is the story of the state of Colorado opening its doors for all to explore and enjoy. With the founding of the department, Colorado soon became a tourist destination.

    Purportedly, the first automobile in Colorado appeared in 1904 in Louisville. The first reported trip up a mountain road made by an automobile seems to have taken place in June of 1910, when Francis Percy “Frank” Loveland, the grandson of Colorado pioneer businessman W.A.H. Loveland, of Loveland Pass and the city of Loveland fame, drove up an old carriage road (with a 2,000 foot elevation change) from the Denver-metro area to the top of Mount Falcon (near Red Rocks). The 24-year-old drove his Stoddard-Dayton touring car from Morrison to the Mount Falcon summit (elevation 7,851 feet) in about 20 minutes. An hour earlier, he had set another record by driving from the Capitol building to Morrison in only 29 minutes.

    So how did we get all these roads that take us just about anywhere we want to go to? It started in the late 1870s with the “Good Roads Movement.”  Through this movement, which lasted into the 1920s, farmers’ and bicyclists’ organizations advocated for the investment of state and federal money in improving roads outside of the cities. At the time, the rural roads were dirt or gravel, which meant mud in winter, dust in summer, and slow travel year round. Obviously, these roads were generally bad for bringing goods to market and, of course, for bicycling. And in the mountains, wagon roads could be difficult to navigate and unusable for large portions of the year. When automobiles appeared on the scene, the automobile lobbies wholeheartedly joined in the movement.

    Colorado’s Legislature created its first State Highway Commission in 1909, charging it with the responsibility of establishing a network of state primary roads. In 1913, the Legislature created a series of registration and licensing fees as a funding source for the improvement of the Commission’s proposed 4,380-mile primary road system. The fees varied from $2.50 to $10 (from around $40 to $160 in today’s dollars) depending on the vehicle’s horsepower. By 1915, Colorado’s proposed highway system grew to 5,844 miles, but only about 2,600 miles of those roads were constructed and only 196 miles of them were actually surfaced.

    By the time Congress passed the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which provided federal matching funds for state highway projects, Colorado had already been busy constructing roads and mountain passes. In fact, a new automobile road over Wolf Creek Pass was opened to traffic that same year. In 1917, the Legislature reorganized its State Highway Commission into the State Highway Department and passed legislation to create a state highway fund to distribute state and federal funds to develop and maintain Colorado’s highway system. By 1918, the Highway Department laid the first concrete road in the state, which ran from Littleton to Denver along Santa Fe Drive. A year later, Colorado was one of the first four states to pass a gasoline tax, one-cent per gallon (the average price at the time was 25 cents/gallon, $3.22 per gallon in today’s dollars), to raise revenue for a special road fund.

    In 1921, the Legislature, largely in response to the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads’ (BPR) willingness to provide federal aid to states, reshaped and expanded the bureaucracy of the State Highway Department. In 1922, Colorado voters deemed transportation important enough to approve $6 million in bonds for highway construction, which would be over $1 billion today. The BPR approved Colorado’s first federally aided road system, covering 3,332 miles. By 1929 the Colorado State Highway system had grown to 9,203 miles, and by 1938 it was almost 12,000 miles.

    Mountain Roads, Scenic and Historic Byways

    Colorado is home to 26 Scenic and Historic Byways, around half of which are also designated as National Scenic Byways and recognized for their outstanding scenic and historic attributes. Colorado has more national designations than any other state. In 1924, the State Highway Department completed the “Million Dollar Highway,” the Scenic Byway through the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado on U.S. 550. In 1927, the Mount Evans Highway was completed and opened for travel to an elevation of 14,130 feet, just below the 14,264-foot summit of the mountain. It remains the highest elevation for a paved highway in North America.

    The first automobile crossed Loveland Pass on September 29, 1929, and in that same month work on Trail Ridge Road – the highest continuous paved road in the United States, had begun. The Great Depression brought in federal work projects to help Colorado continue to construct and maintain its mountain highways, as anyone who has driven over Trail Ridge Road and read any of the signs knows. Between 1938 and 1940, Colorado completed the roads over Berthoud Pass (U.S. Hwy 40), Monarch Pass, and the original highway (U.S. Hwy 6) over Vail Pass. Gold prospectors may have brought skiing to the Colorado Rockies in the 1860s, but it was passable mountain roads that enabled it to become the popular winter sport that it is today.

