Rep. Jamie Jackson

In addition to individuals who may already request that their address included in certain records be kept confidential (address confidentiality) under certain circumstances, the act allows an individual or the spouse of an individual who is or has been a peace officer, firefighter, volunteer firefighter, emergency medical service provider, or emergency communications specialist (first responder) to also request address confidentiality for voter registration records that are in the custody of a county clerk and recorder or in the centralized statewide registration system maintained by the secretary of state (secretary) and financial disclosures that certain public officials are required to file with the secretary. A first responder may request address confidentiality with the county clerk and recorder of the county where the first responder who is making the request for address confidentiality resides. The secretary is required to approve the application form for a request for address confidentiality. Each county clerk and recorder is required to make the address confidentiality request application forms available in their office, provide the address confidentiality request application forms to interested persons by United States mail, email delivery, or facsimile transmission, and to process applications for address confidentiality without imposing a processing fee or any other charge. The custodian of any records specified in the act that concern a first responder who has requested address confidentiality is required to deny, with limited exceptions, the right of inspection of the first responder's address contained in the records on the ground that disclosure would be contrary to the public interest. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the office of gun violence prevention (office) in the department of public health and environment (department) to post the office's gun violence prevention materials (materials) in an accessible manner on the office's website for school districts, boards of cooperative services, district charter schools, institute charter schools, and the Colorado school for the deaf and the blind (local education providers) to access and distribute to parents, guardians, and legal custodians of elementary or secondary school students. The act requires each local education provider to: Provide the materials in a written or electronic format to students' parents, guardians, and legal custodians at the beginning of each school year; and Post the materials or a link to the materials on the local education provider's website. Beginning in January 2026, and in January every year thereafter, the department shall include in its "SMART Act" hearing information concerning the materials. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act enacts the "Colorado Vending of Digital Assets Act", which requires an owner or operator of a virtual currency kiosk to: Provide certain disclosures to customers of the virtual currency kiosk; Provide each customer with an electronic receipt detailing the customer's virtual currency transaction; and Fully refund a customer's first virtual currency transaction if the virtual currency transaction is to a virtual currency wallet or exchange located outside of the United States and, within 60 days after the virtual currency transaction, the customer contacts the owner or operator of the virtual currency kiosk and a government or law enforcement entity regarding the fraudulent nature of the transaction and submits proof of the fraud. The act establishes a daily transaction limit of $2,000 for a new customer and $10,500 for an existing customer of a virtual currency kiosk. The act defines "virtual currency" as a type of digital unit that is used as a medium of exchange or a form of digitally stored value or that is incorporated into payment system technology. "Virtual currency kiosk" is defined as an electronic terminal acting as a mechanical agent of the owner or operator to enable the owner or operator to facilitate the exchange of virtual currency for other virtual currency or fiat currency. "New customer" is defined as a customer who has been a customer of a virtual currency kiosk for less than 7 days. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the following regarding the application for a license to practice medicine in Colorado (application) and the questionnaire accompanying the form for a license renewal (questionnaire): The Colorado medical board (board) must consider the recommendations of the Federation of State Medical Boards and the requirements of the federal "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990" when developing the application questions; The application and questionnaire must not require the disclosure of personal medical or health information that is not relevant to the applicant's ability to provide safe, competent, and ethical patient care at the time of application; The application and questionnaire must not include questions seeking information about past health-related conditions that do not impact an applicant's ability to practice safe, competent, and ethical patient care at the time of application; and The board shall include information in the application about the board's peer health assistance program, the applicant's ability to self-refer to the peer health assistance program at any time, and the applicant's ability to self-refer in lieu of disclosure to the board. The act clarifies that an individual subject to the licensing requirements of the "Colorado Medical Practice Act" is not required to disclose a physical illness, physical condition, behavioral health disorder, mental health disorder, or substance use disorder that no longer impacts the individual's ability to practice the applicable health-care profession or occupation with reasonable skill and safety to patients or clients. Current law requires that if a health-care professional has a physical illness, physical condition, or behavioral or mental health disorder that renders the person unable to practice the applicable health-care profession or occupation with reasonable skill and safety to patients or clients, the licensee, registrant, or certificate holder shall notify the regulator that regulates the person's profession or occupation of the physical illness, physical condition, or behavioral or mental health disorder. The act requires that a health-care professional must additionally provide notice of a substance use disorder and specifies that the health-care professional is required only to provide notice of a current physical illness, physical condition, behavioral health disorder, mental health disorder, or substance use disorder. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Current law allows a person who is committed, imprisoned, or arrested (person in custody) the right to communicate with an attorney or family member by making a reasonable number of telephone calls or through any other reasonable manner. The act adds the attorney's authorized representative to those whom a person in custody can communicate with. Current law allows a person in custody the right to consult with an attorney. The act requires a peace officer or person employed at a place of confinement to provide an attorney or the attorney's authorized representative the ability to initiate communication with a person in custody through telephone calls, interactive audiovisual conferencing, or any other reasonable method of electronic communication, as determined by the jail or correctional facility administration. The communication must be private, unrecorded, and without cost to the confined person and attorney or the attorney's representative, subject to all reasonable administrative and operational procedures. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Law enforcement is required to report to the peace officers standards and training board (P.O.S.T. board) certain information related to peace officer conduct for inclusion in a searchable database. The act requires the head of the law enforcement agency providing the report to certify the accuracy of the information in the report. When certain peace officer conduct is reported, the peace officer is entitled to a show cause hearing. Upon request of the P.O.S.T. board, the agency providing the report shall provide the P.O.S.T. board with all documents relevant to the discipline for which the peace officer was placed in the database. If a law enforcement agency refuses to provide the records, the P.O.S.T. board may subpoena the records. If the court grants the subpoena, the court may order the law enforcement agency to pay the P.O.S.T. board's attorney fees, costs, and fees related to the subpoena. The act prohibits the P.O.S.T. board from including information in the database if the information is received from an agency that does not employ or has not employed the subject of the information. If an agency fails to report the information, the agency is subject to a fine. A peace officer who is included in the searchable database can appeal the officer's inclusion in the database. When a peace officer is added to the database, the P.O.S.T. board shall provide the officer with information on its website about how to appeal that action. The act requires the peace officer's disciplining law enforcement agency to provide the P.O.S.T. board with all documents relevant to the discipline for which the officer was placed in the database. If a law enforcement agency refuses to provide the records, the P.O.S.T. board may subpoena the records. If the court grants the subpoena, the court may order the law enforcement agency to pay the P.O.S.T. board's attorney fees, costs, and fees related to the subpoena. The act gives the P.O.S.T. board the authority to remove entries from the database that are in error. Under current law, the P.O.S.T. board shall permanently revoke a peace officer's certification and record that information in the database if the officer is found civilly liable for the use of unlawful physical force or is found civilly liable for failure to intervene in the use of unlawful force and the incident resulted in serious bodily injury or death to another person. The act gives the P.O.S.T. board the discretion to permanently revoke a peace officer's certification in those cases. If a law enforcement agency is investigating a peace officer for an incident that could result in a database report, the law enforcement agency shall inform the peace officer of the agency's duty to report that information and the consequences of the reporting. The act prohibits a law enforcement agency from agreeing to a settlement with a peace officer that includes the agency agreeing to not report the information to the database. Current law requires a law enforcement agency to provide a peace officer's personnel records, when they receive a waiver for the records, to another law enforcement agency that is considering employing the peace officer. The act requires a law enforcement agency or governmental agency that submits the waiver to another agency and does not receive the records to report that fact to the P.O.S.T. board. The P.O.S.T. board may contact the agency, and if the agency does not provide the disclosure within 6 calendar days, the P.O.S.T. board shall not provide the agency with P.O.S.T. board funding for a period of one year and the agency may be subject to fines. The act allows a person to maintain their P.O.S.T. certification if they are not working as a peace officer but are working for a law enforcement agency in a non-peace-officer role and they maintain the annual P.O.S.T. board training requirements. In 2024, the general assembly provided temporary peace officer status to administrators of judicial security. The act makes the status permanent. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the behavioral and mental health excise tax cash fund that is designated to hold money received from the firearm and ammunition excise tax (Proposition KK) for certain behavioral health-related purposes. Current law requires $8 million that is received from Proposition KK to be transferred to the behavioral and mental health cash fund. The act requires this money to instead be transferred to the behavioral and mental health excise tax cash fund. The act requires the state treasurer to transfer the Proposition KK money in the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the behavioral and mental health excise tax cash fund. Current law repeals the behavioral and mental health cash fund on July 1, 2032. The act changes the repeal date to July 1, 2027. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act implements the legislative recommendations of the child support commission by: Updating the child support guidelines schedule; Updating the monthly incomes eligible for a reduced low-income adjustment; and Replacing the current parenting time credit with a formula that provides parents credit for all overnights spent with that parent. The act appropriates $137,250 to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide information technology services to the department of human services. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act codifies the federal "Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978" into state law as the "Colorado Indian Child Welfare Act" (CO-ICWA) and provides additional protections for Indian children and children known or determined to be Indian children under state law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates 2 income tax subtractions for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2027, but before January 1, 2038. The first subtraction is for an amount equal to state capital gains that are realized by a taxpayer, who is the owner of a qualified business, during the taxable year for the conversion by an increment of at least 20% ownership to a qualified employee-owned business. The taxpayers that are eligible for this subtraction are the same taxpayers that would be eligible for the tax credit for conversion costs for employee business ownership. The total amount of capital gains that a taxpayer may subtract is set by and may be annually adjusted by the Colorado office of economic development (office), and is required to be posted on the office's website. The second subtraction is allowed to worker-owned cooperatives in an amount equal to the worker-owned cooperative's federal taxable income for the tax year not to exceed $1 million. The act also makes changes to the tax credit for conversion or expansion costs for employee business ownership (credit), which has been available through income tax year 2026. The act extends the credit through income tax years commencing in 2031. The act also specifies that the aggregate amount of credits that can be claimed for each income tax year commencing on or after January 1, 2026, but before January 1, 2032, is $3 million. The act also increases the percentage of conversion or expansion costs that are eligible to be claimed for the credit from 50% to 75% beginning in tax year 2026 while maintaining the existing dollar caps for the different methods of conversion. Additionally, the act revises several definitions to expand eligibility for the credit and allows for qualified support entities, which are businesses or nonprofit organizations that provide services to businesses that qualify under the credit so that those businesses can convert or expand to employee ownership, to be eligible to receive the credit for up to 75% of the costs incurred for providing such support, not to exceed $167,000, including for staff salaries and benefits, marketing and outreach, and consulting and technical assistance. Support costs exclude any costs that are considered conversion or expansion costs that can be claimed in the credit for employee business ownership. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)