The act continues for June 2021, July 2021, and August 2021 a temporary deduction from state net taxable sales for qualifying retailers in the alcoholic beverages drinking places industry, the restaurant and other eating places industry, and the mobile food services industry in the state in order to allow such qualified retailers to retain the resulting sales tax collected as assistance for lost revenue as a result of the economic disruptions due to the presence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Colorado.The act also expands the definition of qualifying retailers to include those in the catering industry, the food service contractors industry, and the hotel-operated restaurant, bar, or catering service.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act transfers $5 million from the general fund to the local government severance tax fund for the purpose of funding grants to local governments for renewable and clean energy infrastructure implementation projects. The grants must be made by August 15, 2021, or as soon as possible thereafter, and the department of local affairs, which makes the grants, is required to report to the general assembly regarding the grants during its 2022 annual "SMART Act" presentation to legislative committees of reference. $5 million is appropriated from the local government severance tax fund to the division of local government of the department of local affairs for state fiscal year 2020-21 so that the division can make the grants, and any of the money not expended before July 1, 2021, is further appropriated to the division for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 state fiscal years for the same purpose.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act directs the state treasurer to make an immediate, one-time transfer of $3 million from the general fund to the energy fund administered by the Colorado energy office (CEO). The CEO may use the money for making grants for the weatherization assistance program. The act requires the CEO to periodically report on its expenditures to the office of state planning and budgeting and the general assembly.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act:Transfers $5 million from the general fund to the Colorado office of film, television, and media operational account cash fund and appropriates that amount to the governor's office for use in the 2021-22 state fiscal year by the Colorado office of film, television, and media in awarding performance-based incentives for film production in Colorado and for the loan guarantee program to finance production activities; For the 2020-21 state fiscal year, appropriates $3.5 million, in addition to the amount appropriated pursuant to Senate Bill 20B-001, from the general fund to the creative industries cash fund for the arts relief program and removes the prohibition against an applicant that received a relief payment from the small business relief program from also receiving a relief payment under the arts relief program; For the 2020-21 state fiscal year, appropriates $1.5 million from the general fund to the creative industries cash fund for allocation by the creative industries division to a nonprofit organization that administers grants to certain cultural facilities that focus on programming for and have board representation from defined historically marginalized and under-resourced communities; and Transfers the following amounts of money appropriated for the small business relief program that is not encumbered or expended by June 30, 2021: Up to $12 million to the creative industries cash fund for the arts relief program; and Up to $1 million to the Colorado office of film, television, and media operational account cash fund for performance-based incentives for film production in Colorado and for the loan guarantee program to finance production activities.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act directs the state treasurer to make an immediate, one-time transfer of $40 million from the general fund to the energy fund administered by the Colorado energy office (CEO). The CEO may use the money for its ongoing programs plus the following enumerated purposes:Making grants to the Colorado Clean Energy Fund and the Colorado new energy improvement district totaling up to $30 million and $3 million, respectively; Increasing the amounts available through residential energy upgrade loans by up to $2 million; and Providing up to $5 million in additional funding to the charge ahead Colorado program administered by the CEO. The act requires the CEO to devote at least 75% of the transferred money to the specified purposes by July 1, 2022, and at least 85% by July 1, 2023, and to periodically report on its expenditures to the office of state planning and budgeting and the general assembly. Although money in the energy fund is continuously appropriated to the CEO, the money transferred by the act is scheduled to revert to the general fund on June 30, 2025, if not used, expended, or obligated by then.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the small business accelerated growth program (program) administered by the Colorado office of economic development (office). The program provides business development support to small businesses with 19 or fewer employees. The office is required to develop a marketing initiative for the program in coordination with the minority business office, the small business development center, and local and regional economic development entities to promote the program. The businesses selected to participate in the program have one year to use the business development support offered by the program, and $1,350,000 in grants from the Colorado startup loan fund are for participants demonstrating need and success under the program.The act makes an appropriation.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