    The boring of the westbound Straight Creek Tunnel (later to be named the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel) through the Continental Divide to align I-70 near Vail with the existing U.S. Hwy 6 started in 1963 and finished in 1973. The eastbound bore of the Continental Divide tunnel opened in 1979 and was named in honor of former U.S. Senator and Colorado Governor Edwin C. Johnson. The combined tunnels are now officially known as the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel complex.

    And then there’s the crown jewel of Colorado mountain highways – I-70 through Glenwood Canyon. Construction began on “the final link” of west-bound I-70 through the canyon in 1980. Less than 15 miles long, the segment was completed in October of 1992 for around half-a-billion dollars. One of the biggest challenges CDOT faced was how to squeeze a four-lane freeway into a gorge barely wide enough to accommodate the existing two-lane highway and how to do so with minimal impact to the environment. CDOT’s solution was clever: construct two roadways, one nearly on top of the other. The final design features an elevated roadway with 40 bridges and viaducts spanning more than six miles between sections. Construction materials included 15 miles of retaining walls, two 4,000 foot tunnels, 150,000 newly planted trees and shrubs, 30,000 tons of steel, and 810,000 tons of concrete. Soon to be 30 years old, the Glenwood Canyon portion of I-70 is not only a beautiful stretch of road, but considered by many to be a modern marvel. The two-tiered elegantly sculpted highway through the Colorado River gorge remains a vital transportation corridor and a popular tourist attraction. The 12.5-mile engineering feat has received a presidential commendation and numerous design awards. It has been featured in books and in a museum exhibit on 20th century engineering achievements.

    Sources:

  • LegiSource is on Hiatus

    The Colorado LegiSource is taking a break for the next several weeks. We expect to resume weekly postings on September 8. In the meantime, if you have questions you would like answered or issues you would like to see discussed on the Colorado LegiSource, please contact us using our feedback form.

     

  • GA Adjourns After Just 120 Days (Phew!)

    GA Adjourns After Just 120 Days (Phew!)

    by Julie Pelegrin

    For the first time in two years, the General Assembly adjourned May 11, 2022, on the 120th consecutive calendar day after it began on January 12th. While we may not consider this session normal by all standards (no one wants all-night debates as the new normal), it at least began and ended on time.

    The number of bills introduced falls within the normal range, as well. Legislators introduced 657 bills during the 2022 legislative session, which is comparable to the 623 bills introduced in 2021, 651 bills introduced in 2020, and 598 bills introduced in 2019, but pretty far short of the 721 introduced in 2018.

    That’s not to say everything ran on time throughout the 2022 session. With just one month left in the session, there were still 186 bills on a committee calendar in the house of introduction (i.e., those bills had not progressed through the legislative process beyond initial introduction). When the session dwindled down to two weeks there were still 152 bills in the first house committee, but with only a week remaining, just 39 bills remained in the first house committee. With six working days left in the session, the House and the Senate combined had 287 bills awaiting action on the calendar. They passed or killed 261 of them, leaving just 26 bills to die on the calendar (deemed lost or deemed postponed indefinitely) when the legislature adjourned.

    The term “working day” also took on a new meaning this session, mainly for the House of Representatives. At least twice, the House began debating bills on second reading on one day and continued those debates through the night and into the next morning. The first time – March 11-12 – they began debating bills on second reading at about 10:20 a.m. on Friday and didn’t wrap up until about 11:15 a.m. Saturday. The second time – May 9-10 – they began debating bills around 5:00 p.m., but this time they finished early – about 6:30 a.m. on May 10 – then came back for more at 11:00 that day and didn’t finish until about midnight. Overall, in the last five working days of the session, the House adjourned after 11:00 p.m. each night, and the Senate worked until at least 10:45 p.m. each of those nights except one. By the time the final gavel came down in the House at 11:35 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11 (10:55 p.m. in the Senate), legislators, staff, lobbyists, and anyone still watching on YouTube were ready for some sleep.

    That was the 2022 legislative session. What’s in store for the 2022 interim and the 2023 session?

