State Legislation

This bill restores, over time, certain federal tax deductions that were disallowed in Colorado by House Bill 20-1420. Specific dedications are related to net operating losses, the application of the federal excess business loss rules, interest expenses and qualified improvement property.

This bill creates a State Apprenticeship Agency (SAA) in the Department of Labor and Unemployment as a type one agency. The SAA will serve as the primary contact for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship and oversee apprenticeship programs including registration, required standards for registration, quality assurance, the promotion of apprenticeships and the provision of technical assistance. The bill requires the SAA to accept applications for registration of apprenticeship programs beginning July 1, 2023.

This bill requires the Colorado Division of Housing to prepare a public report that gives detail on the total money that the division or the Colorado State Housing Board received from any federal, state, public or private sources during the prior fiscal year. It would also report what the division or board granted or loaned from state funding to promote providing affordable housing.

This bill would prohibit an employer from requiring union membership or payment of union dues as a condition for employment, stating that all-union agreements are unfair labor practices. The bill creates both civil and criminal penalties for employer violations and authorizes the attorney general and district attorneys to investigate alleged violations in their judicial districts.

This bill creates a statutory basis that allows private employers to give preference when hiring a new employee to a veteran of the armed forces or National Guard and to a spouse of a disabled veteran or service member killed in the line of duty, so long as the veteran or spouse is as qualified as other applicants for the position. This bill also establishes that private employers who adopt a program that gives preference to veterans or their spouses are not committing discriminatory or unfair labor practices.

The bill would grant entities immunity from civil liability for any act or omission that results in exposure, loss, damage, injury or death related to COVID-19, as long as the entity attempts in good faith to comply with applicable public health guidelines. The bill would be repealed two years after the governor terminates the current state of disaster emergency declaration.

This bill permits class action lawsuits under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

This bill establishes definitions for electronic communication to better facilitate business in a digital environment and establishes requirements for remote participation in shareholder and director meetings.

This bill creates a voluntary pilot program to establish credit through rental payment. The pilot program would report out to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority on the results of the program in 2024.

This bill suspends the mandatory administration of certain state assessments, prohibits school districts from using student academic growth as a performance measure for staff for the 2020-2021 school year and excludes the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years from consideration by Department of Education when placing a school on performance watch.

This bill allows retailers to advertise that they will either absorb or pay any sales or use tax on purchases.

This bill caps the amount a property owner can withhold from a contractor and a contractor can withhold from a subcontractor or supplier for unsatisfactory work at 5%. This cap applies only to contracts of at least $150,000 in the private sector.

This bill requires health care facilities to screen uninsured patients for eligibility for public health insurance programs, the Colorado Indigent Care Program (CICP) and other discounted care. If a facility determines that a patient is ineligible for discounted care, the facility must notify the patient and provide an opportunity for the patient to appeal. Facilities and licensed professionals who provide eligible patients with emergency and other non-CICP services must limit their charges to no more than 80% of the Medicare rate, collect payments in monthly installments that equal no more than 5% of a patient’s household income, and consider the patient’s bill paid in full after 36 months of payments. Providers also must meet certain requirements before assigning or selling patient debt to a medical creditor or pursuing collections. HCPF will be required to collect reports on compliance and patient demographic data from facilities and fine facilities that the department determines to be knowingly or willfully not complying with the law.

This bill requires original digital electronic equipment manufacturers to provide resources to independent repair providers for repair services.

This bill tasks the State Board of Education with reviewing the knowledge and skills that students should acquire in high school in order to be financially literate including budgeting and accessing student loans, federal student aid (FAFSA) and the Colorado application for state financial aid (CASFA). It also directs schools to relay the importance of completing FAFSA and CASFA to students and their families.

This bill limits the definition of overpayments in workers’ compensation benefits to include only benefits paid as the result of fraud or duplicate benefits resulting from offsets that reduce disability or death benefits.

This bill creates a new state enterprise that would collect a fee from insurance companies. Fees would be used to create a grant program for disaster mitigation and to assist with matching funds to qualify for federal grants.

This bill would create the Outdoor Recreation Industry Office within the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, which would serve as the central coordinator for outdoor recreation industry matters. The office will consider and prioritize continued economic growth and promote workforce training in the outdoor recreation industry.

This bill makes a multitude of changes to transparency, disclosure, regulation and executive governance practices for unit/homeowners associations (HOAs). Changes range from new digital posting requirements for community fees and standards to new agenda and voting rules at HOA meetings.

This bill would create a centralized, statewide, “user-friendly” internet portal for all agency rulemaking by June 30, 2022.

