Sen. Cathy Kipp

The act appropriates $4,197,000 to the department of education from the state education fund to fund student educator stipend program stipends. The department of education is required to transfer the appropriation spending authority to the department of higher education to fund student educator stipend program stipends. APPROVED by Governor June 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 4, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires local taxing jurisdictions that impose a local lodging tax or a sales or use tax on building or construction materials that integrate such taxes into building permits (applicable sales or use tax) to file with the executive director of the department of revenue (executive director) a copy of the resolution or ordinance, and any amendments thereto, imposing such taxes and, if not included in the resolution, ordinance or amendments and certain additional information related to each type of tax. For local lodging taxes, the act requires local taxing jurisdictions to report the rate of the tax, the types of lodging the tax applies to, the number of days after which a stay may be exempt from the tax, and the amount of tax that may be retained by the collector of the tax in exchange for timely filing. For the applicable sales or use tax, the act requires local taxation jurisdictions to report the rate and calculation, what information is included on building permits, the timing for remittance of the tax, and whether the tax is imposed on asphalt equipment, storage of equipment, or services. By no later than July 1, 2025, and by no later than January 1 and July 1 of each year thereafter, the executive director must publish the information in the local taxing jurisdiction's reports relating to the local lodging tax and applicable sales or use tax. The act also modifies the scope of the sales and use tax simplification task force (task force) to include simplification of local lodging tax systems and requires that, in the 2024 interim, the task force shall receive testimony and proposals related to the feasibility and implementation of an electronic system for the collection and remittance of local lodging taxes in the same manner or in a manner similar to the electronic sales and use tax simplification system. The task force may propose legislation for the 2025 legislative session to implement or create such an electronic portal. APPROVED by Governor June 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 4, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under current law, the teacher mentor grant program (grant program) provides funding to partnerships between local education providers and educator preparation programs to provide training and stipends for experienced teachers who mentor teacher candidates in clinical practice. The act expands the grant program to include mentorship of novice teachers who have fewer than 3 years of teaching experience. The act requires the general assembly to appropriate $100,000 dollars to the department of higher education for the grant program for the 2024-25 state fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter. Any appropriation remaining at the end of the 2024-25 state fiscal year or subsequent fiscal year may be used for the grant program in subsequent fiscal years. The act appropriates $100,000 from the general fund to the department of higher education for use by the Colorado commission on higher education for growing great teachers - teacher mentor grants. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act implements, with amendments, the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies (DORA) in its sunset review and report on the division of financial services (division), which is created within DORA. Specifically, the act: Continues the division and the financial services board (board) for 9 years, until 2033; Authorizes a credit union to merge with a credit union that is chartered in another state; Increases the maximum civil penalty for violating a cease-and-desist order or suspension order from $1,000 per day to $5,000 per day; Repeals a provision that prohibits credit unions from having overlapping geographic fields of membership; Repeals a requirement that the board send hearing notices by certified or registered mail; Authorizes a credit union to determine the date upon which its fiscal year ends and the date of the credit union's annual membership meeting; and Replaces gender-specific language with gender-neutral language. Additionally, the act removes obsolete statutory references to the federal office of thrift supervision, which no longer exists. Under Colorado law pertaining to life care institutions, an entrance fee is an initial or deferred transfer to or for the benefit of a provider of a sum of money or other property made or promised to be made as full or partial consideration for the acceptance or maintenance of a specified individual as a resident in a life care facility. The act states that if an entrance fee is in the form of a sum of money, the sum must be greater than 4 times the amount of a regular periodic charge under a life care contract at the life care facility. The act also clarifies that: The term "life care" includes the occupancy of a living unit, nutrition services, and nursing services; A resident's living unit may change based on the appropriate care needs of the resident; and The term "provider" does not include a unit owners' association of a common interest community. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the department of human services to oversee the operations of host home programs. The act sets requirements for organizations seeking to operate a host home program and requirements for host homes participating in a host home program. The act does not apply to host homes providing residential services to adults with intellectual and development disabilities. The act allows a youth to reside in a host home for up to 21 days, unless the youth is 18 years of age or older but under 23 years of age and consents to remain in the host home longer. A host home that hosts a youth under 11 years of age must obtain written consent from the youth's parent or legal guardian authorizing the temporary residence. The bill requires the a host home program that receives government funding to enter information regarding the host home program in the homeless management information system. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the Colorado energy office to issue a request for information by December 1, 2024, to solicit interest from local governments that are served by a dual-fuel utility (utility) in becoming a gas planning pilot community (community). A gas planning pilot community is defined in the act as a local government in which constituents have gas service provided by a utility and an active franchise agreement with the utility, which local government formally indicates an interest in working with the utility to mutually explore opportunities for neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. A neighborhood-scale alternatives project geographically targets decommissioning a portion of the gas distribution system or avoids expanding the gas distribution system in order to serve new construction projects and provides alternative energy service to buildings within the project area that reduces future greenhouse gas emissions required to serve buildings. By April 30, 2025, the Colorado energy office and a utility must jointly file with the public utilities commission (commission) the results of the request for information, identifying up to 5 proposed communities. In identifying proposed communities, the Colorado energy office and the utility must prioritize local governments that are interested in pursuing thermal energy network or geothermal energy projects as part of the proposed community's evaluation of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. The Colorado energy office and the utility must also jointly file a draft agreement between the utility and a proposed community to identify and pursue a neighborhood-scale alternatives project. The commission must approve or modify the list of proposed communities by June 30, 2025. By October 1, 2025, though a utility and local government may agree to extend this deadline, a utility and each approved community must enter into an agreement, and the utility must submit to the commission a list of the communities with which the utility has entered into an agreement. For each approved community, the utility is required to disclose certain data and information to the Colorado energy office, the commission, and the community to inform the evaluation of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. The act requires the utility to work with an approved community to rank neighborhood-scale alternatives projects and, before June 1, 2026, to submit at least one neighborhood-scale alternatives project to the commission for approval if the neighborhood-scale alternatives project has the full support of potentially affected customers. The filing must also contain a list of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects that are ranked highly but do not have full customer support at the time of the filing. Prior to June 1, 2027, a utility and a local government must jointly submit an application for commission approval of the neighborhood-scale alternatives projects included on this list, which projects may lack full customer support if the local government has determined that a reasonable majority of customers supports each project. The joint application must also include the net costs of the projects. If a utility will not pursue a neighborhood-scale alternatives project in one or more communities, the utility and local government, prior to June 1, 2027, are required to jointly file a report with the commission explaining why a project will not be pursued in that community. The commission must allow a utility to recover costs incurred from the implementation of a neighborhood-scale alternatives project. In approving a neighborhood-scale alternatives project, the commission may modify the gas utility's service requirement for select premises with an alternative energy service requirement. A utility may propose to fund conversion of existing gas appliances or equipment to nonemitting thermal resources and may also propose to offer new rate structures to pay for thermal energy networks or other nonemitting thermal resources as an alternative energy service. By June 1 of each year following approval of a neighborhood-scale alternatives project, a utility is required to submit a report to the commission on the implementation of any approved neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. By July 1, 2028, or another time determined by the commission, the commission must hire a third-party consultant to conduct an analysis of all approved and proposed neighborhood-scale alternatives projects and present the findings of the analysis to the commission and the general assembly. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $43,650 to the office of the governor for use by the Colorado energy office from the general fund for program administration; and $29,678 to the commission from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund for personal services and operating expenses. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Maddy summaryThis bill eliminates the state severance tax exemption currently granted to stripper wells, which are low-producing oil and gas wells that extract fifteen barrels of oil or ninety thousand cubic feet of gas per day or less. By removing this exemption, the legislation requires operators of these wells to pay the same severance tax rates as higher-producing wells, with the collected revenue distributed between the state and local governments. The measure also adjusts related tax credits to ensure that stripper wells no longer receive preferential treatment under Colorado's existing tax code.