    Beginning in July, 16 legislative interim study committees are authorized to begin meeting on a wide variety of topics including health insurance, school finance, jail standards, judicial discipline, transportation, water, and wildfires. Each interim committee is authorized to recommend bills to the Legislative Council. Because 2022 is an election year, the Legislative Council must meet no later than October 15 to decide whether to approve the bills for introduction during the 2023 legislative session.

    And speaking of elections, all of the seats in the House of Representatives are up for election in November. Eight of the incumbent representatives are term limited and cannot run again for their House seats; another 13 representatives are either running for another office or have decided not to run for other reasons. In the Senate, approximately half of the seats are up for election. Six of the incumbent senators are term limited and so will not be returning, and four others are either running for another office or have decided not to run for other reasons.

    So, when the Seventy-fourth General Assembly convenes on Monday, January 9, 2023, there will be at least 21 new representatives and 10 new senators. At least two of the persons elected to leadership positions in the House – Speaker of the House and Majority Leader –and at least one of the persons elected to a leadership position in the Senate – the Minority Leader – will be new to their positions. And that’s just the minimum amount of change that can be expected.

    For now, the legislative staff will quietly work to wrap up the work from the 2022 session, including preparing the 2022 C.R.S. for publication, writing final fiscal notes and summaries of the legislation that passed, and preparing the final appropriations report for the 2022-23 fiscal year; legislators will return to their districts to campaign and reconnect with their constituents; and everyone will hope for a little downtime before it’s time to prepare for the 2023 legislative session.

    Peace out, ya’ll.

     

    [1] Not surprising, the passage rate dipped to 51% with the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and an abbreviated legislative session lasting just 84 days.

  • What does it take to get a bill to the Governor?

    What does it take to get a bill to the Governor?

    by Kathy Zambrano and Anja Boyd

    You’d think that once a bill makes it through both houses and the first house concurs with second house changes, if necessary, the bill would land on the Governor’s desk in a day. But in most cases, there’s a lag time of up to five working days – oftentimes more as we move to the end of the legislative session – before an enacted bill gets presented to the Governor for action. So what really happens to a bill before it is delivered to the Governor on act paper?

    First thing to know is that, pursuant to Rule 18 of the Joint Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives, “the enrolling clerk of the originating house and the Office of Legislative Legal Services shall coordinate and work together jointly to prepare the bill as passed in final form. The Office of Legislative Legal Services shall prepare the bill in the form in which it shall appear in the session laws. . . “. So over the years, the House and Senate enrolling rooms and the OLLS have developed a process that allows for the efficient preparation of the bills on act paper and the development of the Session Laws.

    Once the enrolling room receives a bill for enrolling into an act, they verify sponsors before delivering the bill to the Publications Team in the OLLS. But before they can even do that, they typically prioritize their other work to focus on engrossing bills as they pass on second and third reading, since those bills must be made available the same day they pass on the floor, and on preparing preamended bills that are reported out of committees so that those are available to legislators and the public as soon as possible.

    Once the Publications Team receives the bill for enrolling, they begin processing the bill by checking the bill for errors that may be fixed by correction schedule[1]. Then they input the bill’s information into the bill disposition tables and the Red Book, which is a tabulation of all C.R.S. sections affected by bills passed during the legislative session. The bill disposition tables and the Red Book are mandatory parts of the Session Laws, which are prepared by the OLLS following each legislative session as required by statute. By preparing the red book entries at this point, it allows the Publications Team to determine whether new statutory sections added in the bill need to be renumbered to make room for other new statutory sections added by other bills and which provisions need to be harmonized or superseded. This is the beginning of the steps in preparation of the Colorado Revised Statutes.

    Once the Publications Team finishes with the bill, they deliver it to the subject matter team in the OLLS that is responsible for the bill to prepare an advance unofficial copy. The subject matter team reviews the bill attachments for completeness and accuracy as a courtesy to the House and Senate front desks, then they verify which version of the bill should be enrolled, check the sponsors on the bill, input any conference committee report changes that were adopted, make sure all amendments that were passed appear in the bill, and check to ensure that no current law has been dropped and that all new language appears in capital letters. If they find grammatical or punctuation errors, they include those on the correction schedule before making any corrections in the copy. If the subject matter team is enrolling a bill during the legislative session, then other session-related work often takes priority, like bill and amendment preparation, so there could be delays.

