In current law, both a lodging facility and an entertainment facility are licensed as a lodging and entertainment facility licensee. The acts converts the licenses of lodging facilities to lodging facility licenses and the licenses of entertainment facilities to entertainment facility licenses. Additionally, the act creates a new catering license and an alcohol beverage shipper license. The act allows a brewery, a limited winery, and a distillery to manufacture alcohol beverages at up to 2 noncontiguous locations and sets an annual fee for such operations. Current law limits the amount of alcohol beverages certain retailers can purchase from retail liquor stores, liquor-licensed drugstores, and fermented malt beverage and wine retailers to $2,000 each year. The act increases the cap to $7,000 and requires the state licensing authority to annually adjust the cap consistent with inflation. For events where customers may consume alcohol beverages on the premises of an off-premises retailer, the act: Allows an off-premises retailer to conduct tastings; Allows tastings for all authorized retailers to begin at 10 a.m. instead of 11 a.m.; Allows retail liquor stores to hold educational classes; and Allows a distiller that operates a sales room to purchase and use common alcohol modifiers to mix with its spirituous liquors to produce cocktails. Under current law, liquor licenses are valid for a one-year period. The act allows certain qualifying licensees to apply for a 2-year license. The act also requires the state licensing authority to study the feasibility of adopting an online application and renewal system. The act removes the requirement that a local licensing authority schedule a public hearing on an application for a new retail liquor license. The act changes the requirement for a festival permittee to notify the state and local licensing authorities of the location and dates the licensee plans to hold multiple festivals from 30 business days to 30 calendar days before each festival. Regarding wholesalers, the act allows wholesalers of vinous or spirituous liquors to obtain an importer's license and allows all wholesalers to hold trade show events. The act allows a retail liquor store going out of business to sell its inventory to another retail liquor store. The act specifies that a liquor-licensed drugstore's use of an electronic funds transfer is not an extension of credit. The act allows an arts licensee to place limited advertising of the availability of alcohol beverages for sale on the licensed premises while an artistic or cultural production or performance is taking place. The act allows alcohol beverage sales on Christmas. APPROVED by Governor May 18, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the purple star school program (program) in the department of education (department). The purpose of the program is to designate schools of a school district, district charter schools, institute charter schools, or boards of cooperative services (public schools) that provide services and supports to military-connected students and their families to help mitigate the academic and social-emotional challenges they may face as a result of frequent moves, new schools, parental deployments, and different social circles and experiences. The department is required to create: An application for a public school to apply for a purple star school designation; A rubric to measure whether a public school qualifies for a purple star school designation; and A timeline for a public school to apply for and to renew the purple star school designation. The department shall designate a public school as a purple star school if the public school applies and qualifies for the designation. To qualify as a purple star school, a public school shall: Designate a staff member as a military liaison; Create and maintain on the public school's website an accessible web page that includes resources for military-connected students and their families; Establish and maintain a student-led transition program that assists military-connected students who are relocating to the public school; Offer professional development for educators and staff on issues related to military-connected students; and Offer at least one of the following initiatives: A public school resolution published on the public school's website showing support for military-connected students and their families; Celebrations in April and November to recognize military children and military families, with associated events hosted by the public school; A partnership with a local military installation that facilitates opportunities for military members to volunteer on the public school's campus, speak at a public school assembly, or host a field trip; or Student-driven clubs and groups that show community-family engagement for military-connected students and their families. During the first week of April each year, the governor, or the governor's designee, shall recognize each purple star school and present the purple star schools with a certificate. A purple star school designation is valid for 3 years. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $33,247 to the department to implement the program. APPROVED by Governor May 18, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits a law enforcement officer or emergency service patrol officer who takes a juvenile into protective custody from detaining the juvenile in jail. Beginning July 1, 2024, the act 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 in an approved treatment facility or detained in an emergency medical facility or jail. Beginning July 1, 2024, the act requires each approved treatment facility or emergency medical services facility that detains a person under protective custody or detains or holds a person on an emergency commitment to provide a quarterly report to the behavioral health administration that includes information about the persons detained or held at the facility. The act appropriates $64,738 from the general fund to the department of human services for use by the behavioral health administration. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 17, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
