In a construction defect action in which more than one insurer has a duty to defend a party, the bill requires the court to apportion the costs of defense, including reasonable attorney fees, among all insurers with a duty to defend. An initial order apportioning costs must be made within 90 days after an insurer files its claim for contribution, and the court must make a final apportionment of costs after entry of a final judgment resolving all of the underlying claims against the insured. An insurer seeking contribution may also make a claim against an insured or additional insured who chose not to procure liability insurance for a period of time relevant to the underlying action. A claim for contribution may be assigned and does not affect any insurer's duty to defend. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
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Section 17 of the bill requires a ballot question to be submitted to the voters of the state at the November 2017 statewide election that seeks approval for the state to temporarily impose additional state sales and use taxes for 20 years beginning January 1, 2018, and to issue up to a specified amount of transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs) for the purpose of funding specified state transportation projects. If the voters approve the temporary additional sales and use taxes and the issuance of TRANs, the new sales and use tax revenue and TRANs proceeds generated are allocated, pursuant to sections 7, 14, 15, 16, and 19, solely for transportation funding purposes as follows: $375 million of the new sales and use tax revenue annually and all TRANs proceeds to the state highway fund for use by the department of transportation (CDOT) to repay the TRANs and to fund qualified federal aid transportation projects, including multimodal capital projects, that are designated for tier 1 funding as ten-year development program projects on CDOT's 2017 development program project list until all of the projects are fully funded, for tier 2 funding for such projects thereafter, and for maintenance, including rapid response maintenance, of state highways; and Of the remaining new sales and use tax revenue: 70% to counties and municipalities in equal total amounts; and 30% to a multimodal transportation options fund created in section 22. If the voters approve the ballot question: Sections 5 and 8 respectively impose additional state sales and use taxes at a rate of 0.62% and exempt the sale, storage, use, and consumption of aviation fuels from the additional taxes. Section 9 ensures that revenue generated by the new taxes that is attributable to sales of marijuana and marijuana products is used for transportation purposes by exempting such revenue from the existing requirement that state sales and use tax revenue attributable to such sales by credited to the marijuana tax cash fund. Section 17 requires the transportation commission to covenant that amounts it allocates on an annual basis to pay TRANs shall be paid: First, from $50 million of any legally available money under its control other than the new sales and use tax revenue; next, from the new sales and use tax revenue; and last, if necessary, from any other legally available money under its control any amount needed for payment of the TRANs until the TRANs are fully repaid; The new sales and use tax revenue allocations to counties and municipalities are further allocated, pursuant to sections 15 and 16, to each county and municipality in accordance with certain existing statutory formulas used to allocate highway users tax fund (HUTF) money to each county and municipality; Section 10 repeals an existing late vehicle registration fee. Section 12 requires CDOT to evaluate options for more flexible use of high-occupancy vehicle and high-occupancy toll lanes and to report to the transportation legislation review committee (TLRC) regarding the evaluation no later than August 1, 2018. Section 14 repeals the existing statutory requirement that at least 10% of the sales and use tax net revenue and other general fund revenue that may be transferred or appropriated to the HUTF and subsequently credited to the state highway fund must be expended for transit purposes or transit-related capital improvements and limits the use of new state sales and use tax revenue for toll highways; Section 22 creates a transportation options account and a pedestrian and active transportation account in the fund and requires the transportation commission to designate the percentages of fund revenue to be credited to each account subject to the limitations that for any given fiscal year no more than 75% of the revenue may be credited to the transportation options account and at least 25% of the revenue must be credited to the pedestrian and active transportation account; Section 22 also creates a multimodal transportation options committee of gubernatorial and legislative appointees representing transit agencies, transportation planning organizations, and local governments and the executive director of CDOT or the executive director's designee as a type 1 agency within CDOT for the purpose of allocating the money in the transportation options account of the fund for transportation options projects throughout the state. Under the supervision and guidance of the committee, section 11 requires the transit and rail division of CDOT to solicit, receive, and evaluate proposed transportation options projects and propose funding for interregional transportation options projects. Any transportation options project receiving funding from either account of the fund must also be funded by at least an equal total amount of local government, regional transportation authority, or transit agency funding; except that small local governments and transit agencies may provide 20% matching money. Section 22 also requires CDOT to allocate the money in the pedestrian and active transportation account of the fund for projects for transportation infrastructure that is designed for users of nonmotorized mobility-enhancing equipment and persons with disabilities who use motorized wheelchairs, scooters, or functionally similar assistive technology; Section 3 eliminates transfers of general fund revenue to the HUTF that are scheduled under current law to be made for state fiscal years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20; Section 21 reduces the state road safety surcharges imposed on motor vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less are reduced for the same period during which the rates of the state sales and use taxes are increased. The resulting reduction in state fee revenue is taken entirely from the share of such fee revenue that is kept by the state so that county and municipal allocations of such revenue are not reduced. Section 18 requires CDOT to annually report to the joint budget committee, legislative audit committee, house transportation and energy committee, and senate transportation committee regarding its use of TRANs proceeds and to post the reports and certain user-friendly project-specific information on its website; and Section 20 creates a transportation revenue anticipation notes citizen oversight committee is created to provide oversight of the expenditure by the department of the proceeds of additional TRANs. The committee must annually report to the TLRC regarding its activities and findings.