In 2017, the general assembly (GA) enacted Senate Bill 17-267, which required the state treasurer to issue up to $500 million of lease-purchase agreements (COPS) in each of the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 state fiscal years for the purpose of funding transportation projects. Subsequently, in a series of 4 bills, the GA referred a statewide ballot issue, initially at the November 2019 statewide election but thereafter twice modified and delayed until the 2021 statewide election, that, if approved, would have authorized the state to issue transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs) for the purpose of funding transportation projects and prevented the issuance of the state fiscal year 2021-22 COPS.The GA intended that, upon approval of the ballot issue, the TRANs authorized would replace the unissued COPS as a source of funding for transportation projects. The act amends the effective date clause of one of the 4 bills to prevent the unintended consequence, resulting from the interplay of the bill with another one of the 4 bills, that TRANs could be authorized without preventing the issuance of the state fiscal year 2021-22 COPS. However, the act has no practical effect because Senate Bill 21-260 repealed the requirement that a statewide ballot issue seeking authorization for the issuance of TRANS be referred to the voters at the 2021 statewide election.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act creates the front range passenger rail district (district) for the purpose of planning, designing, developing, financing, constructing, operating, and maintaining an interconnected passenger rail system (system) along the front range. The district is specifically required to work collaboratively with the regional transportation district (RTD) to ensure interconnectivity with any passenger rail system operated by or for the RTD and with Amtrak on interconnectivity with Amtrak's Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, and Winter Park Express trains, including but not limited to rerouting of the Amtrak Southwest Chief passenger train. The district must also coordinate with the department of transportation (CDOT) to ensure that any system is well-integrated into the state's multimodal transportation system and does not impair the efficiency or safety of or otherwise adversely affect existing transportation infrastructure or operations. If deemed appropriate by the board of directors of the district and by the board of directors of RTD, the district may share with RTD capital costs associated with shared use of rail line infrastructure in the northwest rail line corridor for passenger train service.The area that comprises the district extends from Wyoming to New Mexico and includes:The entirety of the city and county of Broomfield and the city and county of Denver; All areas within Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Huerfano, Jefferson, Larimer, Las Animas, Pueblo, and Weld counties that are located within the territory of a metropolitan planning organization (MPO); All areas within Huerfano, Las Animas, and Pueblo counties that are not located within the territory of a MPO and are located within a county precinct that is located wholly or partly within 5 miles of the public right-of-way of interstate highway 25; and All areas within Larimer and Weld counties that are not located within the territory of a MPO and are located within a county precinct that is north of the city of Fort Collins and is located wholly or partly within 5 miles of the public right-of-way of interstate highway 25. The district is governed by a board of directors composed of:10 appointees of transportation planning organizations that have jurisdiction within the territory of the district as follows: 4 appointees appointed by each metropolitan planning organization (MPO) that represents more than 1,500,000 residents in the district; except that any city and county or municipality that has 55% or more of the MPO's territory shall appoint one of the 4 directors that would otherwise be appointed by the MPO; 2 appointees from each metropolitan planning organization (MPO) that represents more than 500,000 but fewer than 1,000,000 residents in the district; except that any city and county or municipality that has 55% or more of the MPO's territory shall appoint one of the 2 directors that would otherwise be appointed by the MPO; One appointee appointed by the Pueblo area council of governments; and One appointee appointed by the south central council of governments. 6 appointees appointed by the governor subject to confirmation by the senate who must collectively have professional experience or expertise in specified areas; One appointee appointed by the executive director of CDOT; One nonvoting representative of RTD; One nonvoting representative appointed by the I-70 mountain corridor coalition, or any successor entity to the coalition; and If the respective governors and chief executive officers choose to make appointments, nonvoting representatives of the BNSF Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad, Amtrak, and communities in Wyoming and New Mexico. In addition to the professional experience or expertise requirements, at least one of the directors appointed by the governor must be a resident of a county, city and county, or municipality through which light or commuter rail was planned as part of RTD's voter-approved Fastracks program. Each director appointed by a transportation planning organization must be or have been a member of the board of directors of the appointing authority and must represent or have represented a member jurisdiction of the appointing authority that is wholly or partly included within the district. The board must be fully appointed by April 1, 2022, with an earlier appointment deadline for some appointees. The board must convene for its initial meeting not later than May 15, 2022. The existing southwest chief and front range passenger rail commission is terminated, effective July 1, 2022, and any remaining commission funds are transferred to the district no later than July 1, 2022.The district is authorized to exercise the powers necessary to plan, design, develop, finance, construct, operate, and maintain the system including but not limited to:The power, subject to the approval of the voters of the district and other specified limitations, to levy a sales and use tax, to exercise specified taxing authority common to special districts within the district, and to issue bonds. Before submitting a ballot question to establish any district tax, the district must publish a proposed services development plan, an operating plan, and a detailed financing plan, certify that it has made every reasonable effort to secure federal funding for the system, and approve the submission of the question by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of all voting directors of the board. The power, subject to the approval of the owners of property within a 2-mile radius of any existing or proposed passenger rail station, to create a station area improvement district with the authority to levy additional sales and use tax, special assessments on real property, or both, to cover the costs of construction, operation, and maintenance of the station; The power to enter into public-private partnerships; and The power to employ its own personnel or contract with public or private entities, or both, for the operation and maintenance of the system. The district must publish and present a comprehensive annual report to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over transportation and each transportation planning organization that appoints directors to the district board. If the district levies a tax, the state auditor must conduct a biennial district-funded audit of the district.