For the 2020 property tax year, the existing statute corrects the total program mill levies for school districts that are not subject to constitutional property tax revenue restrictions but whose mill levies were erroneously reduced. Each school district that levies a higher number of mills as a result of the correction must grant a tax credit for the number of mills by which the levy is increased.The act requires the department of education to adopt a correction schedule to begin phasing out the tax credits in the 2021 property tax year. The correction schedule must apply consistently to each affected school district; must require each district's tax credit to phase out as quickly as possible, but by no more than one mill per year; and must ensure that the tax credits are fully phased out in 19 years.The act specifies that, until the general assembly determines that stabilizing the state budget no longer requires a reduction in the appropriation for the state share of total program, the general assembly shall annually ensure that the savings to the state share that occurs as a result of the decrease in the temporary property tax credits is appropriated to fund a portion of the state share of total program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
As part of the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" (federal act), the state will receive $3,828,761,790, and $380 million of that money will be used for transportation infrastructure. The act creates the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" cash fund (fund) and requires the state treasurer to deposit $3,448,761,790, which is the balance of the federal funds after the transportation infrastructure use, in the fund.The general assembly may transfer money from the fund to another cash fund that is established for the purpose of using the money from the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund, and the act establishes requirements for this type of cash fund or one that includes any subsequent transfers or appropriations (recipient fund). If there is any money remaining in the fund after the legislatively authorized transfers during the 2021 legislative session, then the governor is authorized to allocate up to $300 million for the purposes permitted under the federal act, and the money is continuously appropriated to the departments the governor designates.In order to ensure proper accounting for and compliance with the federal act, if a recipient fund has money from other sources, then the state controller shall establish an identical, companion fund that only includes the federal funds from the federal act.Money in the fund or a recipient fund must be expended or obligated by December 31, 2024, and any money obligated by December 31, 2024, must be expended by December 31, 2026. The state treasurer is required to transfer the unused and unobligated amounts in the fund as of December 31, 2024, to the unemployment compensation fund. A department is prohibited from using any money from the fund or a recipient fund for any purpose prohibited under the federal act, and transfers from the fund to the general fund are prohibited.The state controller is required to provide the secretary of the treasury of the United States with the periodic reports about the state's use of the money from the fund or a recipient fund. Departments and persons receiving money from departments are required to comply with any reporting record-keeping requirements established by the state controller and the office of state planning and budgeting (office) and with any program evaluation requirements established by the office. The office is required to provide the joint budget committee with a yearly performance report, which includes the information the state controller provides to the secretary.The act also modifies existing federal funds reporting requirements so that, like the reporting on the money from the recipient funds, the joint budget committee receives annual reports instead of quarterly reports. In addition, the state controller is required to make the reports instead of the office, and the information required to be submitted is modified.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes changes to the "Public school finance act of 1994" (school funding formula) increasing the statewide base per pupil funding for the 2021-22 budget year by $141.67 to account for inflation of 2% for a new statewide base per pupil funding amount of $7,225.28, and sets the minimum statewide district total program funding amount for the 2021-22 budget year and requires the dollar amount of the budget stabilization factor to remain the same for the 2022-23 budget year.The act authorizes the state board of education (state board) to take action against an educator license, certificate, endorsement, or authorization if the educator is convicted of an offense under the laws of another state, the United States, or any territory subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, the elements of which are substantially similar to a felony drug offense described in part 4 of article 18 of title 18, Colorado Revised Statutes.The act extends to 18 months the length of the accreditation contract entered into between the state board and each school district board of education (local school board) and the state charter school institute for the 2021-22 school year.The act extend by one month the deadline for a local school board to certify to the state board mileage for reimbursement from the public school transportation fund and for the state board to certify to the state treasurer the amount of reimbursements from the public school transportation fund.The act changes the period of time in which the department of education (department) may establish an alternative pupil count day to within 45 school days after the first school day.The act allows local education providers to carry forward more than 15% of the per-pupil intervention money received pursuant to the "Colorado READ Act" for the 2020-21 budget year for use in the 2021-22 budget year.The act adjusts the amount of additional funding authorized in Senate Bill 21-053 that is available to school districts that fully fund total program with local revenue.The act authorizes a school district that operated a district preschool program pursuant to the "Colorado Preschool Program Act" in the 2019-20 school year with a waiver to serve children under 3 years of age to continue in subsequent school years to use the same number of preschool positions to serve children under 3 years of age who have multiple significant family risk factors.The act extends the budget deadlines for the 2021-22 budget year for school districts and