Boards of county commissioners - delegation to county administrative officials - land use determinations affecting subdivision platting. The process for review and approval by a county of subdivision plats or other plans and agreements affecting certain land use determinations must be conducted pursuant to county resolutions, ordinances, or regulations. The act provides that such resolutions, ordinances, or regulations may provide for the delegation by a board of county commissioners (board) to one or more county administrative officials the authority to: Approve or deny final plats, amendments to final plats, and correction plats; Approve subdivision improvement agreements and other agreements required in connection with a final plat, an amendment to a final plat, or correction plat; Review and approve the data, surveys, analyses, studies, plans and designs submitted in connection with a final plat, amendment to a final plat, or correction plat; and Review and approve any subdivision exemption. Any delegation of authority made pursuant to the act does not include: The approval of any agreement for the expenditure of public funds; or The waiver or restriction of any appeal process provided by county resolution, ordinance, or regulation. Any delegation of authority made pursuant to the act must include procedures for public notice and the submission of written comments prior to the administrative approval or denial of a final plat or amendment to a final plat and for the appeal to a board of such administrative approval or denial. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Income tax - combined reporting. Two or more corporations controlled by the same interests are required to file a combined report in certain instances for apportioning income for Colorado income tax purposes. The Colorado court of appeals recently interpreted existing law to exclude all holding companies purportedly without property or payroll from combined reports. The act clarifies that only corporations with property and payroll located outside the United States are excluded from a combined report. The act further clarifies when the treatment of the activities of a partnership is treated as the activity of a member of an affiliated group of corporations. The act requires the department of revenue to convene a stakeholder working group to discuss and report on issues related to combined tax reporting.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
School leadership pilot program - appropriation. The act creates the school leadership pilot program (program) to provide professional development for public elementary, middle, and high school principals. During the 2019-20 budget year, the department of education (department) is directed to design and implement the program or contract with a nonprofit entity or institution of higher education (contracted entity) to design and implement the program. The program must include identification of high-quality school principals who will interact with the school principals selected to receive professional development through the program. The program must also include professional development in distributive and collaborative leadership skills with the goal of improving educator retention, school climate and culture, and student outcomes. School principals may apply to receive professional development through the program during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 budget years. The department or the contracted entity must review the applications and select the participants. Subject to available appropriations, the department must provide grants to the employers of the school principals who participate in the program either as high-quality school principals or to receive professional development. By March 15, 2020, the department must report to the education committees of the general assembly concerning the design of the program. By January 15, 2022, the department must report to the education committees concerning implementation of the program, including recommendations for whether the program should be continued. The program is repealed, effective July 1, 2022. For the 2019-20 fiscal year, the act appropriates $272,929 from the general fund to the department to implement the program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Protective services - access to records - clarifies disclosure of report to at-risk adult. House Bill 19-1063, concerning the ability to share information between county adult protective services with county child protective services as well as at-risk adults obtaining their own information, allowed an at-risk adult to access a report of the mistreatment or self-neglect of an at-risk adult (report) without a court order, but the act did not specify that only the individual who is the subject of the report may access the report. This act clarifies that a court order is not required when a report of the mistreatment or self-neglect of an at-risk adult is disclosed to the at-risk adult who is the subject of the report.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Returns - electronic filing and payment. The act requires taxpayers, not including individual income taxpayers, to both file tax returns and pay amounts due for specified taxes electronically.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
