Beginning January 1, 2025, the act increases penalties for violations of the "Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act of 1971" (CYEOA) and requires that the monetary penalties collected be deposited into the wage theft enforcement fund. Entities that violate CYEOA must also pay specified damages to the individual who is aggrieved. The act eliminates a provision in current law penalizing a person, having legal responsibility for a minor, who knowingly permits the minor to be employed in violation of CYEOA. The director of the division of labor standards and statistics (director) is required to include a description of the penalties and damages owed in the written notice issued to an employer if CYEOA is violated. The division of labor standards and statistics (division) may reduce or decline to impose penalties or damages for violations of CYEOA if: The minor worker intentionally misled the employer with regard to the minor's age; and The employer engaged in outreach to a reliable third party to verify the minor worker's age if any reasonable employer could have believed that the minor worker might be under 18 years of age at the time of hiring. The act specifies that the receipt of an age certificate issued by the school superintendent of the district or county in which the worker resides constitutes outreach to a reliable third party. The division is required to treat all final orders issued for violations of CYEOA as public records and to release information related to a violation to the public upon request pursuant to the "Colorado Open Records Act", unless the director makes a determination that the information is a trade secret. The director may, or, at the request of the individual aggrieved, must, file a certified copy of a final order for a violation of CYEOA with the clerk of any court having jurisdiction over the parties at any time after the entry of the order. The act applies the state's discrimination and retaliation prohibitions to individuals attempting to exercise rights protected by CYEOA and creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliatory action if an entity engages in disciplinary or adverse action against an individual aggrieved within 90 calendar days after the individual exercises a right protected by CYEOA. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $125,255 is appropriated to the department of labor and employment for use by the division to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor June 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE January 1, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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There is currently a jail standards oversight committee and commission (oversight committee and commission) tasked with developing jail standards in Colorado. The oversight committee and commission are set to repeal on July 1, 2024. The act repeals the commission and extends the oversight committee until September 1, 2033. Each county jail shall comply with the standards adopted by the oversight committee beginning July 1, 2026. The oversight committee shall post the standards on its website. If the oversight committee revises a jail standard, each county jail shall comply with the revised standard no later than one year after the revision is adopted, or earlier if specified by the oversight committee when adopting the revision. The act creates a jail standards advisory committee (advisory committee). The advisory committee consists of: 2 sheriffs appointed by a statewide organization representing the county sheriffs of Colorado; 2 county commissioners appointed by Colorado counties, incorporated; The state public defender or the state public defender's designee; One physical or behavioral health professional with experience working in a jail, appointed by the oversight committee; and One person representing a statewide organization that advocates on behalf of people experiencing incarceration, appointed by the oversight committee. The advisory committee shall begin meeting in July 2024 and shall plan assessments of jails to begin in January 2025. Additional duties of the advisory committee include, but are not limited to: Utilize peer assessors selected by the advisory committee to perform assessments of a jail's physical facilities and its written policies and procedures to assess compliance with jail standards; Provide the oversight committee with recommendations for revising jail standards and ways to address jail needs necessary to comply with jail standards; and Provide the oversight committee with recommendations to address jail needs necessary to comply with jail standards. The advisory committee may also establish a process to grant variances from the jail standards to local jails. The act creates the jail standards advisory committee cash fund to fund the activities of the advisory committee. The act requires the attorney general to conduct assessments of jails, in conjunction with the advisory committee, for compliance with jail standards. The attorney general may also conduct an independent special assessment of a jail when requested by the governor, the oversight committee, or a sheriff. The attorney general shall prepare a report of each special assessment. The advisory committee shall annually submit a report to the oversight committee. The act requires the division of criminal justice in the department of public safety to create a list of funding assistance available to jails to offset the costs of compliance with the jail standards. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $305,000 from the general fund to the jail standards advisory committee cash fund; $41,248 from the general fund to the legislative department; and $12,532 from the general fund to the department of law. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
