Sen. Byron Pelton

The act amends a definition and adds new definitions under the electricians' practice act. Existing law requires an applicant for a journeyman electrician's license or a residential wireman's license to provide evidence of having certain minimum years of apprenticeship experience, accredited training, or practical experience. For the purpose of these requirements, the act allows an applicant for a journeyman electrician's license to have a minimum of 8,000 hours over a period of at least 4 years of certain apprenticeship or practical experience and an applicant for a residential wireman's license to have a minimum of 4,000 hours over a period of at least 2 years of certain practical experience. The act also changes the time frame for which an applicant for a journeyman electrician's license must complete at least 288 hours of training in safety, the national electrical code and its applications, and any other training required by the state electrical board (board) from the last 4 years to the last 8 years of the applicant's training, apprenticeship, or practical experience. Existing law allows an applicant for a journeyman electrician's license or a residential wireman's license to substitute for required practical experience evidence of academic training or practical experience in the electrical field. The act allows an applicant to also substitute evidence of training in photovoltaic systems installation. However, the act also states that the board may, but is no longer required to, provide work experience credit for academic training, military training, photovoltaic systems installation training, or substantially similar training. A contractor that is operating as of September 1, 2025, and that performs work as a photovoltaic installer pursuant with at least one North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) certified employee is required to register as a photovoltaic installer with the board on or before December 31, 2026. Existing law requires that, for all applicants seeking work experience credit toward licensure, the board give credit for electrical work that is not required to be performed by or under the supervision of a licensed electrician if the applicant can show that the experience or supervision is adequate. The act allows the board to give the credit, but it is not required to do so. Existing law allows for photovoltaic installations with a direct current design capacity of less than 300 kilowatts, the performance of all photovoltaic electrical work, the installation of photovoltaic modules, and the installation of photovoltaic module mounting equipment to be subject to on-site supervision by a certified photovoltaic energy practitioner designated by the NABCEP. The act requires that the photovoltaic energy practitioner is also working for a contractor that is not a registered electrical contractor; is registered with the department of regulatory agencies as a photovoltaic installer no later than December 31, 2026; is a business in good standing with the state; and employs a NABCEP PV installation professional. The act also: Defines "photovoltaic electrical work" as electrical work performed on a photovoltaic system that is covered electrical work in accordance with the national electrical code; Grants the board authority to regulate photovoltaic electrical work for installations of less than three hundred kilowatts and specifies that only an electrical contractor or a photovoltaic installer may perform or offer to perform such work; and Authorizes the board to charge a fee for photovoltaic installer registration.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act makes it a deceptive trade practice under the "Colorado Consumer Protection Act" for a person who consults with, advises, or assists a veteran in connection with a claim for veterans' benefits (veterans' benefits matter) to: Receive compensation in excess of the lesser of $9,200 or 25% of the amount of any past-due benefits the veteran actually receives after the person procures an increase in the veteran's monthly benefits; Receive compensation in connection with a claim filed prior to a veteran's release from active duty or within the one-year period following a veteran's release from active duty; Guarantee a successful outcome in a veterans' benefits matter; Fail to memorialize the payment terms and certain disclosures in a written, signed contract; Omit certain disclosures from advertising or make false representations about accreditation; Fail to take various security measures related to veterans' personal information; or Provide services in connection with an appeal or review of the veterans administration's initial decision in a veterans' benefits matter, unless the service provider is accredited by the veterans administration. The act requires the attorney general or district attorney to transmit any civil penalty collected for a violation of the veterans' benefits matter provisions to the state treasurer for deposit in the Colorado state veterans trust fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the office of just transition (office) in the department of labor and employment to prioritize awarding funding to support tier one and tier 2 coal transition communities experiencing socioeconomic impacts of coal closures and for opportunities for economic diversification, local community input, feasibility studies of specific proposed projects, and needs assessments. The office is required to use money appropriated to the just transition cash fund after July 1, 2025, to support programs that support targeted investment in coal transition communities by collaborating with coal transition communities and eligible entities, state and regionally recognized governmental and economic development entities, employee organizations that represent coal transition workers, and workers who are not affiliated with employee organizations to implement the most effective projects and programs for those communities. The act requires the office to annually report to the joint budget committee and at the annual "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act" hearings of the senate local government and housing committee and the house transportation, housing, and local government committee about the grants awarded by the office during the preceding state fiscal