The act defines "reimbursement" for purposes of reimbursing the expenditure of money from state emergency reserve as a repayment of expenditures for which the state previously designated emergency money and specifies that federal cost share provided through a federal emergency management agency public assistant grant is not reimbursement. To specify the authority of all fire response agencies, rather than just a fire protection district, to transfer the management of a wildland fire to the county sheriff (sheriff) when the fire exceeds the capability of the fire response agency to manage, the act authorizes a fire department, as defined in law, to transfer the management of a wildland fire and repeals references to transfers by a fire protection district. The act also specifies that the sheriff may develop a wildfire preparedness plan for the unincorporated area of a county as required by law, in cooperation with any fire department, rather than only with a fire district, with jurisdiction over the unincorporated area. The act repeals references to the community wildfire protection plan (CWPP) in the statutes that address the response to and management of wildland fires, as the CWPP addresses the identification and reduction of hazards and is not focused on the response to or management of wildland fires. Instead, the act specifies that the sheriff and the fire chief of a fire protection district (fire chief) are subject to any relevant plans or agreements in the response to and management of wildland fires. To allow the division of fire prevention and control in the department of public safety (division) and the sheriff to determine the most appropriation management strategy when the management of a wildland fire has been transferred from the sheriff to the division, the act repeals the requirement that the division and the sheriff use the unified command management strategy when the management of a wildland fire has been transferred to the division. The act also repeals the requirement that the unified command management strategy be used in a hazardous substance incident to allow responding agencies to determine the most appropriate response to and management of such an incident. The act repeals the requirement that a sheriff appoint a local incident management team to provide command control to manage a wildland fire and instead requires the sheriff to appoint an incident commander for a wildland fire. In addition, the act specifies that the agency that has jurisdiction over any wildland fire in the state is required to manage the fire using the incident command system as defined in law. The act repeals references to the Colorado state emergency operation plan (SEOP) in the statute designating the division as the lead state agency for wildland fire response and suppression, as the SEOP can only be activated by an executive order and does not apply to the majority of wildland fire operations. In addition the act repeals inaccurate references to the state forest service in that statute. APPROVED by Governor April 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Pursuant to the "Workers' Compensation Act of Colorado", death benefits will be paid to a dependent surviving spouse of a deceased employee for life, regardless of remarriage, rather than until remarriage, if the surviving spouse receives death benefits pursuant to law and the deceased employee was a state employee who worked in a job with a high-risk classification. A job with a "high-risk classification" means certain employees of the Colorado state patrol; certain employees of the Colorado bureau of investigation; certain employees of the department of corrections; firefighters, investigators, and fire marshals employed by the division of fire prevention and control in the department of public safety; wildlife officers and parks and recreation officers employed by the division of wildlife in the department of natural resources; employees of the department of transportation responsible for highway safety and maintenance; and employees of a state institution of higher education who are vested with the powers of a peace officer. APPROVED by Governor April 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The executive director of the department of revenue (executive director) has been authorized to permit taxpayers that remit sales and use tax to the department of revenue and whose monthly tax collected is less than $300 to make returns and pay taxes at quarterly intervals. The act increases this threshold amount from $300 to $600 for returns that must be filed on or after January 1, 2025, and allows the executive director to further increase the threshold amount by rule for returns that must be filed on or after January 1, 2026. The act prohibits home rule cities, towns, and city and counties that collect their own sales and use taxes and do not use the electronic sales and use tax simplification system administered by the department of revenue from collecting sales and use tax from a retailer that does not have physical presence in the state unless the retailer elects to collect and remit sales and use tax or enters into a voluntary collection agreement with a home rule city, town, or city and county. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $17,200 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of revenue for the implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor April 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill makes changes to increase access to restorative justice practices (restorative justice) in Colorado, specifically by: Creating a victim-survivor right to participate in restorative justice in the criminal and juvenile justice systems; Requiring that victim-survivors be informed of their statutory right to restorative justice and how to exercise it; Creating a victim-survivor right to request restorative justice as an alternative to, or in addition to, prosecution; Establishing the victim-survivor's right to accept or decline participation in restorative justice, and the right to change that decision, at any stage in the proceedings; Creating a victim-survivor right to restorative justice with trained facilitators who adhere to the Colorado restorative justice coordinating council's code of conduct and standards of training and practice, as amended; Requiring that, in cases of domestic violence or unlawful sexual behavior, when a victim-survivor requests restorative justice, the victim-survivor has a right to restorative justice with a facilitator who has specialized training and experience to address the issues specific to those cases; Requiring that participation in restorative justice by a responsible party is voluntary; Mandating that restorative justice is confidential and information obtained through a restorative justice practice must not be disclosed by any party to the practice without the agreement of all parties involved; Requiring the state restorative justice coordinating council to develop, on or before August 30, 2024, 2 standardized forms to advise victim-survivors of their right to restorative justice in criminal and juvenile cases and a confidentiality agreement to use in restorative justice; Clarifying that the legal authority of a prosecutor to make decisions about prosecution is preserved; Creating a funding source for restorative justice through the offender services fund; Eliminating language in statute that prohibits the use of restorative justice in cases involving domestic partner violence, protective orders, stalking, and unlawful sexual behavior; Requiring the department of corrections to accommodate victim-survivor requests for victim-offender dialogues; maintain an accountability letter bank for inmates to send letters of accountability, apology, or remorse to victim-survivors; inform victim-survivors of the availability of such letters; and adopt policies requiring adherence to the principles of victim empowerment; and Eliminating outdated language related to fees for restorative justice in multiple statutes.