To the extent the coverage is not in addition to the benefits provided pursuant to the health insurance benchmark plan, the act requires all individual and group health benefit plans to provide health insurance coverage for pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) and includes pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS). The coverage provided for PANS and PANDAS must adhere to treatment recommended and be developed by a consortium of medical professionals convened to identify and publish clinical practice guidelines and evidence-based standards for the diagnosis and treatment of PANS and PANDAS. The coverage includes, among other treatments and therapies, antibiotics, medication and psychological and behavioral therapies to manage neuropsychiatric symptoms, immunomodulating medicines, plasma exchange, and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy if certain conditions are met. The mandatory coverage provision applies to large group policies and contracts issued or renewed in this state on or after January 1, 2025. For individual and small group policies and contracts, the division of insurance in the department of regulatory agencies (department) shall implement the coverage for individual and small group plans on or after January 1, 2026, if the federal department of health and human services (federal department) affirms the department's determination, or otherwise affirms, that the coverage does not require state defrayal of any increased costs for coverage of PANS and PANDAS or the department determines that the federal department's unreasonable delay precludes requiring defrayal. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits the department of health care policy and financing (department) from requiring an adult to be prescribed an antipsychotic prescription drug that is included on the preferred drug list and used to treat a mental health disorder or mental health condition if: During the preceding year, the adult was prescribed and unsuccessfully treated with an antipsychotic prescription drug that is included on the preferred drug list and used to treat a mental health disorder or mental health condition and for which a single claim is paid; or The adult is stable on an antipsychotic drug used to treat a mental health disorder or mental health condition that is not included on the preferred drug list. The act appropriates $1,092,134 to the department. This appropriation consists of $888,555 from the general fund and $203,579 from the healthcare affordability and sustainability fee cash fund. The department may use this appropriation for medical and long-term care services for medicaid-eligible individuals. It is anticipated that the department will receive an additional $2,295,189 in federal funds for the implementation of this act. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) to conduct a study concerning the market for property and casualty insurance policies issued by insurers to: Unit owners' associations (associations) of common interest communities; and Owners of hotels and lodging facilities (owners). To the extent practicable, the study must include consideration of: Current market conditions, including certain data; Recommendations regarding potential measures and programs to ensure the long-term sustainability and availability of property and casualty insurance policies issued to associations and owners; Whether any captive insurance companies have been formed by an association or an owner; and Whether the formation of a captive insurance company by an association or an owner could impact current market conditions. The commissioner may contract with a third party to conduct the study. The commissioner and any third party must engage with and seek input from insurers, consumer groups, and other interested parties. As part of the study, the commissioner may collect specific data from insurers. Information submitted by an insurer is subject to public inspection only to the extent allowed under the "Colorado Open Records Act". The division of insurance and any third-party contractor may not disclose trade secrets or confidential or proprietary information. The commissioner must prepare a report summarizing the results of the study and, on or before January 1, 2026, submit the report to the joint budget committee, to the business affairs and labor committee of the house of representatives, and to the business, labor, and technology committee of the senate. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $329,863 from the division of insurance cash fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the division of insurance. Of this amount, any amount up to $300,000 not expended prior to July 1, 2025, is further appropriated to the division for the 2025-26 state fiscal year for the same purpose. APPROVED by Governor May 31, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The office of e-health innovation in the governor's office is required to convene a working group to determine the feasibility of creating a centralized digital consent repository that allows patients to provide, extend, deny, and revoke consent for sharing their medical data and information between physical and behavioral health-care providers, family members, community organizations, payers, and state agencies at any time. By January 1, 2026, the working group is required to submit a report including recommendations regarding the feasibility of creating the centralized digital consent repository to specified committees of the general assembly. On or before July 1, 2025, the behavioral health administration in the department of human services (department) is required to create a friends and family input form to allow an individual to provide a treating professional or a licensed or designated facility or organization with information related to a patient receiving mental health or substance use services. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $50,604 is appropriated to the department to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor May 28, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 28, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, when 2 or more separately owned tracts are within an oil and gas drilling unit (unit) established by the Colorado energy and carbon management commission (commission), in the absence of voluntary pooling and after a reasonable offer to lease, made in good faith (offer to lease), the commission may enter an order pooling the mineral interests of those tracts (pooling order) for the development and operation of the unit if the applicant for the pooling order: Owns more than 45% of the mineral interests in the unit (requisite ownership); or Obtains the consent of the owners of more than 45% of the mineral interests in the unit (requisite consent). The act changes current law by: Requiring that a pooling order application include an affidavit that declares that the applicant has the requisite ownership or obtained the requisite consent (declaration), which affidavit must include certain leasing and well information; Allowing an unleased mineral interest owner (unleased owner), at least 60 days before the first noticed hearing date, to file a protest with the commission disputing the applicant's declaration (protest); Requiring the