year, their recipients, and the purpose for which they were awarded. A public entity may invest public funds only as allowed by law. The act specifies that the investment of a payment or settlement to offset the socioeconomic impacts to a community or government from the closure of a coal mine or coal power generating station is not subject to these investment limitations. The act allows the executive director of the department of local affairs to establish a policy preference for awarding up to 70% of the money credited to the local government severance tax fund to just transition communities for a 3-year period beginning January 1, 2026. The act extends the deadline for the submittal by the director of the Colorado energy office of the findings and conclusions of assessments of advanced energy solutions in the northwestern and west end of Montrose county and in southeastern Colorado from July 1, 2025 to December 19, 2025, and makes the requirement that the findings and conclusion be submitted contingent on the director having sufficient federal money to support the submittal. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act amends the statutes governing the capital development committee (CDC) and its purview to: Require CDC members to be appointed no later than the December 1 before the general assembly at which that CDC member will serve convenes and requires annual election of the chair and the vice-chair at the CDC's first December meeting; Align the statutes with current practices by changing from January 1, which is always a state holiday, to January 2 the date for the office of state planning and budgeting to submit to the CDC its updates to its recommended priority of funding for capital construction projects as part of the November 1 budget package; With respect to the Colorado commission on higher education's (commission) annual requests to the governing board of each state institution of higher education (institution) for a 2-year projection of certain capital construction projects, which is submitted to the CDC for review and approval: Require that projections be reviewed at the commission's next available meeting; Repeal the requirement that an institution amend the projection prior to commencing a project if the project is not in the institution's most recent projection; Repeal the requirement that the commission annually prepare a unified, 2-year report for capital construction or capital renewal projects acquired or constructed and operated and maintained solely using cash funds held by an institution that are not for new acquisitions of real property or new construction and are estimated to require total project expenditures exceeding $10 million; Repeal the requirement that the commission annually prepare a unified, 2-year report for capital construction projects for new acquisitions of real property or for new construction that are estimated to require total project expenditures exceeding $2 million; Clarify deadlines for the CDC to hold a hearing to review projections; Repeal the requirement that the CDC hold a hearing regarding projections whenever a projection is amended; and Repeal the requirement that the CDC review and approve guidelines prepared by the office of the state architect regarding the classification of facilities as academic facilities or auxiliary facilities. The act also specifies that agencies and institutions must encumber money for their capital construction projects within 6 months after the date on which the appropriation that includes the project becomes law or on or before November 1 of the state fiscal year for which the appropriation that includes the project is authorized, whichever is later. If an agency or institution will not encumber money for its capital construction project within the period specified, it may request that the CDC recommend to the controller that the deadline be extended for not more than a 6-month period , or, in the case of fee title acquisitions by the division of parks and wildlife in the department of natural resources, the deadline may be waived. The act also: Removes the requirement that the transportation commission annually submit capital requests to the CDC; Extends the deadline for the state treasurer's office to submit to the CDC and other agencies its annual report on the fiscal health of institutions from September 1 to March 1 of each state fiscal year, beginning with the report that is due for the 2025-26 fiscal year; Clarifies that any capital construction project that the CDC, in consultation with the council on creative industries, agrees does not meet the original purpose of the art in public places program may be exempt from the requirements of the program; and Clarifies that when a capital construction project receives a supplemental appropriation, it is available for the remainder of the state fiscal year for which the supplemental appropriation act was enacted and for the next 2 state fiscal years.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

At the November 2024 statewide election, voters approved proposition 130, which requires the state to provide $350 million in additional funding to local law enforcement agencies to improve recruitment, training, and retention of local law enforcement officers and to provide a $1 million death benefit to the family of a first responder who is killed in the line of duty. The act modifies and implements proposition 130. The act creates the peace officer training and support fund (fund), and establishes a formula by which the department of public safety (department) disburses $350 million in additional funding to local law enforcement agencies from the fund for permissible purposes. Permissible purposes include initial and continuing education and training for peace officers and the compensation of peace officers. Beginning July 1, 2026, the formula requires the department to disburse an amount to each law enforcement agency equal to the total of $15,000 and an amount multiplied by the number of P.O.S.T-certified officers, noncertified deputy sheriffs, and detention officers budgeted by a local government for the law enforcement agency. Law enforcement agencies and local governments may not use these funds to supplant or supplement other spending. Local governments must include evidence of compliance with the no supplanting or supplementing