The act allows, upon approval of the county treasurer, a board of county commissioners or a city council of a city and county to temporarily reduce, waive, or suspend delinquent interest payments for property tax payments. The act also requires a board of county commissioners or city council to notify local taxing jurisdictions of the intent to reduce, waive, or suspend delinquent property tax interest payments. If a local taxing jurisdiction would be unable to meet its bond payment obligations after the proposed reduction, waiver, or suspension, the local taxing jurisdiction shall notify the board of county commissioners or city council. Finally, the act requires a treasurer to advance property tax payments to local taxing jurisdictions to assist the local taxing jurisdictions in the payment of bonded indebtedness payments and monthly operation costs, if the local taxing jurisdiction submits a letter to the board of county commissioners of the county or the city council of the city and county that contains the local taxing jurisdiction. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Sponsored bills
Current law requires certain commercial pesticide applicators to be licensed or registered. The bill requires the commissioner of agriculture (commissioner) to notify such a regulated person within 24 hours after the commissioner or department of agriculture receives a complaint about the person. The notice must include the alleged facts and any statute or rule the person is alleged to have violated. If the notice is not provided: The commissioner is prohibited from suspending or revoking the person's license or registration, or imposing civil penalties; and The person is immune from a criminal prosecution based on the facts alleged in the complaint. The bill also requires the following proceedings to be brought within one year after the occurrence of the facts upon which they are based: A proceeding to discipline a licensee or registrant; A proceeding to impose civil penalties, not including failing to obtain the required license or registration; or A criminal prosecution, not including failing to obtain the required license or registration.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
A working group was convened over the 2019 interim pursuant to House Bill 19-1264 to develop proposed statutes to address certain issues affecting the creation, valuation, tax treatment, and stewardship of conservation easements in the state. The bill implements the recommendations of the working group as follows: Section 1 of the bill modifies the method of calculating the amount of the state income tax credit that may be claimed for the donation of a conservation easement. The section also clarifies the manner in which certain business entities claim the credit. Section 2 requires the state to provide compensation for certain taxpayers who were denied state income tax credits for conservation easements donated between 2000 and 2013 if the federal internal revenue service allowed a federal income tax deduction for the same donation. The amount of the compensation is based upon the amount of the credit that could have been claimed at the time of the original donation based upon the value of the donation accepted by the internal revenue service. The amount of compensation is reduced by any amount that was allowed to be claimed against Colorado income tax or otherwise reinstated to the claimant of the compensation. Where a tax credit was transferred to another taxpayer as transferee, the bill provides a process for all parties to the transaction to submit a mutual application for compensation or, if there is objection, a process to resolve disputes about the distribution of compensation. The total amount of compensation to be paid to all claimants is limited to the amount of unused conservation easement tax credits that could have been claimed between 2013 and 2019 under an existing statutory cap amount, but were not claimed. If the unclaimed amounts are not sufficient to satisfy all claims, then any unsatisfied claims would be paid in future years. The cap for each future year would be reduced by the amount of claims paid; except that the total amount of claims paid in a year could not exceed 50% of the amount of the cap for that year. Section 3 requires the director of the division of conservation to designated an ombudsman to assist in resolving certain disputes related to conservation easements. Section 3 also addresses the abandonment of conservation easements, which occurs when the holder of an easement no longer fulfills its stewardship obligations with respect to the easement. The division of conservation is required to investigate potential abandoned easements, make findings regarding each easement, and report its findings to the conservation easement oversight commission (commission). The commission then conducts a public hearing on the easement and, if it determines that an easement is abandoned, appoints a receiver to monitor the easement. Receivership for an abandoned easement is limited to 5 years, during which time the commission reviews the easement and attempts to identify options to reform the easement, have it assigned to another holder, or extinguish the easement. A stewardship account is established to provide for the cost of carrying out the stewardship obligations resulting from abandoned easements. A specified amount of money is appropriated to the stewardship account for the 2020-21 fiscal year, with a corresponding reduction in the amount of conservation easement tax credits that can be claimed for one year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill requires the state board of medical services to adopt rules creating an enhanced or tiered reimbursement rate or rates for secure alternative care facilities that have higher staffing ratios due to providing services to persons with dementia or other conditions. The department of health care policy and financing shall confer with interested stakeholders concerning the appropriate reimbursement rate or rates and may review enhanced or tiered reimbursement rate structures from other states. The state department shall seek any federal authorization necessary to implement the reimbursement rates.(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.)
If certain conditions are met, current law allows vehicle owners to get permits to move overweight loads. The bill creates a type of overweight permit for divisible loads granted to agricultural producers if: The vehicle is registered as a farm vehicle; The agricultural producer designates 100 days, which need not be consecutive, for each calendar year that the permit may be used; The vehicle is used to transport agricultural products from the place of production to the place of storage or sale; and The vehicle complies with rules governing the distribution of the load upon the vehicle's axles. The permit costs: $40 for general vehicles; $50 for quad axle groupings; $50 for vehicles with trailers with 2 or 3 axle groupings.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Capital Development Committee. Current statute requires the Colorado commission on higher education (commission) to request annually from the governing board of each state institution of higher education (institution) a 2-year projection (projection) of capital construction projects to be undertaken by an institution that is estimated to require total project expenditures exceeding $2 million if the capital construction project is for new acquisitions of real property or new construction and funded solely from cash funds held by the institution or the project is funded through the higher education revenue bond intercept program, or exceeding $10 million if the project is not for new acquisitions of real property or new construction and is funded solely from cash funds held by the institution. The bill adjusts the law to current practice and instead requires the projection to be reviewed at the commission's next available meeting and repeals 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. The bill repeals 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 from cash funds held by the institution that are not for new acquisitions of real property or new construction and are estimated to require total project expenditures exceeding $10 million. The bill repeals 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, estimated to require total project expenditures exceeding $2 million. Current law requires the capital development committee (CDC) to review the projections at a hearing but does not specify what to do when the legislature is not in session. The bill clarifies deadlines for when such hearings must be held. The bill also requires each state institution of higher education, for informational purposes only, to annually present its current projections at the capital development committee's December hearings. Current law requires the CDC to have a hearing regarding projections whenever a projection is amended. The bill repeals this requirement. Current law specifies that the CDC is required to review and approve guidelines prepared by the office of the state architect regarding the classification of facilities as academic facilities or auxiliary facilities. The bill repeals this requirement. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Water Resources Review Committee. The bill declares that new technologies, such as blockchain, telemetry, improved sensors, and advanced aerial observation platforms, can improve monitoring, management, conservation, and trading of water and enhance confidence in the reliability of data underlying water rights transactions. To advance the potential use of these new technologies, the bill: Authorizes and directs the university of Colorado and Colorado state university , in collaboration with the Colorado water institute at Colorado state university, to conduct feasibility studies and pilot deployments of these new technologies to improve water management in Colorado; and Appropriates $40,000 $20,000 to each university from the general fund, contingent on the university of Colorado's universities' receipt of a matching $40,000 in gifts, grants, and donations, for the purpose of funding the studies and pilot programs. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The act requires the department of transportation to study relevant and appropriate state highways in rural areas of the state for the purpose of identifying portions of rural state highways where the speed limit can be raised without endangering public safety. On or before March 1, 2021, the department shall complete its study. The department shall include a summary of the study in the department's next annual report to the legislative committees of reference. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act expresses the general assembly's intent that school district board of education (board) members attending and participating in board meetings electronically be included in the number of members present and necessary to convene a meeting and that a board's policy authorizing electronic participation include a procedure for ensuring that electronically participating members have real-time access to materials presented at the meeting. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)