Sen. Steve Fenberg

The act defines "seasonal outdoor adventure day camp program" (program) as a type of children's resident camp for licensing purposes or to ensure the programs are licensed. Programs serve children who are 5 years of age or older. APPROVED by Governor April 4, 2024 EFFECTIVE April 4, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act appropriates $73,587,761 to the legislative department for the payment of expenses in the 2024-25 state fiscal year. Of this amount, $71,784,409 is from the general fund, $90,000 is from cash funds, and $1,713,352 is from reappropriated funds. Additionally, the act: Appropriates $50,000 from the general fund to the youth advisory council cash fund; and Further appropriates to the legislative department, for use by the legislative council in the 2024-25 state fiscal year for new legislator orientation and official functions, $29,000 from the general fund appropriation to the legislative department for the 2023-24 state fiscal year that was not expended in that fiscal year. APPROVED by Governor March 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE March 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under the Colorado open meetings law (COML), any meeting of a body of the general assembly at which the adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action occurs or at which a majority or quorum of a body of the general assembly is in attendance or expected to be in attendance can only be held after full and timely notice to the public. In addition, the COML requires that minutes of the meeting be taken and promptly recorded. The act makes several changes and clarifications concerning the application of the COML to the general assembly and its members. Specifically, the act provides that, for purposes of applying the notice and minutes provisions under the COML, a quorum of a state public body of the general assembly must be contemporaneous. Additionally, the act establishes that written communications, electronic or otherwise, exchanged between members of the general assembly are not subject to the COML but any records of the communications are subject to disclosure to the extent required by the "Colorado Open Records Act". The act also defines "public business", for purposes of the application of the COML to the general assembly, as introduced legislation, proposed legislation, if a draft of the proposed legislation prepared by the office of legislative legal services is being discussed by a quorum of a statutory committee or committee of reference during a regular or special legislative session or by a quorum of any type of interim committee, or other matters before a statutory committee, any type of interim committee, or a committee of reference. Introduced legislation and proposed legislation includes a bill, resolution, and memorial. However, "public business" does not include matters that are by nature interpersonal, administrative, or logistical or that concern personnel, planning, process, training, or operations, as long as the merits or substance of matters that are expressly defined as being public business are not discussed. Additionally, in 2024, 2025, and 2026, the executive committee of the legislative council shall consider at a meeting the application of the COML to the general assembly, and there must be the opportunity for public comment to be received in connection with the meeting. On or after January 1, 2027, such a meeting shall be held upon the request of a member of the executive committee of the legislative council. APPROVED by Governor March 12, 2024 EFFECTIVE March 12, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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.)

Valuation changes. For the 2023 property tax year, section 1 of the act reduces the valuation for assessment (valuation) for multi-family residential real property and all other residential real property from the already temporarily reduced 2023 rate of 6.765% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the lesser of $15,000 or the amount that causes the valuation to be $1,000 to 6.7% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the lesser of $55,000 or the amount that causes the valuation to be $1,000. Reimbursement of local governments. The state is currently required to reimburse (backfill) local governmental entities for property tax revenue lost as a result of reductions in valuation enacted in 2022. The act maintains this 2022 backfill mechanism for those property tax reductions. Section 2 provides an additional backfill mechanism to backfill local governmental entities for property tax revenue lost as a result of the additional reductions in valuation enacted in the act. Section 2 requires the state to backfill the following local governmental entities a total of $54,000,000 for the total amount of property tax revenue lost by those local governmental entities as a result of the reductions in valuation in the act in the same manner as the 2022 backfill mechanism, except that: Ambulance districts, fire districts, and health districts are reimbursed entirely; Local governmental entities for which the assessed value of property in the local governmental entity increased by 15% or more between the 2022 and 2023 property tax years are not reimbursed at all; and The executive director of the department of local affairs and the property tax administrator shall determine, in a manner that is equitable with the amounts that fire districts are reimbursed, the amount that local governmental entities that provide fire protection services are reimbursed. Section 2 also modifies both backfill mechanisms by: Specifying that the amount of revenue lost for a property tax year is based on a local governmental entity's mill levy for the 2022 property tax year, excluding specified mills; Clarifying how local governmental entities, which are defined in the act, are treated if their boundaries are in more than one county for purposes of the backfill; and Requiring the state treasurer to reduce a backfill to a local government entity as necessary to prevent the local governmental entity from exceeding its constitutional fiscal year spending limit. Transfer to the state public school fund. Section 2 requires the state treasurer to transfer $146 million from the general fund to the state education fund to offset school district property tax revenue reductions. Local government budget deadlines. Sections 4 to 6 modify provisions in the "Local Government Budget Law of Colorado" for the 2024 fiscal year to account for impacts on a local government's budget due to changes to the assessed valuation of property within the local government's boundaries. Delinquent