The act creates the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund (fund) to help finance groundwater use reduction and sustainability efforts in the Rio Grande river basin and the Republican river basin, such as efforts to buy and retire irrigation wells and irrigated acreage in the river basins. The Colorado water conservation board (board) administers the fund and can make expenditures from the fund based on recommendations from the board of directors of the Rio Grande water conservation district or the Republican river water conservation district. A conservation district's recommendations must first be approved by the state engineer. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $60 million is appropriated from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to the fund and, on August 15, 2024, up to $20 million of any unobligated money in the fund is transferred to the water plan implementation account, which account the board administers to finance efforts to help accomplish critical actions identified in the state water plan. The board and any recipient of money from the fund or the account must comply with the compliance, reporting, record-keeping, and program evaluation requirements that the office of state planning and budgeting and the state controller establish for use of money allocated to the state pursuant to the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021". (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act appropriates $25 million from the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund, which money originates from the general fund, to the department of local affairs (DOLA) for expansion of the middle income access program created and administered by the Colorado housing and finance authority (CHFA). The act requires the division of housing within DOLA to contract with CHFA for administration of the money appropriated. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill requires the Colorado water conservation board (board) to establish one or more remote wildfire camera technology pilot programs. The board must acquire or contract for a system of remote pan-tilt-zoom cameras and associated tools to provide a live feed of information that can detect, locate, and confirm ignition in the wildland-urban interface. The board must report to the wildfire matters review committee on the system's effectiveness and potential for more widespread use in the state.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates the Colorado safe student protection program (program) to provide grants to school districts and charter schools to support student safety, including equipment and training to ensure safe student transportation on school buses, and to facilitate the development of a secure website, online application, and mobile application that provide parental notifications about student safety and age-appropriate health and safety information at no cost to parents (secure digital notification and information tools). The department of education (department) operates the grant program and selects a program facilitator to support schools awarded a program grant. The department allocates a portion of the program money to the program facilitator. Subject to available appropriations, program grants are 3-year grants that cover the 2022-23 through 2024-25 school years. The department annually distributes grant money. A grant recipient may use a grant award to: Provide parents with the secure digital notification and information tools; Increase the safety of students and the security of school buses by equipping school buses with hardware and software that monitor driver behavior and enable the buses to communicate directly with first responders; and Fund relevant school bus safety training, including federal transportation security awareness training. The program facilitator may be a public benefit corporation or a nonprofit organization that operates with a charitable purpose and must have at least 7 years of experience in student safety, including student transportation safety. The department allocates fifty percent of program money to the program facilitator. The program facilitator must use program money to: Support program grant recipients; Develop the secure digital notification and information tools; Recruit school bus drivers and conduct or facilitate federal transportation security awareness training; Develop and make publicly available school bus transportation safety information and age-appropriate student safety educational materials; Conduct a statewide awareness campaign to reduce instances of drivers illegally failing to stop for a school bus; and Seek additional sources of funding on behalf of the program. The program is a 3-year program that repeals in 2025. The bill makes an appropriation. The bill appropriates $3.5 million to the department for the program. (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.)
The act authorizes a local government to designate all or a portion of a highway under its jurisdiction for over-snow use only when snow-packed conditions exist on the highway or for a designated continuous seasonal period for which the local government determines that snow-packed conditions are likely to exist on the highway. "Over-snow use" is defined as travel on top of snow by human-powered or animal-powered means or by an off-highway vehicle that is primarily designed or altered for use over snow and runs without tires on a continuous belt track or on one or more skis while in use over snow. A local government may limit an over-snow use designation to human-powered or animal-powered travel, or both, and the act does not prohibit a local authority from entering into a private winter maintenance agreement when wheeled winter access is requested along a highway. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the department of transportation (CDOT) to develop an electronic application, permitting, contract, and fee structure to facilitate access by nongovernmental entities to public rights-of-way for the deployment of broadband and requires acceptances and denials of such access by CDOT to be provided in writing and made available to the public. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act expands the allowable uses of the revenue from a local marketing district's marketing and promotion tax and a county's lodging tax to include: Housing and childcare for the tourism-related workforce, including seasonal workers, and for other workers in the community; Facilitating and enhancing visitor experiences; and Capital expenditures related to these new purposes. A local marketing district or county must obtain voter approval to use the tax revenue for the new allowable uses. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act changes the name of the water resources review committee to the water resources and agriculture review committee (committee) and expands the scope of the committee to include agriculture issues. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act allows a board of county commissioners, which appoints directors to a board of directors for a cemetery district, to remove any director from such a board for cause after giving the director notice and an opportunity to be heard at a public hearing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)