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.

Several legislative committees held 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 2025. This is the first of two articles summarizing this interim’s committee actions. In this article we’re providing summaries of 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.

American Indian Affairs Interim Study Committee

The committee met four times during the interim and heard presentations from the Southern Ute Tribe; the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe; the Denver American Indian Commission; the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission of Colorado; the Department of Law; the Department of Natural Resources; the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs; the Office of the Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives; and American Indian community stakeholders. The meetings included public testimony and discussions related to the challenges faced by American Indian communities, including the topics concerning health disparities, judicial concerns, the Indian Child Welfare Act, water matters, and access to public services. The committee requested the drafting of six bills and recommended the following three bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – American Indian Affairs Interim Committee. The bill creates the American Indian Affairs Interim Committee with the purpose to examine issues and challenges that impact American Indian Tribal Nations. It allows the committee to meet up to six times and to recommend up to five bills during each interim. The bill also requires the committee to submit a report to the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council summarizing the work of the Committee during the preceding five years.
• Bill B – Recognition of Tribal Court Orders. Current law does not expressly allow for the state to recognize arrest warrants or commitment orders issued by a Tribal court of a federally recognized Tribe with a reservation within the exterior boundaries of the state (Tribal court). The bill clarifies that a state court shall give full faith and credit to an arrest warrant issued by a Tribal court. Upon issuance of a Tribal court arrest warrant, a peace officer in the state may apprehend the person identified in the Tribal warrant. The bill clarifies that any commitment order entered by a Tribal court that concerns a person under the Tribal court’s jurisdiction is recognized to the same extent as a commitment order entered by a state court, including health-care provider communications.
• Bill C – Protect Wild Bison. The bill classifies bison as big game wildlife unless the bison is livestock. This classification means that hunting or taking one is illegal unless authorized by rule of the Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Wildfire Matters Review Committee

The committee met five times during the 2024 interim. It heard testimony and otherwise received information from the Colorado Forest Health Council, the Colorado State Forest Service, the Department of Natural Resources, the Division of Fire Prevention and Control in the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Fire Commission, the Division of Insurance in the Department of Regulatory Agencies, local government representatives, and private industry stakeholders. The committee initially requested the drafting of ten bills and recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – Applying Artificial Intelligence to Predict, Prevent, or Assist in Fighting Wildfires. The bill requires the General Assembly to appropriate money to the Division of Fire Prevention and Control to study and develop applications of artificial intelligence that predict, mitigate, or assist in fighting wildfires. These applications must, at a minimum, produce data that can be incorporated into maps displaying classification of vegetation and wildfire fuel; predictions regarding the likelihood of wildfire ignition potential in a particular area following observed lightning events; the perimeter of an ongoing wildfire; and predictions regarding the locations and area to which an ongoing wildfire may spread.
• Bill B – Limited Liability for Landowners Who Allow Emergency Access to Property. The bill provides immunity from civil liability for damage or injury to persons or property, other than that which arises from gross negligence or willful misconduct, to a landowner who allows access to the landowner’s property for entry and exit in connection with an emergency.
• Bill C – Workforce Development in Natural Resources. The bill authorizes the Colorado Cooperative Extension Service to expand and implement outreach programs and initiatives to youth and young adults, in partnership with the forest health industry, local school districts, the Colorado State Forest Service, the Division of Fire Safety and Control in the Department of Public Safety, and others. The outreach programs and initiatives are intended to increase awareness and opportunities in the areas of forestry, wildland fire, and natural resources and, in future years, may include expanding 4-H programs, facilitating career and workforce readiness and entry into forest health careers. The Extension shall make annual reports and is authorized to provide need-based grants to fire service governing bodies and volunteer fire departments to fund ongoing training and create a statewide outreach program to promote fire service careers.
• Bill D – Updating the Wildfire Information and Resource Center Website. The Division of Fire Prevention and Control is currently required to host the Wildfire Information and Resource Center website and to provide information regarding active wildfires on the website. The bill requires the website to include hyperlinks to websites that display emergency information and wildfire updates for each county in Colorado and requires the division to coordinate with county governments in order to provide the hyperlinks.
• Bill E – Support to Increase Prescribed Burns. The bill creates the Prescribed Fire Claims Cash Fund in the state treasury, requires the treasurer to transfer $1 million to the fund, and requires the Division of Fire Prevention and Control to use the money to pay claims related to costs or damages that result from prescribed burns. It also expands the definition of a “certified burner” in the state to include an individual who has not completed the Colorado division’s training and certification program but who meets reciprocity requirements and possesses a valid Colorado certification number.

Representative Hugh McKean Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee

The committee met three times during the interim and heard presentations from its student members about ADA-compliant school facilities, health literacy, school transportation, solar energy, youth representation on the Environmental Justice Advisory Board, community engagement on environmental matters, food waste, and opioid antagonists. The committee requested drafts of six bills and recommended the following three bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Create Youth Health Literacy Oversight Panel. The bill creates a youth health literacy oversight panel in the Department of Public Health and Environment to identify deficits in youth health literacy and recommend improvements. The panel must recommend revisions to the elementary and secondary education standards, which the State Board of Education must in turn consider. The panel must also develop or revise a range of youth health literacy resources and submit an annual report to the General Assembly describing its work, along with related data and trends.
• Bill B – Food Waste Reduction in Public Schools. The bill encourages local education providers to adopt policies to reduce food waste in public school cafeterias and food preparation facilities. Policies may include composting and share tables that permit students to return whole food or beverage items for redistribution to other students or local nonprofits. The bill requires the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise to consider incentivizing public schools to develop effective composting or share table programs. The bill extends limited immunity from civil and criminal liability to schools and school personnel who supervise food and beverage redistribution.
• Bill C – Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice. The bill adds two youth members—one voting, one nonvoting—to the Environmental Justice Advisory Board in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The bill also requires the Colorado Energy Office to develop and post on its website best practices for the adoption and financing of clean energy resources in schools. The office must periodically update the best practices and post the updates on its website.

Sales and Use Task Simplification Task Force

The task force met four times during the interim. It heard presentations from the Department of Revenue, the Colorado Municipal League, local government representatives, and private industry stakeholders. The meetings included public testimony and discussions relating to the electronic Sales and Use Tax Simplification System (SUTS), the state sales tax on rooms and accommodations, state-administered local lodging taxes, municipal use tax coordination efforts, and state and local sales and use tax audit processes. The task force made five bill requests and recommended two bills to the Legislative Council for introduction as follows:

• Bill A – Local Government Tax Audit Confidentiality Standards. The bill prohibits a third-party auditor who conducts a sales or use tax investigation on behalf of a local taxing jurisdiction from divulging any information obtained from the investigation, or from any document, report, or return filed in connection with the local sales or use tax, except in certain limited circumstances, including disclosure to:
  • An official, employee, hearing officer, attorney, or other public agent of the local taxing jurisdiction who is authorized to receive such information;A requesting taxpayer, or the taxpayer’s authorized agent, of the taxpayer’s own tax filing;The Department of Revenue (department) for purposes of statistical analysis and publication as authorized by current law; andThe department and the Federal Internal Revenue Service as necessary and pertinent to a taxpayer’s compliance or failure to comply with state or federal tax law.
  • Violation of the prohibition on disclosure is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine. The bill also modifies the state-level confidentiality statute for the protection of taxpayer information to clarify that certain information may be shared governmental entities, as needed, consistent with current law.
• Bill B – Online Search of Sales and Use Tax. The bill modifies the state-level confidentiality statute for the protection of taxpayer information to authorize and instruct the executive director of the department to allow every sales and use tax license and every sales and use tax exemption certificate to be made searchable by the name and identification number of the licensee or the certificate holder. 

Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee

The Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee, which is actually a year-round committee, met four times during the interim and heard presentations concerning orphaned mines and acid drainage, avian flu, raw milk, energy building codes in agricultural properties, foreign ownership of agricultural land, revegetation, tap fees, zebra mussels, and gray wolf reintroduction. The committee had 15 bills drafted and recommended the following eight bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Remove Gendered Language from Title 35. The bill substitutes gender-neutral language for gendered language in title 35 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The bill also updates archaic language in title 35.
• Bill B – Wildlife Damaged Protection of Personal Information. Under current law, a person may file a claim with the Division of Parks and Wildlife for compensation for damages to property caused by wildlife, and the division must review and investigate that claim. The bill changes current law by requiring that the personal information of a claimant received by the division through the claim procedures and proactive nonlethal measures is kept confidential and not disclosed pursuant to the “Colorado Open Records Act”.
• Bill C – Mining Reclamation & Interstate Compact. The bill amends the “Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act” and the “Colorado Land Reclamation Act for the Extraction of Construction Materials” to contemplate the expedited issuance of reclamation-only permits to persons desiring to conduct reclamation-only operations after July 1, 2025, on less than five acres and to update restrictions and requirements concerning the posting and forfeiture of financial warranties relating to mine reclamation projects. The Office of Mined Land Reclamation may not issue a reclamation-only permit to a designated mining operation. The bill also enacts the “Interstate Mining Compact” and ratifies Colorado’s membership in the associated Interstate Mining Commission.
• Bill D – Agriculture Building Exempt from Energy Use Requirements. Under current law, owners of certain large buildings (covered buildings) are required to annually collect and report each covered building’s energy use to the Colorado Energy Office. The bill clarifies that agricultural buildings are not covered buildings, and, therefore, owners of agricultural buildings are exempt from the energy use collecting and reporting requirements. The bill defines an agricultural building as a building or structure used to house agricultural implements, hay, unprocessed grain, poultry, livestock, or other agricultural products or inputs.
• Bill E – Ranch Property Tax Clarifications. The bill broadens the definition of “ranch” for purposes of property taxation to include a parcel of land used for grazing or raising livestock for the primary purpose of obtaining a monetary profit rather than a parcel of land used only for grazing livestock for the primary purpose of obtaining a monetary profit. The bill also eliminates the limited definition of “livestock” included in the definition of “ranch” and replaces it with the general definition of “livestock” used for property tax purposes that includes all animals.
• Bill F – Backflow Prevention Devices Requirements. Backflow is the reverse flow of water, fluid, or gas caused by back pressure or back siphonage. Under current law, individuals who are engaged in the business of installing, removing, inspecting, testing, or repairing backflow prevention devices are subject to the licensure requirements for plumbers, except when the individuals are installing or testing a stand-alone fire suppression sprinkler system. The bill exempts individuals engaged in the business of inspecting, testing, or repairing backflow prevention devices from licensure requirements but retains the licensure requirements for individuals engaged in the installation or removal of the devices.
• Bill G – Future of Severance Taxes & Water Funding Task Force. The bill creates the Future of Severance Taxes and Water Funding Task Force. The Department of Natural Resources is required to contract and work with a third party to conduct a study on severance taxes and water funding and develop recommendations for ways to continue funding water needs in the face of decreasing severance tax revenue. The third party must submit a final report, which incorporates the input of the task force, to the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee.
• Bill H – Continue Wildlife Habitat Stamp Program. Individuals applying for hunting or fishing licenses in Colorado must also purchase a Colorado wildlife habitat stamp. The Division of Parks and Wildlife in the Department of Natural Resources uses the money collected from the stamp for the benefit of wildlife habitat or access to wildlife habitat in the state. The stamp program is scheduled to repeal, subject to a sunset review by the Department of Regulatory Agencies, in 2027. The bill continues the program indefinitely.

This is the final part in a series of three articles summarizing this year’s interim committee actions. As previously mentioned, we’re providing summaries of four of 12 committees and their recommended legislation. Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. The Legislative Council met on Wednesday, November 15, to review interim committee legislation proposals. Click here to listen to the Legislative Council meeting.

Sales and Use Task Simplification Task Force

The task force met four times during the interim. It heard presentations from the Department of Revenue, the Colorado Municipal League, local government representatives, and private industry stakeholders. The meetings included public testimony and discussions relating to the electronic Sales and Use Tax System (SUTS), the need for accurate and up-to-date information from local taxing jurisdictions, thresholds for filing sales and use tax returns, participation by home rule municipalities, and local lodging taxes. The task force requested and recommended five bills to the Legislative Council as follows:

• Bill A – Streamlining Filing of Sales and Use Tax Returns. The bill increases the monthly tax collected threshold at which taxpayers are permitted to make returns and pay taxes at quarterly intervals. It sets thresholds, effective on and after January 1, 2025, for self-collecting home rule municipalities that do not use SUTS allowing taxpayers to make returns and pay sales and uses taxes at certain intervals. It requires all local taxing jurisdictions, including all home rule municipalities, to begin using SUTS by July 1, 2025, and precludes any non-compliant jurisdiction from participating in the streamlined process for collecting sales and use taxes from certain retailers.
• Bill B – Hold Harmless for Error in GIS Database Data. The Department of Revenue maintains a Geographic Information Systems database for vendors to use to determine the jurisdictions to which tax is owed and to calculate appropriate sales and use tax rates. The bill provides that a vendor that relies on the database to determine the local taxing jurisdictions to which tax is owed is held harmless in an audit by a local taxing jurisdiction for any underpayment of tax, charge, or fee liability that results solely from an error or omission in the database.
• Bill C – Simplify Processes Regarding Certain Local Government Taxes. The bill requires local taxing jurisdictions that impose a local lodging tax or a sales or use tax on building or construction materials and integrates such sales or use tax into building permits to file certain information with the executive director of the department and for the executive director to publish the information. It modifies the scope of the task force’s charge to include simplification of local lodging tax systems and requires certain action during the 2024 interim by the task force related thereto. 
• Bill D – Uniform Definition and Reporting for Local Lodging Tax.The bill requires local taxing jurisdictions, including any home rule municipalities, to apply the same standards to an accommodation intermediary as those applied to a marketplace facilitator that is obligated to collect and remit a local lodging tax. It prohibits local taxing jurisdictions from imposing additional information reporting requirements on accommodation intermediaries.
• Bill E – Update of Local Government Sales and Use Tax Collection.The bill revises, modernizes, and harmonizes the separate statutes that govern the state administration of local sales or use tax by creating new parts 2 and 3 in article 2 of title 29. It makes various changes to the collection, administration, enforcement, and distribution of a statutory local government, special district, or requesting home rule jurisdiction sales or use taxes that are administered by the Department of Revenue and establishes a dispute resolution process when the local sales or use tax that is administered, collected, and enforced by the department is paid erroneously to the state or to the wrong locality.