local college districts.The act makes permanent statutory provisions that allow school district charter schools that convert to institute charter schools or institute charter schools that convert to school district charter schools to continue to receive funding for at-risk students using the funding formulas that applied to the charter schools prior to the conversion.For the 2021-22 school year, the act prohibits a local school board from reviewing or making revisions to an existing innovation school plan, innovation school zone, or a public school included in an innovation school zone, pursuant to the innovation school and zone review and revision process. Further, the local school board shall not make any revisions to an existing innovation school or innovation school zone plan that have not been approved before the effective date of this act.The act removes the $10 million annual cap on appropriations for the school counselor corps grant program.The act requires a board of cooperative services (BOCES) that intends to locate or operate a authorize a full-time BOCES school or an additional location of an existing school that is physically located within the geographic boundaries of a school district that is not a member of the BOCES during the 2021-22 school year to obtain written permission from the school district in which the school will be operated or located. The requirement for written consent does not apply to a BOCES school that is authorized or operating prior to the effective date of the act.The act requires school districts and institute charter schools to address chronic absenteeism and disproportionate disciplinary practices in order to provide support to students who are identified as at risk of chronic absenteeism and disciplinary actions, including classroom removal, suspension, and expulsion. The act amends the expelled and at-risk student services grant program to focus on services for students identified as at risk of dropping out of school due to chronic absenteeism and disciplinary actions.The act amends the Colorado imagination library program to align the public relations campaign with "Colorado READ Act" campaigns and requires the contractor administering the program to provide a high-quality independent evaluation of the impact of the program on child and family outcomes and to establish a distressed affiliate fund for county-based affiliate programs. The act establishes the intent of the general assembly to provide full funding for free books for eligible children by 2026. The act amends the definition of "local public body" in the public open meetings statute to refer to school districts, which are the local public bodies, rather than school boards. The act declares that the use of federal funding under the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" to provide programs, services, and other assistance to populations disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency to mitigate the impacts of the public health emergency through the concurrent enrollment and innovation grant program and the career development success program are allowable uses of the federal funding.The act declares the general assembly's intention in making changes to the school finance formula commencing with the 2021-22 budget year, as follows:Modifies at-risk funding by adding pupils who are eligible for reduced-price lunch under the federal school lunch program, in addition to the free-lunch pupils in the existing definition, and removes the subset of English language learners who are currently included in the at-risk pupil count from the definition of "at-risk pupils"; Adds a new English language learner funding factor to the school finance formula for all English language learners included in the prior year's pupil enrollment. The factor is 8% of per pupil funding multiplied by the English language learner enrollment. as defined in the act. Makes corresponding changes to the calculation of district total program funding, minimum per pupil funding, and the minimum per pupil funding base to reflect the school finance formula changes relating to English language learner factor funding; and Makes a corresponding change to the statutory district total program amount to reflect the changes to the at-risk funding factor and the addition of the English language learner funding factor. The act authorizes the use of appropriations for the accelerating students through concurrent enrollment (ASCENT) program for the 2021-22 budget year.The act removes the $27 million appropriation in the 2021 long bill from the state education fund to the English language learners professional development and student support program.The act appropriates:$505,743,696 to the department from the general fund for the state share of districts' total program funding; $400,000 from the state public school fund for school finance audit payments; $2,000,000 from the state education fund for the school counselor corps grant program; $2,200,444 from the general fund to the department to restore funding to the following grant programs that had appropriations reduced or eliminated for the 2020-21 fiscal year: $800,000 and 0.6 FTE for the ninth grade success program; $375,807 for the school leadership program; $280,730 for the accelerated college opportunity exam fee grant program; $250,000 and 0.3 FTE for the John W. Buckner automatic enrollment in advanced placement courses grant program; and $493,907 and 0.4 FTE for the local accountability systems grant program. $2,500,000 from the marijuana cash tax fund and 1.0 FTE for the K-5 social and emotional health pilot program; $3,000,000 from the marijuana cash tax fund for the behavioral health care professional matching grant program; $2,000,000 for mill levy equalization for institute charter schools; $1,750,000 to the concurrent enrollment expansion and innovation grant program and $1,750,000 for the career development success program from federal money in the workers, employers, and workforce centers cash fund; and $410,221 to the department from the general fund for the Colorado imagination library program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act authorizes the allocation of up to $250,000 per year of the money that the public utilities commission (commission) receives