Rep. Emily Sirota

Maddy summaryHouse Resolution 1001 appoints specific staff members to roles within the Colorado House of Representatives for the 75th General Assembly's Second Regular Session. It names individuals to positions including Chief Clerk, Assistant Chief Clerk, Journal Clerk, sergeants-at-arms, and leadership support staff for both majority and minority parties, plus student interns from Arrupe Jesuit High School. The resolution was approved without amendments on January 20, 2026, and serves as routine staffing for legislative operations. This procedural resolution does not create new laws or affect public policy.

Maddy summarySJR 3 is a procedural resolution scheduling a joint meeting of Colorado's Senate and House of Representatives on January 16, 2026, to hear a message from representatives of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council and Southern Ute Tribal Council. It directs the appointment of a six-member committee (three from each chamber) to escort tribal representatives to the session. The resolution recognizes the tribes' historical and cultural contributions to Colorado but does not create new laws or policies. This is a formal procedural step to facilitate the tribal message, not a substantive legislative change.

The act requires an organization, defined in the act as a battery stewardship organization, to, no later than July 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, submit to the executive director of the department of public health and environment (executive director) a battery stewardship plan (plan), which is a plan for the collection, transportation, processing, and recycling of certain batteries. On and after August 1, 2027, a producer selling, making available for sale, or distributing certain batteries or battery-containing products in or into the state must participate in and finance a battery stewardship organization that has submitted a plan to the executive director. On and after July 1, 2029, a retailer is prohibited from selling, offering for sale, distributing, or otherwise making available for sale certain batteries or battery-containing products in the state unless the producer of the batteries or battery-containing products is participating in a battery stewardship organization that has an approved plan. A retailer is prohibited from charging a point-of-sale fee to consumers to cover the costs of a battery stewardship organization. The act specifies what a plan must contain to be approved by the executive director, including, among other things, contact information for participating producers, performance goals, and methods to promote participation in the plan and increase public awareness of the battery stewardship program (program) that will be implemented by the battery stewardship organization pursuant to the plan. In addition, a plan must detail how the battery stewardship organization will arrange for the collection of certain batteries by establishing collection sites that are available free of charge to any person. A battery stewardship organization implementing an approved plan is required to develop and administer a system to collect charges from participating producers to cover the costs of implementing the program. In addition, a battery stewardship organization, in consultation with the department of public health and environment (department) and interested stakeholders, must complete an assessment of the opportunities and challenges associated with the end-of-life management of certain batteries, which assessment must be submitted by the department to the general assembly on or before March 1, 2028. On or before June 1, 2029, and on or before each June 1 thereafter, a battery stewardship organization with an approved plan must submit an annual report to the executive director, which report must include certain information about the preceding year of plan implementation. The act also requires a battery stewardship organization to carry out promotional activities to increase public awareness of the program. Battery stewardship organizations with approved plans must coordinate to conduct a survey of public awareness of the programs and share the results of the survey with the executive director as part of the annual reports. A battery stewardship organization is required to pay a one-time fee of $50,000 at the time of submittal of a plan to the executive director. If the executive director approves the plan, the battery stewardship organization is required to pay an additional fee of $86,000. Within 12 months after a plan is approved, and on or before each July 1 thereafter, a battery stewardship organization must pay to the department an annual fee to cover the department's cost of implementing, administering, and enforcing the act's requirements. The solid and hazardous waste commission establishes the amount of the annual fee by rule. On and after January 1, 2028, the act prohibits a producer or retailer from selling, offering for sale, or distributing in or into the state certain batteries unless the batteries are marked with labels that: Identify the producer of the batteries; and Include certain information to ensure the proper collection and recycling of the batteries. Beginning January 1, 2030, a person is required to manage certain unwanted batteries through delivery to a collection site, program, or event established by the program. A person is prohibited from disposing of certain batteries in a landfill. The department will enforce violations of the act's requirements pursuant to the enforcement process for the state hazardous waste management program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act modifies the state property tax deferral program (program) under which the state makes a secured loan to a qualified taxpayer to pay property taxes owed for the taxpayer's homestead by: Again limiting eligibility for the program to seniors and persons called into active military service, who, until a 2021 program expansion also allowed otherwise nonqualifying taxpayers whose property tax had increased by at least a specified percentage to participate, had been the only eligible individuals; and Shifting portions of the responsibility for the administration of the program that had been shifted from the county treasurers to the state treasurer in 2022 back to the county treasurers. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, $160,826 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of the treasury for operating expenses related to the implementation of the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The state allows a student pursuing higher education who satisfies statutorily specified eligibility criteria to claim an income tax incentive for amounts paid for tuition and fees for qualifying academic semesters or terms that the student completes. The act clarifies the statute that provides for the income tax incentive to improve the administration, including data tracking and reporting, of the incentive. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, $135,446 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of revenue for use by the taxation business group to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act establishes visitation as a right for a person confined in a correctional facility (confined person). The department of corrections (department) may: Limit visitation for a confined person who is in restrictive housing or as a sanction following a conviction for a class 1 code of penal discipline violation; Reduce, but not eliminate, the number of visits available per week to a confined person as a result of an increase in the person's custody classification level; Temporarily deprive visitation as necessary for facility operations or for the safety of the facility, persons in the facility, and the general public; and Deny or cancel visitation for a confined person at any time as necessary to comply with requirements imposed by a court order, for victim safety, to prevent communication with a co-defendant, to preserve the integrity of a criminal investigation, to comply with treatment protocols, or for any other reason required by law. Video visits may supplement, but must not take the place of, in-person visits when in-person visits are permitted. If a confined person provides the department with reasonable notice that a requested visitation is for virtual attendance at a funeral or during or immediately following the birth of a child in the person's family, the act requires the department to make all reasonable efforts to allow the person to participate in the visitation via virtual attendance, or, if virtual attendance is not possible, via telephone. The department may adopt policies to govern visitations, including policies necessary to allow visitation as part of routine facility operations. The act states that it does not create a private right of action. The act permits a confined person to file a grievance with the department if the confined person alleges deprivation of visitation. The department is required to include information about visitation and grievances in its annual SMART Act hearing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Section 20 of article X of the state constitution (TABOR) defines "fiscal year spending" as not including either "damage awards" or "property sales". Although TABOR does not define either "damage award" or "property sale", the TABOR implementing statutes do. The act clarifies both of these definitions for state fiscal years commencing on or after July 1, 2024. The act clarifies that "damage award", as used for the purpose of determining whether specific money received by the state is subject to the TABOR limitation on state fiscal year spending, includes certain fines and monetary penalties imposed by the state. The act also clarifies that "property sale", as used for the purpose of determining whether specific money received by the state is subject to the TABOR limitation on state fiscal year spending, includes certain specified types of sales by the state. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act enacts the "Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act", drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. The act: Requires a person filing a pre-merger notification with the federal government under the federal "Hart-Scott-Rodino Act" that has its principal place of business in the state or directly or indirectly has annual net sales in the state of at least 20% of the filing threshold to contemporaneously file with the state attorney general complete electronic copies of the Hart-Scott-Rodino form and any additional documentary material that the person filed with the pre-merger notification; Requires the attorney general to keep the filed form and documentary material confidential, subject to specified exceptions; and Authorizes the attorney general to impose a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 per day of noncompliance on any person that fails to comply with the filing requirement. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $68,052 from the general fund to the department of law to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act modifies certain processes for statewide ballot measures as follows: Requires proponents of citizen-initiated ballot measures (initiatives) to submit a chart describing or otherwise visually demonstrating the differences between their initiatives when they submit 5 or more versions of an initiative to the title board within the same initiative cycle, with at least one of the same designated representatives of proponents, and on the same subject matter; Requires the director of research of the legislative council of the general assembly (director), when preparing an estimate of the fiscal impact of an initiative that proposes a tax increase, to include an estimate of the maximum dollar amount of the change in state and local government revenue and fiscal year spending, as defined in the state constitution, for the first and, if phased in, final full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase; Directs the title board, when setting a title for an initiative, to indicate in the title whether the proposed law modifies, extends, or repeals existing law or creates new law and, for initiatives that propose a tax increase, to use the estimate prepared by the director of the maximum dollar amount of the change in state and local government revenue and fiscal year spending for the first or, if phased in, final full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase; Requires a person filing a motion for rehearing of a title board decision to file the motion with the title board by 5 p.m. on the seventh day following the title board's decision that is the subject of the motion; With regard to the petition circulation process for statewide ballot measures, requires a designated representative for the proponents to notify the secretary of state when an initiative or referendum petition that is being circulated has received 75% of the required number of signatures and authorizes the secretary of state to impose a fine on any designated representative who does not comply with the reporting requirement; Requires the director to prepare for the ballot information booklet for a proposed tax increase estimates of both the maximum dollar amount of the change in state and local government revenue and fiscal year spending, as defined in the state constitution, for the first full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase and state and local government fiscal year spending, as defined in the state constitution, without the proposed tax increase; and Requires the fiscal note for any legislative measure that proposes a tax increase to include the estimate of the maximum dollar amount of the change in state and local government revenue for the first and, if phased in, final full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase and requires the ballot question for such a legislative measure to include the estimate of the maximum dollar amount of the change in state and local government revenue for the first or, if phased in, final full fiscal year of the proposed tax increase.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act modifies the schedule and amounts of annual transfers from the general fund to the state highway fund as follows: The $100 million transfer to the state highway fund scheduled for July 1, 2025, is reduced to $32.2 million; The $100 million transfer to the state highway fund scheduled for July 1, 2026, is reduced to $50.5 million; The $82.5 million transfers to the state highway fund scheduled for each July 1 from July 1, 2029, through July 1, 2031, are increased to $100 million; A new $64.8 million transfer to the state highway fund is scheduled for July 1, 2032; and The $7 million transfers to the state highway fund for the purpose of providing additional funding for the revitalizing main streets program scheduled for each July 1 from July 1, 2025, through July 1, 2031, are eliminated.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)