Transportation Legislation Review Committee

The committee met three times and heard presentations from the Public Utilities Commission, Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Public Safety, towing and recovery industry, Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, Sierra Club, Department of Transportation, railroad industry, transportation industry labor unions, the Regional Transportation District, Denver Regional Council of Governments, Freight Panel Advisory Committee, Bicycle Colorado and the American Automobile Association of Colorado, Colorado Municipal League, the Greeley Evans Transit, the Colorado Association of Transit Agencies, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, the Public Highway Authorities, and the Colorado Energy Office. The committee recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – Vulnerable Road Users Protection Enterprise. The bill creates the vulnerable road user protection enterprise in the Department of Transportation for the purpose of providing funding for transportation system infrastructure improvements identified by the department that reduce the number of collisions with motor vehicles resulting in death or serious injury to vulnerable road users. The enterprise is required to impose the fee and the fee revenue is credited to a newly created fund and continuously appropriated to the enterprise, which is authorized to provide grants to fund eligible projects.
• Bill B – Child Passenger Safety and Education. The bill creates the child passenger safety education and distribution grant program within the Department of Transportation. The department is required to create rules specifying elements of the grant program. The bill changes existing law regarding the age and weight requirements of children required to use child restraint systems and additional requirements for the restraint of older children.
• Bill C – Railroad Safety Requirements. The bill imposes safety requirements on railroads operating trains in the state, including maximum train lengths. That, with certain exceptions, railroads must operate, maintain, and report the location of wayside detector systems that monitor passing trains for defects. Trains may not obstruct a public crossing for longer than 10 minutes unless continuously moving or prevented from moving by circumstances beyond its control. Any train crew member may report to a designated union representative a safety violation, injury, or death that occurred during the operation of a train and union representatives may enter a railroad’s place of operation to investigate that report. The Public Utilities Commission may impose fines for the violation of these safety requirements or for denying a union representative’s access and the bill creates the front range passenger rail district maintenance and safety fund, which consists of money collected as fines imposed by the commission. Requires railroads that transport hazardous material in Colorado to maintain insurance coverage to cover costs and liabilities resulting from accidents.
• Bill D – Towing Carrier Regulation. The bill requires a tow truck driver to undergo a fingerprint-based criminal history record check. If the check produces a criminal history that the Public Utilities Commission determines is inappropriate for tow truck driver, the driver will not be permitted to drive the tow truck. The bill prohibits members of the Towing Task Force in the Department of Regulatory Agencies from voting on matters that will financially benefit them or if they are the subject of a complaint about which the task force is advising the commission. Requires the commission to promulgate a rule to require towing carriers to provide any information needed for its annual report to the General Assembly. A towing carrier is forbidden from patrolling or monitoring property to enforce parking restrictions on behalf of the property owner. Requires certain property owners to pay for the removal of the vehicle from their property and for any storage for the first 30 days. The towing carrier is required to notify the vehicle owner that the vehicle owner can retrieve the vehicle free of charge for the first 30 days. If a motor vehicle is nonconsensually towed in violation of state statute, the towing carrier must, within 48 hours after the determination of a statutory violation, return the vehicle to the place it was towed from.
• Bill E – Methods to Increase the Use of Transit. The bill creates new programs and modifies an existing program with the goal of reducing ozone emissions through the increased use of transit. Creates the statewide transit pass exploratory committee within the Department of Transportation to produce a proposal for the creation, implementation, and administration of a statewide transit pass. Modifies the ozone season transit grant program by relocating the program to the department, creates certain stipulations regarding the disbursement of funds, and makes the program permanent. Creates the youth fare free transit grant program to provide grants to provide free year-round transit services for individuals who are 19 years of age or younger and specifies procedures and reporting requirements for receiving grant money. For income tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, but before January 1, 2029, the bill creates an income tax credit on the purchase of one or more transit passes for use by the taxpayer during that income tax year and the requirements for claiming the credit.

Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee

The committee, which is actually a year-round committee, met four times during the interim and heard presentations concerning the Colorado River drought, pesticide regulation, impacts of conservation on water rights, reintroduction of gray wolves, tribal nations’ water rights, artificial turf, public rights on rivers, and stream restoration. The committee had 10 bills drafted and recommended the following nine bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Veterinary technicians’ and veterinary technician specialists’ scope of practice. The bill requires the board of veterinary medicine to promulgate rules establishing certain veterinary medicine tasks that may be delegated to veterinary technicians and veterinary technician specialists and the recommended level of supervision for these tasks. A licensed veterinarian may delegate such tasks after first establishing a veterinarian-client-patient relationship with an animal or group of animals and the owner of the animal or animals. Beginning on January 1, 2026, the bill authorizes a veterinary technician to receive a specialist designation as part of the veterinary technician’s registration, grants title protection for specialists, and prohibits the unauthorized practice as a specialist by a person who does not have a specialist designation.
• Bill B – Authorizing water management by conservation districts. The bill allows conservancy districts to conserve, develop, utilize, or dispose of water for commercial uses. Authorizes the district’s board of directors to submit and participate in a plan for augmentation for the benefit of water rights and wells within and outside of the boundaries of the district; contract with water users within and outside of the district for the provision of services; exercise certain powers concerning the management, control, delivery, use, and distribution of water in conjunction with a plan for augmentation; establish a water activity enterprise for the purpose of pursuing or continuing water activities; and sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the use of water or capacity in works by term contracts or by contracts for the perpetual use of the water or works to certain entities. Authorizes a district to enter into long-term contracts with public and private entities and avail itself of aid, assistance, and cooperation from the federal government, the state government, and local governments.
• Bill C – Public meetings requirement for members of certain state entities. Prior to the consolidation of the Division of Wildlife and the Division of Parks and Recreation and their respective commissions in Senate Bill 11-208, members of the Wildlife Commission were required to hold at least two public meetings per year in their respective geographic districts. This bill renews the public engagement requirement for the members of the Parks and Wildlife Commission and adds the same public engagement requirement for members of the State Agricultural Commission and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Requires the public engagement meetings be held in person and for status updates on the commission and board members’ compliance with the public engagement requirement to be reported to the chair of each member’s respective commission or board and included in each member’s respective executive department’s annual “SMART Act” presentation to the General Assembly.
• Bill D – Nonfunctional and artificial turf and invasive plant species. The bill, on and after January 1, 2025, prohibits local governments and unit owners’ associations of common interest communities from allowing the installation, planting, or placement of nonfunctional turf, artificial turf, or an invasive plant species on commercial, institutional, or industrial property or a transportation corridor. Prohibits the Department of Personnel from allowing the installation, planting, or placement of nonfunctional turf, artificial turf, or invasive plant species as part of a project for the construction or renovation of a state facility, which project commences on or after January 1, 2025.
• Bill E – Veterinary telehealth. The bill allows a licensed veterinarian who has established a veterinarian-client-patient relationship to use telemedicine to provide veterinary services to clients and patients in Colorado with the consent of the client. A licensed veterinarian may also refer a patient to a veterinary specialist, who may provide veterinary services via telemedicine. It defines different types of telehealth tools that can be used in a veterinary practice and extends the veterinarian-client-patient relationship to other licensed veterinarians who share the same physical premises as the veterinarian who established the relationship. Authorizes the Board of Veterinary Medicine to establish rules for the use of telehealth to provide veterinary services.
• Bill F – Green infrastructure feasibility study and pilot program. The bill requires a feasibility study of the use of green infrastructure (nature-based, watershed-scale water quality management solutions) that are an alternative to traditional gray infrastructure (centralized water treatment facilities) and the use of green financing mechanisms for water quality management. It establishes pilot projects to demonstrate the use of green infrastructure and green financing mechanisms; authorizes the adoption of rules establishing a pre-permit baseline date to assist municipalities and other water providers to pursue pre-permit solutions for compliance with water quality standards; and reporting to the committee on the progress of the feasibility study and any pilot projects and on any legislative and administrative recommendations to promote the use of green infrastructure and green financing mechanisms for water quality management.
• Bill G – Enforcement of laws concerning noxious weeds. Current law allows the Commissioner of Agriculture to assess civil penalties for violations of state laws related to the prevention of noxious weeds. The bill clarifies that a board of county commissioners may allow for the assessment and collection of fines for violations of local laws enacted to enforce the management of noxious weeds in the county. Creates civil infractions and penalties; allows a county attorney to issue an injunction to prevent an ongoing violation; and allows a board to appoint a district attorney to enforce violations in the event that the county does not have a county attorney or in any other circumstance that the board deems appropriate.
• Bill H – Raw milk. The bill authorizes a raw milk producer that registers with the Department of Public Health and Environment to engage in direct-to-consumer sales of raw milk in the state if the producer complies with certain labeling, storage, handling, record-keeping, and transportation requirements. The direct-to-consumer sales may take place at the producer’s place of business, at the consumer’s residence, or at a farmers’ market or roadside market. Authorizes the department to adopt rules regarding raw milk intended for sale directly to consumers; inspect and embargo producers’ raw milk and operations; enforce against a violation in court or by imposition of a civil penalty and, if two or more separate violations are committed in a 12-month period, suspend the producer from selling raw milk for 12 months; and prepare and distribute educational materials.
• Bill I – Expenditure of moneys for the wild horse project. The bill extends, by three years, the time in which money appropriated to implement the wild horse project, created in Senate Bill 23-275, may be expended by the general assembly and the department of law.

