The bill prohibits an individual to perform or cause or assist in the performance of any medical procedure or medical treatment that furthers a minor's desire to present or appear in a manner that is inconsistent with the minor's sex. The bill prohibits an office, agency, political subdivision of this state, or organization with the authority to license or discipline members of a profession from imposing a penalty or taking adverse action against an individual who provides or receives counseling, advice, or guidance consistent with conscience or religious belief. The bill allows the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of a minor to withhold consent for treatment, activity, or mental health-care service that is designed and intended to form the parent's child's conceptions of sex and gender or to treat gender dysphoria or gender nonconformity. The bill prohibits a law enforcement officer acting pursuant to an investigation, an employee, an agent of this state, or a political subdivision from encouraging a minor to withhold information from the minor's parent or from withholding information regarding a minor's physical or mental health from the minor's parent. The bill prohibits a person from being discriminated or retaliated against by a person who provides information regarding an act or omission that violates the requirements described in the bill. The bill prohibits the state from using state funds for the performance of, or in furtherance of, any medical procedure or medical treatment that furthers a minor's desire to present or appear in a manner that is inconsistent with the minor's sex. The bill allows an individual harmed or aggrieved by a violation of the requirements described in the bill to file suit and recover certain damages and civil remedies. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires the marijuana enforcement division, the natural medicine division, and the department of public health and environment (department), when regulating marijuana and marijuana products and hemp and hemp products and psilocybin, psilocin, and possibly dimethyltryptamine, ibogaine, and mescaline (natural medicine), to prioritize the public health over private interests in exercising regulatory authority and develop measures designed to prevent these agencies or an agent or employee of these agencies from becoming unduly influenced by licensees or registrants. Current law requires the marijuana enforcement division to adopt rules governing labeling of regulated marijuana and regulated marijuana products. The bill requires the labeling of regulated marijuana and regulated marijuana products to include the amount of total THC per package and a solid color strip on the face of the packaging that indicates THC potency of marijuana or a marijuana product by showing the corresponding color as follows: If the THC potency is less than 5%, the color strip is blue; If the THC potency is at least 5% but less than 15%, the color strip is yellow; If the THC potency is at least 15% but less than 50%, the color strip is orange; or If the THC potency is at least 50%, the color strip is red. A marijuana store must post, at all times and at every point of sale, a sign that explains the meaning of the color strips. Inhaled marijuana is required to have the following labeling: The amount of THC per serving; The amount of THC per package; The number of servings per package; and Directions for consumption of a serving. Current law authorizes the marijuana enforcement division to seek the assistance of the department when adopting certain rules. The bill requires the marijuana enforcement division to seek this assistance. Current law limits the standard serving size of edible marijuana products to 10 milligrams. The bill adds inhaled marijuana and requires that its serving size is limited to 10 milligrams and the package weight to 500 milligrams. The bill forbids a retail marijuana store, a retail marijuana transporter, a marijuana hospitality business, a retail marijuana accelerator store, and a retail marijuana hospitality and sales business from selling, distributing, permitting the sale of, or offering to sell or distribute the following to an individual who is 25 years of age or younger: Retail marijuana that has a THC potency that is higher than 10%; or Inhaled retail marijuana that contains an added flavor ingredient. The natural medicine division is required to adopt rules that include: Requirements that labeling of natural medicine or a natural medicine product includes a universal symbol indicating the package contains natural medicine; and Requirements and standards for collecting and reporting data about adverse medical or behavioral reactions to natural medicine or natural medicine products. A natural medicine license holder is prohibited from manufacturing, distributing, or transferring natural medicine or a natural medicine product that: Is a candy product, gummy, chocolate, or other confection; Contains a concentrated form of a natural medicine or natural medicine product; Is consumed by or administered by a means other than oral ingestion; or Contains an added flavor or sweetener. Current law creates a social equity program that gives loans, grants, and technical assistance to disadvantaged persons by helping an approved applicant to obtain a marijuana license and start a marijuana business. The funding comes from the marijuana tax cash fund. The bill expands this program to include a person who wants to start any type of business. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act requires a board of county commissioners, a governing body of a municipality, or a regional building department operating through an intergovernmental agreement with a board of county commissioners or governing body of a municipality that adopts or substantially amends a building code or updates a building code with a succeeding version of the international building code to ensure that the building code meets or exceeds the accessibility standards in the International Building Code, and the adopted accessibility standards cannot provide less protection than what is required by the federal "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990". However, this requirement does not apply when energy-efficient building codes are adopted, nor does it apply to one- and 2-family dwellings and townhomes that comply with either the International Residential Code or a local building code whose accessibility standards are equivalent to the standards in the International Residential Code. The act requires the division of fire prevention and control within the department of public safety to ensure that, when certain building codes pertaining to public school and health facilities are substantially amended, the codes meet or exceed accessibility standards in the International Building Code. The act also requires the state housing board to ensure that, when the uniform construction and maintenance standards for hotels, motels, and multiple dwellings in jurisdictions with no local building code are substantially amended, the standards meet or exceed the accessibility standards in the International Building Code. The act also requires the state housing board to ensure that, when the recommendations for uniform housing standards and building codes to the general assembly and local governments are substantially amended, the codes meet or exceed the accessibility standards in the International Building Code. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill modifies the address confidentiality program (program), which is intended to protect the confidentiality of the actual address of a relocated protected health-care worker or a relocated victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, human trafficking, or stalking. The modifications to the program are: Expanding the requirement to use a substitute address for a program participant from applying only to government agencies to applying to private entities, upon request of the program participant; Removing work and school addresses from the definition of actual address, such that an actual address only covers a residential address; Allowing a program participant to apply with their actual address and either a telephone number or an email address, rather than requiring a telephone number; Clarifying that entities and agencies must use a substitute address in the place of the name of a school or employer or for a program participant's home-based business, if requested; Increasing the court fine applied to convictions for certain offenses, which is used to fund the program, from $28 to $33 and expanding this fine by applying it to convictions for sexual assault and municipal offenses for domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, and human trafficking; Creating a process to allow program participants to shield real property records from public inspection; and Allowing a criminal justice official or government agency that has requested and been approved for expedited disclosure of a program participant's actual address to share the actual address with a law enforcement agency for the purpose of conducting a welfare check. The bill also makes technical and conforming amendments. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Section 1 of the bill repeals provisions in the Colorado open meetings law that specifically apply to the general assembly that were enacted in 2024 by Senate Bill 24-157. Section 2 requires that the database created and maintained by the peace officer standards and training board that includes specified information related to peace officer conduct and discipline be sortable in addition to being searchable and that it be available upon request to any member of the public with only personal information of peace officers redacted at no cost to the requester. Sections 3, 4, and 5 make the following changes to the Colorado open records act (CORA): Specifies the manner in which service of requests for public records must be made; Requires that a requester of public records submit with the request an affidavit of service, which creates a rebuttable presumption of the date that service is made; Clarifies that any rules made by a custodian for the inspection of public records cannot increase any costs charged to a requester and cannot expand the date and time for inspection of public records; Removes the requirement that a requester must request that the custodian notify the requester that requested public records are in active use, in storage, or otherwise not readily available; Clarifies that computation of time for response periods is in accordance with the generally applicable law for computation of time and does not include the day that service is made; Permits computation of time for a request that was mailed to begin on the third day after the date of mailing; Changes the reasonable time to respond to a request for public records from 3 working days to 5 days; For a custodian to not be required to produce a digital public record in a searchable or sortable format, requires documentary evidence that producing the record in that format would violate the terms of a copyright or licensing agreement or documentary evidence, including an opinion from legal counsel, that producing the record in that format would result in the release of a third party's proprietary information; Although a custodian is allowed to deny inspection of a personnel file, allows inspection of any writings that reflect or discuss the exercise of official government functions by any public employee subject to certain permissible redactions; Allows for the first 5 hours of time expended in connection with the research and retrieval of public records to be free of charge to the requester; Caps the amount of the hourly fee that can be imposed for research and retrieval of public records to $25; Allows a $50 fee to be imposed for attorney review which is limited to review of requested public records for attorney-client privileged communication; and Invalidates any fee imposed by a custodian if the custodian does not provide information in writing to the requester concerning an estimate of time to be expended and fees to be charged in connection with responding to the request. Sections 6, 7, 8, and 9 make the following changes to the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act (CCJRA): Adds to the definition of "official record" any incident report or other record of an interaction between any on-duty peace officer and any member of the public; Modifies the provisions on the response period to state that a custodian shall respond to a request for criminal justice records 3 days after the day the request is received unless extenuating circumstances apply, in which case the 3-day response period may be extended for a period not to exceed 10 days. The extenuating circumstances set forth in CORA are the extenuating circumstances applicable for requests under the CCJRA. Requires that records in a completed internal investigation be available for public inspection within 21 days of a request being submitted and whether or not the investigation involved a member of the public; Removes the court's discretion and the requirement that the court find that improper denial of records is arbitrary or capricious to award court costs and attorney fees; and Applies the same parameters as those established under CORA for search and retrieval and attorney fees.