Sen. Perry Will

Under existing law, an offender convicted of certain violent offenses is eligible for parole after the person has served 75% of the sentence imposed upon the offender, less earned time granted by the department of corrections. The bill requires an offender sentenced for second degree murder; first degree assault; first degree kidnapping, unless the first degree kidnapping is a class 1 felony; sexual assault; first degree arson; first degree burglary; or aggravated robbery committed on or after July 1, 2024, to serve at least 85% of the imposed sentence before the offender is eligible for parole. The bill requires an offender sentenced for the enumerated crimes committed on or after July 1, 2024, to serve 100% of the sentence imposed if the person has twice previously been convicted of a crime of violence.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Wildfire Matters Review Committee. The bill directs the board of governors of the Colorado state university system (board) to conduct, or cause to be conducted, a comprehensive study on biochar, including its use in wildfire mitigation efforts. The bill specifies minimum topics that the study must include. The board is required to submit a report on the findings of the study to specified committees of the general assembly.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Beginning July 1, 2023, the act classifies a wildlife officer and a parks and recreation officer employed by the division of parks and wildlife (division) in the department of natural resources (department) and hired on or after January 1, 2011, as a state trooper for the purpose of determining the officer's public employees' retirement association service retirement eligibility and benefit. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, $236,364 is appropriated from the wildlife cash fund to the department for use by the division for wildlife operations and $168,070 is appropriated from the parks and outdoor recreation cash fund to the department for use by the division for state park operations. APPROVED by Governor June 6, 2023 EFFECTIVE June 6, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act appropriates $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 or that are candidate species or are likely to become candidate species for such listing as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service. Of the $5 million, the act allocates $750,000 for native terrestrial wildlife conservation, $1,500,000 for native aquatic wildlife conservation, $2,200,000 for the upper Colorado river endangered fish recovery program and the San Juan river basin recovery implementation program, $50,000 for selenium management, research, monitoring, evaluation, and control, and $500,000 for the federal endangered species act litigation program. APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2023 EFFECTIVE June 5, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act allows the department of transportation (department) to establish steep downhill grade zones within the public highways of the state where the downhill grade is 5% or greater and where there are safety concerns related to commercial motor vehicle drivers exceeding the posted speed limits. If the department establishes a steep downhill grade zone, the department must erect signs identifying the zone and notifying commercial motor vehicle drivers that increased fines are assessed for speeding in the zone. The act subjects a commercial motor vehicle driver who commits a speeding violation in a steep downhill grade zone to doubled fines and surcharges. The act creates the mountain highways commercial motor vehicle safety account (account) within the highway users tax fund and requires the state treasurer to credit one-half of the amount of each doubled fine and surcharge to the account for the department to pay costs associated with the provision of educational outreach and public information about runaway truck events, the purchase and implementation of equipment for the purpose of reducing the frequency of runaway truck events, and the completion of studies of means by which the state may reduce the frequency of runaway truck events and improve overall commercial motor vehicle safety on state highways that pass through the state's mountains. The act appropriates $54,073 to the department of revenue from the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account in the highway users tax fund for the 2023-24 state fiscal year. The act reappropriates $7,425 of the appropriation to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide information technology services to the department of revenue. APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2023 EFFECTIVE January 1, 2024 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

For health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, the act requires a health insurer or pharmacy benefit manager to include in the calculation of a covered person's contributions toward cost-sharing requirements, including any annual limitation on a covered person's out-of-pocket costs, any payments made by or on behalf of the covered person for a prescription drug if: The prescription drug does not have a generic equivalent or, for a biological product, a biosimilar drug or interchangeable biological product; or The prescription drug has a generic equivalent, a biosimilar drug, or an interchangeable biological product, but the covered person is using the brand-name drug after obtaining prior authorization, complying with a step-therapy protocol, or otherwise receiving approval from the carrier or pharmacy benefit manager if those utilization management processes are not otherwise prohibited by law. The commissioner of insurance is authorized to adopt rules necessary to implement the act. The act applies to health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

A board of county commissioners is currently authorized to license and regulate an owner or owner's agent of a lodging unit that is rented or advertised for short-term stays, and "owner's agent" expressly excludes an internet hospitality service. The act modifies this regulatory authority by clarifying that it applies to lodging units that are available for short-term rentals, which are rentals for less than 30 days, and by excluding a hotel unit from the scope of the authority. The act also changes "internet hospitality service" to "vacation rental service" (service), defines the term, and provides separate authority for a board of county commissioners to regulate a service. This authority, however, is limited to requiring: An owner or owner's agent to include a rental license or permit number, if applicable, in any listing for a lodging unit on the service's website or other digital platform; and The service to remove a listing from the service's website or other digital platform, if properly notified by a county that the owner of the listed lodging unit has had a local short-term rental license or permit suspended or revoked or has been issued a notice of violation or similar legal process for not possessing a valid local short-term rental license or permit or that the county has a prohibition on short-term rentals that applies to the lodging unit. Upon the request of an owner of a hotel unit that is located in a building with one or more lodging units or a vacation rental service on which the hotel unit is listed, a county is required to provide written verification that the hotel unit is exempt from the ordinance because it is not a lodging unit. APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires a health insurance carrier (carrier) that issues, sells, renews, or offers a dental coverage plan to file, beginning in 2024, dental loss ratio forms with the division of insurance (division) for the preceding calendar year in which dental coverage was provided. The division is required to post dental loss ratio information on its website or submit the information to the administrator of the all-payer health claims database (APCD). If the information is submitted to the APCD administrator, the administrator is directed to make the information available to the public. Once the division has collected dental loss ratio information for 2 years, the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) shall promulgate rules that create a process to identify any carriers that significantly deviate from average dental loss ratios and to investigate the causes of the deviation. The act requires the commissioner to adopt rules that require each carrier that provides a dental coverage plan to issue to covered persons to whom a dental coverage plan identification card is issued a standardized written or virtual card containing plan information. The act also requires prepaid dental plans to file rates with the division. The act appropriates $64,252 from the division of insurance cash fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the division of insurance for personal services and operating expenses. APPROVED by Governor June 2, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)