Sen. Kerry Donovan

At the 2020 general election, the voters approved proposition 114, which requires the reintroduction and management of gray wolves. The bill requires all costs for this program to be paid exclusively from the general fund, and this includes any losses of livestock caused by gray wolves. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill creates the connecting Colorado students grant program (program) to provide grants to local education providers to use in providing broadband service and other technology for increased internet access for students, educators, and other staff. The program is created in the department of education (department). The department reviews applications, and the commissioner of education (commissioner) awards the grants. The department must consult with the office of information technology, the office of economic development, and broadband and education technology experts in reviewing the applications. The bill specifies the required contents of grant applications, the criteria that the department and the commissioner must consider in reviewing and awarding grants, and criteria for prioritizing applicants. The bill creates the connecting Colorado students grant program fund out of which grants are paid. By February 1, 2021, the department must distribute the money appropriated to the department for the 2020-21 budget year for grants. Beginning in July 15, 2021, the department must submit to the state board of education, governor, and education committees of the general assembly a report concerning implementation of the program. By January 10, 2021, the department, in collaboration with the office of information technology and broadband service providers, must develop and make publicly available a list of free or low-cost broadband services and other internet access resources. The program is repealed, effective February 1, 2022. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

In 2019, the general assembly created the Colorado secure savings board (board) in the office of the state treasurer to study the costs to the state of insufficient retirement savings and 3 approaches to increasing retirement savings in Colorado. The board found that a state-facilitated automatic enrollment individual retirement account program is the best option for Colorado and recommended the establishment of such a program, coupled with the greater use of financial education tools in the state. In furtherance of the board's recommendation, the act directs the board to create and implement the Colorado secure savings program (program). The act specifies the powers and duties of the board in connection with the creation and administration of the program and updates the criteria to which the board is required to adhere in developing the program. The board is required to adopt rules regarding enrollment in the program, contributions to and withdrawals from program accounts, the process for employer exemptions from offering the program, and required disclosures. The act creates the Colorado secure savings program fund in the state treasury to consist of money appropriated by the general assembly, money transferred to the fund by the federal government, money from fees and penalties in connection with the program, any gifts, grants, or donations made to the fund, and any gifts, grants, donations, or investments made to the state treasurer. The state treasurer may solicit gifts, grants, donations, or investments not required to be repaid, from public or private sources to cover the costs associated with the administration of the program. All individual account information for accounts under the program is confidential and may not be disclosed except under specified circumstances. For the 2020-21 state fiscal year, the general fund appropriation made in the annual general appropriation act to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology for applications administration is decreased by $1,197,552. The same amount is appropriated from the general fund to the department of the treasury for the implementation of the act. Any money appropriated that is not expended prior to July 1, 2021, is further appropriated to the department for the 2021-22 state fiscal year for the same purpose. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the act allow the department of corrections, local jails, multijurisdictional jails, municipal jails, and state department of human services facilities (institutions) to make opioid agonists and opioid antagonists available to a person in custody with an opioid use disorder. The institutions are strongly encouraged to maintain the treatment of the person throughout the duration of the person's incarceration or commitment. Qualified medication administration personnel may administer opioid agonists and opioid antagonists. The facilities may contract with community-based health providers for the administration of opioid agonists and opioid antagonists. Section 5 of the act allows a person to dispose of any controlled substances at a safe station, if safe station personnel are available, and request assistance in gaining access to treatment for a substance use disorder. A "safe station" is defined as any municipal police station; county sheriff's office; or municipal, county, or fire protection district fire station. Safe station personnel shall provide the person with information about the behavioral health crisis response system. Sections 6 and 7 of the act require the department of corrections and jails to ensure that continuity of care is provided to inmates prior to release, which includes post-release resources and a list of available substance use providers. County jails are required to provide medicaid reenrollment paperwork to a person when the person enters the county jail and file the paperwork with the county department of health and human services upon releasing the person from the county jail's custody. Section 8 of the act requires the executive director of the department of corrections, in consultation with the offices of behavioral health and economic security in the department of human services, the department of health care policy and financing, the department of local affairs, and local service providers to develop resources for inmates post-release that provide information to help prepare inmates for release and reintegration into their communities. Section 9 of the act requires a court, when reviewing a petition to seal criminal records, to consider favorably, when applicable, the fact that the petitioner has entered into or successfully completed a licensed substance use disorder treatment program, in determining whether to issue the order. Sections 10, 11, and 12 of the act allow the office of behavioral health (OBH) in the department of human services (CDHS) to contract with cities and counties for the creation, maintenance, or expansion of criminal justice diversion programs. OBH may require diversion programs to participate as a mobile crisis service. CDHS shall include an update regarding the current status of funding and implementation of the criminal justice diversion programs in its annual SMART Act presentation. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The broadband deployment board (board) awards grants for the provision of broadband service in unserved areas of the state, which are areas deemed to have insufficient broadband service. The act authorizes but does not require an applicant seeking grant money from the board to submit to the board a written certification from the local entity with jurisdiction over the area that the applicant proposes to serve, certifying that the area is an unserved area. A local entity that is requested to provide written certification may not do so without first holding a hearing on the matter after providing notice of the hearing, including notice to any incumbent provider. The board is required to give substantial weight to a local entity's written certification that an area is an unserved area. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act: Extends the rural jump-start program for an additional 5 years; Adds a legislative declaration stating that the purpose of the 5-year extension is to create or retain jobs in order to help address the still significant contraction of local economies in certain areas of the state; Changes the existing competition clause to specify that a new business applying for rural jump-start program benefits cannot compete with an existing business in the rural jump-start zone in which the business will be located or in any distressed county that is contiguous to the rural jump-start zone; Adds economic development organizations as authorized entities to apply to: Form a rural jump-start zone; or To allow a new business to participate in the rural jump-start program; and Amends the reporting requirements to ensure that any future evaluation of the rural jump-start program can rely on clear, relevant, and ascertainable metrics and data provided by the economic development commission.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires a farm owner or operator to confine chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or guinea fowl hens (hens) in accordance with the standards established in the act. On and after January 1, 2023, the act also prohibits a business owner or operator from selling shell eggs or egg products that are produced by egg-laying hens that were confined in a manner that conflicts with these standards. In connection with this prohibition, the act: Requires, by January 1, 2023, hens to be confined in an enclosure with at least one square foot of usable floor space per hen; Requires, by January 1, 2025, hens to be confined in a cage-free housing system with at least: One square foot of usable floor space per hen if the hens have unfettered access to vertical space; or 1.5 square feet of usable floor space per hen if the hens do not have unfettered access to vertical space; Deems a sale to have occurred at the location where the buyer takes physical possession of the shell egg or egg product; Allows a business to rely upon written certification that the shell egg or egg product did not come from hens that were confined in a manner that conflicts with the act; Authorizes the commissioner of agriculture to impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation; Requires the commissioner to promulgate rules to implement and enforce the act; and Authorizes the commissioner to use a government or private inspection process. The act requires shell eggs and egg products to be annually certified as complying with the standards. Certification requires an inspection. The following are exempt from the act's requirements: Medical research; Veterinary procedures; Transportation; A state or county fair exhibition, 4-H program, or similar exhibition; Slaughter; Temporary confinement in connection with animal husbandry; A farm with 3,000 or fewer egg-laying hens; or A nonfarm business owner or operator with each location selling fewer than 25 cases of, or 30 dozen, shell eggs per week if all locations owned or operated by the business sell fewer than 100 cases of shell eggs per week.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act establishes the health insurance affordability enterprise, for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution, that is authorized to assess a health insurance affordability fee (insurer fee) on certain health insurers and a special assessment (hospital assessment) on hospitals in order to: Provide business services to carriers that pay the insurer fee, including services to increase enrollment in health benefit plans offered by carriers across the state; increase the number of individuals who are able to purchase health benefit plans in the individual market by providing financial support for certain qualifying individuals; fund the reinsurance program that offsets the costs carriers would otherwise pay for covering consumers with high medical costs; improve the stability of the market throughout the state by providing consistent private health care coverage and reducing the movement of individuals from insured to uninsured status; reduce provider cost shifting from the individual market and the uninsured to the group market; and create a healthier risk pool for all carriers by establishing a path for consistent coverage for individuals; and Provide business services to hospitals, including by reducing the amount of uncompensated care provided by hospitals; reducing the need of providers to shift costs of providing uncompensated care to other payers; and expanding access to high-quality, affordable health care for low-income and uninsured residents. The enterprise is to start assessing and collecting the insurer fee in 2021, which fee is based on a percentage of premiums collected by health insurers in the previous calendar year on health benefit plans issued in the state. The hospital assessment is a specified amount assessed and collected in the 2022 and 2023 calendar years. Money collected from the insurer fee and hospital assessment is to be deposited in the health insurance affordability cash fund (fund), which