    When the unofficial copy of a bill is ready, it is delivered to the enrolling room for proofing. Yep, the bill is proofed yet again even though it has been proofed after each reading during its travels to become a final act. The enrolling room also checks sponsorship of the bill and ensures that any corrections to the bill and any conference committee report that was adopted appear in the copy. Great care is taken to ensure that the bill is correctly enrolled.

    When the enrolling room completes their proofing, they deliver the bill to the Publications Team again; the Publications Team reviews it and determines whether further grammatical or punctuation corrections need to be made. The bill is then put on act paper by the subject matter team, subject to other priorities. The act paper copy, which is the version of the bill the Governor receives for signing, is then delivered to the appropriate enrolling room.

    Now that the enrolling room has the final act copy, they prepare a fancy bill jacket that goes along with the act to the Governor’s office. But before it goes to the Governor, there are a few more stops on a bill’s journey to the Governor’s desk. First, if it’s a House bill, it goes to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Clerk for their signatures and then to the President of the Senate and the Senate Secretary for their signatures. If it’s a Senate bill, the President and Senate Secretary get to sign first. And, of course, messages are prepared to notify the body that the bill was signed by the Speaker or President, if the legislative session is still in progress.

    So then, after all of that action takes place, the enrolling room contacts the Governor’s office and makes arrangements for someone to be physically present in the Governor’s office to sign for and receive the bill.

    And now you know what really happens before a bill lands on the Governor’s desk.

     

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    [1] The correction schedule is a list of grammatical and punctuation errors that may appear in a bill, along with numbering changes required due to other bills amending the same section, which are automatically corrected when the bill is enrolled into an act.

  • Throwback Thursday – The Colfax Avenue Shootout

    Throwback Thursday – The Colfax Avenue Shootout

    by Patti Dahlberg

    DENVER, Dec. 18, 1922 – As a Federal Reserve Bank truck sat outside the U.S. Mint in Denver to pick up a weekly cash shipment for transport to various area banks, a black Buick touring car with drawn curtains slowly pulled up beside it. According to witnesses, three or four masked men jumped out of the car while one remained behind the wheel. One of the masked men ran to the rear of the reserve truck, yelled at the guards, fired at and fatally wounded the guard at the back of the truck, and shot out the back doors and windows of the truck. One man quickly lifted bags of money out of the truck and threw them into the Buick while the other masked men sprayed the Mint building exits and windows with bullets from sawed-off shotguns. Alarm bells clanged and Mint guards and employees grabbed rifles and began firing out windows and doors.

    Within seconds, bullets were peppering West Colfax Avenue, hitting the side of the Mint building and several other nearby buildings. According to the Dec. 19, 1922, New York Times:

    So terrific was the gunfire that forty bullet holes can be counted in the transoms above the main entrance to the mint and in the windows of the second story. Bullets riddled windows in various stores and apartment houses across the street and there were many narrow escapes from bullets. One shot went through a window in Sylvania Hotel, at Court Place and West Colfax Avenue, and shattered a picture on the wall.

    The shootout lasted only about ninety seconds before the getaway driver took off, ran another vehicle into a fire hydrant (adding to the confusion and mayhem), and sped away east on Colfax Avenue with an estimated $200,000 in $5 bills. Witnesses reported that while fleeing the scene, one of the bank robbers stood on the car’s running board[1], presumably to fire back at the Mint guards, but was instead shot and seriously wounded before being pulled back into the car.

    The entire event was over in five minutes. Charles T. Linton, who died in the shootout, is the only Federal Reserve guard to lose his life during a bank robbery. Hailed by many as the “wildest gun battle in Denver history,” the robbery was also reported by the Cheyenne Wells Record (December 21, 1922) to be the first successful Mint holdup in U.S. history and the largest robbery in Denver.

    In the aftermath of the robbery, witnesses came forward to help investigators with descriptions and drawings of the thieves and the number of robbers involved went from four to seven. Roads in and out of Denver were shut down and according to the New York Times: “Tonight every highway in the State is guarded and police and Federal authorities have armed squads out in pursuit of an automobile occupied by seven men who were seen speeding northward soon after the robbery. One of the occupants was bleeding profusely, having been wounded in the jaw by one of the mint guards, it is believed.”