Wildfire Matters Review Committee

The committee met four times during the 2023 interim.  The committee heard testimony from the Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Prevention and Control, Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaboration, Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado Counties, Inc., University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Colorado Rural Electric Association, Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities, Department of Public Health and Environment & Department of Public Safety, Colorado Forest Health Council, Center for Independence      , Center for People with Disabilities, Special District Association, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Colorado Division of Insurance, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, Colorado State Fire Chiefs. The committee requested the drafting of nine bills and recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – A comprehensive study on biochar, including the use of biochar in wildfire mitigation efforts. The bill directs the Board of Governors of the Colorado State University System to conduct a comprehensive study on biochar, including its use in wildfire mitigation efforts. The board is required to submit a report on the findings of the study to specified committees of the general assembly.
• Bill B –Strongly encouraging that emergency management plans address the needs of an individual with an animal during an emergency and that local governments make certain information publicly available relating to an individual with an animal during an emergency. The bill encourages a locally defined or interjurisdictional emergency management plan amended or created on or after July 1, 2024, to address the needs of an individual with an animal during an emergency by: including provisions for the evacuation, shelter, and transport of an individual with an animal and that animal; and requiring, to the extent practicable, that at least one shelter established during an emergency is designated to accommodate an individual with an animal. Encourages a city, county, or city and county to make available to the public information for animal emergency preparedness, including: information for creating an evacuation plan and emergency checklist for individuals with animals consistent with recommendations publicly published by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Federal Emergency Management Agency; local organizations that may provide emergency animal assistance; and local emergency shelters, cooling centers, or warming centers, when active, that can accommodate an individual with an animal.
• Bill C – Assistance for rural communities to apply for wildfire-related grant money. The bill directs the Rural Opportunity Office in the Colorado Office of Economic Development to assist rural communities with identifying and applying for state or federal grants for wildfire mitigation, prevention, response, or risk management efforts. The office is required to prepare a report summarizing its work to assist rural communities with identifying and applying for wildfire-related grants and the report must include information about the rural communities that the office assists and the grants awarded. The office is required to submit the report to the committee or, if the committee no longer exists, to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over natural resources matters.
• Bill D – Assisting local governments in disaster-related programs, including establishing the slash removal pilot program and providing guidance to local governments on debris removal programs.The bill establishes the slash removal pilot program under the wildfire mitigation incentives for local governments grant program administered by the Colorado State Forest Service. The forest service must establish the policies and procedures for the implementation and the selection of counties for participation in the pilot program. Requires the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in the Department of Public Safety to provide guidance to local governments concerning debris removal issues including: negotiating debris removal program terms with the federal emergency management agency to provide predictability and eliminate duplicate payments for debris removal; developing standard right of entry forms that include opt-in and opt-out provisions and clear insurance assignment of benefit language; establishing right-of-way cleanup procedures, including the removal of private vehicles, for public roadways; considering the removal of hazardous materials and other safety and environmental concerns; and ensuring that local debris removal programs are limited to residential debris removal and do not include commercial debris removal.
• Bill E – The continuation of public outreach campaigns relating to wildfire risk mitigation in the wildland-urban interface. The bill requires the Colorado State Forest Service to conduct enhanced wildfire awareness month outreach campaigns through 2027 and other outreach efforts through the 2026-27 state fiscal year that are expected to increase awareness of wildfire risk mitigation by residents in the wildland-urban interface.

This is the second of three articles summarizing this year’s interim committee actions. As mentioned in Part 1 last week, we’re providing summaries of four of 12 committees and their recommended legislation. The Legislative Council met on Wednesday, November 15, to review interim committee legislation proposals. Click here to listen to the Legislative Council meeting.

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

The committee met five times during the 2023 interim. It heard presentations from multiple stakeholders, behavioral and mental health advocates, and representatives from state executive departments concerning 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 and recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – Concerning persons detained in jail who are held on an emergency commitment. The bill prohibits a law enforcement officer or emergency officer or emergency service patrol officer who takes a person into protective custody from detaining a person in jail. Requires each local law enforcement agency that has taken a person into protective custody to provide an annual report to the Behavioral Health Administration that includes disaggregated and nonidentifying information concerning persons who were taken into protective custody. Requires each approved treatment facility or emergency medical services facility that detains or holds a person on an emergency commitment to provide a quarterly report to the Behavioral Health Administration.
• Bill B – Concerning adult competency to stand trial. The bill reforms and clarifies the criminal competency to proceed process. Provides necessary parties with access to information related to the defendant’s claim of incompetency to proceed. Requires the Department of Human Services to search prior competency evaluations in its possession when the court orders a competency evaluation or the court finds the defendant incompetent to proceed and provide any evaluations to the court. Adds to the information that is included in a competency report. Delineates a court’s options when it finds that a defendant is incompetent to proceed. Directs when competency services may be provided on an outpatient basis. Sets forth the circumstances when a court has to dismiss the defendant’s case based on the highest level of charge against the defendant and how long the defendant has been waiting for restoration services.
• Bill C – Concerning ongoing funding for the Colorado 911 resource center, and in connection therewith, requiring reporting to ensure that the funding is being expended efficiently and effectively, and making an appropriation.The bill requires the General Assembly to annually appropriate $250,000 from the general fund to the Department of Regulatory Agencies for use by the Public Utilities Commission to fund the operations of the Colorado 911 Resource Center. The center is required to provide a quarterly report outlining the use of the funding provided, and the commission is required to include an accounting of the expenditure and uses of this funding in an annual report that current law requires it to make to the members of the general assembly. The center is required to survey 911 professionals and local 911 emergency call authorities and summarize results in each quarterly report to the commission.
• Bill D – Concerning expanding a program to continue responding to youth behavioral health crises.Under current law, the Department of Human Services offers statewide access to crisis system services for children and youth. The bill expands the services provided through the creation of the crisis resolution team program. The Behavioral Health Administration shall administer the program to provide community-based services to de-escalate and stabilize children or youth experiencing high-acuity behavioral health crises. The administration shall contract with crisis resolution team providers to provide community-based de-escalation and stabilization services to children or youth. The administration shall submit to the General Assembly a feasibility study to determine whether the program can be further expanded.
• Bill E – Concerning considering factors related to the capability to participate in the judicial process in determining whether to place a person into a pretrial diversion program.The bill requires a district attorney’s office, or the office’s designee, to consider the use of a juvenile diversion program to prevent a juvenile who demonstrates behaviors or symptoms consistent with an intellectual and developmental disability, a mental or behavioral health issue, or a lack of mental capacity from further involvement in formal delinquency proceedings. Adds behavioral health services and services for juveniles with developmental disabilities to the types of services a juvenile may need and adds behavioral health treatment providers and providers who offer services to juveniles with developmental disabilities to the list of professionals who may provide the appropriate diversion services. If a defendant’s competency is raised or a defendant is found incompetent to proceed, the bill allows the defendant to enter into a diversion agreement if the court finds that the defendant has the ability to participate and is advised of the potential consequences of failure to comply.

The Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Study Committee

The committee met six times during the 2023 interim. It heard presentations from multiple stakeholders, state agencies, behavioral and mental health advocates, and other interested parties concerning the issues facing individuals with substance use disorders. The committee requested five bills to be drafted and recommended the following four bills to the Legislative Council for consideration:

• Bill A – The Prevention of Substance Use Disorders. The bill modifies the prescription drug monitoring program by exempting veterinarians from complying with specific aspects of the program, adding reporting requirements for gabapentin, allowing the medical director of a medical practice or hospital to appoint designees to query the program, allowing the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to access the program, and updating current language in the laws relating to the program by using more modern terminology. Creates the substance use disorder prevention gap grant program; permits a multidisciplinary and multiagency drug overdose fatality review team to request and receive information from certain specified persons and entities as necessary; and requires the substance use screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment grant program to implement a statewide adolescent program and referral practice for pediatricians and professionals in pediatric settings. Modifies the statewide perinatal substance use data linkage project and authorizes the University of Colorado School of Medicine to conduct a statewide opioid use disorder prevalence data linkage project.
• Bill B – Treatment for Substance Use Disorders. The bill prohibits a carrier that provides coverage under a health benefit plan for a drug used to treat a substance use disorder from requiring prior authorization for the drug based solely on the dosage amount. Requires an insurance carrier and the medical assistance program to reimburse a licensed pharmacist prescribing or administering medication-assisted treatment pursuant to a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement at a rate equal to the reimbursement rate for other providers. Amends the practice of pharmacy to include prescriptive authority for any FDA-approved product or medication for opioid use disorder in accordance with federal law and requires that a protocol for pharmacists to prescribe, dispense, and administer medication-assisted treatment be developed. Authorizes certain licensed clinical social workers and licensed professional counselors to provide clinical supervision to individuals seeking certification as addiction technicians and addiction specialists and authorizes rules to be adopted relating to this clinical supervision. Establishes the behavioral health diversion pilot program and expands the medication-assisted treatment expansion pilot program. Requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to seek federal authorization to provide certain screenings for physical and behavioral health needs to persons up to 90 days prior to release from jail, a juvenile institutional facility, or a Department of Corrections facility. Requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to seek federal authorization to provide partial hospitalization for substance use disorder treatment, adds substance use disorder treatment to the list of health-care or mental health-care services that are required to be reimbursed at the same rate for telemedicine as in-person services, and places additional requirements on managed care entities and the Behavioral Health Administration.
• Bill C – Substance use Disorders Harm Reduction. The bill excludes injuries involving the possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia from a physician’s mandatory reporting requirements. Clarifies that the civil and criminal immunity that protects a person who acts in good faith to furnish or administer an opioid antagonist also protects a person who distributes the opioid antagonist. Adds an exemption to the prohibition on possessing drug paraphernalia for possession of drug paraphernalia that a person received from an approved syringe exchange program or a program carried out by a harm reduction organization while the person was participating in the program. Specifies that money appropriated to the Department of Public Health and Environment to purchase non-laboratory synthetic opiate detection tests may also be used to purchase other drug testing equipment. Authorizes an organization operating a clean syringe exchange program to provide drug testing services through the program. Updates the term “opiate antagonist” to “opioid antagonist”.
• Bill D – Substance Use Disorders Recovery. The bill implements a voluntary designation process for recovery-friendly workplaces. Allows a school district to include in the annual pupil count a student who has transferred to a recovery high school before the pupil count date. Allows a recovery community organization that receives a grant through the recovery support services grant program to use the money to provide guidance to individuals on the many pathways for recovery. Declares that recovery residences, sober living facilities, and sober homes are a residential use of land for zoning purposes. Places restrictions on where liquor-licensed drugstores and fermented malt beverage and wine retailers may display alcohol beverages on the stores’ licensed premises.

Pension Review Commission and Pension Review Subcommittee

The commission met twice during the 2023 interim. It heard presentations from the Fire and Police Pension Association and the Public Employees’ Retirement Association. In addition, the commission heard proposals for legislation from its own Pension Review Subcommittee. The subcommittee met three times during the 2023 interim to: (1) Hear presentations from PERA; (2) Discuss proposed legislation and questions to be submitted to PERA; (3) Hear from PERA regarding answers to their submitted questions; (4) Discuss inflation relief for PERA retirees; and (5) Discuss its annual reports to the General Assembly and the citizens of Colorado. The commission requested that six bills be drafted and recommended the four following bills to the Legislative Council for introduction:

• Bill A – Additional PERA Service Retirees for Schools. With limited exceptions, current law limits the number of service retirees that a state college or university or an employer in the school or Denver Public Schools division of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association can hire, without a reduction in the service retirees’ benefits, to 10 service retirees when an employer determines there is a critical shortage of qualified candidates. The bill allows an employer to hire such service retirees when the employer determines there is a need. Authorizes an employer in the school or Denver Public Schools division with a student enrollment above 10,000 to hire, without a reduction in service retirees’ benefits, an additional service retiree for each 1,000 students enrolled above 10,000. An employer with 10,000 students or less will continue to be allowed to hire 10 service retirees. The bill requires an employer in the school or Denver Public Schools division to provide PERA with a list of all employed service retirees by September 1 of an applicable calendar year.
• Bill B – PERA Retiree Refundable Income Tax Credit. The bill creates a refundable income tax credit that is available for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2024, but prior to January 1, 2026, for a qualifying public employees’ retirement association retiree, which means a full-time Colorado resident individual who is 65 years of age or older at the end of the 2024 or 2025 income tax year; and has an annual gross income of no more than $38,000 as a single filer or $76,000 as a joint filer.
• Bill C – Fire and Police Pension Law Technical Corrections. House Bill 22-1034 merged three retirement plans administered by the Fire and Police Pension Association, the statewide defined benefit plan, the statewide hybrid plan, and the social security supplemental plan into a single statewide retirement plan. House Bill 22-1034 accomplished the merger in part by repealing several statutes and relocating some of the substantive provisions of those statutes into new statutes. In doing so, certain statutory cross references were not properly updated to reflect the repeals and relocations. The bill updates the obsolete statutory cross references. Updates the definition of “member” in the new hire pension plan statute to clarify that a portion of the definition applies only for purposes of the statewide money purchase plan. Repeals an inapplicable portion of the definition of “member” in the statewide retirement plan statute.
• Bill D – State Contribution to FPPA Death & Disability Fund. For members of the Fire and Police Pension Association hired before January 1, 1997, death and disability benefits are paid from state money in the statewide death and disability trust fund. State funding for this benefit discontinued in 1997 based on an assumption that the last payment had fully funded all the benefits to be paid. An actuarial analysis from 2021 determined that the payment in 1997 was not sufficient to cover the benefit obligations associated with members hired prior to January 1, 1997. The 2021 actuarial analysis indicated a shortfall of $33.191 million. The state made payments to cover a portion of this shortfall. Based on the 2023 actuarial calculation, the remaining shortfall is now $27.39 million. The bill requires the state treasurer to pay a total of $27.39 million, in three equal payments of $9.13 million, to be made on July 1, 2024, July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026, to the association for it to deposit into the trust fund so that there will be sufficient money to pay future death and disability benefits to these members.

Recidivism Interim Study Committee

The committee met three times during the 2023 interim to review Colorado state agency and department definitions of recidivism; examine other state and academic approaches to defining recidivism; review means other than recidivism that can be used to measure program success; and evaluate aligning agency and department recidivism definitions. It heard presentations from the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System Task Force, various state departments, the state board of parole, the state public defender, the judicial branch, and experts in the field of criminal justice and recidivism. The committee requested three bills be drafted and recommended each of the three drafts to the Legislative Council for its consideration.

• Bill A – Creating a Working Group to Develop a Definition of Recidivism. The bill requires the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Public Safety to convene a working group to develop a definition of “recidivism” to be used by each state entity that collects data or reports on recidivism in any report issued by the entity. The working group shall develop a definition of “recidivism” no later than January 15, 2025, and each state entity that collects data or reports on recidivism in any report issued by the entity shall begin using the working group’s definition on July 1, 2025.
• Bill B – A Study of How to Measure the Effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System Using Metrics Other Than Recidivism. The bill creates the alternative metrics to measure criminal justice system performance working group to study metrics and methods, other than measuring recidivism, to supplement the current measure of recidivism; measure risk-reduction outcomes; comprehensively measure successful outcomes that consider various aspects of life, including employment, housing, education, mental health, personal well-being, social supports, and civic and community engagement; and more effectively measure criminal justice system performance. The working group shall submit a report to the House of Representatives Health and Insurance and Judiciary committees and the Senate Health and Human Services and Judiciary committees on or before July 1, 2025.
• Bill C – A Study to Examine How Individuals Proceed Through the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems. The bill requires the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Public Safety to conduct a study to examine how individuals proceed through the various stages of criminal and juvenile justice proceedings, including sentences and alternative sentencing programs. The division shall solicit proposals for an entity to assist with the study. The bill requires the division to submit a report of its findings to the Joint Budget Committee and Judiciary committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate by June 30, 2025.

Next week in Part 3, the final part of this series, will summarize the actions of four additional committees that met during this interim.

Several legislative committees held 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 2024. In this article we’re providing summaries of four of 12 committees and their recommended legislation. This is the first of three articles summarizing this interim’s committee actions. The Legislative Council met on Wednesday, November 15, to review interim committee legislation proposals. Click here to listen to the Legislative Council meeting.

Colorado Health Insurance Exchange Oversight Committee

The committee met twice during the interim and heard various updates on the insurance marketplace around the state. In particular, the committee heard updates from:

• Connect for Health Colorado (the state health benefit exchange) regarding financial and enrollment assistance available for customers, the exchange’s preparations for open enrollment, how the exchange has assisted customers in maintaining coverage after Friday Health Plans left the market, and requested technical changes to the laws governing the exchange, its board of directors, and the committee;
• The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing concerning the process to unwind Medicaid from expansions under the public health emergency and its efforts, through a health education campaign supported by the exchange board and the Medicaid to Marketplace Bridge, to help enrollees losing eligibility for Medicaid to transition to private health coverage plans available through the exchange; and
• The Division of Insurance concerning the Affordable Care Act 1332 waiver, preliminary 2024 health insurance rates, and the division’s rate review timeline.

The committee recommended one bill to the Legislative Council to modify provisions governing the state health benefit exchange  by eliminating the requirement for the board of directors of the exchange to submit a report on the development of the exchange to the Governor and the General Assembly by January 15, and instead requiring the report to be submitted annually and to address open enrollment; requiring the board to also present an open enrollment update to specified legislative committees during each legislative session; requiring the exchange, rather than the board, to annually present to the committee the exchange’s financial and operational plans and the major actions taken by the board; modifying the number of meetings of the committee during the interim; and eliminating from the committee membership appointees who are members of the legislative audit committee.

Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee

The committee met three times during the interim. It heard presentations from its student members about gun violence, hygiene products, Asian American and Pacific Islander history, gender-affirming care, non-legal name changes, and increasing the number of school psychologists. The committee had six bills drafted and recommended the following three bills to the Legislative Council.

• Bill A – Non-legal Name Changes. The bill requires public schools to use a student’s preferred name if requested by the student. A school’s refusal to use a student’s preferred name is deemed a form of discrimination. It creates a task force in the department of education to examine existing school policies and provide recommendations to schools on how to best implement student non-legal name change policies.
• Bill B – School Mental Health Professional Loan Repayment Program. The bill creates a loan repayment program in the department of higher education to provide loan repayment of up to $10,000 to eligible school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers who provide mental health services to students who have limited access to mental health services.
• Bill C – Availability of Youth Gender-affirming Care Training. The bill requires the Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct a gender-affirming health-care provider study. The bill outlines required topics for the study, including the type and availability of gender-affirming health-care services available to patients; issues impacting gender-affirming health-care providers and facilities; and the availability of insurance coverage for different types of treatment.

Colorado’s Child Welfare System Interim Study Committee

The committee met five times during the 2023 interim. It requested 10 bills be drafted and recommended the following five bills to the Legislative Council:

• Bill A – Concerning increasing support for kinship foster care homes. The bill makes changes to kinship care in Colorado, including expanding emergency assistance for kinship homes to include goods for basic care; establishing the process for a kinship home to apply for certification; allowing a kinship home to opt out of the certification process but remain eligible for supports; and making kinship homes eligible for the same reimbursement and supports as foster care homes.
• Bill B – Concerning establishing a children’s behavioral health statewide system of care. The bill requires the creation of a statewide comprehensive children’s behavioral health system of care to serve as the point of access to address the behavioral health needs of children and youth up to 21 years of age who have mental health disorders, substance use disorders, co-occurring behavioral health disorders, or intellectual and developmental disabilities, regardless of payer, insurance, and income.
• Bill C – Concerning addressing the high-acuity crisis for children and youth in need of residential care. The bill requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the Behavioral Health Administration, and the Department of Human Services to develop a high-acuity system of care for children and youth who are less than 21 years of age and who have complex behavioral health needs.
• Bill D – Concerning measures to increase accessibility provided to persons who are involved in matters regarding a child’s welfare. The bill requires that certain services provided to children or their families comply with the provisions of Title VI of the federal “Civil Rights Act of 1964” if they are provided by a county department, city and county, or a private-entity contractor, including access to services in a primary language for a person with limited English proficiency. The bill also requires a court to provide language access, including translation and interpretation services, to parties in dependency and neglect cases for those with limited English.
• Bill E – Concerning measures to enhance child welfare system tools. The bill requires the state Department of Human Services to develop and implement a screening process for county departments of human or social services to follow in responding to reports and inquiries to the hotline system. The screening must include questions about domestic violence and a procedure to determine demographic information. The bill also requires an audit of the Colorado family safety assessment and the Colorado family risk assessment on or before January 15, 2025.

Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Tax Policy

The committee met five times during the interim. It heard presentations on the affordable housing tax credit, the Attorney General’s opinion concerning the Tyler v. Hennepin County case, affordable housing for low income individuals, the Department of Local Affairs and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade’s administration of Proposition 123, and property tax “circuit breakers”. 

Additionally, the state auditor’s office presented tax expenditure evaluations. The committee also set forth the scope of tax policies to be considered by its subordinate Task Force Concerning Tax Policy to include applying the state income tax to federal adjusted gross income rather than federal taxable income, the construction of affordable housing units, options for addressing the affordability of home ownership and rental housing, and the creation of a permanent fund associated with the state’s levy and collection of severance tax. The committee requested 10 bills for drafting and recommended five to the Legislative Council for introduction:

• Bill A – Adjustment of tax expenditures.  The bill eliminates 15 infrequently used tax exemptions, deductions, and credits.  It also modifies several tax expenditures, including increasing the health care preceptors tax credit, increasing the wildfire mitigation measures tax credit, requiring tax-free entities to file a tax return, and expanding a sales tax exemption to include modular homes. 
• Bill B – Process for issuance of a treasurer’s deed for property subject to a property tax lien.  The bill establishes a process by which the lawful holder of a certificate of purchase of a tax lien may apply for a public auction for the sale of a certificate of option for treasurer’s deed. If the public auction results in an “overbid”, meaning the purchaser of the sale of a certificate of option for treasurer’s deed pays an amount in excess of the value of the tax lien, then the amount of the overbid must be paid in order of recording priority to junior lienors who have filed a notice of intent to redeem. After payment to all lienors, any remaining overbid must be paid to the owner of the property subject to the tax lien. By providing for payment of any remaining overbid amount to the property owner, the bill brings Colorado law into compliance with the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision affirming a property owner’s constitutional right to the value of their property in excess of their tax debt.
• Bill C – Property tax treatment of real property that is used to provide lodging.  The bill provides that a short-term rental property leased for short-term stays for more than ninety days in a property tax year is classified as lodging property. 
• Bill D – Analysis of tax policy by the state legislative branch.  The bill modifies requirements for evaluating state tax expenditures, requires the state auditor to prepare an annual report on federal tax law and changes that have significant impact on the state’s tax base, and extends the Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning Tax Policy and the Task Force Concerning Tax Policy.
• Bill E – Reinstatement of an income tax credit to help income-qualified seniors afford housing.  The bill reinstates a refundable income tax credit that was available for income tax year 2022 so that the credit is available for income tax year 2024.  The credit is available for a person who is sixty-five years of age or older at the end of 2024, has an adjusted gross income that is $75,000 or less for a single return and $150,000 or less if filing a joint return, and has not claimed the senior property tax exemption for the 2024 property tax year.

Next week Part 2 of this series will summarize the actions of four additional committees that met during this interim. And Part 3 will summarize the last four committees the following week.

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:

• Bill A –  Registration of fleet vehicles that are part of rental vehicle fleets. The bill allows the operator of a rental vehicle fleet (fleet operator), if authorized by the Department of Revenue, to transfer license plates from one fleet vehicle to another when the fleet operator transfers or assigns the owner’s title or interest in the fleet vehicle from which the number plates are being transferred.

    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.

• Bill B – A requirement that motor vehicle drivers move over or slow down to mitigate the risk their vehicles present to stationary vehicles on the road. The bill requires a person to move over, if possible, or slow down to a safe speed when a vehicle is on the side of the road displaying flashing hazard lights or warning lights. The current law that imposes the same requirement for a vehicle that is being chained up for winter storms is replaced with a requirement that the vehicle display flashing hazards lights or warning lights when chaining up.
• Bill C – Yielding to larger vehicles in roundabouts. The bill requires a driver to yield the right-of-way to a driver of a vehicle having a total length of at least 40 feet or a total width of at least 10 feet (large vehicle) when driving through a roundabout. The bill also requires that when 2 drivers of large vehicles approach or drive through a roundabout at the same time, the driver on the right must yield the right-of-way to the driver on the left.

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

• Bill D – Education requirements associated with the licensing of a minor to drive a motor vehicle on a roadway. For 10 years, the bill creates a refundable income tax credit for purchasing driver education and training for a minor. The amount of the credit is the amount spent on driver education and training, but cannot exceed $1,000 per student. To claim a credit, an individual must provide the Department of Revenue with a receipt for the amount paid if the department requests the receipt.

    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. 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.

• Bill E – The enforcement of safety requirements for intrastate motor vehicle carriers. The bill changes the amount of civil penalties that may be levied on commercial motor carriers for failure to comply with rules for the safe operation of commercial vehicles by tying the amount of civil penalties to the amount of federal civil penalties for interstate commercial motor carriers.

    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.

• Bill B – Concerning ongoing funding for the Colorado 911 resource center. To provide ongoing funding for the Colorado 911 resource center, the state treasurer is required to issue a warrant, paid from the general fund, in the amount of $250,000 to the Colorado 911 resource center on July 1, 2023, and on each July 1 thereafter.
• Bill C – Concerning prior authorization exemption for medicaid coverage of medications treating serious mental illness. The bill prohibits the department of health care policy and financing from imposing prior authorization, step therapy, and fail first requirements for medicaid coverage of a prescription drug, as indicated on federally approved labels, to treat serious mental health disorders.
• Bill D – Concerning measures to regulate the use of restrictive practices on individuals in correctional facilities. The bill prohibits the use of a clinical restraint on an individual, unless:
  • The use is to prevent the individual from committing imminent and serious harm to the individual’s self or another person, based on immediately present evidence and circumstances;
  • All less restrictive interventions have been exhausted; and
  • The clinical restraint is ordered by a licensed mental health provider.

    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.

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:

• Bill A – Repeal of Infrequently Used Tax Expenditures. The bill eliminates ten infrequently used income tax exemptions, deductions, and credits.
• Bill B – Taxation of Tobacco Products. The bill categorizes transactions involving tobacco products other than smokeless and roll-your-own tobacco products as remote retail sales rather than delivery sales and establishes a system for taxation and licensing of such sales that mirrors the current system for delivery sales.
• Bill C – Tax Credits for Low- and Middle-income Working Individuals or Families. The bill increases the state earned income tax credit to 40% of the federal credit claimed, increases the percentages of the federal credit that can be claimed for the state child tax credit depending on income level, and increases the age of an eligible child for the child tax credit from under six years old to under 18 years old.
• Bill D – Long-term Care Insurance Tax Credit. The bill increases the amount of federal taxable income that qualifies for the credit and doubles the amount of credit that may be claimed.
• Bill E – Unauthorized Insurance Premium Tax Rate. The bill increases the unauthorized insurance premium tax rate to three percent in parity with the surplus lines insurance premium tax rate.

