Sen. Lisa Cutter

Maddy summarySenate Resolution 25-008 designates March 31 of each year as "Transgender Day of Visibility" in Colorado. The resolution commits the Colorado Senate to defending transgender rights in health care, education, employment, housing, and civic participation while acknowledging Colorado's historical role in providing gender-affirming care. It also expresses solidarity with transgender people and other marginalized groups facing rights challenges. This symbolic resolution does not create new laws or funding but serves as a formal public affirmation of support for transgender Coloradans.

Section 20 of article X of the state constitution (TABOR) requires the maximum annual percentage change in state fiscal year spending to equal inflation plus the percentage change in state population in the prior calendar year adjusted for revenue changes approved by voters. Although TABOR does not specify how the state shall determine the percentage change in state population (population growth), the TABOR implementing statutes do. For years in which there is not a decennial census, the TABOR implementing statutes required the state to calculate population growth by determining the percentage change between: The federal census bureau's estimate of state population (census estimate) for the previous calendar year, as of December in the current calendar year; and The census estimate for the current calendar year, as of December in the current calendar year. This method for calculating population growth can lead to either double-counting or under-counting of population changes in census estimates. If the federal census bureau revises a census estimate upward for a given year, population growth will be understated and the fiscal year spending limit will be lower. The opposite is true if the federal census bureau revises a census estimate downward. In either case, under this method for calculating population growth, population growth would be measured inaccurately. The act adjusts the method of calculating population growth. Under the act, population growth is calculated by determining the percentage change between: The census estimate, as of December in the previous calendar year, for the previous calendar year; and The census estimate, as of December in the current calendar year, for the current calendar year. This approach prevents double-counting or under-counting population changes as a result of revised census estimates and results in a more accurate measurement of population growth. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act merges 2 existing medicaid waiver programs for children into one children's home- and community-based services waiver program, known as the children with complex health needs waiver program. The act relocates provisions to the new program due to the repeal of the 2 existing waiver programs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act expands the definition of an anti-growth law, which local governmental entities are generally prohibited from enacting or enforcing, to include a generally applicable land use law that, in census urban areas as defined by the United States census bureau, explicitly decreases the permitted residential density or residential uses of land to a lower residential density or fewer residential uses than were allowed by the land's usage and zoning as of July 1, 2025, without ensuring a corresponding increase of residential density or residential uses elsewhere in the jurisdiction. The act provides that certain limitations on anti-growth laws do not apply to land that contains or is directly adjacent to a wildlife crossing structure. The act also permits a municipality to seek a judicial determination as to the legality of a proposed municipal initiative for a land use ordinance that restricts or limits the development or use of land that is submitted to the legislative body of the municipality, allows the owners of a property that is specifically subject to the proposed ordinance and persons designated as representing the petition proponents to intervene in the proceeding, and tolls the period within which the municipality is required to adopt the proposed initiated ordinance or call an election during the pendency of the judicial determination. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act eliminates the statutory cap on the number of veterinary students permitted to attend Colorado state university at one time. The act eliminates additional financial limitations related to the professional veterinary medicine program at Colorado state university, including eliminating the university's bonding authority with respect to the veterinary medicine program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act authorizes an occupational therapist to directly recommend or prescribe durable medical equipment to a patient without requesting the prescription from a licensed physician and requires that the occupational therapist consult with the patient concerning payment options. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act allows a fire protection district or a metropolitan district that provides fire protection services (district) to create a program to mitigate the presence of dead or dry plant material that can burn and contribute to a fire on privately owned property within a district (vegetative fuel program). A district that creates a vegetative fuel program may require an owner or occupier with an interest in private real property that contains vegetative fuel within the district to remove the vegetative fuel and assess a fine per incident of noncompliance. An incident covers all vegetative fuel on a property. A district may not require an owner or occupier of private real property to remove vegetative fuel on private real property that is classified as agricultural land by the tax assessor, owned by a nonprofit entity and leased for agricultural purposes, owned or occupied by a public utility with a vegetation management or wildfire mitigation plan to address vegetative fuel sources, or adjacent to a ditch that conveys decreed water rights or within the easement where the ditch is located. In order to assess a fine, for each incident, the district must provide written notice by certified mail of the requirement to remove vegetative fuel and allow at least 14 days for the owner or occupier to comply. An owner or occupier that does not remove the vegetative fuel as provided in the first notice may be subject to a second notice requiring the removal of vegetative fuel. An owner or occupier has at least 14 days to comply with the second notice. An owner or occupier that does not comply within at least 14 days after the second notice may receive a third notice providing for