    In the ensuing investigation, the robbers were tracked from Omaha to Chicago, then to St. Paul, before the trail went cold. Then on January 14, 1923, investigators discovered the getaway car in an old garage on Gilpin Street in Denver. Inside the car was a frozen body identified through fingerprints as Nicholas “Chaw Jimmie” Trainor, a.k.a. James Sloan. It was determined that Trainor had been mortally wounded during the robbery and his body left behind as the rest of the gang escaped. Once Trainor was identified, police suspected that Harvey Bailey, a known associate of Trainor’s, was likely to have been involved in the robbery. In spite of offering rewards of more than $10,000, none of the other robbers were positively identified. The discovery of the getaway car led investigators to other leads in the case including a trunk filled with firearms, ammunition, photographs, and letters.

    Secret Service agents recovered about $80,000 of the stolen mint money in a Minnesota hideout, along with $73,000 in negotiable bonds from an Ohio robbery. Since Trainor and Bailey were both considered suspects in that Ohio heist, which predated the Denver robbery, police became further convinced of Bailey’s involvement in the Mint robbery. According to the police, the thieves fled to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with the money, which was given to a “prominent Minneapolis attorney.” Bailey fell off police radar in late 1922 and continued evading capture until his eventual arrest and conviction in 1933. He later died in 1979.

    In 1934, twelve years after the robbery, the remaining robbers were identified. The Denver Police Chief at the time, Albert T. Clark, released a statement announcing that five men, as well as two women, had colluded in the robbery. According to an article printed in California’s Healdsburg Tribune, Clark also disclosed that, of the individuals involved, only two remained alive, and both were serving life sentences for other crimes. The police added that the other members of the gang had died violently. According to the police, Harvey Bailey had driven the car and was serving a life-sentence in Alcatraz for the kidnapping of an Oklahoma City millionaire. James Clark was serving a life-sentence in the Indiana State Penitentiary for bank robbery. Other gang members, Harold Burns and Frank McFarland “The Memphis Kid” were dead. Nicholas Trainor/James Sloan had been found dead in the getaway car shortly after the robbery and the bullet-riddled body of his common-law wife, Florence Thompson, was found in 1927. Harold Burns’ wife, Margaret, was found shot and burned in 1932. The case of the Denver Mint robbery was considered closed without a single person ever charged in connection with the theft.

    Two earlier attempts to rob the Denver Mint fail

    The first attempt to rob the Denver Mint was a year or so after the Mint was established, when James D. Clark, a.k.a. Small Bad Jim, landed a job at the Mint. He kept it simple – stuff your pockets with as much as you can and get out of town fast. In February of 1864, he left work with $37,000 in gold and treasury notes. Reportedly, the gold bars were so heavy he started dropping them in the Cheesman Park area on his way out of town. When he was captured, officials recovered about $32,000, the remainder remained missing. After his arrest, Clark escaped from jail but was eventually rearrested, tried for his crime, and banished from the territory.

    The next attempt was in 1920 when Orville Harrington, also a Mint employee, attempted to steal gold bars by wrapping them in newspaper and stuffing them into the hollow shank of his wooden leg. He successfully smuggled out 40 gold bars, worth about $81,000, to his house and buried them in his yard. He was caught when a fellow employee witnessed him putting gold bars in his wooden leg. He was tried for his crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    But before there was a Denver Mint —

    Printing your own money – the early days of the Colorado Frontier

    Founded in July 1860 by Austin M. Clark, Milton E. Clark, and E.H. Gruber, the Clark, Gruber & Co. Bank and Mint was located on the corner of 16th and Market, and served several functions, including bank, assayer’s office, and money factory. At the time, Denver was teeming with precious metals mined in the mountains and extracted in frontier smelting plants. While plenty of local businesses used bags of gold dust for currency, the demand for cash and coins remained high. Clark and Gruber’s private bank and mint gave prospectors a place to safely deposit their earnings and turn their precious metals into currency. The enterprise, which was legal, served an important role in keeping cash flowing on the streets of Denver and helped establish financial norms and standards within the community.