the act creates. The act also transfers an amount of premium taxes collected by the state in 2020 or later years that exceeds the amount collected in 2019, but not more than 10% of the enterprise's revenues, to the fund. The enterprise is required to use the insurer fee, the hospital assessment, and any premium tax revenues or other money available in the fund, in accordance with the allocation specified in the act, for the following purposes: To provide funding for the Colorado reinsurance program; To provide payments to carriers to increase the affordability of health insurance on the individual market for Coloradans who receive the premium tax credit available under federal law; To provide subsidies for state-subsidized individual health coverage plans purchased by qualified low-income individuals who are not eligible for the premium tax credit or public assistance health care programs; To pay the actual administrative costs of the enterprise and the division of insurance for implementing and administering the act, limited to 3% of the enterprise's revenues; and To pay the costs for consumer enrollment, outreach, and education activities regarding health care coverage. The enterprise is governed by an 11-member board composed of the executive director of the Colorado health benefit exchange and the commissioner of insurance or their designees and 9 members appointed by the governor and representing various aspect of the health care industry and health care consumers. With regard to the Colorado reinsurance program and enterprise, the act: Incorporates the reinsurance program enterprise within the health insurance affordability enterprise; Eliminates funding for the reinsurance program from special assessments on hospitals and health insurers, excess premium tax revenues, and specified transfers from the state general fund and instead allocates a portion of the health insurance affordability enterprise revenues to the reinsurance program annually; and Extends the reinsurance program, subject to federal approval of a new or extended state innovation waiver to enable the state to operate the reinsurance program and access federal funding for the program.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act appropriates $1.5 million from the species conservation trust fund for programs that are designed to conserve native species that state or federal law lists as threatened or endangered, that are candidate species, or that are likely to become candidate species as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service, allocated as follows: Native terrestrial wildlife conservation, $454,505; Native aquatic wildlife conservation, $295,495; Platte river recovery implementation program, $670,000; and Selenium management, research, monitoring, evaluation, and control, $80,000.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act appropriates the following amounts from the Colorado water conservation board (CWCB) construction fund to the CWCB or the division of water resources in the department of natural resources for the following projects: Continuation of the satellite monitoring system operation and maintenance, $380,000 (section 1 of the act); Continuation of the Colorado floodplain map modernization program, $500,000 (section 2); Continuation of the weather modification permitting program, $350,000 (section 3); Continuation of the Colorado Mesonet project, $150,000 (section 4); Acquisition of LIDAR data, $200,000 (section 5); Continuation of the Arkansas river decision support system, $500,000 (section 6); Continuation of the Colorado decision support system operation and maintenance, $500,000 (section 7); Continuation of the water forecasting partnership project, $350,000 (section 8); Creation of the Colorado water loss control initiative, $1,000,000 (section 9); Continuation of the watershed restoration program, $4,000,000 (section 10); and Continuation of the alternative agricultural transfer methods grant program, $750,000 (section 11). The state treasurer will make the following transfers from the CWCB construction fund: Up to $2,000,000 on July 1, 2020, to the litigation fund (section 12); and $1,000,000 on July 1, 2020, to the fish and wildlife resources fund (section 13). Section 14 appropriates $7,500,000 to the CWCB to continue implementation of the state water plan from the CWCB construction fund to be used as follows: Up to $3,000,000 to facilitate the development of additional storage, artificial recharge into aquifers, and dredging existing reservoirs; Up to $1,000,000 for grant funding to implement long-term strategies for conservation, land use, and drought planning; Up to $500,000 for grants for water education, outreach, and innovation efforts; Up to $1,500,000 for agricultural projects; and Up to $1,500,000 for environmental and recreational projects. The CWCB is authorized to make loans from the severance tax perpetual base fund or the CWCB construction fund: In an amount up to $23,230,000 to the Pueblo conservancy district to bring levees up to federal emergency management agency standards (section 15); In an amount up to $17,250,800 to the Tunnel Water Company to rehabilitate the Laramie-Poudre tunnel (section 16); and In an amount up to $90,000,000 to the southeastern Colorado water conservancy district to provide nonfederal cost-sharing funding for the Frying Pan-Arkansas project. $10,000,000 is also transferred from the severance tax perpetual base fund to the CWCB construction fund and then appropriated from the CWCB construction fund for the 2020-21 state fiscal year to the CWCB to grant money to the southeastern Colorado water conservancy district for the Frying Pan-Arkansas project (section 17). Current law prohibits the CWCB from recommending treated water distribution systems to the general assembly, and section 18 removes the prohibition. Section 19 extends the CWCB's water efficiency grant program to June 30, 2030. Section 20 reduces the $1,700,000 appropriation made to the CWCB in the 2019-20 state fiscal year for stakeholder outreach and technical analysis regarding the development of a water resources demand management program to $833,258, which amount is available to the CWCB through the 2020-21 state fiscal year. Current law authorizes an annual, continuous appropriation of $150,000 from the CWCB construction fund to the Colorado water conservation board for the ongoing operations of a water education foundation, which is currently known as Water Education Colorado. Section 21 repeals the continuous appropriation. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)