The act requires the Colorado commission on higher education (commission) to enact a policy directing the department of higher education (department) to develop student success measures that measure the progression of students through postsecondary education and the impact of postsecondary pathways on a student's career opportunities and success. The student success measures must include postsecondary success measures and workforce success measures. The act requires the department to create and maintain a statewide student success data system that includes institution-specific interfaces and a public interface. An institution interface includes student success data that may be more timely, more granular, appears in a different format, or include functionality that is different from information provided on the public interface. The public interface includes student success information that is aligned with the student success measures and must allow a user to view and compare student workforce success information for specific institutions of higher education in Colorado. The commission determines the information included in the public interface and how that information is disaggregated by various student populations, such as populations identified by race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic factors. The department may include in the statewide data system employment and wage outcome data of a workforce development or training program that joins the data system. The act requires the commission to use the data included in the institution and statewide data system to examine educational and workforce success disparities among various student populations. The act requires the commission to facilitate information sharing among institutions about practices implemented by an institution based on data learned from the data system. The department may enter into an agreement with a third party to create and maintain the data system. The act requires the department to update and modernize its data collection systems to facilitate the collection of student success data. The act appropriates $3 million from the workers, employers, and workforce centers cash fund to the department for the data system. The appropriation is from the money in the cash fund that originated from the general fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act creates the circular economy development center (center) in the department of public health and environment (department). The purpose of the center is to grow existing markets; create new markets; and provide necessary infrastructure, systems, logistics, and marketing to create a sustainable circular economy for recycled commodities and compost in Colorado. On or before July 1, 2023, subject to available appropriations, the department must contract with a third-party administrator to operate the center. The center must conduct a statewide, end-market gap analysis and opportunity assessment and submit a final report of the analysis and assessment to the department by August 1, 2024. Beginning September 1, 2023, and on or before each September 1 thereafter, the center must also submit a report to the department describing the progress of the center. The department must include the report in its annual presentation to the general assembly pursuant to the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act". The center is repealed, effective September 1, 2030. Before the repeal, the activities of the center are scheduled for a sunset review by the department of regulatory agencies. The act requires the front range waste diversion enterprise (enterprise), in coordination with the department, to pay for direct and indirect costs associated with the operation of the center through the front range waste diversion cash fund (fund). The act also makes changes to the front range waste diversion enterprise grant program as follows: Current law imposes limitations for grant applications that are received from a waste hauler or a landfill owner or operator. Specifically, as to the portions of such an application that relate to infrastructure or equipment, only 50% of infrastructure or equipment can be funded through the grant program and, if the board of directors of the enterprise (board) awards a grant to a waste hauler or landfill owner or operator for infrastructure or equipment, the grantee is ineligible to receive a grant for the following 5 years. The act removes these limitations. Current law prohibits the board from allocating more than 20% of the annual fund revenue in any single grant award. The act raises this maximum to 50%. The act also requires the department to use money appropriated from the recycling resources economic opportunity fund to pay for up to 40% of the direct and indirect costs associated with the operation of the center. Under current law, the solid waste user fee is repealed, effective July 1, 2026. The act eliminates this repeal date and extends, from September 1, 2029, to September 1, 2030, the repeal date of a specific user fee that is associated with the solid waste user fee. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
For state fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23, $1,000,000 is annually appropriated from the general fund to the department of human services for use by administration and finance for grants for operational expenses related to the Colorado 2-1-1 collaborative. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, an additional $55,645 is appropriated from the general fund to the department for use by administration and finance for the 2-1-1 collaborative based on the assumption that the department will require an additional 0.9 FTE. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