    Clark and Gruber’s operation proved to be very popular, generating more than $3 million worth of business in their first two years. A $10 gold piece from Clark and Gruber’s was regarded as a reliable form of currency that could be used locally and transported to other parts of the country without losing value.

    In 1862, Congress passed a bill that allowed the government to purchase Clark and Gruber’s operation and turn it into an official U.S. Mint, and in 1864, Congress passed a law banning private mints, ending the era of frontier money.

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    [1] A long, narrow board that is attached to the side of a vehicle to make it easier for people to get in and out.

     

    Sources:

  • What Happens to a Statute Declared to be Unconstitutional?

    Editor’s note: This article was originally posted October 8, 2015.

    by Jennifer Gilroy and Michele Brown

    Several years ago, a librarian at the Sturm College of Law (at the University of Denver) called our office to ask what happens to a statute when it is declared by an appellate court to be unconstitutional. Perhaps he figured the revisor of statutes would simply and unceremoniously strike it from the books. Or maybe he thought that the legislature would automatically know and run a bill to repeal the offending provision of law. But it doesn’t exactly work that way. In fact, Colorado has several “unconstitutional” laws still on the books.

    To understand the reason for this phenomenon, it’s necessary to go back to basic 8th grade American Government class. State government, like the federal government, is split into three branches: The executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. One cannot do the work of the others. While the executive branch may enforce the law and the judicial branch interpret the law, only the legislative branch may write the law or, in this case, repeal it. Therefore, despite the fact that the highest court in the land may have determined that a Colorado statute (or a section of the state constitution) is unconstitutional, only the legislature may take the statute off the books by bill. The constitution may only be amended—even if the amendment is to remove a provision declared to be unconstitutional—if the change is approved by a majority of voters voting on a ballot measure or on a measure referred to the voters by the General Assembly. The court cannot require the repeal.

    Legislators in the Colorado General Assembly may introduce only five bills during each regular legislative session. (See Joint Rule 24 (b)(1)(A)). As a result, many legislators who have so many things they want to accomplish during their brief, term-limited tenure at the state capitol may not want to “spend” one of their five bills on a housekeeping matter, as it were. Are you starting to see why some of these laws linger on the books long after they should? In fact, in Colorado dozens of statutory and constitutional provisions that have been held to be unconstitutional still remain on the books.

    How does the average reader of our laws, then, know whether a statute (or constitutional provision) is really “good law?” The General Assembly’s legal staff at the Office of Legislative Legal Services vigilantly reads all of the appellate opinions issued by the Colorado Court of Appeals, the Colorado Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court looking for opinions construing Colorado’s law and, in particular, opinions declaring any provision of Colorado law unconstitutional. The Office’s legislative lawyers and legislative editors write brief summaries of every court’s holding that interprets a provision of Colorado law. These “annotations,” as they are called, are then published in the official Colorado Revised Statutes (also found online) immediately following the section of law that is the subject of the court’s ruling.

    If the court has actually determined that the provision of law is unconstitutional, the Legal Services staff will include a special editor’s note to that effect, which the reader will see immediately following the source note at the end of the section of law. The editor’s note notifies the reader that this provision has been held to be unconstitutional and provides the citation to the case so construing the law. The staff will also include an editor’s note if, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined another state’s statute to be unconstitutional and that state’s statute is substantially similar to a Colorado statute. [For an example, see the editor’s note regarding an Arizona statute after §18-1.3-1201]

    But unless it’s reported in the news, how does a legislator know that one of Colorado’s laws has been found to be unconstitutional? Well, in addition to writing annotations and editor’s notes regarding the court’s holding, the Legal Services staff also provides the members of the state legislature with a quarterly report of recent judicial opinions of note. The Notice of Judicial Opinions provides the members with information about recently issued appellate court opinions construing Colorado law and, if any opinion addresses the constitutionality of a state law, it is highlighted in the report. Through this report, members of the legislature are notified that an appellate court has determined that a law on the books is unconstitutional and is therefore “ripe” for repeal. Finally, Legal Services staff also tweets about significant court rulings when they are released.

    The decision whether to sponsor a bill that would repeal an unconstitutional law is ultimately the decision of each individual legislator. Nevertheless, so long as an unconstitutional law remains on the books, the editor’s notes and the annotations will notify the reader of the court’s decision and, by extension, the status of the law.