The bill authorizes the Commissioner of Insurance to design a standardized health benefit plan to be offered by health insurance carriers. It also sets target individual market premium reductions for insurance carriers of 20% over a two-year period and establishes that if they fail to meet those premium reductions, a public health insurance option would be authorized in Colorado. The public option would be designed by an elected board.

This bill requires the department of personnel to contract with a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and acquire the technology to support PBM reverse auction for group benefit plans. The newly acquired technology would be required to audit PBM prescription drug claims to monitor the effectiveness of the PBM and to perform market checks of prescription drug pricing competitiveness.

The bill modifies requirements for an existing loan program created to assist transitions of businesses to employee-owned businesses by repealing current eligibility requirements and requiring the Office of Economic Development and International Trade to establish new eligibility criteria for the program. The bill also amends the requirements for the loans by allowing a loan to be used toward the purchase of the business by the employees and extends the program from 2022 to 2025.

This bill would require the Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) board to create an exclusion list of all fossil fuel companies in whose stocks, securities, equities, assets or other obligations PERA has any money or assets directly invested. Within six months from the completion of the exclusion list, the board is required to issue a determination as to whether divestment from the companies on the exclusion list complies with the board's fiduciary obligations. If the board determines that divestment from any company on the exclusion list does not comply with its fiduciary obligations, the board will remove the company from the exclusion list.

This bill allocates $20 million from the general fund to the Colorado Water Conservation Board to implement the state water plan. The state will transfer $15 million to the water plan implementation cash fund for expenditures and grants, while the remaining $5 million will be transferred to the water supply reserve fund to disperse to basin roundtables.

This bill will create a new program in the Department of Agriculture to provide $2 million in COVID-19 relief payments to agricultural events organizations. In addition to these payments, the bill allocates $3.5 million for both the Colorado State Fair and the National Western Stock Show.

This bill creates the Colorado Meeting and Events Incentive Program within the Colorado Tourism Office to provide rebates and direct support to eligible events. There are two classes of events, personal and other events (e.g., a meeting, conference or festival). Personal events eligible for funding are those that will take place in Colorado between July 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2021. Other eligible events are those that will take place in Colorado between July 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022. Events must generate at least 25 overnight stays in lodging establishments, demonstrate a significant economic benefit as determined by the office and meet any additional criteria established by the office.

This bill creates the Stimulus Investments in Reskilling, Upskilling and Next-Skilling Workers Program as an initiative of the State Workforce Development Council and appropriates $25 million for the program, which will facilitate training for unemployed and underemployed workers during times when the statewide unemployment rate exceeds 4%.

Current law allows a parent or guardian the right to sue for damages of a minor. This bill would permit minors to also bring a claim to recover damages and it expands the statute of limitations for civil claims.

This bill would protect entities from liability related to COVID-19 if they comply with public health guidelines. An entity would not be liable for any damages that result from exposure, loss, damage, injury or death due to COVID-19 unless a claimant proves by clear and convincing evidence that the issue was caused by the entity’s failure to comply with public health guidelines, gross negligence, a reckless indifference to the consequences or omission. The bill would be repealed two years after the governor terminates the current state of disaster emergency declaration.

The bill requires the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) to retain a contractor on or before Nov. 1, 2021, to perform actuarial reviews of proposed legislation that may impose a new health benefit mandate on health benefit plans. Fiscal notes for any legislative proposal that may impose a new health benefit mandate on health benefit plans shall either note premium impact information that is produced by the contractor during their review or indicate that no information was produced by the contractor during their review.

This bill requires agricultural employers and employees to comply with the Colorado Labor Peace Act. Agricultural employees would also be allowed to organize and join labor unions, engage in protected, concerted activities and engage in collective bargaining. Agricultural workers would no longer be exempt from state and local minimum wage laws and would be granted meal breaks and rest periods. The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics would be ordered to establish overtime pay rules for employees who work more than 40 hours a week or 12 hours a day. The bill also stipulates certain requirements regarding agricultural employees’ living accommodations, including access and transportation to key service providers and the ability to have visitors at employer-provided housing without interference from other people. In addition, the legislation would create an agricultural work advisory committee to study and analyze agricultural wages and working conditions, and creates rights, remedies and enforcement for agricultural employees, whistleblowers, key service providers and others.

This law would allow a company to charge a customer or lessee a fee of no more than 2% per transaction when the customer or lessee chooses to pay using a credit or charge card. These fees are currently prohibited under state law.