property tax payments. Section 14 waives the accrual of interest on delinquent property tax payments for the first payment of property taxes for the 2023 property tax year if a payment is made within 10 days after the mailing by the county treasurer of the property taxpayer's tax statement or notification of an electronic statement. Property tax deadlines. Sections 3 and 9 to 13 delay deadlines as necessary due to the valuation changes for the 2023 property tax year. APPROVED by Governor November 20, 2023 EFFECTIVE November 20, 2023(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act modifies the "Uniform Election Code of 1992" (code), the law regarding initiatives and referendums, the "Fair Campaign Practices Act", and the law regarding public official disclosures. The act modifies the code as follows: Allows any form of identification currently specified in the code to be presented in digital format; Repeals a criterion for determining a voter's residence; Facilitates voter registration for people who live on Indian reservations; Modifies the self-affirmation that is required when an elector registers or preregisters to vote to conform to the elimination by constitutional amendment of the right of an individual who is 17 years old but will turn 18 before a general election to vote in the primary election that precedes the general election; Modifies the meeting dates on which a judicial district central committee holds its organizational meetings; Eliminates the option for all active electors in a county who have not declared an affiliation to specify a party preference and specifies that all such electors will receive a mailing that contains the ballots of all of the major political parties; Conforms provisions regarding presidential electors to federal law; Clarifies who can challenge a candidate's eligibility for office; Modifies notice requirements for candidates for designation for nomination by assembly; Modifies the standards for a petition entity to operate in the state; Creates a process for a candidate to protest when the secretary of state (secretary) has determined that a petition is insufficient; Requires voter service and polling centers (VSPC) and drop boxes to be located on campuses of private institutions of higher education and increases the number of VSPCs and drop boxes on campuses of private and state institutions of higher education; Clarifies the number of in-person voting days at a VSPC on an Indian reservation; Allows drop boxes to be located at places of worship; Allows a VSPC to be located in a multi-use building where alcohol is served so long as the VSPC is in a separate part of the building; Increases the state's reimbursement to counties for the cost of conducting elections beginning in July of 2024; Clarifies the secretary's authority to determine conditions of use for voting systems; Updates provisions regarding the use of voting systems to align with current practice; Clarifies that a clerk and recorder or designated election official (clerk) is required to submit a plan regarding voting to the secretary before every election; Allows counties with fewer than 15,000 active voters to have 2, rather than 3, election judges at each VSPC; Eliminates references to precincts; Clarifies the number of watchers allowed in certain locations for primary, general, and congressional vacancy elections; Modifies who may appoint an election watcher; Specifies the circumstances under which a clerk is required to revoke the certificate of a watcher for the use of a mobile phone in a polling location; Specifies that an election watcher may use a phone to send or receive text messages while watching election activities so long as the watcher is not in view of personally identifiable information; Specifies the conditions under which an elector may take a mobile phone into a VSPC; Clarifies the duty of election judges to inspect voting machines; Requires that a bipartisan team of election judges make a duplicate copy of a ballot that is damaged or defective; Specifies that the secretary is required to retain election setup records as election records; Allows a voting system provider under contract to provide a voting system to a political subdivision in the state to place any changes to election software in escrow with either the secretary or an independent escrow agent; Specifies when a clerk must update the voter registration system after an eligible elector (elector) has cured deficient identification or a missing or deficient signature; Specifies how often a clerk must collect ballots from each drop box; Specifies when a clerk must begin counting ballots in counties with over 10,000 electors; In counties that have issued electronic tablets to or made electronic tablets available to confined eligible electors, directs the clerk and the sheriff to determine and include in the mail ballot election plan the process by which they will facilitate voter registration, ballot delivery, and ballot return using electronic tablets issued to confined eligible electors; Modifies deadlines and the process for testing voting systems in connection with a mandatory recount of votes cast; Modifies recount timelines and payment requirements; Updates requirements regarding lists of presidential electors to conform with federal law; Clarifies how the date of a recall election is determined; Repeals an obsolete provision regarding voting in an incorrect polling location; and Specifies that it is not electioneering for a person to incidentally display apparel that supports political issues on the campus of any institution of higher education, rather than just a state institution of higher education, where a VSPC is located. The act modifies the law regarding initiative and referendum by prohibiting allowing the secretary of state to prohibit a petition entity from circulating ballot petitions if the entity or a principal of the entity has been convicted of certain crimes and by increasing penalties for petition entities that violate state law regarding petition circulation. The act modifies the "Fair Campaign Practices Act" as follows: Clarifies the definition of "independent expenditure committee"; Prohibits a candidate committee from knowingly accepting contributions from certain entities and making contributions to certain entities; Specifies time frames for the termination of candidate committee accounts; Limits the amount of unexpended campaign contributions that may be transferred from one candidate committee to another for a different office sought by the same candidate; Clarifies that an elected official may use unexpended campaign contributions for child care costs; Clarifies when a referred measure is submitted to the