The act continues the prescription drug monitoring program (program) indefinitely.Additionally, the act:Authorizes the state board of pharmacy (board) to promulgate rules that identify a list of prescription drugs that are not currently listed as controlled substances and require such drugs to be tracked through the program; Authorizes each coroner to authorize deputy coroners to access the program; Authorizes the board to create a data retention schedule for information obtained and stored by the program; Eliminates the requirements that the board seek gifts, grants, and donations in order to maintain the program and report annually to committees of reference of the general assembly on the gifts, grants, and donations; and Makes a technical change to remove a reference to the department of health care policy and financing from the statute as that department does not have access to the program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the support pollinators license plate for vehicles. A person qualifies for issuance of the plate if the person makes a donation to a designated nonprofit organization that supports pollinators. The organization must meet specified criteria, including having existed for at least 5 years, and use the donation for pollination programs and education.In addition to the normal fees for a license plate, a person must pay 2 additional one-time fees for the issuance of the plate. One of these fees is credited to the highway users tax fund and the other fee is credited to the licensing services cash fund.For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $22,544 to the department of revenue for use by the division of motor vehicles to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act modifies the required procedures relating to a person's firearms or ammunition following the issuance of a protection order that includes an act of domestic violence when it involved the threat, use, or attempted use of physical force.The act requires a person to complete an affidavit, which must be filed in the court record within 7 business days after a protection order is issued against the person, stating the number of firearms, the make and model of each firearm, any reason the person is still in immediate possession or control of such firearm, and the location of all firearms in the person's immediate possession or control. If the person does not possess a firearm at the time the order is issued, the person shall indicate such nonpossession in the affidavit.The act requires the court to conduct a compliance hearing not less than 8 but not more than 12 business days after the issuance of a protection order to ensure the person has completed the affidavit. For criminal cases, the court may consider the issue in other proceedings before the court and the hearing is considered a court action involving a bond reduction or modification. Information compelled or any information directly or indirectly derived from testimony, the affidavit, or other information shall not be used against a defendant in any criminal case, except for prosecution of perjury.The act excludes legal holidays and weekends from the current time frame a person has to relinquish a firearm. The act allows a court to grant a person an additional 24 hours to relinquish a firearm if the person is unable to comply with the required time frame of relinquishment.The act requires a federally licensed firearms dealer, law enforcement agency, or private party to issue a signed declaration memorializing the sale or transfer of the firearm.The act allows a law enforcement agency to enter into an agreement with any other law enforcement agency or storage facility for the storage of transferred firearms or ammunition. The act requires a law enforcement agency that elects to store a firearm or ammunition to obtain a search warrant to examine or test the firearm or ammunition or facilitate any criminal investigation if the law enforcement agency has probable cause to believe the firearm or ammunition has been used in the commission of a crime, is stolen, or is contraband.The act prohibits the person from transferring the firearm to a private party living in the same residence as the person at the time of transfer. The act prohibits a private party from returning a firearm to the person until the private party receives a written statement of the results of the background check conducted by the Colorado bureau of investigation authorizing the return of the firearm to the person.Current law requires a copy of the written receipt and the written statement of the criminal background check to be filed with the court as proof of relinquishment at the same time the person files the signed affidavit. The act requires the signed declaration to be filed with the court instead of the receipt. Both the signed declaration and written statement are only available for inspection by the court and the parties to the proceeding.A federally licensed firearms dealer, law enforcement agency, storage facility, or private party that elects to store a firearm is not civilly liable for any resulting damages to the firearm, as long as such damage did not result from the willful and wrongful act or gross negligence of the person or agency storing the firearm.The act appropriates $101,050 to the judicial department to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The federal government enacted the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" (federal act) to provide support to state, local, and tribal governments in responding to the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency and to assist them in their efforts to contain the effects of the COVID-19 public health emergency on their communities, residents, and businesses.As part of the federal act, the state will receive $3,828,761,790 from the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund to be used for specific purposes identified in the federal act. This act allocates a total of $15 million to be appropriated for victim's services programs and purposes related to populations that have been disproportionately negatively affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency, including those affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, and violence generally. The money will be appropriated from the economic recovery and relief cash fund using money from the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund. All money appropriated through this act must conform with the eligible uses set forth in the federal act.This act appropriates money to the following entities:The forensic nurse examiner telehealth program; The state and local victims and witnesses assistance and law enforcement funds; The state crime victims compensation program; The address confidentiality program fund; and The Colorado domestic abuse program fund for the funding of domestic violence programs. For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates from the economic recovery and relief cash fund and of money the state receives from the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund:$3,000,000 to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice. for the forensic nurse examiners telehealth program; $1,500,000 to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice for the state victim compensation program; $3,000,000 to the victims and witnesses assistance and law enforcement fund. The judicial department is responsible for the accounting related to this appropriation; $1,500,000 to the victims assistance and law enforcement fund. The department of public safety is responsible for the accounting related to this appropriation. $500,000 to the address confidentiality program fund. The department of personnel is responsible for the accounting related to this appropriation. $4,750,000 to the Colorado domestic abuse program fund. The department of human services is responsible for the accounting related to this appropriation. $750,000 to the judicial department for use by courts administration for family violence justice grants. The act also appropriates, from reappropriated funds in the victims assistance and law enforcement fund, $1,500,000 to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice for the state victims assistance and law enforcement program. The act also appropriates, from reappropriated funds in the Colorado domestic abuse program fund, $4,750,000 to the department of human services for use by the office of self sufficiency for the domestic abuse program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Colorado law authorizes certain license holders, who normally offer alcohol beverages for consumption on the licensed premises, to offer takeout and delivery of alcohol beverages, but this authorization was scheduled to repeal on July 1, 2021. The act delays the repeal until July 1, 2025; except that manufacturers who have a sales room may continue to deliver alcohol beverages only until January 2, 2022.The act limits the times that an alcohol beverage may be sold for takeout or delivery from 7 a.m. to midnight. The amounts of alcohol beverages that may be sold for delivery or takeout are increased:From 750 milliliters to 1,500 milliliters of vinous liquors; From 72 fluid ounces to 144 fluid ounces of malt liquors, fermented malt beverages, and hard cider; and From 750 milliliters to one liter of spirituous liquors. The act also creates a communal outdoor dining area program. The program allows multiple licensees to attach to the area and serve alcohol beverages to the diners in the area. A licensee may attach to the area only if the licencee's premises are within 1,000 feet of the area. The area and attachment must be approved by both the local and state licensing authorities, who may charge a fee for the approval. The following licensees may attach to an area:Tavern; Hotel and restaurant; Brew pub; Distillery pub; Vintner's restaurant; Beer and wine licensee; Manufacturer that operates a sales room; Beer wholesaler that operates a sales room; Limited winery; Lodging and entertainment facility; Optional premises; or Fermented malt beverage retailer licensed for consumption on the premises. For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $63,274 is appropriated for use by the liquor and tobacco enforcement division to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The electronic recording technology board (board), which was created in 2016, makes grants to counties to establish, maintain, improve, or replace their electronic filing systems. These grants are from surcharges collected by county clerk and recorders and transmitted to the state for deposit in the electronic recording technology fund. The act makes the following changes related to the board:Delays the repeal and sunset review of the board by 4 years so that it will take place just over 10 years after the board's creation; Extends the surcharge that is collected by county clerk and recorders and transmitted to the board; Extends the board's annual reporting requirement about its grants for 4 more years and requires an additional 5-year report about the overall success of the program; Permits the board to make grants to a county to improve the security of its general information technology systems, if the improvement is necessary to improve the security of the county's electronic filing system; and Specifies that the board may approve a grant application to establish, maintain, improve, or replace an electronic filing system, notwithstanding that a portion of the grant will be used to enable the system to receive, store, manage, and provide online access to public documents that are maintained by the county clerk and recorder but that are not related to real property.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