commission to resolve a bona fide protest and allowing an unleased owner that files a bona fide protest to review certain leasing information; If a unit contains the mineral interests of an unleased owner that has rejected an offer to lease, prohibiting an oil and gas operator, on and after January 1, 2025, from drilling or extracting minerals from a unit that are not voluntarily pooled before a pooling order is entered by the commission; Prohibiting the commission from entering a pooling order that pools the mineral interests of an unleased owner if the unleased owner is a local government that has rejected an offer to lease and the minerals subject to the unleased owner's mineral interests are within the local government's geographic boundaries (local government unleased interest); and If a pooling order application proposes to pool a local government unleased interest and the local government has rejected an offer to lease, requiring the commission to deny the application unless the applicant amends the application to no longer pool the local government unleased interest. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $20,483 is appropriated to the department of natural resources from the energy and carbon management cash fund for implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits a law enforcement officer or emergency service patrol officer who takes a juvenile into protective custody from detaining the juvenile in jail. Beginning July 1, 2024, the act requires each local law enforcement agency that has taken a person into protective custody to provide an annual report to the behavioral health administration that includes disaggregated and nonidentifying information concerning persons who were taken into protective custody in an approved treatment facility or detained in an emergency medical facility or jail. Beginning July 1, 2024, the act requires each approved treatment facility or emergency medical services facility that detains a person under protective custody or detains or holds a person on an emergency commitment to provide a quarterly report to the behavioral health administration that includes information about the persons detained or held at the facility. The act appropriates $64,738 from the general fund to the department of human services for use by the behavioral health administration. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 17, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act enacts the "Physician Assistant Licensure Compact" (compact). The compact is designed to enable a physician assistant with a license in a state that has signed the compact (participating state) to more easily become authorized to practice in any other participating state. Participating states and physician assistants must meet specific conditions enumerated in the compact to participate in the compact. The compact allows only the participating state where a physician assistant is licensed to discipline the physician assistant, but allows a participating state where the physician assistant is practicing, but is not licensed, to revoke the physician assistant's authority to practice in that state. The act authorizes the Colorado medical board (board) to promulgate rules and to facilitate Colorado's participation in the compact, including notifying the Compact Commission (commission) established by the compact of any adverse action taken by the board against a physician assistant licensed in Colorado or practicing in Colorado under the compact. The commission includes a delegate from each participating state and has the powers and duties set forth in the act. The compact becomes effective on the date the compact is enacted in the seventh participating state. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act creates the office of sustainability (office) in the department of personnel (department). The office is required to work with state agencies to implement environmentally sustainable practices. Section 1 also creates the state agency sustainability revolving fund (revolving fund) and directs the state treasurer to transfer $400,000 from the general fund to the revolving fund each year. The office may use the money in the revolving fund for the purposes of operating the office and replacing the state's gas- and diesel-powered equipment located in ozone nonattainment areas as designated by the U.S. environmental protection agency. Section 1 also requires the office to review and coordinate state agencies' applications for elective pay funding available under the federal "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" (IRA). State agencies are required to submit elective pay applications directly to the office of the state controller. The inflation reduction act elective pay cash fund (cash fund) is created, and all money received by the state or state agencies pursuant to the elective pay provisions of the IRA must be deposited into the cash fund to be used for the purposes of the office. Subject to specified exceptions, section 3 requires, on and after January 1, 2025, recipients of state financial assistance for new building construction projects that include energy-consuming products covered by the Energy Star program (covered energy-consuming products) to use covered energy-consuming products certified by the Energy Star program (requirements). A state agency that provides or administers state financial assistance for a new building construction project (state agency) shall include certain requirements in the state agency's criteria for receiving state financial assistance and request an attestation signed by the recipient of the state financial assistance that declares that the requirements have been or will be followed or that the recipient is requesting a waiver from the requirements. A state agency may issue a waiver from the requirements based on certain evidence and an attestation from a licensed professional engineer or design professional. If the attorney general, by a preponderance of the evidence, believes that a recipient of state financial assistance has violated the requirements, the attorney general may bring a civil action to seek a civil penalty of up to the total amount of state financial assistance received by the violator. Section 4 amends the state efficiency standard for residential windows, residential doors, and residential skylights sold in Colorado on and after January 1, 2026 (standard). If the executive director of the department of public health and environment determines that the standard cannot reasonably be met by manufacturers, the executive