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates a new income tax credit in an amount equal to the purchase price of a firearm safety device, not to exceed $200, that is purchased by an eligible taxpayer from a federally licensed dealer (credit). A firearm safety device is a device that is designed or can be used to store a firearm and is designed to be unlocked only by means of a key, a combination, or by other similar means. The credit is available for income tax years 2027 and 2028, and if the amount of the credit exceeds the eligible taxpayer's tax liability, the credit may be carried forward for a period of 5 income tax years. In addition, the maximum amount of aggregate credits that can be claimed in an income tax year is $5 million.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Under current law, property taxes must be paid either in full on or before April 30 or in 2 equal installments, the first due on or before the last day of February and the second due on or before June 15. For property tax payments made for property tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2025, the bill creates a 4-installment-payment option for taxpayers that owe real property taxes in an amount greater than $25 on residential real property or real property that is listed by the assessor under any improved commercial subclass codes and that do not have such taxes paid out of an escrow account by a mortgage company (allowed taxpayers). Under the 4-installment-payment option, allowed taxpayers may pay their real property taxes owed on residential real property or real property that is listed by the assessor under any improved commercial subclass codes in 4 equal installments, the first due on or before the last day of February, the second due on or before April 30, the third due on or before July 15, and the fourth due on or before September 15. An allowed taxpayer must pay at least half of their real property taxes owed on or before April 30 to be permitted to make installment payments pursuant to the 4-installment-payment option in that year, however, an allowed taxpayer can pay in full the real property taxes owed at any time after April 30 and up to the day before the date of the sale of a tax lien on the allowed taxpayer's property, including delinquent interest, if any. County treasurers are required to provide information about the 4-installment-payment option with tax statements. An allowed taxpayer that does not pay the third installment of real property taxes owed on or before July 15 owes delinquent interest on the unpaid third installment at a rate of 1% per month that the installment is unpaid accruing from July 16, and if an allowed taxpayer does not pay the fourth installment of real property taxes owed on or before September 15, the allowed taxpayer owes delinquent interest on the unpaid fourth installment at a rate of 1% per month that the installment is unpaid accruing from September 16. Current law requires the county treasurer to provide notice to taxpayers that have unpaid property taxes that, if remaining unpaid, may be subject to a tax lien sale by no later than September 1. Under the bill, allowable taxpayers paying pursuant to the 4-installment-payment option have until September 15 to make their fourth installment payment of real property taxes. Accordingly, the bill extends the September 1 notice deadline to October 15. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill makes it a deceptive trade practice under the "Colorado Consumer Protection Act" for a person who advises, assists, or consults a veteran, in connection with a claim for veterans' benefits (veterans' benefits matter), to: Receive compensation in excess of $12,500 for the service, subject to additional limitations linking permissible compensation to results delivered; Receive compensation for referring a veteran to a third party; Collect compensation on behalf of a third party engaged to assist with any aspect of a veterans' benefits matter; Receive compensation in connection with a claim filed within the one-year period following a veteran's release from active duty without a signed waiver from the veteran; Fail to provide a veteran the option of an interest-free payment plan; Guarantee a successful outcome in a veterans' benefits matter or engage in certain direct advertising; Fail to memorialize the payment terms and certain disclosures in a written, signed business agreement; Fail to take various security measures related to veterans' personal information; or Fail to remain a member in good standing of a national veterans' benefit trade organization that holds members to ethics and certification standards. The bill requires the attorney general or district attorney to transmit any civil penalty collected for a violation of the veterans' benefits matter provisions to the state treasurer for deposit in the Colorado state veterans trust fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act specifies that a third-party contractor or grantee may administer a program in the division of housing in the department of local affairs (division) for persons experiencing homelessness that is funded from the affordable housing support fund. The division may negotiate reasonable administrative or project delivery costs for contractors or grantees to administer the program to be paid from the fund in addition to the up to 5% of the fund that the division is authorized to retain for program administration and oversight. The division must consider the past performance history of a contractor or grantee when selecting a contractor or grantee to administer the program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act repeals a requirement that the legislative audit committee cause to be conducted performance audits of the automobile inspection and readjustment program every 5 years. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires third-party payers to reimburse the department of health care policy and financing (state department) for health-care items and services rendered to a medicaid member regardless of whether prior authorization was obtained. The act requires third-party payers to respond to an inquiry from the state department regarding a claim for payment no later than 60 days after receiving the state department's inquiry. The third party must respond either by paying the claim or issuing a written denial of the claim to the state department. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill requires the water quality control commission, on or before January 1, 2027, to issue written guidance specific to the development of the daily maximum amount of a pollutant from all sources that is allowed to enter state waters so that an applicable water quality standard is met (total maximum daily load). The bill also requires the division of administration in the department of public health and environment, on and after January 1, 2028, to determine a total maximum daily load for state waters using credible data.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
