The act adds firefighters to the class of people whose personal information is protected from publication on the internet by public entities upon a the request of a person in the class. APPROVED by Governor April 11, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The snowmobile recreation fund is used to, among other things, establish and maintain snowmobile trails and related facilities. A resident of Colorado who uses a snowmobile on publicly owned land must register the snowmobile and pay a fee, which is deposited in the snowmobile recreation fund. The act replaces a $5 per registration cap with a 17% cap on the amount of the fee that can be used for administration purposes. The act creates an out-of-state snowmobile permit that an owner or operator of an out-of-state snowmobile must obtain and display to drive the snowmobile on publicly owned land. To get the permit, the owner must pay a fee in an amount set by the parks and wildlife commission. Exceptions are created for snowmobiles: Owned by governments; Operated in an organized event authorized by the government with jurisdiction over the land on which the snowmobile is operated; and Operated on publicly owned land for nonrecreational purposes. Concerning the requirement to register a snowmobile, the current exception on private-land commercial use is extended to all private land use by repealing the commercial use element. The fine for a violation is $100. Permits are valid for one year from October 1 to September 30 and are issued by agents of the director of the division of parks and wildlife. A search and rescue program pays for backcountry search and rescue operations. Snowmobile and off-highway vehicle registrations require the payment of a search and rescue fee, which entitles the payer of the fee to be covered by the program. The act adds the search and rescue fee to out-of-state snowmobile permits and off-highway use permits. APPROVED by Governor April 11, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act strongly encourages a locally defined or interjurisdictional emergency management plan amended or created on or after July 1, 2024, and requires, when practicable, as determined after consideration of specified required factors, a locally defined or interjurisdictional emergency management plan amended or created on or after January 1, 2025, to address the needs of an individual with an animal during an emergency by: Including provisions for the evacuation, shelter, and transport of an individual with an animal and that animal; and Requiring, to the extent practicable, that at least one shelter established during an emergency is designated to accommodate an individual with an animal and that animal. The act also strongly encourages a city, county, or city and county to make available to the public, on or after January 1, 2025, information for animal emergency preparedness, including: Information for creating an evacuation plan and emergency checklist for individuals with animals consistent with recommendations publicly published by the United States department of agriculture and the federal emergency management agency; Local organizations that may provide emergency animal assistance; and Local emergency shelters, cooling centers, or warming centers, when active, that can accommodate an individual with an animal. Lastly, the act also strongly encourages a city, county, or city and county, on or after January 1, 2025, to implement disability etiquette and service animal training to ensure that emergency response personnel are well prepared to interact with individuals with disabilities and their service animals during emergency situations. APPROVED by Governor April 11, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 11, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill makes changes to increase access to restorative justice practices (restorative justice) in Colorado, specifically by: Creating a victim-survivor right to participate in restorative justice in the criminal and juvenile justice systems; Requiring that victim-survivors be informed of their statutory right to restorative justice and how to exercise it; Creating a victim-survivor right to request restorative justice as an alternative to, or in addition to, prosecution; Establishing the victim-survivor's right to accept or decline participation in restorative justice, and the right to change that decision, at any stage in the proceedings; Creating a victim-survivor right to restorative justice with trained facilitators who adhere to the Colorado restorative justice coordinating council's code of conduct and standards of training and practice, as amended; Requiring that, in cases of domestic violence or unlawful sexual behavior, when a victim-survivor requests restorative justice, the victim-survivor has a right to restorative justice with a facilitator who has specialized training and experience to address the issues specific to those cases; Requiring that participation in restorative justice by a responsible party is voluntary; Mandating that restorative justice is confidential and information obtained through a restorative justice practice must not be disclosed by any party to the practice without the agreement of all parties involved; Requiring the state restorative justice coordinating council to develop, on or before August 30, 2024, 2 standardized forms to advise victim-survivors of their right to restorative justice in criminal and juvenile cases and a confidentiality agreement to use in restorative justice; Clarifying that the legal authority of a prosecutor to make decisions about prosecution is preserved; Creating a funding source for restorative justice through the offender services fund; Eliminating language in statute that prohibits the use of restorative justice in cases involving domestic partner violence, protective orders, stalking, and unlawful sexual behavior; Requiring the department of corrections to accommodate victim-survivor requests for victim-offender dialogues; maintain an accountability letter bank for inmates to send letters of accountability, apology, or remorse to victim-survivors; inform victim-survivors of the availability of such letters; and adopt policies requiring adherence to the principles of victim empowerment; and Eliminating outdated language related to fees for restorative justice in multiple statutes.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