At-risk persons - unlawful abandonment - false imprisonment - appropriation. The act makes it a crime to unlawfully abandon an at-risk person. The intentional and unreasonable desertion of an at-risk person in a manner that endangers the safety of that person constitutes unlawful abandonment. Unlawful abandonment is a class 1 misdemeanor. The act creates the crime of false imprisonment of an at-risk person if: The person knowingly confines or detains an at-risk person in a locked or barricaded room or other space; and Such confinement or detention was part of a continued pattern of cruel punishment or unreasonable isolation or confinement of the at-risk person; or The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by tying, caging, chaining, or otherwise using similar physical restraints to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement; or The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by means of force, threats, or intimidation designed to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement. False imprisonment of an at-risk person is a class 6 felony pursuant to the first 2 ways to commit the crime and a class 1 misdemeanor pursuant to the third. To comply with the statutorily-required prison costs of the act, the act appropriates: For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $110,652 from the capital construction fund to the corrections expansion reserve fund; For the 2020-21 state fiscal year,$26,220 to the department of corrections from the general fund; and For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $1,902 to the department of corrections from the general fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Use of campaign contributions received for reasonable and necessary expenses - care of children or other dependents. The act permits a candidate committee established in the name of a candidate to expend contributions received and accepted during any particular election cycle to reimburse the candidate for reasonable and necessary expenses for the care of children or other dependents the candidate incurs directly in connection with his or her campaign activities during the election cycle. The candidate committee is required to disclose these expenditures in the same manner as any other expenditures the committee is required to disclose.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Paid family and medical leave - study - task force created - appropriation. The act creates a study of the implementation of a paid family and medical leave program in the state by: Requiring the department of labor and employment to contract with experts in the field of paid family and medical leave to report on the establishment of a paid family and medical leave program for employees in the state; Requiring the department to request information from third parties that may be willing to administer all or part of a paid family and medical leave program; Creating the family and medical leave implementation task force, which is responsible for recommending a plan to implement a paid family and medical leave program for the state; and Requiring an actuarial study of the final plan recommended by the task force. To implement the act, $165,487 is appropriated to the department of labor and employment and $17,004 is appropriated to the department of public health and environment. Both appropriations are from the general fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Medicaid - home- and community-based services - extend in-home support services waiver program. The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies' sunset review by extending the repeal date of in-home support services for certain home- and community-based services (HCBS) waivers under the Colorado medical assistance program by 9 years, from 2019 to 2028. Prior to the repeal, the department of regulatory agencies shall conduct a sunset review of the program. The act amends the eligibility definition for in-home support services, removing the reference to specific HCBS waivers and including those waivers for which there is state and federal authority for in-home support services. The act also removes language relating to an obsolete reporting requirement. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Colorado youth advisory council - review committee - appropriation. The Colorado youth advisory council review committee (review committee) is created to review the work of the Colorado youth advisory council (council) and recommend legislation affecting Colorado youth. The review committee is comprised of the legislative members of the council, 5 nonlegislative council members who are appointed by the council, and one member of the legislative council. The 5 legislative members of the review committee serve as voting members. All other members are nonvoting members. The review committee may meet up to 3 times each interim and recommend up to 3 bills to the legislative council. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $28,790 from the general fund to the legislative department to use as follows: $18,455 for use by legislative council staff; $6,889 for use by the committee on legal services; and $3,446 for use by the general assembly.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Public guardianship - commission - office of public guardianship - appropriation. The act removes the condition that the public guardianship commission (commission) and director for the office of public guardianship (office) wait to carry out certain duties until the public guardianship cash fund has received $1,700,000 in gifts, grants, and donations. The act requires the office, upon receiving sufficient funding, to begin operations in the second judicial district prior to operating in any other judicial district. The office's reporting deadlines are extended from 2021 to 2023. The office is required to implement its discontinuation plan if there is no legislation to continue or expand the office prior to adjournment sine die of the 2023 legislative session. The act increases specified court fees and requires the state treasurer to deposit the balance of the increased fees in the office of public guardianship cash fund. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $835,386 is appropriated to the judicial department for use by the office of public guardianship. Of this amount, $427,000 is from the general fund and $408,386 is from the office of public guardianship cash fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Public utilities commission - continuation under sunset law - distribution system planning - workforce transition planning - clean energy plan - wholesale electric cooperative electric resource plan - vehicle booting regulation - energy impact bonds - rules - appropriation. The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies' 2018 sunset review and report on the public utilities commission (commission) by: Authorizing the commission to promulgate rules to delegate routine, administrative transportation matters to staff and clarifying that the commission provides initial review of each case submitted for adjudication and determines whether it wishes to retain the case or to assign it to an administrative law judge or to an individual commissioner; Providing for alternate forms of communication that a public utility may utilize to notify its customers of rate changes, including text message and e-mail, and requiring the public utility to post notice of the rate change on its public website, including a reference to the docket numbers of relevant rules or adjudicatory matters; Transferring the administration of the legal services offset fund from the department of law to the department of regulatory agencies; Making technical changes regarding criminal history record checks and telecommunications; Repealing a requirement that an electric utility, as part of the electric utility's plan for acquisition of renewable resources, purchase a certain amount of energy from community solar gardens in 2011 through 2013, but delaying the repeal until 2043 to keep the legislation in place until contracts entered into pursuant to the requirement have likely all expired; Repealing the requirement that the commission, in considering electric utilities' proposals for generation acquisition, give consideration to proposals to propose, fund, and construct integrated gasification combined cycle generation facilities; and Clarifying that the commission may impose a civil penalty for a violation of railroad crossing safety regulations. The act also: Directs the commission to promulgate rules to require an investor-owned utility to file with the commission, for the commission's approval, a distribution system plan regarding the utility's anticipated distribution system investments; Requires an investor-owned utility, when submitting a filing to the commission that includes a proposed retirement of an electric generating facility, to include in the filing a workforce transition plan that provides estimates of workforce transitions that will occur as a result of retiring the electric generating facility; Directs the commission to conduct an investigation of financial performance-based incentives and performance-based metric tracking to identify mechanisms for aligning utility operations and investments with various public benefit goals, including safety, cost efficiency, and emissions reduction. The commission must report the findings of its investigation to the general assembly 18 months after the act's passage; Requires the commission to open a nonadjudicatory proceeding to conduct a survey of public utility retail rates and to consider recommendations for providing rate relief in geographic areas with retail rates that are materially greater than the state average; Directs the commission to require a wholesale electric cooperative to submit to the commission an application for approval of an integrated or electric resource plan; Declares the rights of retail electric utility customers to generate, consume, store, and export electricity from eligible energy resources through distributed generation; Requires a qualifying retail utility to submit a plan, and allows any other electric utility to voluntarily submit a plan, to the commission as part of its ongoing resource acquisition planning process to seek approval from the commission on how the qualifying retail utility plans to address clean energy targets established in the act. A utility implementing a clean energy plan may recover its cost of implementation through electricity rates, as approved by the commission. Directs the commission to evaluate the cost of carbon dioxide emissions in certain proceedings related to a public utility subject to the commission's jurisdiction and to promulgate rules to require those public utilities, when submitting filings, to include the cost of carbon dioxide emissions related to the evaluation of electric generation resources. Starting in 2020, the commission is required to establish a base cost of carbon dioxide emissions in an amount not less than $46 and shall modify the cost thereafter based on escalation rates established by a federal interagency working group. Authorizes the commission to regulate vehicle booting companies, which are private entities in the business of immobilizing motor vehicles through use of a boot, through issuance of permits and enforcement mechanisms including inspections, imposition of a civil penalty, and revocation of a permit; and Adopts the "Colorado Energy Impact Bond Act", under which electric utilities may finance the retirement of fossil-fuel-powered generation facilities and the transition to renewable energy sources by issuing low-cost corporate securities. The securities are subject to commission approval and required to have a rating of at least AA or Aa2, must have a scheduled maturity date of 32 years or less, and are repayable through electricity rates as part of the costs of implementing a clean energy plan. The act continues the functions of the commission for 7 years, until 2026. $907,566 is appropriated for state fiscal year 2019-20 to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the commission for personal services, operating expenses, and the purchase of legal services. The money is appropriated from the public utilities commission fixed utilities fund. Additionally, $163,820 is appropriated to the department of public health and environment from the general fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