In 2019, the general assembly extended the office of public guardianship (office) until 2023. The act corrects dates that should have been extended. The repeal of the article creating the office and the repeal of the office's cash fund are extended to June 30, 2024, to allow additional time for the office to wind up its affairs if it is not further extended.The general assembly increased certain court fees to fund the office. If it is not further extended, the office is required to notify the joint budget committee that those fees can be reduced.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under existing law, a criminal defendant must be brought to trial within 6 months after the date of the entry of a plea of not guilty. However, there are circumstances that exclude a period of time when computing the time within which a defendant must be brought to trial. These exclusions extend the length of time within which the defendant must be brought to trial.The act permits the court to exclude a period of delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, not to exceed 6 months if the defendant is not in custody for the case pending a jury trial or not to exceed 3 months if the defendant is in custody for the case pending a jury trial, if certain considerations are satisfied. The court may grant only one continuance due to a period of delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.The judicial department shall collect, report, and publish data concerning each continuance granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The act requires the court that orders an exclusion of a period of delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to reconsider bond for an eligible defendant in custody awaiting trial.A court shall not grant a continuance based on a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on or after 5:01 p.m. on April 29, 2022.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act amends various laws related to the conduct of elections, including provisions related to:Procedures for registering to vote and for automatic voter registration through voter registration agencies; Requirements related to political party organization, including requirements for precinct caucuses, county assemblies, and vacancy committees; Ballot access for candidates, including repealing the ability of an unaffiliated candidate for president of the United States to be nominated by paying a fee; Requirements for voter service and polling centers and voting in person; Procedures for challenges to a person's right to vote; Procedures and requirements for circulating recall petitions and the conduct of recall elections, including municipal and local government recall elections; Prohibitions on electioneering in and within 100 feet of a polling place; and Requirements for filing initiative petitions. The act applies to elections conducted on or after the effective date of the act and takes effect upon passage; except that provisions allowing a person to register to vote online using the last 4 digits of their social security number take effect March 1, 2022.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the keep Colorado wild pass (wild pass) for entry into state parks and other participating public lands. Commencing no earlier than January 1, 2023, but no later than January 1, 2024, each resident with one of the following motor vehicles that is not a commercial vehicle is assessed a fee for the wild pass (wild pass fee) when registering the motor vehicle:A passenger motor vehicle; A light-weight truck with an empty vehicle weight of less than or equal to 16,000 pounds; A motorcycle; or A recreational vehicle. A resident may decline to pay the wild pass fee when registering the resident's motor vehicle, and nonpayment of the wild pass fee does not affect the resident's ability to register the motor vehicle. A resident who declines or fails to pay the wild pass fee is presumed to decline to pay the wild pass fee in subsequent years with respect to registration of the same motor vehicle, and the division of parks and wildlife in the department of natural resources (division) is required to develop an opt-in provision on subsequent registration notifications sent to the resident for that motor vehicle.The parks and wildlife commission in the department of natural resources (commission) is required to adopt rules to set the wild pass fee and, for income-eligible households, a reduced wild pass fee and may establish a process for applying existing discounts or free entry to persons eligible for the discount or free entry to the wild pass. The commission may also adopt rules establishing a separate fee for a pass, including a separate fee for passes for nonresidents, residents who decline to pay the wild pass fee when registering the resident's motor vehicle, and residents who do not possess one of the motor vehicles listed above.For each state fiscal year, the division will use the wild pass fees collected to achieve stated goals such as providing affordable access to state parks and public lands; managing state parks; supporting search and rescue and avalanche safety efforts; conserving vulnerable species and habitats; funding equity, diversity, and inclusion programs; and financing regional outdoor partnerships for community-driven planning and projects.The division is required to:Develop language to notify motor vehicle registrants of their option to decline to pay the wild pass fee, which notice must be conspicuously placed on registration documents and on the division's and the division of motor vehicles' websites; and Implement a public outreach campaign, including outreach to and engagement of disproportionately impacted communities, to educate the public about the availability of the wild pass through the motor vehicle registration process and about access to state parks and public lands