House Bill 22-1034, concerning the administration of retirement plans administered by the fire and police pension association, merged the statewide defined benefit plan, the statewide hybrid plan, and the social security supplemental plan into a single statewide retirement plan. Certain statutory cross references in House Bill 22-1034 were not properly updated to reflect the repeals and relocations of statutory provisions that were necessary to accomplish the merger. The act updates the obsolete statutory cross references. The act also updates the definition of "member" in the new hire pension plan statute to clarify that a portion of the definition applies only for purposes of the statewide money purchase plan and repeals an inapplicable portion of the definition of "member" in the statewide retirement plan statute. APPROVED by Governor March 6, 2024 EFFECTIVE March 6, 2024(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 bill exempts theft of firearms from that sentencing structure and makes theft of a firearm a class 6 felony, regardless of its value. Subsequent violations, including multiple firearms stolen in the same criminal incident, are separate class 5 felonies. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act creates the commission on property tax (commission) to study and report to the general assembly and the governor its recommendations for a permanent and sustainable property tax structure for the state. The commission consists of 19 members, including: 4 members of the general assembly; The property tax administrator; A mayor or elected city council person; A current or former county assessor; The executive director of the Special District Association of Colorado; A chief financial officer of a school district; A representative of a statewide organization with expertise in school funding policy or that represents Colorado educators; A representative of an organization that represents Colorado commercial or residential property owners; A fire chief; A representative of an organization with expertise in advocating for low-income individuals, seniors, individuals with fixed incomes, or residential tenants; The executive director of a statewide or regional business organization; and 5 county commissioners representing the front range, mountain, eastern, southern, and western regions of the state, respectively. The act directs the commission to meet at least twice a month beginning the week of December 18, 2023, through the week of March 15, 2024; except that, only one meeting is required in December of 2023. The commission may meet more often at the discretion of the chair and may establish special purpose subcommittees with nonvoting members to evaluate and consider property tax issues as the commission deems necessary to fulfill its goals. The commission is required to contract with a neutral facilitator with experience in tax policy to guide the work of the commission and to assist in drafting the commission's report due to the general assembly and the governor no later than March 15, 2024. The commission must identify, consider, and evaluate legislative options for a property tax structure that protects property owners from rising tax bills and is sustainable for local governments and public schools. For each option, the commission must consider the following factors: Local control; Impact to property owners and local taxing jurisdictions in different areas of the state; Impact to residential and nonresidential real property; Impact to school finance and the budget stabilization factor; Long-term impact to property owners and local taxing jurisdictions under different property value growth scenarios; Impact to housing affordability, including for residential tenants; Impacts to residential tenants, incentives for development, and the potential for lower property taxes for residences as a result of changing to a land value tax system; Impacts to the ability of counties to provide statutorily mandated and voter-approved services to Colorado residents; and Disproportionate impacts of the rising tax bills on people with lower incomes, especially people with fixed incomes, in providing fair and equitable property tax relief. The commission's report must include recommendations, supported by ten or more members, for both short-term and long-term legislative changes that will further the creation of a permanent and sustainable property tax structure for the state. The commission shall, as it deems appropriate, include in the report an evaluation of proposed initiatives concerning property tax for the 2024 general election that address the factors for consideration listed above. If such a proposed initiative is timely submitted to the directors of the legislative council and