Rep. Jeni James Arndt

Water Resources Review Committee. The bill requires the Colorado water conservation board and the water resources review committee to involve the public and provide opportunities for public comment, using procedures similar to those used for initial adoption of the state water plan, before adopting any final or significantly amended water resources demand management program as part of the Colorado upper basin states' drought contingency plan.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Accountability - local accountability system grant program - supplemental performance report - alternative format - evaluation - reporting - appropriation. The act creates the local accountability system grant program (grant program) in the department of education (department) to provide grant money to local education providers that adopt local accountability systems to supplement the state accountability system. A local accountability system may include additional measures for determining achievement of the state performance indicators and additional indicators of student success, but the measures do not affect the accreditation rating assigned to a school district or the type of plan that a school must adopt. A local education provider may use grant money to work with one or more accountability system partners, which may be public or private institutions of higher education or private nonprofit entities. The department shall review applications and recommend to the state board of education (state board) the applicants that may receive a grant and the amount of the grant. The state board shall award the grants subject to available appropriations. The department may also accept and expend gifts, grants, and donations for the grant program and the summary evaluation report. A local education provider that adopts a local accountability system may submit to the department a supplemental performance report that includes information collected through the local accountability system. The local education provider may also use an alternative format for the type of performance plan that the local education provider is required to implement. The department must post the supplemental performance reports and alternatively formatted plans on the department's data portal. Starting no later than July 15, 2020, the department must convene an annual meeting of the local education providers that implement local accountability systems to share information. Beginning January 15, 2021, the department shall submit an annual report to the state board and the education committees of the general assembly concerning implementation of local accountability systems and implementation of the grant program. The department shall also post the report on its website and, upon request of a local education provider, provide information concerning the measures implemented through local accountability systems. Starting in the third year of the grant program, the department must contract with an external evaluator to prepare an annual summary evaluation report of the implementation of the local accountability systems that receive grants. The department must include the summary evaluation in the annual report. For the 2019-20 fiscal year, the act appropriates $493,097 from the general fund to the department of education to implement the local accountability system grant program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Commissioner of agriculture - agricultural chemical management plans - expansion to include surface water - appropriation. Under current law, the commissioner of agriculture is responsible for the management of the use of agricultural chemicals to protect groundwater, and the commissioner adopts rules establishing agricultural management plans for this purpose. The act expands the scope of the commissioner's agricultural management plans to include the protection of state waters, which includes surface and subsurface waters. The act appropriates $239,592 to the department of agriculture from the plant health, pest control, and environmental protection cash fund to implement the act, of which $21,875 is reappropriated to the department of public health and environment and $1,000 is reappropriated to the department of personnel. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Section 1: Currently, the office of state planning and budgeting is required to prepare the forms and instructions to be used in preparation of all budget requests and supplemental budget requests submitted to the joint technology committee (JTC). For a budget request for a major information technology project (major IT project) submitted to the JTC for funding in the 2020-2021 state fiscal year or any state fiscal year thereafter, the bill requires the forms and instructions to include the submission of a written business case specifying certain information about the major IT project and a survey of other states, including specified information, that have completed major IT projects with similar goals. Section 2: The bill requires the office of information technology (office) to ensure that every major IT project has a project manager in the office who is regularly involved in the management of the project and who is required to develop, in coordination with the state agency that is a party to the contract (state agency), specified project baseline metrics to track the progress of the project. The office is required to ensure that the contractor does not begin work on a major IT project until the project manager has developed the baseline metrics and they have been approved by the applicable state agency. In addition, the office is required to develop, in cooperation with the applicable state agency, performance indicators to monitor the major IT project and quantitative critical success factors to track the success of the project. The project manager is required to provide the baseline metrics, the performance indicators, the critical success factors, and a quarterly status report for each major IT project to the JTC. If the quarterly status report for a major IT project indicates that the project is unlikely to achieve the performance indicators established for the project, the office is required to place the project on a list for more intense monitoring. If the office determines that the major IT project is not in compliance with the established baseline metrics for the project, that the variances in the established performance indicators or success factors established for the project are intolerable, or that the project is otherwise in need of corrective action, the office is required to notify the applicable state agency of the its recommended corrective action for the project. Section 3: For budget requests for a major IT project submitted to the JTC for funding in the 2020-2021 state fiscal year or any state fiscal year thereafter, a governmental body is required to provide for a change management plan, including specified information and the resources necessary for the execution of the change management plan. Governmental bodies are required to seek best practices with private- or public-sector experts when appropriate to develop and implement change management plans and are required to provide written change management plans to the JTC and the office of state planning and budgeting.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More