On or before June 1, 2023, the executive director (executive director) of the Colorado department of public health and environment (department) must designate a nonprofit organization (organization) to implement and manage a statewide program (program) that provides recycling services to covered entities in the state, which are defined as residences, public places, small businesses, schools, hospitality locations, and state and local government buildings. The program is funded by annual dues (producer responsibility dues) paid by producers of products that use covered materials (producers). Covered materials are defined as packaging materials and paper products. The act creates the producer responsibility program for statewide recycling advisory board (advisory board), which consists of members who have expertise in recycling programs and are knowledgeable about recycling services in the different geographic regions of the state. Prior to the implementation of the program, the organization must: On or before September 1, 2023, hire an independent third party to conduct an assessment of the recycling services currently provided in the state and the recycling needs in the state that are not being met (needs assessment); On or before January 30, 2024, report the results of the needs assessment to the advisory board and the executive director; On or before March 15, 2024, submit and present the needs assessment to the joint budget committee; and On or before February 1, 2025, after soliciting input from the advisory board and other key stakeholders, submit a plan proposal for the program (plan proposal) to the advisory board and executive director. The plan proposal will initially cover recycling services only for residential covered entities. The plan proposal must: Describe how the organization will meet certain convenience standards and statewide recycling, collection, and postconsumer-recycled-content rates (rates); Establish a funding mechanism through the collection of producer responsibility dues that covers the organization's costs in implementing the program and the costs of the department in overseeing the program; Establish an objective formula to reimburse 100% of the net recycling services costs of public and private recycling service providers (providers) performing services under the program; Provide a list of covered materials (minimum recyclable list) that providers performing services under the program must collect to be eligible for reimbursement under the program; Set minimum rate targets that the state will strive to meet by January 1, 2030, and January 1, 2035, and describe how the state can meet increased rates after 2035; and Describe a process and timeline, beginning no later than 2028, to expand recycling services to applicable nonresidential covered entities. As part of the program, the organization must: Utilize and expand on providers' existing recycling services to provide statewide recycling services at no charge to covered entities for all covered materials on the minimum recyclable list; Develop and implement a statewide education and outreach program on the recycling and reuse of covered materials; Contract with an independent third party to conduct an annual audit of the program; and Submit an annual report to the advisory board describing the progress of the program (annual report). On January 1, 2025, and each January 1 thereafter, as an alternative to participating in the program, a producer may submit an individual plan proposal to the advisory board. The advisory board will review and make recommendations on, and the executive director shall approve or reject, the individual plan proposal. The act establishes the producer responsibility program for statewide recycling administration fund (fund). On or before June 30, 2026, and on each June 30 thereafter, the department will notify the organization of its costs in overseeing and enforcing the program, and the organization will transmit a portion of the producer responsibility dues to the fund for the purposes of reimbursing the department for its costs. Effective July 1, 2025, a producer may not sell or distribute any products that use covered materials in the state unless the producer is participating in the program or, after January 1, 2029, as set forth in the final plan or another plan approved by the executive director. The advisory board has the following duties: Advise the organization on the needs assessment; Review the needs assessment; Review the plan proposal and make recommendations to the executive director regarding its approval or rejection; Consult with the organization on any amendments to the plan proposal and then make recommendations to the executive director regarding approval or rejection of the amendments; Review the annual report submitted by the organization; and Consult with the organization on the development and updating of the minimum recyclable list. The act establishes an administrative penalty for the organization's or a producer's violation of the relevant statutes and rules. The collected penalties are deposited into the recycling resources economic opportunity fund. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, $119,130 is appropriated from the general fund to the department to implement the act, of which $20,503 is reappropriated to the department of law to provide legal services for the department. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The food pantry assistance grant program is set to repeal on June 30, 2023. The act extends the food pantry assistance grant program through July 1, 2024. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $3 million from the general fund to be used for the purchase of Colorado agricultural products and agricultural products that hold cultural significance for indigenous first nations people, or for other cultures or subcultural groups, including the ways in which those agricultural products are produced. The act allows up to $100,000 annually of the appropriation to be used to hire a nonprofit entity to provide technical assistance to a grant recipient to train food pantries and assist in the location and purchase of Colorado agricultural products. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements most of the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies, as contained in the department's sunset review of the board of real estate appraisers (board), as follows: Continues the board for 9 years, until September 1, 2031; Requires the board to adopt rules to authorize an exemption from compliance with the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice that would allow an appraiser to perform an evaluation instead of a full appraisal for a federally regulated financial institution and authorizes an appraiser to conduct an evaluation in accordance with the board's rules; Amends statute to comport with federal law, including updating the number of appraisers with which a licensed appraisal management company does business, updating the qualifications for licensure to require the minimum appraisal experience required by the Appraiser Qualifications Board of the Appraisal Foundation or its successor organization, clarifying that the federal regulating authorities that regulate a financial institution are exempted from state registration or licensure, and aligning the hours of continuing education required for reactivation of an inactive license with the number of hours required by the Appraiser Qualifications Board; Repeals the requirement that the board send letters of admonition by certified mail; and Clarifies that fines are assessed on a per-violation basis and reduces the maximum penalty from $2,000 to $1,000, which maximum penalty applies to any violation.