the office of legislative legal services after the commission has submitted its report, the commission shall reconvene to consider the effect of the proposed initiative if it were to be approved by the voters and, if deemed appropriate by the commission, supplement the report with additional information about the proposed initiative. After submitting its report, including any supplement deemed appropriate by the commission, a majority of the members of the commission may vote to extend the work of the commission past March 15, 2024, or to terminate the work of the commission at any time. If the commission votes to extend its work, the commission shall report to the general assembly and the governor, in accordance with the same reporting requirements applicable to its March 15, 2024, report, no later than December 31, 2024, on which date the commission is repealed. The act appropriates $80,271 to the legislative department to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor November 28, 2023 EFFECTIVE November 28, 2023(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Colorado law requires the manufacturer of cosmetic products, dietary supplements, food products, and food additives, including hemp products, to be registered with the department of public health and environment (department). The act creates a new framework for the department to regulate and register hemp products and certain intoxicating hemp products and for the marijuana enforcement division (division) in the department of revenue to regulate intoxicating products or potentially intoxicating compounds that are or may be cannabinoids. This regulation includes: The power to promulgate rules authorizing or prohibiting chemical modification, conversion, or synthetic derivation to create certain types of intoxicating cannabinoids; Classifying and reclassifying cannabinoids as intoxicating, potentially intoxicating, or nonintoxicating; Labeling and advertising requirements; Production and testing requirements; Inspection, record-keeping, surveillance, and inventory tracking requirements; Prohibiting the export of a safe harbor hemp product that is a synthetic cannabinoid or that is being exported to a state where it is illegal; and Issuing a cease-and-desist order or clean-up order. Hemp- and marijuana-derived compounds and cannabinoids are classified into 3 classifications: Nonintoxicating cannabinoids; Potentially intoxicating cannabinoids; and Intoxicating cannabinoids. Nonintoxicating cannabinoids that are derived from hemp may be produced, distributed, or sold as a hemp product. With the exception of products manufactured or produced for export, which are referred to as "safe harbor hemp products" and with some exceptions for small amounts of THC, products containing potentially intoxicating compounds and intoxicating cannabinoids must only be produced, distributed, or sold by a person licensed by the division to produce, distribute, or sell the compound or cannabinoid as a product. The act clarifies that: Nonintoxicating cannabinoids, potentially intoxicating compounds, and intoxicating cannabinoids are marijuana or marijuana products for the purposes of the retail marijuana sales tax; and A person must be licensed by the division to manufacture potentially intoxicating compounds or intoxicating cannabinoids. The act prohibits the following acts: Manufacturing, selling, or delivering products that contain intoxicating cannabinoids in excess of limits established by rule; Manufacturing a product containing hemp that is not a cosmetic, a dietary supplement, a food, a food additive, or an herb; Manufacturing, producing, selling, distributing, or holding for sale or distribution a safe harbor hemp product without registering with the department; Selling a hemp product to an individual who is under 21 years of age if the hemp product has a ratio of cannabidiol to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) of less than 20:1 and the hemp product contains more than 1.25 milligrams of THC, but this prohibition does not apply to products with no THC, tinctures, cosmetics, or hemp products that the United States food and drug administration has determined are generally recognized as safe; Selling a hemp product in a container with more than 5 servings if the hemp product has more than 1.25 milligrams of THC and a ratio of cannabidiol to THC of less than 20:1, but this prohibition does not apply to products with no THC, tinctures, cosmetics, or hemp products that the United States food and drug administration has determined are generally recognized as safe; or Selling a hemp product in a container with more than 30 servings if the hemp product has more than 1.25 milligrams of THC and a ratio of cannabidiol to THC of 20:1 or more, but this prohibition does not apply to products with no THC, tinctures, cosmetics, or hemp products that the United States food and drug administration has determined are generally recognized as safe. The penalty for a violation is up to $10,000 per day per violation. The act specifies factors to consider in determining the amount of the penalty. The act requires the executive director of the department of revenue to analyze the feasibility of establishing a standing committee to evaluate cannabinoids and cannabis-derived products for the purpose of determining and making recommendations regarding their safety profiles and potential for intoxication. The department of revenue may engage experts to inform its analysis. The bill sets standards for marijuana cultivation facilities to buy seeds and clones. To implement this