Industrial hemp - alignment with federal law - state plan of regulation. In 2018, the federal government enacted the "Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018" (federal act), which removed hemp from schedule I of the federal "Controlled Substances Act". The federal act requires the United States department of agriculture (USDA) to develop a plan for the regulation of hemp and authorizes each state to seek approval from the USDA to have primary regulatory authority over hemp production within the state by preparing and submitting a state plan of regulation to the secretary of the USDA. The act updates the laws governing Colorado's industrial hemp regulatory program to align with the federal act and to put the department of agriculture in a position to prepare and submit a state plan to the secretary of the USDA. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Restorative justice coordinating council - expenses reimbursement. Under current law, members of the restorative justice coordinating council may not be reimbursed for expenses. The act allows reimbursement of expenses.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Sales and use tax - wholesale sales - agricultural commodities - fertilizer and spray adjuvants. Wholesale sales are not subject to sales and use taxes. The act includes sales of fertilizer and spray adjuvants used in the production of agricultural commodities in the definition of "wholesale sales" for sales and use tax purposes.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Self-contained breathing apparatus - testing and certification - administration by department of public safety - rule-making authority - appropriation. Currently, local fire departments and other users of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) rely on certification under standards promulgated by the United States department of transportation (DOT) or the national institute for occupational safety and health (NIOSH) for quality control of pressure vessels. These certifications are considered valid through the vessel's recommended service life, but that service life is finite. Section 1 of the act declares that, with the emergence of new technology to test the continuing safety of vessels that are at the end of their initial recommended service life, vessels that remain safe can and should be recertified for an additional period rather than discarded, resulting in a saving of tax dollars for local governments. Sections 2 and 3 give the director of the division of fire prevention and control in the department of public safety the authority to inspect SCBA equipment and, if necessary, to write rules governing the inspection and certification of pressure vessels. Any such rules must incorporate or recognize current DOT or NIOSH standards for certification and recertification with regard to any technology that is accepted by those federal agencies. $40,291 is appropriated to the department of public safety for use by the division of fire prevention and control to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Regulation of insurance companies - corporate governance annual disclosures. The act establishes, with amendments, certain model laws of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners concerning corporate governance annual disclosures (CGADs) by insurers and insurance groups (insurers). On June 1, 2020, and on June 1 of each year thereafter, an insurer shall submit to the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) a CGAD that contains sufficient information to permit the commissioner to gain and maintain an understanding of the insurer's corporate governance framework. The act establishes confidentiality requirements for the commissioner and any third-party consultants retained by the commissioner. The act states that any insurer that fails, without just cause, to timely file a CGAD shall pay, after notice and a hearing, a penalty of $200 for each day's delay. The maximum penalty is $25,000. The act allows the commissioner to act as the group-wide supervisor for an internationally active insurance group or to designate or acknowledge another regulatory official as the group-wide supervisor for an internationally active insurance group that: Does not have substantial insurance operations in the United States; Has substantial insurance operations in the United States, but not in Colorado; or Has substantial insurance operations in the United States and in Colorado, but the commissioner has determined pursuant to certain criteria that the other regulatory official is the appropriate group-wide supervisor. The act describes certain permissible supervisory activities for the commissioner to perform while acting as a group-wide supervisor of an internationally active insurance group. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, nail technicians, and hairstylists - examination for license - foreign work experience substitute - rules. The act allows an applicant for a barber, cosmetologist, esthetician, nail technician, or hairstylist examination to substitute foreign work experience for the required contact hours. The act authorizes the director of the division of professions and occupations in the department of regulatory agencies to promulgate rules to determine the manner in which an applicant must submit proof of foreign work experience and when an attestation of work experience may replace employment records as proof of experience. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More