a fine approximately equal to the cost of removing the vegetative fuel. The fine may not exceed $200 per property per incident, and an owner or occupier is not subject to more than one fine for the same incident. The sum of all fines assessed against a single property may not exceed $1,200. An owner or occupier receiving a third notice may avoid a fine by removing the vegetative fuel within 14 days of the date of the third notice. A district may not access any privately owned real property without the written permission of the owner or occupier of the property. An owner or occupier is not liable to a district for damages to district personnel or equipment that occurs on the property while district personnel or equipment are present on the property to carry out a vegetative fuel program. A district may not use a drone to discover vegetative fuel on a property or to administer or enforce a vegetative fuel program created pursuant to the act. The money that a district collects from a fine must be used by the district only to remove vegetative fuel on private real property within the district's jurisdiction. A district's board may waive the fine in all or in part, in its discretion if it determines that the fine was not assessed pursuant to law, an owner or occupier is financially unable to pay the fine, the vegetative fuel has been removed, or a waiver is appropriate under the circumstances and must prioritize use of the money to assist a low-income owner or occupier, a senior owner or occupier, or an owner or occupier with a disability in removing vegetative fuel from the owner or occupier's property. A district's board may also waive a fine for delays due to weather or upon a petition for a time extension from an owner or occupier if they have undertaken good faith efforts to remove the vegetative fuel. Good faith efforts include documentation from an arborist or licensed professional landscape architect that states when the arborist or landscape architect will be able to mitigate vegetative fuel on the property and the cost of mitigation. A district's board shall grant a property owner or occupier a time extension to mitigate or pay a fine for: No longer than 3 months if the cost to mitigate exceeds $1,000 and is less than $2,500; No longer than 6 months if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $2,500 and is less than $5,000; No longer than 9 months if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $5,000 and is less than $10,000; or No longer than one year if the cost to mitigate equals or exceeds $10,000. A district's board shall adopt rules and policies after a public hearing, public notice and public comment to implement the act and shall post the adopted rules and policies to the district's website, on social media operated by the district, and in a local newspaper of general circulation. A vegetative fuel program may only be effective 30 days or more after posting of the adopted rules and policies on the district's website. As part of the rules and policies, a district shall designate an individual to oversee and manage the district's vegetative fuel program. A district may certify to the county treasurer a delinquent charge made or levied against a property, and the treasurer may collect and pay over the charge in the same manner that property taxes are collected and paid. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Backflow is the reverse flow of water, fluid, or gas caused by back pressure or back siphonage. Under current law, individuals who are engaged in the business of installing, removing, inspecting, testing, or repairing backflow prevention devices are subject to the licensure requirements for plumbers, except when the individuals are installing or testing a stand-alone fire suppression sprinkler system. The act exempts individuals engaged in the business of inspecting, testing, or repairing backflow prevention devices from licensure requirements but retains the licensure requirements for individuals engaged in the installation or removal of the devices; except that individuals who install or replace a backflow prevention device on a stand-alone fire suppression system remain exempted from the licensure requirements. The act requires that, on and after July 1, 2025, a licensed plumber who installs, tests, inspects, repairs, or reinstalls a backflow prevention device and a certified cross-connection control technician or a licensed plumber with a cross-connection control technician certification who tests or repairs a backflow prevention device must affix a tag on the backflow prevention device that contains certain information about the licensed plumber, the certified cross-connection control technician, or the licensed plumber with a cross-connection control technician certification, as applicable, and the service that was provided. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The bill requires employers to implement protections for workers who are exposed to extreme hot and cold temperatures at the worksite, including temperature mitigation measures, rest breaks, and temperature-related injury and illness prevention plans. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The public employees' retirement association (PERA) board (board) conducts or causes to be conducted an actuarial experience study of PERA and a periodic actuarial audit of PERA. Both the actuarial experience study and the periodic actuarial audit, neither of which were referenced in law prior to passage of the act, are conducted approximately once every 5 years, but the timing of the actuarial experience study and the periodic actuarial audit is not aligned. The act requires the board to conduct or cause to be conducted the actuarial experience study every 4 years, beginning with the actuarial experience study that the board conducted in the 2024 calendar year, rather than every 5 years. In addition, the act requires the board to conduct or cause to be conducted the periodic actuarial audit of PERA in the 2026 calendar year and every 4 years thereafter , rather than every 5 years, and to ensure that each periodic actuarial audit takes into consideration the results and findings of the most recent actuarial experience study that was conducted or caused to be conducted by the board. For several years, the pension review commission has been required to commission an independent review of the economic and investment assumptions used to model PERA's financial situation. The act requires the commission to commission the independent review every 4 years, rather than every 3 years, within 3 months of the release of the periodic actuarial audit of PERA conducted or caused to be conducted by the board. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)