act: $1,574,061 is appropriated to the department. This appropriation consists of $1,168,485 from the general fund and $405,576 from the wholesale food manufacturing and storage protection cash fund; $295,024 is appropriated from the general fund to the marijuana cash fund and reappropriated from the marijuana cash fund to the department of revenue; and Of the amounts appropriated to the departments of public health and environment and revenue, $437,764 is reappropriated to the department of law for the provision of legal services to those departments. The amounts are appropriated to the departments for the 2023-24 state fiscal year, and the departments are authorized to spend any amount not expended in the 2023-34 state fiscal year in the 2024-25 state fiscal year for the same purposes. APPROVED by Governor June 7, 2023 EFFECTIVE June 7, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates a data-sharing task force with 15 members that will meet a minimum of 6 times to evaluate data-sharing practices between state and municipal courts. The act requires the task force to: Investigate current data sharing and access to court data systems; Consider processes for sharing data and providing access to court data systems statewide; and Consider safety measures or integration of systems in order to protect sensitive data in court systems. The task force is required to report its findings and recommendations to the judiciary committees of the house or representatives and the senate, or any successor committees, on or before January 8, 2024. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, $115,440 is appropriated from the general fund to the judicial department to implement the act. The department may use this appropriation for information technology infrastructure. APPROVED by Governor June 7, 2023 EFFECTIVE June 7, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the fuels impact enterprise (enterprise) in the department of transportation. The enterprise is required to impose a new fuels impact reduction fee on fuel product manufacturers in an amount of up to $.006125 per gallon of fuel products delivered during the previous calendar month for sale or use in Colorado to fund a new fuels impact reduction grant program (program) that the enterprise administers. The fee is collected and deposited in the fuels impact enterprise cash fund until the fund has an available balance of $15 million or more. Under the program, the enterprise provides grants to certain critically impacted communities, governments, and transportation corridors for the improvement of hazardous mitigation corridors and to support local and state government projects related to emergency responses, environmental mitigation, or projects related to the transportation of fuel within the state. The enterprise and the program are repealed, effective January 1, 2030. Beginning October 1, 2023, the act modifies the fee that is currently collected for distribution to the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances cash fund by extending the collection of the fee to 2031and by changing the distribution of the fee revenue. Under the new distribution, the state treasurer shall credit: An amount equal to the cost of administering the fee and an existing tax credit to the department of revenue; $2 million of the fee revenue to the department of public safety to support the regulation of hazardous materials on highways in the state, to make employer contributions to a multiple employer health trust in order to participate in the voluntary firefighter cancer benefits program, and to enforce commercial and hazardous materials critical corridors determined by the chief of the Colorado state patrol; 70% of the amount remaining to the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances cash fund; and 30% of the amount remaining to the department of transportation to support functions related to the transportation of hazardous materials and the safe and efficient movement of freight as well as to support infrastructure projects that enhance the safety of movement of freight and hazardous materials. The act also increases the amount of fee revenue that can be held annually in the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances cash fund from $8 million to $9 million. Additionally, the act: Extends authorization for the division of oil and public safety to use the petroleum storage tank fund for costs related to petroleum storage tank facility inspections and meter calibrations from September 1, 2023, to September 1, 2033; Delays the effective date of the $8 million cap on the petroleum storage tank fund from September 1, 2023, to September 1, 2033; Allows the director of the division of oil and public safety, in consultation with the petroleum storage tank committee, to establish rules that allow an operator of petroleum storage tanks pay less than 100% reimbursement for remediation expenses paid from the petroleum storage tank fund to the fund; Allows the director of the division of oil and public safety to annually transfer up to $500,000 from the petroleum storage tank fund to the petroleum cleanup and redevelopment fund; Makes hazardous materials troopers eligible for the voluntary firefighter cancer benefits program; and Allows the Colorado state patrol to conform hazardous materials routing regulations to transportation commission rules; $36,272 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of revenue for implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor June 6, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
