Colorado Bills

The bill assesses an additional $30 fee on a person who commences a forcible entry and detainer action. The full amount of the fee is deposited into the eviction legal defense fund (fund). The bill makes the state court administrator's requirement to award grants from the fund subject to available appropriations. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The concurrent resolution authorizes the governor to declare a state of disaster emergency that continues for up to 30 days. At the end of 30 days, if the governor has not previously terminated the state of disaster emergency, it automatically terminates unless extended by the general assembly. To extend a state of disaster emergency, the general assembly, prior to the date of automatic termination, must adopt a joint resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of each house. The joint resolution must specify the length of time for which the state of disaster emergency is extended and does not require approval by the governor. If the general assembly has not extended the state of disaster emergency before the date of termination and is not in session as of the date of termination, the governor may call the general assembly into special session to extend the state of disaster emergency. The governor may terminate the state of disaster emergency before the date to which it is extended, and the general assembly may adopt subsequent joint resolutions to further extend the state of disaster emergency if not previously terminated by the governor.(Note: This summary applies to this concurrent resolution as introduced.)

By January 1, 2021, the bill requires the marijuana state licensing authority to promulgate rules regarding the process and procedure for filing and approving contingency plans for outdoor cultivation facilities when there is a threat to operations due to an adverse weather event or other catastrophe. A medical marijuana cultivation facility or retail marijuana cultivation facility may file a contingency plan with the state licensing authority and, if the plan is approved, may follow the plan if there is an adverse weather event or other catastrophe. Prior to January 1, 2021, a medical marijuana cultivation facility licensee or retail marijuana cultivation facility licensee that cultivates marijuana outdoors may take any reasonable and necessary action to prevent or ameliorate crop loss due to an adverse weather event. The action is not a violation of state or local law or regulations unless the state licensing authority or local authorities can show that the action was not reasonable and necessary to prevent or ameliorate crop loss due to an adverse weather event. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Because the United States equal employment opportunity commission and the federal courts have found that a private employer's veterans preference employment policy is not a violation of Title VII of the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" if there is a basis for the policy in state law, the bill creates a statutory basis to allow a private employer to give preference to a veteran of the armed forces or the National Guard and the spouse of a disabled veteran or a veteran killed in the line of duty when hiring a new employee as long as the veteran or the spouse is as qualified as other applicants for employment. The bill clarifies that an employer who adopts a program that gives preferences to veterans or their spouses is not committing a discriminatory or unfair labor practice.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill requires an individual who owns a firearm to report the loss or theft of that firearm to a law enforcement agency within 48 hours after discovering that the firearm was lost or stolen. A first offense for failure to make such a report is a petty offense punishable by a twenty-five dollar fine and a second or subsequent offense is a class 3 misdemeanor. The 48-hour reporting requirement does not apply to a licensed gun dealer. The bill requires a law enforcement agency that receives a report of a lost or stolen firearm to enter information about the lost or stolen firearm into the national crime information center database. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill creates the offense of unlawful storage of a firearm if a person stores a firearm in a manner that the person knows, or should know: That a juvenile can gain access to the firearm without the permission of the juvenile's parent or guardian; or A resident of the premises is ineligible to possess a firearm under state or federal law. Unlawful storage of a firearm is a class 2 misdemeanor. The bill requires licensed firearms dealers to provide with each firearm, at the time of a firearm sale or transfer, a locking device capable of securing the firearm. Transferring a firearm without a locking device is an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $500 fine. The bill requires the state court administrator to annually report to the general assembly about the number of charges related to safe firearms storage, and the disposition of those charges. The bill requires the department of public health and environment to develop and implement a firearms storage education campaign to educate the public about the safe storage of firearms and state requirements related to firearms safety and storage. The bill creates the firearms safe storage education campaign fund (fund) in the state treasury. A voluntary contribution designation line for the fund will appear on the state individual income tax return form (form) for the 5 income tax years following the year that the executive director of the department of revenue certifies to the revisor of statutes that there is a space available on the form and the fund is next in the queue. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Section 1 of the bill directs the public utilities commission (PUC) to approve utilities' applications to build new transmission facilities if the PUC finds that the new facilities would assist the utilities in meeting the state's clean energy goals established in 2019. Applications are deemed approved if the PUC does not deny them within 180 days after completion and public notice of the application. Section 2 directs the PUC, as part of its ongoing docket regarding evaluation of the benefits of a regional transmission organization, to undertake and, by December 31, 2020, to complete a review of existing and potential additional energy resource zones for renewable resource generation development areas within Colorado. The purposes of the study are to: Identify planned electric transmission lines (lines) and renewable resource generation development areas within Colorado that have potential to support competition among renewable energy developers for development of renewable resource generation projects; Evaluate opportunities to support transitions in electricity generation by evaluating renewable resource generation opportunities located in communities with substantial economic activity and employment in the fossil fuel industry; and Identify opportunities for the development of renewable resources: For export to consumers outside of Colorado and the potential to use new and existing transmission capacity for export; and To be interconnected to the transmission system in a manner that promotes a reliable and integrated transmission system and shifts the state away from inefficient, radial transmission development. Section 2 also amends the existing statute to narrow the scope of the PUC's docket inquiry, including only consideration of regional transmission organizations and removing references to energy imbalance markets, power pools, and joint tariffs. If a potential line in Colorado has been submitted to the PUC as part of an electric resource plan based on the inclusion of planned lines in the report the PUC is required to submit as part of its docket inquiry, pursuant to existing requirements for transmission plan reporting, or under a regional transmission plan required by another applicable federal regional transmission planning requirement, section 2 allows bidders in an electric resource plan to rely on the planned line for interconnection in their proposals made pursuant to utility resource plans. Under section 2, the PUC is directed to review clean energy project bids without such bids being burdened by the cost of planned lines. If the development of such lines would result in cost-effective generation being developed to meet the state's clean energy goals, then the PUC shall direct public utilities to submit those lines for approval and construction in order to meet the state's 2030 clean energy goals and beyond. The federal energy regulatory commission requires each public utility transmission provider to participate in a regional transmission planning process to produce a regional transmission plan. If construction of a line in Colorado has been approved in a regional transmission plan or by another applicable federal regional transmission planning requirement, section 3 affords an incumbent electric utility owning the existing transmission facilities to which the line will connect up to 180 days after the line has been approved to give written notice to the PUC that the incumbent electric utility intends to construct, own, and maintain the line. If the incumbent electric utility does not provide notice to the PUC, the incumbent electric utility surrenders its right of first refusal to construct, own, and maintain the line. If the incumbent electric utility provides the notice, the incumbent electric utility, if it is subject to the PUC's regulation, shall, within 24 months after filing the notice, file an application with the PUC for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct the line. The right of first refusal is conditioned on the incumbent electric utility having joined a regional transmission organization and exercising the right of first refusal within ten years thereafter. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill directs the department of health care policy and financing (state department), or a third party with whom the department contracts, to collect, analyze, and report prescription drug production cost data regarding the 20 highest-cost prescription drugs per course of therapy and the 20 highest-cost prescription drugs by volume that were purchased or paid for by the departments of corrections, human services, personnel, and health care policy and financing (departments) during the 2019-20 and future state fiscal years. Upon receipt of a list of the highest-cost prescription drugs purchased or paid for by the departments, the state department or its designated contractor, as applicable, is directed to request from the manufacturers of the drugs on the list information showing the basis for and components of the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of each drug on the list. The state department or its designated contractor, as applicable, is to analyze the data received from drug manufacturers and report its findings regarding the basis for the WAC for each prescription drug on the list, specifying the percentage of the WAC that is attributable to each component driving the WAC. The state department is required to provide an annual prescription drug price transparency report by December 1, 2021, and each December 1 thereafter to specified legislative committees. The state department and its designated contractor, as applicable, are required to maintain the confidentiality of any proprietary information received from a drug manufacturer, and that information is exempt from the "Colorado Open Records Act". The executive director of the state department is authorized to adopt rules as necessary to implement and administer the bill. A manufacturer that fails to report the required information is subject to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per day. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Water Resources Review Committee. The bill requires the state engineer to employ a minimum of 4 water well inspectors in the state's water well inspection program. The bill requires the state board of water well construction and pump installation contractors, on or before November 1, 2020, to promulgate rules for identifying high-risk water wells that should be prioritized for inspection. Thereafter, the state engineer shall use the rules to identify high-risk water wells and shall prioritize the inspection of high-risk water wells. The bill clarifies that money in the well inspection cash fund shall be appropriated to and expended by the state engineer only for the well inspection program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Joint Budget Committee. Pursuant to the declaration of a state fiscal emergency (emergency declaration), for the 2020-21 fiscal year only, the bill expands the purposes for which tobacco tax revenues in the tobacco education programs fund and the prevention, early detection, and treatment fund may be used to include any health-related purpose and to serve populations enrolled in the children's basic health plan and the Colorado medical assistance program at the programs' respective levels of enrollment as of January 1, 2005. Also pursuant to the emergency declaration, for the 2020-21 fiscal year only, the bill authorizes grantees under certain programs funded through tobacco tax revenue to use the grant money to investigate and control the spread of COVID-19. The bill repeals an obsolete provision of law. The bill makes and reduces certain appropriations. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Section 1 of the bill enacts the "Colorado Prescription Drug Price TransparencyAct of 2020", which requires: Health insurers, starting in 2021, to submit to the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) information regarding prescription drugs covered under their health insurance plans that the health insurers paid for in the preceding calendar year, including information about rebates received from prescription drug manufacturers, a certification regarding how rebates were accounted for in insurance premiums, and a list of all pharmacy benefit management firms (PBMs) with whom they contract; Prescription drug manufacturers to notify the commissioner, state purchasers, health insurers, PBMs, pharmacies, and hospitals when the manufacturer, on or after January 1, 2021, increases the price of certain prescription drugs by more than specified amounts or introduces a new specialty drug in the commercial market; Prescription drug manufacturers, within 15 days after the end of each calendar quarter that starts on or after January 1, 2021, to provide specified information to the commissioner regarding the drugs about which the manufacturer notified purchasers; Health insurers or, if applicable, PBMs to annually report specified information to the commissioner regarding rebates and administrative fees received from manufacturers for prescription drugs they paid for in the prior calendar year and the average wholesale price paid for prescription drugs by individuals, small employers, and large employers enrolled in health plans issued by the health insurer or that contain prescription drug benefits managed or administered by the PBM; and Certain nonprofit organizations to compile and submit to the commissioner an annual report indicating the amount of each payment, donation, subsidy, or thing of value received by the nonprofit organization or its officers, employees, or board members from a prescription drug manufacturer, PBM, health insurer, or trade association and the percentage of the nonprofit organization's total gross income that is attributable to those payments, donations, subsidies, or things of value. The commissioner is required to post the information received from health insurers, prescription drug manufacturers, PBMs, and nonprofit organizations on the division of insurance's website, excluding any information that the commissioner determines is proprietary. Additionally, the commissioner, or a disinterested third-party contractor, is to analyze the data reported by health insurers, prescription drug manufacturers, PBMs, and nonprofit organizations and other relevant information to determine the effect of prescription drug costs on health insurance premiums. The commissioner is to publish a report each year, submit the report to the governor and specified legislative committees, and present the report during annual "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act" hearings. The commissioner is authorized to adopt rules as necessary to implement the requirements of the bill. Health insurers that fail to report the required data are subject to a fine of up to $10,000 per day per report. Nonprofit organizations are subject to a fine of up to $10,000 for failure to comply with reporting requirements. Section 2 specifies that failing to ensure that a PBM that a health insurer uses to manage or administer its prescription drug benefits is complying with reporting requirements constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the business of insurance. Section 3 specifies that a PBM is an entity that manages or administers prescription drug benefits for a health insurer, either pursuant to a contract or as an entity associated with the health insurer. Under sections 4 and 5 , a prescription drug manufacturer that fails to notify purchasers or fails to report required data to the commissioner is subject to discipline by the state board of pharmacy, including a penalty of up to $10,000 per day for each day the manufacturer fails to comply with the notice or reporting requirements. The commissioner is to report manufacturer violations to the state board of pharmacy. Section 6 requires a health insurer to reduce premiums for the health plans it issues or renews on or after January 1, 2022, to adjust for the rebates the health insurer received from prescription drug manufacturers in the previous plan year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)