The bill creates a legislative interim committee to study school finance issues and make legislative recommendations concerning how to most accurately meet the educational needs of students through the funding of education in Colorado. The interim committee will meet during the 2017 and 2018 legislative interims. The bill specifies issues that the interim committee must study. The interim committee is required to contract with a private entity to assist in the study. The chair and vice-chair of the interim committee may appoint subcommittees to provide technical assistance to the interim committee. The subcommittees may include members of the interim committee and other persons with expertise in school finance. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
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The bill sets the statewide base per pupil funding amount for the 2017-18 budget year at $6,546.20, which is an inflationary increase of 2.8%, and establishes the minimum amount of total program funding for the 2017-18 budget year. The bill requires that the sum of the total program funding for all schools for the 2017-18 budget year is not less than $6,634,600,182. The bill authorizes the state board to approve supplemental assistance from the contingency reserve fund for a district that experiences an unusual financial burden that results from implementing a new program or school or expanding a program in the district that results in a 20% or greater increase in the district's pupil enrollment from the pupil enrollment used to calculate the district's total program funding for the applicable budget year. The district must reimburse the contingency reserve fund at the time funding is adjusted for actual pupil enrollment for the applicable budget year. The bill changes the terminology used in the school finance act to describe the reduction in the state's share of total program funding from the phrase 'negative factor' to 'budget adjustment'. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill requires the governing board of each institution of higher education to adopt, make public, and implement a prior learning assessment policy for awarding academic credit for college-level learning acquired while in the military. The policy adopted by the governing board must require each campus to use the American Council on Education's recommendations on the joint services transcript and, at its discretion, assign appropriate credit. Further, the institutions shall provide specific guidance to active duty and veteran military members in selecting a program of study and optimizing prior learning assessment credit. Finally, the institutions shall accept in transfer from other state institutions prior learning assessment credit awarded for courses with guaranteed-transfer designation. During the 2018 legislative session, the department of higher education shall report to certain committees of the general assembly concerning the policies adopted by the institutions. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill declares that the regulation of automated driving systems is a matter of statewide concern, and, therefore, local authorities are prohibited from setting different standards for these systems than for human drivers. The use of automated driving systems is authorized if the system is capable of conforming to every state and federal law applying to driving. If not, a person testing a system is required to obtain approval from the Colorado state patrol and the Colorado department of transportation. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
House Bill 16-1456, enacted in 2016, granted the department of human services the authority to sell up to 15 acres around the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan to the United States department of veterans affairs for the purpose of expanding the Fort Logan national cemetery. The bill grants the department of human services authority to execute a land sale, at fair market value, to sell 51 additional acres, or up to 66 acres. The bill specifies that the proceeds of the sale of the additional 51 acres to the United States department of veterans affairs must be credited to the Fort Logan land sale account in the capital construction fund. The bill then creates the account in the capital construction fund and specifies that the money in the fund may be used for future capital construction, capital renewal, or controlled maintenance expenses of the department of human services, contingent upon approval by both the office of state planning and budgeting and the capital development committee. The bill further specifies that all or a portion of the money must be expended for veterans-related and behavioral health-related projects. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill requires a school district to distribute revenue it receives from ongoing local property tax mill levies equally, on a per-student basis, to the school district charter schools. Under specified circumstances, the school district may distribute the revenue using a different calculation. The bill does not require a school district to redistribute to charter schools any amount of the mill levy revenue that it distributed in budget years before the 2017-18 budget year. The requirement to distribute local property tax mill levy revenue to the district charter schools is phased in over 3 years starting in the 2018-19 budget year. In that year, a school district must calculate the per-student amount based on 33% of the amount of local property tax revenue collected. In the 2019-20 budget year, the per-student amount is calculated based on 66% of the amount of revenue collected. In the 2020-21 budget year and each budget year thereafter, the per-student amount is calculated based on 100% of the amount of revenue collected. But, if a school district in the 2016-17 budget year distributed to the district charter schools more than the amount required for the 2018-19 budget year or the 2019-20 budget year, it must continue distributing the higher amount in each of those budget years. A school district may place a question on the ballot in the next school district election after the bill passes asking the school district voters whether they want the school district to distribute to the district charter schools the amount of local property tax mill levy revenue that was approved before July 1, 2017, as required in the bill. If a majority votes 'no', the local school board may choose whether to distribute any portion of the local property tax mill levy revenue to the district charter schools. If a majority votes 'yes', then the local school board must distribute the local property tax mill levy revenue to the district charter schools as required in the bill. The election does not apply to any local property tax mill levies that are approved on or after July 1, 2017. The bill creates the mill levy equalization fund for charter schools authorized by the state charter school institute (institute charter schools). The general assembly chooses whether to appropriate money to the fund. The department of education is required to distribute any amount appropriated to the institute charter schools on a per-pupil basis in recognition of the institute charter schools' inability to access any amount of local property tax mill levy revenue. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill eliminates the requirement for a medical certificate for persons who drive for transportation network companies. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Current law allows a court to grant bail after a person is convicted, pending sentencing or appeal; except that no bail is allowed for persons convicted of certain specific crimes. To this list of crimes the bill adds a second or subsequent conviction for stalking that occurs within 7 years after the date of a prior offense for which the person was convicted; stalking when there was a protection order, injunction, or condition of bond, probation, or parole or any other court order in effect that protected the victim from the person; and any offense that includes an act of domestic violence if the defendant at the time of sentencing has been previously convicted of three or more prior offenses that included an act of domestic violence and that were separately brought and tried and arising out of separate criminal episodes. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Currently and until September 1, 2018, a distributor can claim a credit for taxes paid on tobacco products that are shipped or transported by the distributor to a consumer outside of the state. The bill makes the credit permanent. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)