For state fiscal years 2023-24 through 2026-27, current law requires the state treasurer to credit to the decarbonization tax credits administration cash fund (fund) oil and gas severance tax revenue equal to the amount attributable to the decreased severance tax credit allowed for oil and gas production for tax years 2024 through 2026. For state fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26, section 2 of the act specifies that the amount of oil and gas severance tax revenue credited to the fund shall not exceed the net revenue from the oil and gas severance tax collection. Section 3 requires the state treasurer to transfer $2,500,000 from the energy and carbon management cash fund to the fund on June 30, 2025. Section 1 requires the state treasurer to transfer $2,500,000 from the fund to the energy and carbon management cash fund on January 1, 2026. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Sponsored bills
Colorado law allows a local government to establish local minimum wages in excess of the statewide minimum wage established in the state constitution. A local government that enacts a minimum wage must provide a tip offset for tipped employees in an amount equal to the tip offset amount described in the state constitution, which is $3.02. The act states that on and after January 1, 2026, a local government that has enacted a code or an ordinance imposing a minimum wage that exceeds the state minimum wage may increase the amount of the tip offset associated with the local minimum wage; except that a local government shall not impose a tip offset in an amount that allows a tipped employee to earn less than the state minimum wage minus $3.02. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the state treasurer to transfer the following amounts from the license plate cash fund (fund) on June 30, 2025: 40% of the unexpended and unencumbered balance of the fund to the general fund; and 40% of the unexpended and unencumbered balance of the fund to the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account in the highway users tax fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
For state fiscal year 2025-26 only, the act directs the state treasurer to transfer all interest and income derived from the deposit and investment of money in the following funds and accounts to the general fund: The workers' compensation cash fund; The decommissioning fund; The AIR account in the highway users tax fund; The supplier database cash fund; The emergency medical services account; The plant health, pest control, and environmental protection fund; The Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account; The nursing home penalty cash fund; The advanced industries acceleration cash fund; The indirect costs excess recovery fund; The limited gaming fund; The energy fund; The small business recovery and resiliency fund; The energy outreach Colorado low-income energy assistance fund; The Colorado economic development fund; The Colorado firefighting air corps fund; The Colorado agricultural future loan program cash fund; The subsequent injury fund; The major medical insurance fund; The species conservation trust fund; The water supply reserve fund; The local government severance tax fund; The wildfire mitigation capacity development fund; The natural resource damage recovery fund; and The supplemental state contribution fund. For state fiscal year 2025-26 and each state fiscal year thereafter, the act directs the state treasurer to transfer all interest and income derived from the deposit and investment of money in the following funds and accounts to the general fund: The correctional treatment cash fund; The Colorado heritage communities fund; The multidisciplinary crime prevention and crisis intervention grant fund; The sustainable rebuilding program fund; The industrial and manufacturing operations clean air grant program cash fund; The geothermal energy grant fund; The clean air building investments fund; The community access to electric bicycles cash fund; The Colorado office of film, television, and media operational account cash fund; The Colorado startup loan program fund; The innovative housing incentive program fund; The state emergency reserve cash fund; The just transition cash fund; The legislative department cash fund; The state agency sustainability revolving fund; The law enforcement workforce recruitment, retention, and tuition grant fund; The jail standard advisory committee cash fund; The innovative energy fund; The cannabis resource optimization cash fund; The streamlined solar permitting and inspection cash fund; The procurement technical assistance cash fund; The community revitalization fund; The transit-oriented communities infrastructure fund; and The accessory dwelling unit fee reduction and encouragement grant program fund. On June 30, 2025, the act transfers specified amounts, which are the estimated amounts of interest and income derived from the deposit and investment of money in each of the foregoing funds and accounts, as well as the housing development grant fund, the capital construction fund, and the information technology capital account in the capital construction fund, in the 2024-25 state fiscal year, from each of those funds and accounts to the general fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act modifies current law regarding the process by which a policyholder may request a certified copy of their insurance policy (policy) from a homeowners insurance carrier (carrier) and the carrier's duty to comply. The act clarifies that such a request must be in written form and received by the carrier's registered agent (agent) and that the carrier's window of time to make the policy available begins when the agent receives the request. The act also imposes a penalty against a carrier that fails to comply with a policyholder's request for a certified copy of their policy in the amount of $50 per day and authorizes the award of attorney fees and costs for a policyholder's enforcement of the requirement. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The availability of both the family affordability tax credit and the earned income tax credit has been determined by the compound annual growth rate between actual state revenue in state fiscal year 2024-25 and projected state revenue for the fiscal year that begins during the relevant state income tax year. Under the act, the availability of both tax credits is determined by the compound annual growth rate between state revenue for state fiscal year 2024-25, as projected in the March 2024 office of state planning and budgeting revenue forecast, and projected state revenue for the fiscal year that begins during the relevant state income tax year. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The division of water resources in the department of natural resources (division) is responsible for administering water rights and issuing water well permits, among other duties. Under current law, after having received a permit to appropriate designated groundwater or construct a well outside the boundaries of a designated groundwater basin, a permit holder is required to construct the well within one year after the date of issuance of the permit. If the well is not constructed within one year, the permit expires; except that the ground water commission (commission) in the division or the state engineer, as applicable, may grant a single one-year extension. The act extends the time frame for construction of a well to 2 years, eliminating the need for the commission or the state engineer to approve a one-year extension to the initial one-year construction time frame, except for permits issued for federally authorized water projects. The act also removes the requirement that the commission or state engineer must mail a certified letter to the permit holder before a permit can be formally expired. The act allows the commission or state engineer to reinstate an expired permit if the applicant for reinstatement of the permit can show that the well was completed in a timely manner and submits a $30 fee. Under current law, the division engineer of each water division is required to decennially present to the water court a list of water rights that meet the criteria for abandonment. The act splits this decennial abandonment process into 2 batches, grouped by water division and spaced 5 years apart, beginning with 2030 and 2035. The act maintains the requirement that the abandonment process be performed every 10 years in each water division. The act extends certain time frames relating to the well permitting process. Lastly, the act eliminates final permitting requirements for non-Denver Basin bedrock aquifer wells in the designated basins. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the office of the state controller (office) to transfer, unless otherwise provided by law, on June 30, 2025, and each June 30 thereafter, the balance of any repealed cash fund to the general fund. The act requires the office to annually submit a report to the joint budget committee that: Identifies any cash funds that have not been appropriated from in the last 2 state fiscal years and the balance of those funds; and Identifies the total amount that the office has transferred to the general fund from repealed cash funds in the preceding state fiscal year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act reinstates the sales and use tax exemption for certain low-emitting heavy-duty motor vehicles, vehicle power sources, and parts for vehicle power source conversion, which had expired as of January 1, 2025, for the period beginning on and after August 1, 2025, but prior to January 1, 2029, and clarifies the intent of the exemption. The act increases the amount of the bridge and tunnel impact fee to be imposed per gallon of special fuel by the statewide bridge and tunnel enterprise from $0.05 per gallon to $0.07 per gallon for state fiscal year 2025-26, from $0.06 per gallon to $0.07 per gallon for state fiscal year 2026-27, and from $0.07 per gallon to $0.08 per gallon for state fiscal year 2027-28. For state fiscal year 2025-2026, $3,959 is appropriated from the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account in the highway users tax fund to the department of revenue for implementation of the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act adjusts several tax expenditures and adds purpose statements to other tax expenditures as follows: Section 1 of the act disallows the income tax credit for unsalable alcohol after December 31, 2025, and repeals the credit on December 31, 2030; Section 2 extends the 10% of purchase price income tax credit for income tax years commencing before January 1, 2025, for a purchaser who installs an energy storage system in a residential dwelling to include subsequent income tax years commencing before January 1, 2027, and extends the repeal of the credit from January 1, 2028, to January 1, 2030. By amending a definition of "agricultural compounds" that is incorporated into the definition of "wholesale sale" used for purposes of the sales and use tax statutes, section 3 exempts from sales and use tax soil conditioners, plant amendments, plant growth regulators, mulches, compost, soil used for aboveground production of agricultural commodities, manure, fish for non-stocking purposes, fish embryos, and fish eggs beginning January 1, 2026; Section 4 states that the purpose of the insolvency assessments paid insurance premium tax credit is to offset the cost for an insurer paying required assessments into the life and health insurance protection association and that the credit's effectiveness is measured by how many eligible insurers claim the credit and the amount claimed relative to payments into the life and health insurance protection association; Sections 5 and 6 state that the purpose of the state refund income tax subtraction is to avoid re-taxing a taxpayer's state income tax refund when a state refund is required to be included as income on the taxpayer's federal return pursuant to the internal revenue code and that the effectiveness of the deduction is measured by the number of taxpayers claiming the deduction and the total amount of state refunds claimed as subtractions from Colorado taxable income; Section 7 states that the purpose of the dyed special fuels and off-road fuel tax excise tax exemption is to entirely exclude dyed diesel or kerosene from the special fuels excise tax where the dyed fuel is used for specified off-road purposes or by governmental entities and that the effectiveness of the exemption is measured by the number of taxpayers claiming the exemption and the amount of tax that would have been paid without the exemption; Section 8 states that the purpose of the off-road fuel use refund is to compensate taxpayers who buy and pay the tax on otherwise taxable fuels for the purpose of using the fuels for specified non-taxable purposes under federal law and that the effectiveness of the refund is measured by the number of taxpayers claiming a refund and the amount of tax that was already collected and is refunded; Section 9 states that the purpose of the wholesale sale exemption from sales tax is to ensure that sales tax is levied and collected only on a final end sale to a retail consumer and not on wholesale sales and that the effectiveness of the wholesale exemption from sales tax is measured by the number of taxpayers claiming the wholesale exemption from tax and the amount of tax liability not paid; Section 10 extends the availability of the biotechnology sales and use tax refund by 1 year to include calendar years beginning before January 1, 2027; and Section 11 clarifies that the temporary property tax valuation for assessment reduction for qualified-senior primary residence real property is available whether or not the state has sufficient excess revenues to pay for it. For the 2025-26 state fiscal year, $13,137 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of revenue for implementation of the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)