Pension Review Commission. The bill creates a refundable income tax credit that is available for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2024, but prior to January 1, 2026, for a qualifying public employees' retirement association retiree, which means a full-time Colorado resident individual who: Is a retiree of the public employees' retirement association; Is 65 years of age or older at the end of the 2024 or 2025 income tax year; and Has an annual a federal adjusted gross income of no more than $38,000 as a single filer or $76,000 as a joint filer. (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.)

Current law prohibits a local government from creating laws that regulate the use of pesticides by pesticide applicators regulated by state or federal law. The bill allows a local government to create and enforce laws regulating the sale or use of pesticides to protect the health and safety of the community with certain exceptions. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill makes the following changes to the "Colorado Open Records Act" (CORA): Requires a custodian to evaluate a request for public records promptly and for no longer than 2 days. Within the 2-day period the custodian shall notify the requester whether or not any costs or fees that may apply to the request and if extenuating circumstances exist that allow for an extension of the reasonable time to respond to a CORA request (response period). If there are costs or fees that may apply, the response period does not begin until the custodian receives a response from the requester acknowledging acceptance of the costs or fees. Alternatively, a requester may revise their request and the custodian shall evaluate the revised request within the 2-day evaluation period. Otherwise, the response period begins after the custodian has provided notice to the requester. Changes the reasonable time to respond to a CORA request, except for requests from a mass medium or a newsperson, from 3 working days to 5 working days and changes the extension of time for the response period if extenuating circumstances exist from not exceeding 7 additional days to not exceeding 10 additional days; Adds an extenuating circumstance that allows for an extension of the response period when the custodian is not scheduled to work within the response period; Requires public entities to post any rules or policies adopted pursuant to CORA, including what the public entity's records retention policy, and to post information for members of the public regarding how to make a public records request; If public records are in the sole and exclusive custody and control of someone who is not scheduled to work within the response period, a custodian shall provide all other available responsive public records within the response period and notify the requester of the earliest date on which the person is scheduled to return to work and make best efforts to make responsive records available for inspection within the response period or extended response period, as applicable expected to be available or that the person is not expected to return to work . The requester may make a subsequent request for additional responsive records, if any, on or after the date the person who is authorized to have custody and control of the records is scheduled to return to work custodian provides . Allows a custodian to determine that a requester is a vexatious requester, requires the custodian to make a sworn statement in support of the determination to provide to the requester, allows the custodian a 30-day response period when a requester is a vexatious requester, and permits the requester to appeal the determination that the requester is a vexatious requester to the district court; Excludes a mass medium or newsperson from being a vexatious requester; Allows a custodian , subject to certain exceptions, to determine that a request is made for the direct solicitation of business for pecuniary gain, requires the custodian to make a sworn statement in support provide written notice of the determination to provide to the requester, allows the custodian a 30-day response period for such a request, permits the requester to submit a signed statement affirming the request is not for the direct solicitation of business for pecuniary gain which the custodian must consider in making their determination, permits the requester to appeal the determination that the request is made for the direct solicitation of business for pecuniary gain to the district court, and allows a custodian to charge the requester for the full cost of responding to the request notwithstanding the allowance for the first hour of research and retrieval to otherwise be free of charge and notwithstanding the statutory cap on fees, which otherwise would apply; Prohibits disclosure of any other contact information of students in any public elementary or secondary school in addition to the prohibition of disclosure of addresses and telephone numbers that is in current law; Allows a custodian to deny the right of inspection of public records that are an employee's calendar, unless the public record is an elected official's calendar or the calendar of an employee who is in a leadership position or the request is made by a mass medium or newsperson; and Clarifies that if a custodian imposes any requirements concerning the pre-payment of fees or the payment of fees in connection with a request for inspection of public records, the requirements must be in accordance with the custodian's adopted rules or written policies and must not be inconsistent with the provisions of CORA; and Allows a custodian to treat a CORA request made within 14 calendar days of another CORA request made by the same person as one request for purposes of calculating the fee that the custodian may charge to the requester for research and retrieval of responsive public records. In addition, the bill requires that members of the general assembly retain public records for a minimum of 60 days. (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.)