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes a number of modifications to the "Outdoor Advertising Act", including the following:Removing distinctions in the "Outdoor Advertising Act" based on the information on an advertising device, in order to create a content-neutral test for applying the "Outdoor Advertising Act"; Modifying the regulation by the "Outdoor Advertising Act" of advertising devices with a message center display, so that such devices may not be placed within 1,000 feet of each other on the same side of a highway and facing the same direction of travel; Revising the permitting system under the "Outdoor Advertising Act" to establish a timeline for the issuance of a permit or the rejection of a permit application and to create a process to appeal the denial of a permit application; Allowing a property owner to maintain a potential advertising device on their property without a permit, if the property owner executes an affidavit attesting that the potential advertising device is not an advertising device as defined under the "Outdoor Advertising Act"; Modifying the enforcement provisions in the "Outdoor Advertising Act" to remove the current misdemeanor penalty for violations of the act and to ensure that the Colorado department of transportation has the authority to seek a court order enjoining violations of the "Outdoor Advertising Act"; Removing exceptions from the "Outdoor Advertising Act" that allow the erection of new advertising devices along state highways designated as scenic byways by the transportation commission; and No longer allowing on-premise advertising devices to extend over the existing and future right-of-ways of any state highway.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The complementary or alternative medicine pilot program (pilot program) currently applies to persons with a spinal cord injury. The act expands the pilot program to include persons with a primary condition of multiple sclerosis, a brain injury, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, or cerebral palsy, with the total inability for independent ambulation directly resulting from one of these diagnoses. The act expands the pilot program to all eligible individuals in Colorado.The act appropriates $37,984 to the department of health care policy and financing for use by the executive director's office to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act eliminates the advisory committee that advised the state department of human services on the licensing of child care facilities prior to the creation of the early childhood leadership commission.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Beginning July 1, 2021, the act prohibits an employer from paying an employee whose earning capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental disability, or injury less than minimum wage if the employer does not hold a special certificate issued on or before June 30, 2021, by the United States department of labor that authorizes the employer to pay wages below minimum wage to those employees. The act phases out subminimum wage employment for employers that hold a special certificate and by June 30, 2022, requires each employer that holds a special certificate to submit a transition plan to the department of health care policy and financing (department) detailing how the employer plans to phase out subminimum wage employment by July 1, 2025. On and after July 1, 2025, an employer is prohibited from paying an employee with a disability less than minimum wage regardless of whether the employer was issued a special certificate.The act requires the employment first advisory partnership in the Colorado department of labor and employment (partnership) to:Develop actionable recommendations to address structural and fiscal barriers to phasing out subminimum wage employment and successfully implementing competitive integrated employment; and Report the recommendations to specified committees of the general assembly. The act also continues operation of the partnership, which was scheduled to repeal on July 1, 2021, indefinitely.The act requires the department to seek federal approval to add employment-related services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities under the state's medicaid waiver services.$90,691 is appropriated to the department to implement the act. The department also expects to receive $409,885 in federal funds to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the legislative interim committee on school finance (interim committee). The interim committee will meet during the 2021 and 2022 legislative interims and during the 2022 and 2023 legislative sessions to approve legislation. The committee consists of 4 senators and 4 representatives with equal representation from each party. The act specifies the issues the interim committee must consider. The interim committee may introduce up to a total of 5 bills, joint resolutions, and concurrent resolutions in each of the 2022 and 2023 legislative sessions. The interim committee will contract with a qualified third-party vendor to study approaches to better measure student economic disadvantage in Colorado in addition to or in lieu of using eligibility for the federal school lunch program as a proxy for at-risk students.The act appropriates $100,153 from the general fund to the legislative department to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Beginning with the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act directs the Colorado opportunity scholarship initiative (COSI) advisory board to allocate to public institutions of higher education (institution) an amount appropriated to the COSI fund from money received pursuant to the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" (ARPA). To receive a distribution of its allocation, an institution must submit a student assistance plan (plan) explaining how the institution will use the money to provide