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under the law, a business entity submits filing documents that concern the creation, organization, and operations of an entity to the secretary of state through an online filing system. By submitting a document, an individual affirms under penalty of perjury that the individual is authorized to file the document, the facts in the document are true, and the document otherwise complies with the secretary of state's filing requirements. The secretary of state saves the document in an online database as a ministerial act and does not independently verify whether the document is accurate. The act creates a complaint process for a person whose business identity or personal identifying information has been used in the filing of these documents with the secretary of state without authority or for fraudulent activity. If a complaint is submitted with the secretary of state, the secretary must forward the complaint to the attorney general for further investigation. The attorney general may investigate the complaint and refer the complaint to an administrative law judge. If an administrative law judge determines that an entity has been created fraudulently or without authorization, the secretary of state is required to: Mark the business record with a notice that the entity is fraudulent or unauthorized; Redact each address that was used without authorization from the entity's filing and from any other relevant filings; and Disable additional filing functionality on the entity's records. If an administrative law judge determines that an unauthorized filing was made for a legitimate entity, the secretary of state is required to: Mark each unauthorized filing for the entity to notify the public that the filing is unauthorized; Redact from the entity's filing and from the relevant filings each address and name that was used without authorization; and Mark the business record on the entity's filing to notify the public that the entity has been the victim of fraudulent or unauthorized acts. If a person alleged to have committed fraud or unauthorized acts fails to respond to the complaint, the allegations are deemed conceded, and the secretary of state is directed to take the appropriate steps listed above in the same manner as if the finding had been made by an administrative law judge. The act creates a working group to study measures to counteract and prevent fraudulent filings in the online business filing system. The working group has 11 persons who represent the affected state agencies, businesses, and the Colorado bar association. The working group is directed to submit a report to the general assembly by January 31, 2023, containing potential legislative provisions to counteract and prevent fraudulent filings, as well as the costs and benefits associated with each potential legislative provision. The report may include specific recommendations to the general assembly. Fraudulent filings are made an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the "Colorado Consumer Protection Act" and as such are subject to enforcement by the attorney general's office. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act increases election security measures for the secretary of state's office, election officials, candidates for elective office, and voters. Section 4 of the act requires the district court and the supreme court, if applicable, to expedite scheduling and the issuance of any orders in connection with an enforcement action brought by the attorney general or the secretary of state to enforce the provisions of the election code to ensure that a final ruling is made within specified periods. Section 5 requires a designated election official for a county, a coordinated election official for a county, and employees in the election division of the department of state (department), at the discretion of the secretary of state, to complete a certification program for election officials provided by the secretary of state (certification program). The secretary of state is strongly encouraged to complete the certification program. Employees, designated election officials, and coordinated election officials are required to complete the certification program within a specified period and may not serve as the designated election official for a county or the coordinated election official for a county without completing the certification program. Section 6 requires that the certification program curriculum include courses in voter registration and list maintenance, accessibility, coordinated elections, mail ballot and in-person voting processes, voting systems testing, risk-limiting audits, and canvass. Section 7 specifies that a person is ineligible to serve as a designated election official for a county or as a coordinated election official if the person has been convicted of an election offense or of committing or conspiring to commit sedition, insurrection, treason, conspiracy to overthrow the government, or another similar federal offense. Section 8 requires the secretary of state to invoice any county that uses a voting system in an instant runoff voting election for its share of the cost as a proportion of the number of registered active voters in all participating municipalities in that county compared to the total number of registered active voters in all participating municipalities in the state as determined by the secretary of state. Section 9 modifies the prohibition for certain elected officials or candidates for elective office from preparing, maintaining, or repairing any voting equipment or device that is to be used in an election to apply to any contact with the voting equipment