voters by the general assembly; Requires the electronic filing of candidate disclosure statements; and States that a candidate may be disqualified if the secretary finds that the candidate willfully filed a false or incomplete disclosure statement. The act modifies the law regarding public official disclosure by specifying that the information included in the public disclosures filed by certain public officials must include information for the previous calendar year under certain circumstances and by requiring the person making the disclosure to include certain information about the sources of compensation the person received. The act prohibits a clerk who is administering an election and the department of state from using an appropriation of state or federal money to pay for advertising expenses that feature a person who is a declared candidate for a federal, state, or local office. The act extends the department of state's spending authority by 2 fiscal years for an appropriation that was originally made for the 2021-22 state fiscal year and available for expenditure through the 2022-23 state fiscal year for the implementation of a law that the general assembly enacted in 2019 to facilitate automatic voter registration. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $469,201 from the department of state cash fund to the department of state for the implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor June 6, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE June 6, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE January 1, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2024 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the secretary of state to refer a ballot issue to voters at the November 2023 election. Most of the act only becomes effective if the voters approve the ballot issue. Beginning with the 2023 property tax year, the act establishes a limit on specified property tax revenue for local governments, excluding those that are home rule and school districts, that is equal to inflation above the property tax revenue from the prior property tax year (limit). A local government may establish a temporary property tax credit up to the number of mills necessary to prevent the local government's property tax revenue from exceeding the limit. Alternatively, the governing board may approve a mill levy that would cause the local government to exceed the limit if the governing board approves the mill levy at a public meeting that meets certain criteria. The act temporarily reduces the valuation for assessment (valuation) for certain subclasses of nonresidential and residential property for the property tax years 2023 through 2032 and creates the new subclass of renewable energy agricultural land, which is a subclass of nonresidential property. The act also establishes the residential real property subclasses of primary residence real property and qualified-senior primary residence real property and establishes administrative procedures related to the classification that are based on the procedures for the homestead exemption, with those procedures expanded to treat civil union partners like spouses. Several property tax deadlines for the 2023 property tax year are delayed because of the possible valuation reductions that are contingent on the 2023 ballot. County assessors are required to provide information to taxpayers about the new valuations for assessment and the application process for primary residence real property and qualified-senior primary residence real property. The act modifies an existing mechanism designed to reimburse local governmental entities for property tax revenue reductions by extending the backfill through 2032, incorporating the lost revenue due to the act, clarifying how the reimbursement is determined, excluding local governmental entities that have a certain amount of growth in assessed value, capping the total amount of state backfill, and eliminating the cap on the amount of excess state revenues that may be used for the reimbursements for the 2023 property tax year. If the voters approve the referred ballot issue, which the act requires to be called "proposition HH", then the state will be authorized to retain and spend revenues up to the proposition HH cap, the amount of which is determined under the act. The ability of the general assembly to continue retaining and spending this money after the fiscal year 2031-32 is contingent on the general assembly enacting future valuation reductions. The amount retained under this authority is first used in the following fiscal year to backfill certain local governments for the reduced property tax revenue as a result of the property tax changes in the act and Senate Bill 22-238 "Concerning reductions in real property taxation for only the 2023 and 2024 property tax years" and then up to $20 million for the amount of property taxes that are paid as a portion of a tenant's rent. Any remaining amounts are transferred to the state education fund to offset the revenue that school districts lose as a result of the property tax changes. APPROVED by Governor May 24, 2023 EFFECTIVE May 24, 2023 NOTE: The act takes effect only if a majority of voters approve the ballot issue referred in accordance with section 24-77-202, and in which case the act takes effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by the governor; except that, section 3; section 39-1-104.2 (3.7); section 39-3-210 (1)(a.3), (1)(e), and (2.5); section 18; section 23; and section 24 of the act take effect upon passage. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act specifies that when a property tax assessor values real property, the property tax assessor shall consider: The current use; Existing zoning and other governmental land use or environmental regulations and restrictions; Multi-year leases or other contractual arrangements affecting the use of or income from real property; Easements and reservations of record; and Covenants, conditions, and restrictions of record. Beginning January 1, 2024, the act requires counties with a population greater than 300,000 to use an alternative procedure to determine objections and protests of property tax valuations in any year of general reassessment of real property that is valued biennially. At the request of a taxpayer, the law requires a property tax assessor to provide the taxpayer with certain data that the assessor used to determine the value of the taxpayer's property. The act clarifies that the data the assessor is required to provide must include the primary method and rates the assessor used to value the property. APPROVED by Governor May 24, 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.)