from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund for contracts with outside consultants and experts.Section 2 requires an intervenor in a proceeding before the commission to disclose, and the commission to publish on its website, any corporate affiliation, receipt of funding, or other financial relationship that exists or, within the prior 2 years, existed between that intervenor and the regulated utility in the matter.Section 3 directs the commission to adopt rules to require the commission, when considering any matter before the commission, to improve equity for, minimize impacts on, and prioritize benefits to disproportionately impacted communities.Under current law, the annual fee collected from each regulated public utility to support the fixed utility fund and the telecommunications utility fund is capped at 0.25% of the public utility's gross instrastate utility operating revenue for the preceding calendar year; except that the annual fee collected from a public utility that is a telephone corporation is capped at 0.20% of the telephone corporation's gross intrastate utility operating revenue for the preceding calendar year. Section 4 raises these caps to 0.45% and 0.40%, respectively.Section 5 requires the commission, when considering electric utilities' plans for acquisition of generation facilities, to consider the economic opportunities that such acquisitions would provide for workforce transition and community assistance plans and the benefits for low-income customers and disproportionately impacted communities.Section 6 requires the commission to promulgate rules requiring qualifying retail utilities subject to the renewable energy standard to retire renewable energy credits in a manner that benefits cities, counties, and businesses in the state, enables customers to account for the environmental benefits of the renewable energy, and is consistent with timely attainment of the state's clean energy and climate goals. Section 6 also directs that utilities plan their expenditures on renewable energy and retail distributed generation so as to address historical shortfalls in benefits to low-income customers and disproportionately impacted communities before reaching the 2% statutory cap on such expenditures, with at least 40% of new expenditures allocated to this purpose between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2028.With respect to the retirement of any electric generating facility, section 7 requires an investor-owned electric utility to submit, and the commission to consider, 2 alternative net present value of revenue requirement projections, one based on using Colorado energy impact bonds and one based on not using Colorado energy impact bonds.Section 8 requires the commission, in approving a resource plan, to include the social cost of carbon dioxide with regard to a portfolio's net present value of revenue requirements.Section 9 expands the time for the commission to issue a decision on an application that is not accompanied by prefiled testimony and exhibits from 210 days to 250 days after the commission has deemed the application complete.Section 10 broadens the purposes for which a utility may seek permission to issue Colorado energy impact bonds to include not only the retirement of electric generating facilities but also other programs or projects approved by the commission, including programs or projects to mitigate the effects of extreme weather, wildfires, climate change, or other hazards, but not to include the utility's own liability for wildfire or other damages.Sections 11 and 12 make adjustments to appropriations in related acts, and section 13 makes an appropriation for the purposes of the act to draw from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund rather than from the general fund. The total amount appropriated from the fixed utility fund is $971,839, and the total reduction in general fund expenditures is $471,849.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Colorado law requires a driver or operator of certain types of motor vehicles or equipment to, in certain circumstances, stop at a railroad crossing at a safe place, look for trains at the crossing, proceed safely through the crossing, not block the train's crossing, and obey signals. The act amends these safety provisions to apply to, in addition to trains, any equipment that operates on railroad tracks.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the department of local affairs (department), no later than August 13, 2021, to establish a pilot program to help local governments identify perceptual and substantial barriers to entry for historically underutilized businesses in local government procurement.The act requires local governments participating in the pilot program to consider a number of items, such as:Identifying implementation needs, such as labor and technology, for historically underutilized businesses preference programs for local government procurement (programs); Determining the appropriate size contracts that would benefit from a program; and Creating a sample program that all local governments may use and articulate the necessary steps to build a program. The act specifies that pilot program participants may collaborate with the department and the general assembly on future legislation requiring local governments to establish programs.In January 2022, the department is required to report on the progress of the pilot program as part of the department's presentation to its committee of reference at a hearing held pursuant to the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act".In January 2023, the department is required to include the findings of the pilot program as part of the department's presentation to its committee of reference at a hearing held pursuant to the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act".The act defines a historically underutilized business as a business that is at least 51% owned and controlled, in both the management and day-to-day business decisions, by one or more individuals who are:Members of a racial or ethnic minority group; Non-Hispanic Caucasian women; Persons with physical or mental disabilities; Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community; or Veterans.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