financial assistance and support services to students who have some postsecondary credits but stopped attending before obtaining a credential, and first-time students who were admitted to an institution for the 2019-20 or 2020-21 academic year but did not enroll for the 2020-21 academic year. The provision of financial assistance and support services is designed to decrease student debt and increase student enrollment, retention, and completion of credentials. The COSI advisory board must review each plan based on specified criteria and may require changes to a plan before approving a distribution. At the end of the fiscal year, each institution must submit a report of how it used the money and the results achieved. The COSI director must include the information in the report that the board annually prepares for the joint budget committee and the education committees of the general assembly. The program to distribute the federal money in this manner is repealed July 1, 2026.The act creates the student aid applications completion grant program (grant program) in COSI. A school district, a charter school, or a board of cooperative services that operates a high school (local education provider) that chooses to apply for a grant must require the students enrolled by the local education provider to complete the free application for federal student aid and the Colorado application for state financial aid (student aid applications) before high school graduation, unless waived under conditions specified by the local education provider. The act specifies the contents of the application and requires the COSI board to review the applications and approve the grant awards to be paid from an amount appropriated to the COSI fund in the act. Each grant recipient must submit an annual report concerning use of the grant money, and the COSI board must include a summary report in the annual report that the COSI board submits to the education committees of the general assembly. The grant program is repealed July 1, 2026.The act creates the Colorado re-engaged (CORE) initiative within the department of higher education (department) to award an associate degree to an eligible student who enrolls in a baccalaureate degree program at a 4-year institution and earns at least 70 credit hours, but stops attending before attaining the degree. The act specifies the role of the department in implementing the CORE initiative and the role of an institution that chooses to participate in the CORE initiative. Each institution that chooses to participate in the CORE initiative must annually submit to the department a report concerning implementation of the CORE initiative. The department must review and compile the reports and submit a summary report to the education committees of the general assembly.The act repeals the requirement that a community college or a local district college must receive approval from the Colorado commission on higher education (commission) to offer a bachelor of applied science degree program. A community college or a local district college that seeks to offer a bachelor of applied science degree program must apply to its governing board, and the governing board may approve the program based on specified criteria. If a governing board approves a bachelor of applied science degree program, the governing board must notify the commission. The act repeals the criteria the commission must apply in approving a bachelor's degree program for a local district college.The act directs the commission to convene a task force to:Review the role and mission and service area of each state institution of higher education, local district college, and area technical college; Review the interaction between the institutions, the local district colleges, the area technical colleges, and the state work force development council in supporting and improving workforce development; and Review and make recommendations concerning uses of ARPA money for assistance for populations disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency that address or mitigate the impacts of the public health emergency on educational disparities. The act describes the membership of the task force and the issues the task force must address. By December 15, 2021, the task force must submit a report of findings and recommendations to the commission and to the education committees of the general assembly. The department must post the report on the department's website.The act creates within the department a working group appointed by the governor to recommend strategies for increasing the student completion rate for the student aid applications. The working group must submit its recommendations to the commission, the state board of education, the joint budget committee, and the education committees of the general assembly by January 15, 2022.The act allows the governing board of an institution to classify a qualified person as an in-state student, for tuition purposes only, if the qualified person moves to the state to accept employment, the employer is paying the qualified person's tuition, and the qualified person demonstrates the intent to establish permanent domicile in the state. The qualified person is not eligible to receive the state stipend for the first year of enrollment.For the 2021-22 fiscal year the following amounts are appropriated from money the state received from the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund:$49,000,000 to COSI for distribution to institutions to implement their student assistance plans; $1,500,000 to COSI for the student aid applications completion grant program; and $1,000,000 to the department to implement the CORE initiative and the associate degree completion program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes various changes to statutory provisions to promote transparency for special districts. Specifically:Under current law, the designated election official is required to provide notice by publication of a call for nominations for a regular local government election. Except for metropolitan districts organized after January 1, 2000, the act requires that notice be made exclusively by publication and by any one of 4 additional means. In the case of any metropolitan district that was organized after January 1, 2000, the act requires the notice of the call for nominations to be made by emailing the notice to each active registered elector of the metropolitan district as specified in the registration list provided by the county clerk and recorder as of the date that is 150 days prior to the date of the regular local government election. Where the active registered elector does not have an e-mail address on file for such purpose with the county clerk and recorder as of that date, the public notice must be made by mailing the notice, at the lowest cost option, to each address at which one or more active registered