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Under current law, the state board of education (state board) must, by July 1, 2018, review and revise, as necessary, the state academic standards. The bill directs the state board, in the course of revising the academic standards, to incorporate into the standards for each subject skills relating to the use of information and communications technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information. The bill directs the department of education (department) to create a publicly available resource bank of materials pertaining to computer science programs, including sample standards, samples of curricula, and materials for professional educator development. The department must work with experts in creating and compiling the information. The resource bank is to be available by July 1, 2018. Each school district, charter school, and board of cooperative services may choose whether to provide computer science courses and whether to use the materials in the resource bank. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill modifies certain statutory requirements applicable to a downtown development authority (authority) in the following respects: In all cases where any plan of development managed by the authority includes an allocation of property tax increment generated by the mill levy imposed by one or more public bodies that are not municipalities, the bill requires that one director of the board of such authority be appointed by agreement of the boards of county commissioners of each county other than a city and county whose property taxes are subject to allocation under any such plan. One director must also be appointed by agreement of the boards of education of each school district whose property taxes are subject to allocation under any such plan and one director must also be appointed by agreement of the boards of directors of each special district whose property taxes are subject to allocation under any such plan. The bill specifies additional requirements applicable to the appointment of board members. In connection with existing statutory procedures permitting an authority to allocate taxes it collects to a special fund to finance a plan of development, the bill clarifies that the taxes that may be allocated are the property taxes of specifically designated public bodies. Before any plan of development containing any tax allocation provisions that allocates any taxes of any taxing entity other than the municipality may be approved by the municipal governing body, the bill requires the authority to notify the governing boards of each other taxing entity whose incremental property tax revenues would be allocated under such proposed plan. Representatives of the authority and the governing body of the municipality and of each taxing entity are then required to meet and attempt to negotiate an agreement governing the sharing of incremental property tax revenue collected within the plan of development area. The agreement may be entered into separately among the municipality, the authority, and each such taxing entity, or through a joint agreement among the municipality, the authority, and any taxing entity that has chosen to enter into that agreement. Any such shared incremental tax revenues governed by any agreement are limited to incremental revenue that may be allocated to a plan of development. The bill gives the parties 120 days to negotiate an agreement. If, after such period has passed, the parties fail to enter into an agreement, the bill requires the parties to participate in mediation on the issue of the appropriate sharing of incremental property tax revenues and the costs of a development project among the municipality, the authority, and any such taxing entities whose incremental property tax revenues will be allocated pursuant to a plan of development and with whom an intergovernmental agreement with the municipality and the authority has not been reached. The mediation is to be conducted by a mediator jointly selected by the parties. If the parties are unable to agree on the appointment of a single mediator, the bill specifies requirements governing the appointment by the parties of a 3-mediator panel, payment of the mediator's fees and costs, and issues the mediator is to consider in making his or her determination. Within 90 days, the bill requires the mediator to issue his or her findings of fact as to the appropriate sharing of costs and incremental property tax revenues, and to promptly transmit such information to the parties. With respect to the use of incremental property tax revenues of each other taxing entity, following the issuance of findings by the mediator, the governing body of the municipality is required to: Incorporate the mediator's findings on the use of incremental property tax revenues of any taxing body into the plan of development and an intergovernmental agreement and proceed to adopt the plan; Amend the plan of development to delete authorization of the use of the incremental property tax revenues of any taxing body with whom an agreement has not been reached; or Direct the authority to either incorporate the mediator's findings into one or more intergovernmental agreements with other taxing entities or enter into new negotiations with one or more taxing entities and enter into one or more intergovernmental agreements with such taxing entities that incorporate such new or different provisions concerning the sharing of costs and incremental property tax revenues with which the parties are in agreement. The bill prohibits any incremental property tax revenues from being allocated to and paid into the special fund of the authority unless the municipality and the authority have satisfied the mediation and other requirements of the bill.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill adds public convenience and the provision of reasonable access to and from public highways and adjoining businesses to the existing purposes for which the department of transportation (CDOT) and local governments are authorized to regulate access to public highways and specifically requires the provision of reasonable access to and from public highways and adjoining businesses to be considered in the development by CDOT of a state highway access code (code). The bill also specifies that if failure to grant a variance from the code would deny reasonable access to or from a business adjoining a divided state highway and the far side of the divided state highway, the denial may amount to a taking that requires just compensation under constitutional and statutory provisions pertaining to eminent domain. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)