or device, rather than just physical contact. In a political subdivision with a population of 100,000 or more, section 9 also prohibits any elected official, any candidate for elective office, and the secretary of state from having key card access to or being present in a room with components of a voting system without being accompanied by one or more persons with authorized access. Section 10 requires that for elections conducted under the "Uniform Election Code of 1992", the governing body of any political subdivision is required to adopt an electronic or electromechanical voting system to be used for tabulating votes at all elections held by the political subdivision. This requirement does not apply to counties with fewer than 1,000 active electors at the date of the last general election. Section 11 prohibits a county from creating, permitting any person to create, or disclosing to any person an image of the hard drive of any voting system component without the express written permission of the department. Section 12 specifies that if a software or hardware malfunction makes it impossible to count all or a part of the ballots with electronic vote-tabulating equipment, the secretary of state, after consultation with the designated election official, may permit the designated election official to direct that such ballots be counted manually. Section 13 requires a designated election official to keep all components of a voting system in a location where entry is controlled by use of a key card access system and that is under video security surveillance recording. The designated election official is required to ensure that records in connection with access to the location of the voting system and video recordings of the location are created and maintained for specified periods. Section 3 defines terms in connection with these requirements. Section 13 also directs the general assembly to appropriate the following amounts for the 2022-23 state fiscal year: One million dollars from the general fund to the department to administer a grant program, which is created by the act, to provide assistance to counties in complying with the security requirements of the act; and $117,000 from the department of state cash fund to the department to assist the state and counties with assessing potential risks to the proper administration of elections. In addition, section 13 requires the general assembly to make appropriations for the 2023-24 state fiscal year and each state fiscal year thereafter from the department of state cash fund to the department to assist the state and counties with assessing potential risks to the proper administration of elections. Section 14 states that if a majority of a canvass board in a county is unable to or does not certify the abstract of votes for any reason by the applicable deadline, the secretary of state is required to review the noncertified abstract of votes and other evidence provided by the canvass board. If, after review, the secretary of state determines that the noncertified abstract of votes is sufficiently explicit in showing how many votes were cast for each candidate, ballot question, or ballot issue, the secretary of state is required to certify the results for the county and proceed to certifying state results. Section 15 specifies that in addition to complying with certain existing rules of the secretary of state when carrying out the duties of the secretary of state, a person is also required to comply with other policies of the secretary of state, including the acceptable use policy for the statewide voter registration system, when carrying out such duties. Section 15 also specifies that any person who willfully interferes with a person in notifying or obstructs a person from notifying the department of a potential violation or retaliates against a person for providing such notice is subject to current penalties for election offenses. Section 16 prohibits a person from accessing electronic voting equipment or an election-night reporting system without authorization and specifies that a person who accesses such equipment or system is guilty of a class 5 felony. Section 16 also specifies that an authorized person who knowingly publishes or causes to be published passwords or other confidential information relating to a voting system will immediately have their authorized access revoked and is guilty of a class 5 felony. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
In 2021, the general assembly authorized the broadband deployment board (board) to award money that the state received under the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" (federal act) for broadband deployment projects. The act updates the requirements for awarding grant money pursuant to the federal act to require that applications comply with finalized federal regulations regarding use of money under the federal act. The act also: Reduces the notice and comment period for an interested party to review and comment on a grant application from at least 60 days to 45 days; Exempts a grantee from the requirement to complete an approved project in 2 years or less if the grantee demonstrates to the board that the project is delayed due to a relevant disruption in the supply chain; Requires the board to apply the updated requirements to previously denied applications that sought grant awards under the federal act; and Establishes a process and remedies for appeals of a board decision regarding a grant application.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, facilities that provide long-term nursing, rest, and assisted living services, where residents reside for more than 30 days, are classified as residential properties. However, facilities that provide short-term convalescent care and rehabilitation services, where patrons visit the facility periodically or temporarily reside there for less than 30 days, are valued and classified as nonresidential property. The act defines a nursing home as a licensed nursing care facility, including a nursing care facility that provides convalescent care and rehabilitation services. The act specifies that land on which a nursing home is situated and any improvements affixed to that land for the use of the nursing home are classified and assessed as residential real property, regardless of a resident's length of stay. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)