The bill requires the Department of Education and the State Board of Education to consider whether an innovative learning plan includes opportunities for students to participate in registered or unregistered apprenticeships, internships and technical training or skills programs through an industry provider, teacher training opportunities, concurrent enrollment and industry certificates. The bill also creates a fourth-year innovation pilot program to disburse state funding to postsecondary education and training programs on behalf of low-income students who graduate early from a high school and are participating in the pilot program prior to enrolling in the first or second semester of their fourth year of high school. The bill creates funding for the pilot program and requires the Department of Higher Education to report annually to various committees on the program.

This bill amends the Career Development Success Program by removing residency programs and expanding apprenticeship programs to include any industry program, not just construction programs. Additionally, the bill expands the definition of a qualified industry-credential program to include a career and technical education program that, upon completion, results in an industry-recognized credential with labor market value aligned with a high-skill, high-wage, in-demand job. It also requires industry workforce needs and perspectives be regularly considered and changes some reporting requirements.

This bill clarifies that the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) may give notice of rulemaking prior to 60 days before a hearing and requires the notice to include a description of the classes of people and entities that will be affected by the proposed rule. It also adds requirements for the AQCC related to timing and deadlines, governance, economic impacts and stakeholder outreach and impacts for any alternate proposals submitted in a rulemaking process.

The bill extends the time period in which any person can ask for a cost-benefit analysis of a draft rule or draft amendment to a rule for which the agency has filed a notice of proposed rulemaking. If the cost benefit analysis demonstrates materially different effects in different regions of the state, the agency must specify and include the different costs, benefits and effects on different regions. If a proposed rule has a negative impact, the agency must inform the public. The results of the cost-benefit analysis must be presented at the rulemaking hearing, including public testimony on the results of the analysis.

This bill legislates how carriers use external data sources to determine premiums, requires disclosures of various data sources to the Division of Insurance and allows the Commissioner of Insurance to promulgate rules restricting or prohibiting the use of external data sources by insurance carriers.

This bill dramatically adjusts landlord and tenant rights in residential rental agreements. Changes include prosecuting wrongful eviction claims under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, modifying the timeline for default writ of restitution, eliminating the bond requirement for warranty of habitability and implementing an array of new landlord prohibitions.

The bill creates the Colorado prescription drug affordability review board and requires the board to perform affordability reviews of prescription drugs and establish price caps for prescription drugs that the board determines are unaffordable for Colorado consumers.

This bill allows employment discrimination claims to be brought in any court, creates and expands definitions under the law and expands the time limit in which charges can be brought against employers to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

This bill requires ski areas to make public a safety plan with the goal of reducing accidents and the frequency and severity of injuries. Certain ski areas would also need to collect and make public data on ski and snowboard accidents.

This bill would change the existing workers’ compensation statute by expanding physician choice for employees beyond the current agreed-to level.

This bill directs the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to enhance its role in rulemaking aimed at reducing statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It directs wholesale generation and transmission electric cooperatives to file with the public utilities commission plans to achieve an 80% GHG reduction by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, eventually working to 100% reduction by 2040. It also gives AQCC authority to collect annual emission fees from GHG pollution. Further, this bill creates an environmental justice advisory board and an ombudsperson position within the Department of Public Health and Environment.

This bill gives $2.5 million to the Department of Agriculture for use in the Colorado Proud program, which provides new opportunities for Colorado's food and agricultural producers to increase sales globally and helps support the growth and resiliency of Colorado food systems.

This bill transfers $5 million to the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Grant Program to be used for projects that create diversity and resiliency in the local economies of rural communities.

This bill moves $380 million from the general fund to create a PERA payment cash fund for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. These dollars will be used to pay for the $225 million direct distribution payment to PERA on July 1, 2020 and for future direct distributions.

This bill directs $3 million to the Rural Jump Start Grant Program, which helps economically distressed communities – particularly communities that will be affected by the energy market’s transition away from coal to more renewable energy sources – attract new businesses and jobs. New businesses can receive up to $20,000 for establishing operations in rural jump-start zones and up to $2,500 for each new job they create. Businesses establishing operations in previously identified coal transition communities can receive up to $40,000, as well as up to $5,000 for each new job they create.

This bill appropriates $15 million for the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative's Displaced Workers Grant, which is estimated to serve at least 3,000 displaced Colorado workers across the state, as well as help institutions of higher education scale high-demand programs.

This bill creates four new grant programs to increase capacity for early childhood care and education, encourage employer-based child care facilities, and improve recruitment and retention rates and salaries for early childhood educators. It also eliminates the repeal dates for the child care sustainability grant program, which has provided financial support to licensed providers that are in danger of closing because of COVID-19, and the emerging and expanding child care grant program. Money from the general fund and federal funds will support these grant programs.