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill prohibits a court, without the consent of the district attorney, from releasing a person on any unsecured personal recognizance bond if the person is accused of committing a crime of violence and the court finds probable cause to believe that the person has committed the offense, and: The person has a record of conviction for a crime of violence within the prior 2 years; or There are at least 2 pending criminal charges against the person that allege that the person committed a crime of violence and the court finds probable cause to believe that the person has committed the prior alleged offenses (repeat violent offender). Existing law requires any monetary condition of pretrial release to be reasonable. The bill states that a reasonable monetary condition for a repeat violent offender is at least $7,500. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Colorado Youth Advisory Council Review Committee. The bill requires the department of public health and environment (department) to conduct or cause to be conducted a gender-affirming health-care provider study (study). The study must determine: The number of gender-affirming health-care providers and facilities in each region, without disclosing identities of providers; The resources available to gender-affirming health-care providers and facilities in the state; Threats to gender-affirming health-care providers; The number of patients seeking gender-affirming health-care services in each region, including the ratio of patients to providers in each region, without disclosing identities of patients or providers; The types of gender-affirming health-care services that patients seek; The prevalence and impact of nonprescribed treatments; and The availability of insurance coverage for different types of treatment. The bill requires the department and any third party that the department contracts with to conduct the study to seek input from specified persons. The department is required to submit a report on or before December 31, 2026, including its findings and recommendations, to specified committees of the general assembly. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Signed by the President of the Senate
Current law authorizes a livestock owner (owner) to be compensated when a game animal or a gray wolf kills livestock, a livestock guard, or a herding animal. To receive compensation for native carnivore depredation under current law, the bill requires the owner to: Employ nonlethal coexistence strategies; and Appropriately dispose of a livestock carcass in a manner that makes the livestock carcass inedible for native carnivores. If an owner fails to appropriately dispose of a livestock carcass in violation of the bill and this failure results in depredation, the division of parks and wildlife (division) may not issue a permit to kill the native carnivore. For the purposes of receiving compensation under current law, the bill also changes the definition of a working animal from "livestock guard or herding animal" to "livestock guardian dog", and the effect of this change is to stop compensation for herding animals and guard animals that are not dogs. In addition, the livestock guardian dog must be trained and working when depredated. When native carnivores establish a presence in an area, the parks and wildlife commission must create a conflict prevention plan, which must include appropriate nonlethal measures. The bill sets standards for the plan. Then, the division must coordinate with and educate owners within the area to implement proactive nonlethal coexistence strategies. The division will hire native-carnivore coexistence officers to implement the bill. The division must keep records of the claims and their disposition and issue a report to the relevant legislative committees. The division and the department of agriculture must coordinate and cooperate with each other to implement the bill. The division may seek and expend gifts, grants, and donations for native-carnivore nonlethal coexistence. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates the Gadsden flag "Don't Tread on Me" license plate. In addition to the normal fees for a license plate, a person must pay 2 additional one-time fees of $25 for the issuance of the plate. One of these fees is credited to the highway users tax fund and the other is credited to the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account. Furthermore, an additional one-time fee of $25 will be collected and credited to the state charter school debt reserve fund in order to receive the Gadsden flag license plate.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
On or before July 1, 2027, section 2 of the bill requires the energy and carbon management commission (commission) to adopt rules (permitting rules) to cease issuing new oil and gas permits (permits) before January 1, 2030, which rules must include certain reductions in the total number of oil and gas wells covered by new permits issued in 2028 and 2029. Section 2 also requires the commission to include as a condition in any permit issued after July 1, 2024, that certain operations must commence on or before December 31, 2032, as to each oil and gas well included in the permit. If the commission determines that mitigation of adverse environmental impacts is necessary as a result of oil and gas operations, current law requires the commission to issue an order requiring a responsible party to perform the mitigation. If the responsible party refuses to perform the mitigation or is identified after the state provides funds for the mitigation, the commission must sue the responsible party to recover the costs of the mitigation. Section 3 changes current law by: Expanding mitigation to include mitigation of adverse environmental impacts as a result of any activity regulated by the commission; Adding a prior owner or operator to the definition of "responsible party"; and Allowing a current or prior owner or operator to be held jointly and severally liable for the costs of any mitigation. Section 4 requires the office of future of work to present recommendations as a result of the adoption of the permitting rules to the general assembly in January 2028.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill makes changes to the arbitration requirements for out-of-network health insurance claims by requiring the arbitration process to include a batching process, by which multiple claims may be considered jointly and under the same arbitration fee as part of one payment determination in alignment with federal law. The commissioner of insurance is required to promulgate rules that specify the information each insurance carrier is required to submit to a provider with the initial payment of a claim.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Signed by the President of the Senate