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.

by Jessica Wigent

Since its (re)creation in 2016, the Statutory Revision Committee (SRC), codified in part 9 of article 3 of title 2, C.R.S., has introduced more than 100 bills that have repealed and refreshed Colorado’s laws, clearing conflicts, glitches, and outdated provisions from hundreds of pages of statutory text and bringing the Colorado Revised Statutes into the 21^st century.

During hearings held during the 2021 legislative session and, most recently, on February 11, 2022, committee members heard memo presentations and testimony on issues including:

• Repealing the capitol dome restoration fund, as that capitol dome project, which you can climb up into, is complete, and the statute is now obsolete;
• Repealing a tax credit that only applied in 1999 – when the first (we’re now on the fourth!) Matrix movie was in theaters;
• Repealing two advisory committees whose work was completed or taken over by another agency; and
• Making technical updates to the marijuana codes.

Membership

The SRC consists of eight legislators (two appointed by the majority and minority leadership in each house) and two nonlegislators who are nonvoting attorney members appointed by the Committee on Legal Services. Per the statute that created the SRC, the chair and vice-chair elected in the 2021 legislative session, Representative Valdez and Senator Kirkmeyer, have switched positions. The membership now includes:

Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chair

Senator Donald Valdez, Vice-chair

Representative Mike Lynch

Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno

Representative Andres Pico

Representative Steven Woodrow

Senator Rob Woodward

Senator Rachel Zenzinger

Patricia Ho, attorney, nonlegislative member

Andrew Toft, attorney, nonlegislative member

Executive branch agencies, the judicial branch, interested Colorado residents, legislators, and nonpartisan staff from a number of agencies in and around the Capitol have brought issues for the SRC to consider. Initially, staff considers these requests and whether they fall within the charge of the SRC and then prepares a memo detailing the requested change, often with a bill draft attached for the SRC to consider.

In addition, the statutory charge of the SRC includes examining “current judicial decisions.” To that end, the SRC has asked staff to review current statutes that are found by an appellate court to be unconstitutional. Staff routinely prepares memos for the SRC to bring attention to these provisions.

An affirmative vote from at least five of the legislative SRC members is needed to introduce proposed legislation, and the SRC regularly considers more draft bills than it approves. All proposed bill drafts, including those not approved for introduction, are publicly available on the SRC’s website and in the committee’s annual report submitted to the General Assembly. You may also email staff for more information.

The SRC plans to meet again on Friday, March 11, at 7:30 a.m. in House Committee Room 112. Join the SRC mailing list to be notified when the agenda, memos, and draft bills are available for that meeting.

Know of any antiquated, redundant, or contradictory laws? Please contact the SRC staff via email:
statutoryrevision.ga@coleg.gov All meetings are public, and everyone is encouraged to attend or to propose issues to the SRC staff.

by Patti Dahlberg and Yelana Love

The Colorado Commission on Uniform State Laws (CCUSL) is Colorado’s delegation to the national Uniform Law Commission (ULC). The ULC is comprised of more than 300 commissioners appointed by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The CCUSL meets each year to identify a preliminary legislative agenda of approved uniform acts for potential introduction in Colorado. The CCUSL then typically hosts two or three public meetings at the state capitol to discuss its proposed legislation, listen to interested parties, and finalize its legislative agenda. The CCUSL sends advance notice of the meetings held in the capitol to interested parties, posts meeting information on the General Assembly and the CCUSL websites, encourages public testimony at the meetings, and broadcasts the meetings over the internet.

The CCUSL held meetings to discuss its legislative agenda on August 25, 2021, December 3, 2021, and January 14, 2022, and approved seven uniform acts for introduction as commission bills during the 2022 legislative session. The links to the acts provided below are to the ULC version of the uniform acts (unless identified with a bill number), and uniform acts are routinely amended prior to introduction. Links to the Colorado versions of uniform acts will be available on the CCUSL Additional Information page as the bills are introduced. Four of the uniform acts approved for introduction were ULC acts newly approved at the 2021 annual meeting and the other three acts were ULC-approved acts from prior years. The seven uniform acts approved for introduction in 2022 in Colorado are:

Amendments to the Uniform Probate Code (2019). Colorado first enacted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) in 1973 and then enacted various updates and additions throughout the years as the opportunity arose, most recently the 2008 UPC Amendments. The 2019 Amendments to the UPC continue to modernize the law by providing a more consistent formula for determining intestate shares within blended families and removing outdated terminology.

Uniform Cohabitants’ Economic Remedies Act. States have no consistent approach for addressing whether and how cohabitants can enforce contract and equitable claims against each other when the relationship ends. This act does not create any special status for cohabitants. In most instances, it defers to other state law governing contracts and claims between individuals. The act enables cohabitants to exercise the usual rights of individual citizens of a state to contract and to maintain contract and equitable claims against others in appropriate circumstances. It affirms the capacity of each cohabitant to contract with the other and to maintain claims with respect to “contributions to the relationship” without regard to any intimate relationship that exists between them and without  requiring them to address issues that would not be faced by litigants of similar claims.

Uniform College Athlete Name, Image, or Likeness Act. Until recently, college student athletes were not allowed to receive compensation for the use of their name, image, or likeness (NIL) while still maintaining eligibility. This act allows college athletes to earn compensation for the use of their NIL while also providing protections to educational institutions, athletic associations, and conferences. It provides a uniform framework for states to allow college athletes to earn compensation for the use of their NIL while maintaining a level playing field across state lines.

Uniform Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking Act (2013). This act provides three components to reduce human trafficking: comprehensive criminal penalties; protections for human-trafficking victims; and public awareness and prevention methods. Uniformity in this area may improve coordination and collaboration across state lines in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking and would allow national and regional victim-advocates organizations to better advise and assist victims across the country.

Uniform Restrictive Employment Agreement Act. This act regulates restrictive employment agreements, which are agreements that prohibit or limit an employee or other worker from working after the work relationship ends. The act addresses the enforceability of these agreements, notice and other procedural requirements, choice of law issues, and remedies. The act does not say anything about an agreement monitoring what a worker can or cannot do while employed.

Uniform Unregulated Child Custody Transfer Act. In some cases, parents find that, after the birth or adoption of their child, they experience considerable difficulty or even inability in caring for or effectively managing the child’s behavior, which sometimes leads to families transferring custody of a child to another person without the involvement of the courts and the child welfare system. Without specific regulations directed at these types of unregulated transfers, a transfer of custody might go unnoticed within the child welfare system. This act addresses the transfer of children in these types of cases.

Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (2014).  The amendments in the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (UVTA) strengthen creditor protection by providing remedies for certain transactions by a debtor that are arguably unfair to the debtor’s creditors. The 2014 amendments to the UVTA address a small number of narrowly defined issues and are not a comprehensive revision of the act. Colorado adopted the original act, formerly known as the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, in 1991.

For more information concerning the ULC and CCUSL, check out these articles:

• The Uniform Law Commission Works to Promote Uniformity of Law Among the States – August 6, 2015
• The Uniform Law Process Takes its Time – September 17, 2015
• The “C” in Uniform Law Commission – November 5, 2015