requirement in their annual audit and provide a copy of this audit to the department. The department must review a subset of the audits provided by local governments for compliance with the requirements of the act. The act also establishes funding for the fund. First, the act directs the state treasurer to transfer $15 million from the general fund to the fund on July 1, 2026. Second, the act directs the state treasurer to issue warrants from the general fund totaling $500 million to the public employees' retirement association (PERA) between July 1, 2025, and September 30, 2025. Beginning July 1, 2027, until the state treasurer has transferred a total of $350 million from the general fund to the fund: The amount of each annual direct distribution made by the state to PERA is reduced by the amount of PERA's earnings from the $500 million, up to a maximum of $35 million; and The state treasurer annually transfers an amount equal to the amount of PERA's earnings from the $500 million, up to a maximum of $35 million, from the general fund to the fund. However, beginning July 1, 2027, and each July 1 thereafter until the state treasurer has transferred a total of $350 million from the general fund to the fund, the state treasurer is required to transfer at least $15 million from the general fund to the fund regardless of the amount of PERA's earnings from the $500 million. The general assembly may annually appropriate to the department no more than 2.5% of the amount that the state treasurer annually transfers from the general fund to the fund for the department's direct and indirect costs of administering the distribution of money from the fund. The act clarifies that the $500 million in the warrants that the state treasurer issues to PERA are included in the general fund reserve. Accordingly, the act prohibits a future general assembly from lowering the general fund reserve to an amount less than $1 billion. If the general assembly does so reduce the reserve, the general assembly shall also make corresponding reductions to the direct distributions made by the state to PERA. The act also requires the governor to adjust general fund expenditures so that they do not result in the general fund reserve being reduced to an amount less than $1 billion. The act establishes a process by which the department distributes a $1 million death benefit to the family of a first responder who dies on or after November 5, 2024, as either the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained while performing official duties as a first responder or because of an occupational disease arising out of and in the course of the first responder's employment or service as a first responder. These payments are paid out of the death benefit fund, which is created in the act. The act requires the state treasurer to transfer $5 million from the general fund to the death benefit fund on both July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2027, and to make annual transfers from the general fund thereafter as necessary to ensure that the fund maintains a balance of $10 million. The act also requires a survivor of an eligible first responder to deduct an amount equal to the amount of any death benefit received from their federal taxable income for the purpose of determining their state income tax liability unless the survivor qualifies for a corresponding federal income tax deduction. The act also requires the department to provide technical assistance to law enforcement agencies and local governments in complying with the requirements of the act and allows the executive director of the department to adopt rules as necessary to implement the act. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, $5,046,967 is appropriated from the death benefit fund to the department for implementation of the death benefit program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

In current law, the sentencing structure for theft, except for auto theft, is based on the value of the item stolen. The act exempts theft of firearms from that sentencing structure and makes theft of a firearm a class 6 felony, regardless of the firearm's value. The act appropriates $324,225 from the general fund to the judicial department to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under current law, there exists a working group formed by the department of human services and the state court administrator in the judicial department to perform various duties related to the allocation of juvenile detention beds. The act amends these duties. Under current law, 22 emergency detention beds are available statewide. The act expands this to 39 emergency detention beds available statewide. The act requires the department of human services to publish a monthly report concerning the status of all youth who are in detention and are awaiting services that would mitigate the substantial risk of harm to others that are presented by the juvenile or the juvenile's risk of flight from prosecution and the number of emergency beds used by each judicial district or facility. The act requires the division of youth services to: Publish a report by July 1, 2027, concerning available placements for juveniles who are awaiting mitigating services in the state; and Establish a pilot program for certain staff members to wear a body-worn camera while in a facility while interacting with youth. The act requires a court to dismiss a delinquency petition or charges against a juvenile if the court determines that the juvenile is incompetent to proceed and the highest charged act constitutes a class 2 misdemeanor, petty offense, drug misdemeanor, or traffic offense. The act amends and expands considerations for a juvenile's case management plan, if the court determines that a juvenile is incompetent to proceed. The act creates the deflection and community investment grant program in the division of criminal justice to provide grants to eligible applicants to implement a mixed-delivery system of trauma-informed health and development deflection programs for youth, including Native American youth. The grant program repeals on January 1, 2031. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, the act: Appropriates $6,854,420 from the general fund to the department of human services to implement the act; Reappropriates $122,279 of general funds to the department of education to the department of human services for use by the division of youth services to implement the act; Appropriates $437,264 from the general fund to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice to implement the act; and Appropriates $2,708,316 from the general fund to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice for the deflection and community investment grant program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act defines "knowing misconduct" as a voluntary act or omission or series of acts or omissions consciously performed by a crime laboratory employee (employee) as a result of effort or determination in which the employee is aware that the employee's conduct is improper or deceptive and involves mishandling physical evidence or data or results, incorrectly performing forensic testing, presenting misleading or false results, concealing material information, or presenting false sworn testimony about evidence. The act defines a "significant event" as an act or omission by an employee that is a gross deviation from the standard operation procedures or accreditation requirements of the crime laboratory, or requirements in law that were applicable at the time of the act or omission of the employee, that could substantially negatively affect the integrity of the crime laboratory activities. The act requires an employee to report witnessed or discovered knowing misconduct or a significant event (collectively, "wrongful action") within 7 days of witnessing or discovering the wrongful action to the director of the crime laboratory (director) or to the employee's immediate supervisor, who shall report it to the director. A director who receives a report shall investigate the alleged wrongful action. As part of the investigation, the director must compile a list of all cases that the employee worked on. At the conclusion of the investigation, the director shall prepare a written final report. When an investigation is of alleged wrongful action in a pending case, the director shall notify each district attorney who has jurisdiction over the pending case about the investigation. At the conclusion of the investigation, if the investigation determines that the employee did not engage in wrongful action, the director shall deliver the final report to each district attorney who received notice of the investigation and to each district attorney who has jurisdiction over any case that was subject to investigation. If the investigation determines that the employee engaged in wrongful action, the director shall deliver the final report and all discoverable materials to each district attorney who has jurisdiction over any case that the employee worked on in an official capacity. If an investigation concerning wrongful action by a crime laboratory occurred after July 1, 2014, and before July 1, 2025, and the investigation resulted in criminal allegations filed against the employee or a sustained internal affairs action by the department supervising the employee, the director shall, as soon as practicable but no later than September 1, 2025, prepare a final report and provide the final report to all district attorneys with jurisdiction over any criminal case that is identified in the final report that is pending or has resulted in a conviction in that jurisdiction. Upon receipt of a notice from a director about an investigation into alleged wrongful action in a pending case, a district attorney shall notify the defendant in the case of the investigation. If the case involved a crime listed in the "Victim Rights Act", the district attorney shall also notify the victim about the alleged wrongful action, if the charges have been filed but the trial has not begun. A district attorney who receives a final report of an investigation that determines that a crime laboratory employee engaged in wrongful action in any case shall notify the defendant in that case, and each defendant whose case was reviewed as part of the investigation, of the determination of wrongful action. The act establishes a defendant's right to counsel in matters involving an employee's wrongful action and a right to investigate the wrongful action, to request discovery related to the wrongful action, and to seek post-conviction relief based on the wrongful action. The act permits a court to enter a protective order related to discovery requests. The act establishes a process for a defendant convicted in a case involving an employee's wrongful action to petition for post-conviction relief based on the wrongful action. If the defendant's petition for post-conviction relief asserts facts that, if true, demonstrate that a wrongful action was material to the case, the court shall decide the claim upon the merits after an evidentiary hearing. At the evidentiary hearing, the defendant has the burden to show that the employee committed the wrongful action and that the wrongful action is material to the case. If the defendant meets their burden, the court shall vacate the defendant's conviction and grant a new trial. The act makes all records related to an investigation criminal justice records and makes release of the records governed by the existing law governing criminal justice records; except that the custodian of a final report that concludes that a crime laboratory employee engaged in wrongful action may deny inspection of the report if there is an ongoing criminal investigation or criminal case. The act appropriates $140,433 from the general fund to the judicial department for use by the state courts. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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.)

Current law states that a person who commits careless driving and thereby causes the death of an individual commits a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense. The act expands current law to include careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury and states that if a person commits careless driving and thereby causes the serious bodily injury or death of more than one individual, each individual injure or killed is a separate violation. The act also clarifies that careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury or death is an included crime for the purposes of the "Victim Rights Act". (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)