director shall set an alternative standard which may be applied instead of the standard. Such an alternative standard, if set, must be displayed on the public website of the department of public health and environment no later than June 1, 2025. Section 6 clarifies law relating to the geothermal energy grant program within the CEO (grant program) by specifying that: The grant program applies to both heating-only and combined heating and cooling systems; At least 25% of the grant money must be awarded to projects in low-income, disproportionately impacted, or just transition communities; and The CEO may utilize grant program money to facilitate the growth of the geothermal sector and awareness of relevant state programs in Colorado. Section 7 allows money in the decarbonization tax credits administration cash fund to be used to repay administrative costs associated with administering the decarbonization tax credits, and specifies that all such administrative costs must be repaid on or before June 29, 2024. The amount of money that must remain in the fund after other unexpended and unencumbered money has been transferred to the general fund on June 30 of each year is increased from $100,000 to $300,000. Section 8 extends the deadline for the energy code board to develop a model low energy and carbon code from June 1, 2025, to September 1, 2025, and specifies that the model low energy and carbon code can include both appendices and resources to the international energy conservation code. Section 9 decreases the amount of money in the energy fund that the CEO is authorized to use to issue grants to local governments to support their adoption and enforcement of the 2021 international energy conservation code, an electric ready and solar ready code, and a low energy and carbon code from $2,000,000 to $1,875,000 and increases the amount of money that the treasurer is required to transfer into the energy fund for CEO to use to administer the energy code board from $150,000 to $275,000. Section 10 authorizes grantees to use money received through the CEO's high-efficiency electric heating and appliances grant program for equipment used to dry clothes and for other purposes as determined by the CEO. Section 13 requires the CEO, on or before August 1, 2024, to commence a study to explore how to accelerate adoption of heat pump technology in Colorado through a technical standard for applicable air conditioners. The CEO is required to provide to the general assembly a progress report, interim results and legislative recommendations, and, on or before June 1, 2025, a final study and final legislative recommendations. Section 14 repeals the requirement that a person using any portion of a transfer facility for the provision of retail or commercial goods or services or for the provision of residential uses pay rent at fair market value for such use. Section 15 clarifies that, for purposes of the industrial clean energy tax credit, an industrial study includes a pre-front-end or front-end engineering design study that meets or exceeds the standards established by the CEO or any other industrial studies as outlined in program standards and an owner includes a project developer. Section 15 also increases the amount of the credit that can be claimed from $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 and specifies that an owner that claims the industrial clean energy tax credit cannot, for the same greenhouse gas emission reduction improvements, claim the enterprise zone investment tax credit or receive grant money under the industrial and manufacturing operations clean air grant program. Section 16 clarifies several definitions related to the tax credit for expenditures made in connection with a geothermal energy project and adds several definitions. Section 16 also adds tribal governments as eligible taxpayers that may claim the tax credit. Section 17 adds tribal governments as qualified entities that may claim the geothermal electricity generation production tax credit, and requires the CEO to annually review and evaluate the effectiveness of the tax credit. Section 18 clarifies and adds several definitions related to the heat pump technology and thermal energy network tax credit, adds new standards for taxpayers to be eligible to claim the credit, and requires the CEO to substantiate that eligible taxpayers are meeting those standards periodically rather than annually. Section 20 repeals a provision that required the state treasurer to credit an amount of severance taxes to certain cash funds to repay costs associated with administering the decarbonization tax credits. Section 21 requires the CEO to prioritize high-efficiency homes and buildings when providing loans and grants from the sustainable rebuilding program to homeowners and business owners that are seeking to rebuild. Money from the sustainable rebuilding program may also be used to provide loans and grants through the disaster resilience rebuilding program which is administered by the department of local affairs. Section 22 extends the date by which the public utilities commission must determine mass-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for clean heat plans for 2035 from December 1, 2024, to December 1, 2025. Section 23 requires investor-owned utilities, on or before August 1, 2027, to submit to the public utilities commission a proposal for a voluntary rate or rates for energy supplied to residential customers who utilize a heat pump as their primary heating source, which, if cost-justified, are designed to lower the energy bills of those customers. Section 24 specifies that an appropriation made to the department of higher education and related to the biochar in oil and gas well plugging working advisory group for state fiscal year 2023-24 is further appropriated to the department for state fiscal year 2024-25 to the extent that it is not expended prior to July 1, 2024. To implement the act: Section 25 reduces state fiscal year 2024-25 appropriations from various cash funds to the department of revenue by an aggregate amount of $1,770,160 and offsets the decrease by increasing state fiscal year 2024-25 appropriations to the department of revenue from the decarbonization tax credits administration cash fund by $1,770,160; and Section 26 appropriates $1,058,596, of which $958,596 is from the decarbonization tax credits administration cash fund and $100,000 is from the general fund, to the office of the governor for use by the CEO. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 17, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)