electors of the metropolitan district resides as specified in the registration list provided by the county clerk and recorder as of that date. In addition to the means of providing public notice of the call for nominations that is required under the act, the designated election official must also provide public notice by any one of 4 alternate means specified in the act; The act exempts inactive special districts from new requirements under the act concerning maintenance of a district's website and a district's annual report; The act requires a metropolitan district, by a certain date, to establish, maintain, and annually update an official website in a form that is readily accessible to the public that contains information that is specified in the act; The act adds to existing statutory requirements regarding the annual report to be filed by a special district and, among other things, supplements the type of information to be included in the annual report; The act prohibits a metropolitan district from exercising its power of dominant eminent domain within a municipality or the unincorporated area of a county, other than within the boundaries of the jurisdiction that approved its service plan, without a written resolution approving the exercise of dominant eminent domain by the governing body of the municipality in connection with property that is located within an incorporated area or by the board of county commissioners of the county in connection with property that is located within an unincorporated area; and The act requires, on and after January 1, 2022, each owner of real property that sells real property that includes a newly constructed residence that is located within a metropolitan district, concurrently with or prior to the execution of a contract to sell the property, to provide to the purchaser of the property certain information or statements specified in the act relating to the finances of the metropolitan district, including information about the debt obligations of the district and an estimate of property taxes applicable to the property at the time of the sale.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the foster youth in transition program (transition program) in the state department of human services (state department) to be implemented in county departments of human or social services (county departments) throughout the state. The purpose of the transition program is to allow foster youth who meet eligibility criteria to voluntarily continue to receive certain child welfare services (services) up until the last day of the month of the youth's twenty-first birthday, or such greater age of foster care eligibility as required by federal law. Services provided through the transition program must be client-directed and developmentally appropriate as set forth in and agreed to through a voluntary services agreement (agreement) developed and entered into between the youth and county department.The act sets forth the eligibility criteria a youth must meet in order to voluntarily participate in the transition program. A youth who is no longer under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and thinks he or she is eligible for the transition program may make a written request to the juvenile court (court) or county department where the youth resides. The county department shall make a determination of eligibility. If the youth is eligible, the county department shall explain the requirements and benefits of the transition program to the youth and, with the youth, develop an agreement that must be provided to the juvenile court together with a petition to renew jurisdiction with the juvenile court.The act describes the services and supports that will be made available to a youth through the transition program, including assistance with enrolling in medicaid; assistance with securing appropriate housing; and providing case management services, such as developing a roadmap to success, obtaining employment, obtaining critical documents and records, and accessing information about relatives and siblings, if available and appropriate.The act sets forth the form and content required for a petition to bring the youth under the juvenile court's jurisdiction. Upon receipt of informed, written consent of the youth, a person may be named as a special respondent in a case brought pursuant to the transition program.A youth participating in the transition program must be appointed counsel from a list of attorneys approved by the office of the child's representative. If the youth is 18 years of age or older and, due to diminished capacity, needs a guardian ad litem, one may also be appointed.Procedures for emancipation discharge and transition hearings (hearing) are described in the act, including a requirement to have a personalized emancipation transition plan finalized for the youth no more than 90 days prior to a hearing. The county department shall file a report with the court at least 7 days prior to a transition hearing that includes relevant details concerning a youth's status and plans to either emancipate or enter the youth in transition program. With the youth's consent and in certain circumstances, the court may continue a transition hearing for up to 119 days.The court shall hold periodic reviews of the youth's case at least every 6 months to ensure that the transition program is providing the youth with the necessary services to help the youth move toward permanency and a successful transition to adulthood. The act sets forth procedures for the periodic reviews. The act grants continuing jurisdiction in a youth's case to the juvenile court under certain situations.The act creates the foster youth successful transition to adulthood grant program (grant program) and associated advisory board (advisory board). The purpose of the grant program is to support eligible youth to successful transition into adulthood. Youth are eligible for services from recipients of grants from the grant program if they are between the ages of 18 and 23, were in foster care or adjudicated dependent and neglected, and are participating voluntarily. The advisory board shall meet at least 2 times per year, and the act outlines membership.The state department is directed to promulgate rules for the implementation of the transition program.For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $510,623 to the department of human services for use by the division of child welfare. This appropriation consists of $408,498 from the general fund and $102,125 from cash funds from local funds. To implement this act, the division may use this appropriation for child welfare services.For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $52,392 to the judicial department for use by the office of the child's representative. This appropriation is from the general fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)