that the wild pass will provide. The division is required to prepare annual reports on, and on or before March 1, 2025, and on or before March 1, 2030, to make presentations to a joint session of the legislative committees with jurisdiction over agriculture matters regarding, the number of wild passes sold in the previous 12 months, an accounting of the expenditures made with the increased revenue generated from sales of the wild pass, and a summary of the effect that those increased expenditures have had on the achievement of the stated goals.The act also repeals limitations on the amount that the commission may increase fees for daily and annual park passes purchased by individuals who do not purchase the discounted wild pass, authorizes the division to enter into cooperative agreements with other land management agencies, and requires the division to develop a program for seeking, accepting, and expending gifts, grants, or donations.For state fiscal year 2021-22, the act appropriates $504,646 from the parks and outdoor recreation cash fund to the division for implementation of the wild pass and reappropriates $108,200 of that money to the department of revenue for use by the division of motor vehicles for maintenance and support of the Colorado driver's license, record, identification, and vehicle enterprise solution (Colorado DRIVES).(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Senate Bill 20-222, enacted in 2020, created a grant program financed through the federal "Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act" to support small businesses suffering from the economic impacts of COVID-19 and related public health restrictions.The act appropriates $15 million from the general fund to continue the grant program until the end of the 2021-22 state fiscal year, modifies the criteria pursuant to which grants are awarded, adds certain preferences for awarding grants, and establishes limits on the amount of a grant to an individual small business.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act declares that customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities (distributed generation) such as rooftop solar can make important contributions toward meeting Colorado's declared goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing a reliable, adaptable supply of electricity for homes, businesses, and the rapidly increasing numbers of electric vehicles, and that existing limits on customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities unnecessarily restrict this potential.Sections 3 and 5 remove most of the existing limitations on the size of distributed generation facilities, which currently cannot exceed 120% of a customer's historical annual usage, to qualify for renewable energy credits. Section 3 also expands an existing exemption from regulation as a public utility to include persons who sell excess power from distributed generation located anywhere on their property or on property owned or leased by others in a master meter operation, e.g., an apartment building or mobile home park. Section 4 grants master meter operators (MMOs) that sell power from distributed generation a limited exemption from the general requirement not to charge their end users any amount above what they are billed for electricity supplied by the serving electric utility. MMOs may retain refunds, rebates, rate reductions, net metering credits, and similar reductions offered by the serving utility in its net metering program. The public utilities commission (PUC) is directed to adopt rules encouraging landlords and tenants in multi-unit buildings to share in the costs and benefits of installing new distributed generation facilities.Section 5 requires a qualifying retail utility to allow, and to adopt standards for the approval of, customer-owned meter collar adapters in residential installations. The PUC retains authority to resolve any disputes concerning the standards or their application in specific cases. Section 2 defines a meter collar adapter as a device installed between the electric meter and the meter socket box that allows the customer to interconnect power from on-site sources.Section 5 also:Replaces the term "standard rebate offer" with "net metering service" where appropriate, to more accurately reflect current practice; Requires qualifying retail utilities, under their net metering service, to purchase energy produced from any renewable energy resources rather than exclusively solar energy resources; Doubles the size of eligible on-site renewable energy installations from 500 kilowatts to one megawatt; Limits the size of eligible off-site renewable energy installations to 500 kilowatts for a single-meter installation or 300 kilowatts per meter for a multi-meter installation; Narrows the requirements for small hydroelectric facilities that qualify as renewable energy resources to exclude those that require the construction of new dams or reservoirs; Adds renewable energy storage as an eligible energy resource under the renewable energy standard and defines "renewable energy storage" as a facility that stores energy that is derived only from renewable energy resources; Allows a customer to carry forward monthly bill credits from distributed generation indefinitely, at any service address within a qualifying retail utility's service territory, unless the customer chooses to be reimbursed annually or to donate the excess to a low-income energy assistance program; and Directs the PUC to adopt rules to accommodate the aggregation and interconnection of retail distributed generation, including the pooling of renewable energy resources under a master meter or similar arrangement and the allocation of credits among customers on different rate schedules. Section 6 appropriates $91,488 to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the PUC to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
