Sections 1 and 4 of the act allow a board of directors of an irrigation district (board) to borrow money, which the irrigation district may use to make loans to landowners to be used to make improvements to private water delivery systems or for other types of projects that improve: Water conservation or efficiencies on landowner property; or Landowner delivery or drainage systems. An obligation or contract to borrow such money is exempt from the existing requirement that a contract purporting to bind the district to pay a certain sum must be ratified by a certain number of district voters. Additionally, the district cannot assess landowners to raise money to fund the loans. In case of default in the payment of any loan installment, the county treasurer may assess upon the eligible real property a tax lien for the payment of the whole of the unpaid installment but is prohibited from assessing a tax lien for the entire value of the landowner's portion of the irrigation loan issued by the water district. Sections 2 and 5 require each irrigation district to include in its annual appropriation resolution: The amount needed to meet loan obligations; All amounts payable by landowners to the irrigation district in accordance with loans issued to the landowners; and The amount payable by each tract within the irrigation district for which a landowner has received a loan. Sections 3 and 6 state that the county treasurer will receive $5 per tract assessed for loans issued to landowners by an irrigation district, and this $5 will be assessed against each participating tract. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The speaker of the house of representatives (speaker) and the president of the senate (president) are required to invite representatives from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to give an address to a joint session of the general assembly on an annual basis. The date and time of the address is determined on an annual basis by the speaker, the president, and the designated representatives of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill clarifies the meaning of terms related to landowner liability and declares that the Colorado court of appeals and supreme court decisions in Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, Inc. v. Wagner should not be relied upon to the extent that those decisions determined: The foreseeability of third-party criminal conduct based upon whether the goods or services offered by a landowner are controversial; and That a landowner could be held liable as a substantial factor in causing harm without considering whether a third-party criminal act was the predominant cause of that harm.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
During the 2021 session, the general assembly created a civil infraction as penalty for violations of the law that do not rise to criminal conduct and included procedures for civil infractions. The act repeals those provisions and replaces them with new procedures for handling civil infractions. The act makes conforming amendments related to civil infractions. The act makes clean-up changes to other provisions to conform to changes made to criminal sentencing provisions during the 2021 session. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Colorado's statutory homestead exemption exempts a portion of a homestead from seizure to satisfy a debt, contract, or civil obligation. Section 2 increases the amount of the homestead exemption: From $75,000 to $250,000 if the homestead is occupied as a home by an owner of the home or an owner's family; and From $105,000 to $350,000 if the homestead is occupied as a home by an owner who is elderly or disabled, an owner's spouse who is elderly or disabled, or an owner's dependent who is elderly or disabled. Section 3 expands the meaning of "homestead" to expressly include a "dwelling", and section 4 defines a dwelling as conventional housing and personal property that is actually used as a residence, including any vehicle, trailer, vessel, camper coach, mounted equipment, railway car, shipping or cargo container, shed, yurt, or tiny home. Under current law, the proceeds from a homestead exemption or, if a homestead property is sold by the owner, the proceeds from the sale are exempt from execution or attachment for a period of 2 years if the person entitled to the exemption keeps the exempted proceeds separate and apart from other money. Section 5 expands this period to 3 years and extends the exemption to apply to proceeds from insurance covering destruction of homestead property, which proceeds are held for use in restoring or replacing the homestead property. Section 6 increases the maximum amounts of existing exemptions from levy and sale under a writ of attachment or execution for certain types of property and creates new exemptions for: Firearms and hunting and fishing equipment; Economic impact payments; Health savings accounts; and Money placed into a life expectancy set-aside account or similar reserve fund, escrow, or impound account, which money is derived from reverse mortgage proceeds that are designated for specific uses. Section 6 also recreates and decreases an exemption for money in depository accounts. Sections 6, 7, and 8 remove a requirement that a person must deposit child support payments in an account designated for the child and, with regard to child support payments and unemployment benefits, not commingle funds in order to claim an exemption for child support payments or an exemption for unemployment benefits. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements the recommendation of the department of regulatory agencies' sunset review and report concerning the committee on juvenile justice reform by repealing the committee. The act requires the committee to complete all its tasks before the repeal of the committee on December 31, 2022. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act allows a Colorado resident who is a student enrolled in an institution of higher education outside the state of Colorado the right to postpone jury duty for not more than 12 months. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes technical changes to the "Colorado Corporations and Associations Act" and the "Colorado Business Corporation Act" as follows: Changes references to "owners' interest" to "owner's interest"; Repeals a provision exempting certain domestic entities from a provision allowing reinstatement of an entity after an administrative dissolution upon compliance with certain conditions; and Makes clarifying changes to the provision requiring notification of ratification of defective corporate actions to holders of valid and putative shares.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, it is a class 2 misdemeanor to practice the following professions without an active license, registration, or certification: Professional engineering, architecture, audiology, dentistry, direct-entry midwifery, medicine, physician assistant, anesthesiologist assistant, professional nursing, nursing home administration, optometry, pharmacy, pharmacy technician, and respiratory therapy. The act makes it a class 6 felony to practice any of these professions intentionally without a license, registration, or certification and fraudulently representing that the person has a license, certification, or registration. The act states the purposes of probation are to: Serve as a sentencing option and a response to crime in order to moderate and deter future criminal behavior and victimization; Support persons in behavior change through the coordination and provision of effective and individualized services which may include, but are not limited to, educational, therapeutic, restorative, and skill-building services; Hold persons accountable for their behavior through supervision and interventions that promote reparation of harm to the community and victims, which reparation includes, but is not limited to, restitution to victims; Serve as a cost-effective option for persons appropriate for community supervision; and Honor the statutory and constitutional rights of victims of crime. The act requires a probation officer to issue a summons when a probationer has allegedly violated a condition of probation or the officer is seeking probation revocation, with some exceptions. The act requires the state court administrator to develop a system of structured and individualized behavior responses to guide probation officers in determining how best to respond to probation violations. Under current law, when a parolee has a technical violation of parole, a brief period of confinement in a county jail may be imposed as a sanction. The act allows that confinement to also be served in a department of corrections facility. The act specifies that for a theft that involves public benefits, the value of the benefits involved for purposes of determining the level of the offense is calculated by the difference between the value of the benefits received and the value of benefits the recipient was eligible for. Under current law, it is illegal for someone to possess a firearm if the person was convicted of or adjudicated for a victim's right act crime that is a felony. The act adds more felony offenses to the convictions that prohibit a person from possessing a firearm. Under current law, it is illegal for someone to possess a firearm if the person was previously adjudicated for a victim's right act crime that is a felony offense. The act allows a person in that situation who has good cause for possessing a firearm to petition the court for an order determining that the crime does not apply to the person. The act appropriates $53,390 to the judicial department from the general fund and authorizes 0.7 FTE for probation programs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act permits community colleges to offer a bachelor of science degree in nursing to students who have or are pursuing a practical nursing certificate. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act increases, from 10% to 100%, the amount of tuition revenues that a governing board of an institution of higher education or group of institutions of higher education designated as an enterprise may pledge in a contract for the advancement of money. If an institution of higher education issues a revenue bond and the governing board of the institution wants the bond to be an intercept bond, the act raises the amount of the pledged revenue for the new intercept bond from not less than 10% of tuition to not less than 100% of tuition if the institution is an enterprise. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the division of criminal justice within the department of public safety (department) to annually report to the general assembly during the department's "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act" hearings any significant data, including trends over time, regarding missing person cases in Colorado. The report must include specific information about missing person cases involving women from minority communities, which includes women from African-American, Black, Asian-American, Pacific Islander, Indigenous and tribal, Hispanic, Latino, and transgender communities, and information about missing person cases involving persons 50 years of age or older. The act requires any law enforcement agency to accept a missing person report submitted in person if the missing person is a Colorado resident or was last believed to be in Colorado. The act requires law enforcement agencies to accept a missing person report by telephone or other electronic media if accepting the report by those means is consistent with the agency's policies or practices. The act adds circumstances in which a law enforcement agency is not required to accept a missing person report. The act requires a law enforcement agency that receives a report of a missing adult to, within 8 hours after receiving the report, enter relevant information into the Colorado crime information center (CCIC) database and, as appropriate, contact other law enforcement agencies that may assist in locating the missing person. In the case of a reported missing child, a law enforcement agency must, within 2 hours after receiving the report, notify the Colorado bureau of investigation and enter any relevant information into the CCIC database. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
