Sen. Randy Baumgardner

Capital Development Committee. The bill grants the state historical society the authority to sell a vacant cold storage facility located on the former Lowry Air Force base. The bill specifies that the proceeds of the sale are to be credited to the state museum cash fund to be used for capital outlay, capital construction, or controlled maintenance at museums statewide.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

Section 1 of the bill directs the department of public health and environment to use marijuana taxes to make research grants regarding the medical efficacy of Colorado-grown strains of medical marijuana. Sections 2 and 3 allow a licensed medical or retail marijuana facility to transfer marijuana to a research facility for purposes of the medical research. Sections 2 and 3 also: Allow the use of medical or retail marijuana by a pesticide manufacturer in limited quantities as specified in rules promulgated by the state licensing authority that authorize a pesticide manufacturer to conduct research to establish safe and effective protocols for the use of pesticides on medical or retail marijuana; and Prohibit a state, local, or municipal agency from employing or using the results of a test of medical or retail marijuana conducted by an analytical laboratory that is not certified by the department of public health and environment and accredited to an accepted industry standard in that field of testing. The bill appropriates $62,210 from the marijuana cash fund to the department of revenue to implement the act, of which $19,010 and 0.1 FTE is reappropriated to the department of law. The act takes effect January 1, 2018. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill requires the transportation legislation review committee to meet at least once together with the capital development committee in the course of the committees' regular business to discuss a plan to address critical statewide infrastructure needs and how such critical needs should be funded. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

Transportation Legislation Review Committee. The bill prohibits a local government from imposing inspection requirements for underground petroleum storage tanks or charging inspection fees for the inspection of underground petroleum storage tanks. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

A regional transmission organization is an independent electric transmission operator that provides wholesale transmission services to more than one provider of retail or wholesale electric service within a defined geographic region by pooling together a number of transmission assets into a single electricity transmission market from which participating retail electric service providers may purchase wholesale transmission services. The bill directs the transportation legislation review committee to conduct a hearing during the 2017 interim on the effects that participation by retail electric service providers in a regional transmission organization would have on retail or wholesale electric service providers, their ratepayers, and Colorado's market for renewable energy. The hearing must take place on or before December 1, 2017. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

The bill requires the transportation legislation review committee to examine the costs, benefits, practicality, and effects of replacing standard-issue license plates for motor vehicles. The bill also requires the committee to examine the best way to implement a statewide license plate replacement. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

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.)

Capital Development Committee. In the case of appropriations for capital construction, not including information technology projects, the bill requires the general assembly to include an annual depreciation-lease equivalent payment line item payable from the cash fund that is the funding source for the capital construction appropriation in the operating section of the annual general appropriation act for each state agency. The bill also clarifies that one appropriation may be for the acquisition, repair, improvement, replacement, renovation, or construction of more than one capital asset. The bill clarifies that 'cash fund' does not include the money allocated to the division of parks and wildlife from lottery proceeds as specified in section 3 of article XXVII of the state constitution. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)