For state fiscal year 2024-25, the act appropriates $5,000,000 from the species conservation trust fund in the state treasury for various wildlife conservation programs directed at conserving candidate species or species that are likely to become candidate species, as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service, as follows: $1,800,000 for the upper Colorado river endangered fish recovery program; $650,000 for selenium management, research, monitoring, evaluation, and control; $50,000 for 3 species recovery efforts; $1,700,000 for native terrestrial wildlife conservation; and $800,000 for native aquatic wildlife conservation. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 17, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act adds rare plants and invertebrates to the species that may be studied and conserved under the current "Nongame, Endangered, or Threatened Species Conservation Act", which is renamed the "Nongame, Endangered, or Threatened Wildlife and Rare Plant Conservation Act". The division of parks and wildlife in the department of natural resources (department) may undertake voluntary programs to conserve, protect, and perpetuate invertebrates. The department is required to include, in the department's SMART Act hearing, information about the investigations conducted under the act. The general assembly is required to make an appropriation from the general fund or the wildlife cash fund to study invertebrates. $774,788 is appropriated to the department for use by the division of parks and wildlife to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act enacts the "Physician Assistant Licensure Compact" (compact). The compact is designed to enable a physician assistant with a license in a state that has signed the compact (participating state) to more easily become authorized to practice in any other participating state. Participating states and physician assistants must meet specific conditions enumerated in the compact to participate in the compact. The compact allows only the participating state where a physician assistant is licensed to discipline the physician assistant, but allows a participating state where the physician assistant is practicing, but is not licensed, to revoke the physician assistant's authority to practice in that state. The act authorizes the Colorado medical board (board) to promulgate rules and to facilitate Colorado's participation in the compact, including notifying the Compact Commission (commission) established by the compact of any adverse action taken by the board against a physician assistant licensed in Colorado or practicing in Colorado under the compact. The commission includes a delegate from each participating state and has the powers and duties set forth in the act. The compact becomes effective on the date the compact is enacted in the seventh participating state. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Starting July 1, 2025, each youth sports organization shall require each coach to annually complete mandatory reporter training and shall encourage each coach to annually complete an abuse prevention training that includes: Prohibited conduct by coaches; Appropriate one-on-one interactions between players and coaches; How to recognize and appropriately respond to and prevent behaviors that violate the prohibited conduct policy; and How to respond to disclosures of sexual abuse, disclosures of child abuse, or reports of behaviors violating the prohibited conduct policy in a supportive and appropriate manner that meets the mandated reporting requirements pursuant to Colorado statutes. Each youth sports organization shall develop a prohibited conduct policy that its coaches must comply with and that must include: A list of prohibited conduct by parents, spectators, coaches, and athletes and a mandatory reporting policy for adults who have knowledge of an act of prohibited conduct; and A code of conduct for parents, spectators, coaches, and athletes to follow. The act requires the department of early childhood to make a model code of conduct available that a youth sports organization may adopt. The act requires all youth sports organization and local government coaches to obtain a criminal history record check and to not hire a coach with a record of child abuse or unlawful sexual behavior. A volunteer who is not acting in the capacity of a coach or manager and who only occasionally assists with the team is not required to obtain a criminal history record check. The act requires each local government that operates a youth athletic activity to make available a prohibited conduct policy related to youth athletic activities. The act requires the attorney general to draft a notice that explains the requirements of the act and make it available to all youth sports organizations. Each youth sports organization shall post the notice on its website or, if it does not have a website, provide the notice to parents and legal guardians. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act enacts the "Uniform Special Deposits Act" as drafted by the Uniform Law Commission, which addresses deposits at a bank where the identity of the person entitled to payment is not determined until the occurrence of a contingency identified at the time that the deposit is created. Concerns have arisen about such "special deposits" that may undermine the use of special deposits as a useful vehicle to hold funds that may be paid in the future to one or more persons depending on the resolution of one or more specified contingencies. The act addresses these concerns by reducing legal uncertainties related to the attributes that make a deposit "special" and the rights of the parties interested in the special deposit, their respective creditors, and the bank holding the special deposit prior to the resolution of the contingency. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The senior dental advisory committee created in the department of health care policy and financing is scheduled to repeal on September 1, 2024. The act continues the senior dental advisory committee until September 1, 2029. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The "Colorado Digital Token Act" provides limited exemptions from the securities registration and securities broker-dealer and salesperson licensing requirements for persons dealing in digital tokens. "Digital token" is defined in the "Colorado Digital Token Act" as a digital unit with specified characteristics that is: Secured through a decentralized ledger or database; Exchangeable for goods or services; and Capable of being traded or transferred between persons without an intermediary or custodian of value. The act repeals the "Colorado Digital Token Act". APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act repeals the pollution prevention advisory board and the pollution prevention advisory board assistance committee when the act takes effect, repeals the recycling resources economic opportunity program on October 1, 2025, and repeals the front range waste diversion enterprise and replaces it with the Colorado circular communities enterprise (enterprise). The enterprise, in merging and modernizing the purposes of the recycling resources economic opportunity program and the front range waste diversion enterprise, awards grants and other funding and provides technical assistance to local governments, nonprofit and for-profit businesses, public and private schools, and institutions of higher education throughout the state that pursue a circular economy for waste management, including waste diversion and aversion. The act also creates the statewide voluntary sustainability program to support businesses engaging, or looking to engage, in sustainability efforts. Under current law, user fees are imposed on operators of attended solid waste disposal sites (operators) to finance the recycling resources economic opportunity program and the front range waste diversion enterprise. The act applies those fees to the enterprise, requiring operators of sites located outside of the front range to pay a fee of either 2 or 4 cents per load transported for disposal and requiring operators of sites located in the front range, between July 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, to pay a fee of 74 cents per cubic yard per load transported for disposal and, on and after January 1, 2025, to pay a fee of 78 cents per cubic yard per load transported for disposal. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE July 1, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 2 of the act creates a state income tax credit for owners of aircraft that incur qualifying expenses to enable an aircraft that is powered by leaded aviation gasoline to be certified to instead be powered by unleaded aviation gasoline. Sections 3 and 6 provide explicit authority in the existing state aviation grant program for aviation fund grants: To general aviation airports and commercial airports at which there is significant general aviation activity to fund the design, engineering, construction, installation, acquisition, and inspection of infrastructure, including equipment, that allows the sale of unleaded aviation gasoline at such airports and to subsidize purchases of unleaded aviation gasoline at such airports; For airport noise monitoring devices; For evaluation, provision of education and technical assistance to airports about, prevention, or mitigation of adverse impacts to the health, safety, and welfare of individuals who reside or work near an airport; and At a time that electric aircraft technology has been appropriately certified by the federal aviation administration, for on-airport electric aircraft charging infrastructure. Section 6 also: Requires the lesser of 10% of the amount awarded in grants per year or $1,500,000 per year in grants to be designated for the aviation purposes of aiding and accelerating the transition from leaded aviation gasoline to unleaded aviation gasoline with priority given to airports with significant general aviation traffic in urban and suburban areas where surrounding communities may be disproportionately impacted by such traffic; and Subject to specified exceptions, prohibits grants from being awarded to an airport that is located in a densely populated residential area or has a significant number of flights over a densely populated residential area unless the airport or entity operating the airport demonstrates to the satisfaction of the aeronautics division of the department of transportation (division) that: By January 1, 2026, it has adopted a plan, in accordance with applicable federal requirements and guidance, for phasing out sales of leaded aviation gasoline at the airport by January 1, 2030; It has established, in consultation with flight schools and pilots that regularly use the airport, a voluntary noise abatement plan that meets specified requirements; and It complies with the requirements of any avigation easements or contracts that it has entered into. Section 4 adds to the division's duties: Working with the department of public health and environment (CDPHE) as it continues to provide data and information about the effects of leaded aviation fuel on human health to the department of transportation and airports; and Educating airports with significant general aviation activity, as determined by the division, regarding: The need to expedite the transition from leaded aviation gasoline to unleaded aviation gasoline; and Specified funding opportunities for projects and unleaded aviation gasoline subsidies, if offered by the division, that support the transition from leaded aviation gasoline to unleaded aviation gasoline and impose requirements for accessing that funding and, if offered, those subsidies. Section 5 increases the Colorado aeronautical board (board) from 7 to 9 voting members by requiring the appointment of 2 members who are residents of communities that are affected by general aviation airport traffic or traffic at a commercial airport at which there is significant general aviation activity and makes the executive director of CDPHE, or the executive director's designee, an ex officio nonvoting member of the board. In appointing the 2 new voting members, the governor is required to give priority to individuals who are not trained pilots, are familiar with airport infrastructure, aviation, and the mission of the board, and reside in a community that is significantly impacted by noise or lead emissions by a high-traffic airport with significant general aviation activity. The governor is also required to make appointments to the board so as to ensure a balance broadly representative of the activity level of airports throughout the state and further ensure that the racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of the board is representative of communities that are disproportionately impacted by general aviation airport traffic or traffic at a commercial airport at which there is significant general aviation activity. Section 7 requires the division to evaluate, educate, and provide technical assistance to airports about the adverse impacts of aircraft noise on health, safety, and welfare and requires the division to prioritize these activities at airports with significant general aviation activity that are located in densely populated residential areas or have a significant number of flights over such areas. Section 8 appropriates $44,609 from the general fund to the department of revenue and reappropriates $2,591 of the appropriation to the department of personnel for implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 17, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
