The act changes the refund mechanism for state revenues that exceed the state's fiscal year spending limit (TABOR refunds). Before passage of the act, 3 refund mechanisms for TABOR refunds applied for the 2022-23 state fiscal year: Reimbursement, paid to counties for allocation to local governments that levy property taxes, for the reduction in property taxes resulting from the property tax exemptions for qualifying seniors and veterans with a disability; An additional reimbursement that is paid to counties for allocation to local governmental entities that levy property taxes for the reduction in property taxes resulting from reductions in valuation for assessment; and A sales tax refund for individual taxpayers, the amount of which is either based on 6 tiers of income or, if there is insufficient revenue for the tiered approach, is an identical refund amount. The act creates a new temporary refund mechanism that replaces the sales tax refund mechanism for the 2022-23 state fiscal year. Under this mechanism, each qualified individual is eligible to receive an identical refund payment from the remaining excess state revenues after refunds are made through the county reimbursement mechanisms (remaining excess state revenues). The amount of the refund is equal to the amount of remaining excess state revenues divided by the number of qualified individuals, and it is a refund from all sources of state fiscal year spending. A qualified individual filing a single return is entitled to one refund, and 2 qualified individuals filing a joint return are entitled to 2 refunds. The executive director of the department of revenue is required to administer this refund in the same manner as the identical sales tax refund. The refund is not to be reported to the department of revenue as a payment of a refund, credit, or offset of state income taxes in any information return required to be filed pursuant to federal law. APPROVED by Governor November 20, 2023 EFFECTIVE November 20, 2023(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act preempts any existing local governmental entity housing growth restriction that explicitly limits either the growth of the population in the local governmental entity's jurisdiction or the number of development permits or building permit applications for residential development or the residential component of any mixed use development submitted to, reviewed by, approved by, or issued by a governmental entity for any calendar or fiscal year and forbids the enactment or enforcement of any such future local housing growth restriction unless the governmental entity has experienced a disaster emergency, has developed or amended land use plans or land use laws covering residential development or the residential component of a mixed-use development, or is extending or acquiring public infrastructure, public services, or water resources. A governmental entity that experiences one of these events may implement a growth cap for up to 24 months in a 5-year period. APPROVED by Governor June 7, 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.)
"Carbon management" is defined by the act as any combination of carbon dioxide removal, carbon storage, carbon capture, and carbon utilization. The act ensures that carbon management projects, except for agricultural, forestry, and enhanced oil recovery projects, are eligible for money under the industrial and manufacturing operations clean air grant program. The act also requires the Colorado energy office (office), in collaboration with the office of economic development and the department of public health and environment, to contract with an organization for the development of a carbon management roadmap for the state. The office is required to ensure that the roadmap functions in concert with other state targets, teams, and documents related to greenhouse gas and carbon. The roadmap must include: Specified economic sectors; necessary infrastructure to support carbon management; specified types of policies and incentives; identification of the state agency best positioned to carry out a potential policy regime of carbon management; public interest, legislative, and administrative policy recommendations; and criteria for carbon management project selection. After receiving a draft of the roadmap, the office is required to hold at least one public hearing to solicit feedback on the roadmap, including comment on the roadmap's environmental health impacts. The contracted organization is required to use that feedback to update the roadmap. The office is required to present the updated roadmap to specified committees in the general assembly and then later update the general assembly on the implementation of the roadmap. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 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.)
Effective July 1, 2023, the act changes the name of the oil and gas conservation commission to the energy and carbon management commission (commission) and expands the commission's regulatory authority to include the authority to regulate a broader scope of energy and carbon management areas beyond oil and gas. The act also changes the name of the oil and gas conservation and environmental response fund to the energy and carbon management cash fund (fund) and allows the fund to also be used by the commission for the purposes of administering the expanded regulatory areas. Section 3 of the act requires the commission to create and maintain a website that serves as the state portal for information and data regarding the commission's regulatory activities. Current law states that the property right to the natural heat of the earth (geothermal resource) that lacks sufficient fluid associated with the geothermal resource (geothermal fluid) to transport commercial amounts of energy to the surface is an incident of ownership of the overlying surface unless expressly severed. Section 7 states that, as to property rights acquired on or after July 1, 2023, the property right to a geothermal resource associated with nontributary groundwater (allocated geothermal resource) is also an incident of ownership of the overlying surface unless expressly severed. Current law requires the operator of a well, prior to constructing the well to explore for or produce geothermal resources, to obtain a permit from the state engineer. Section 8 bifurcates regulation of different types of geothermal operations between the commission and the state engineer. Specifically, the commission is granted the exclusive authority to regulate operations (deep geothermal operations) for the exploration for or production of: An allocated geothermal resource; or A geothermal resource that is deeper than 2,500 feet below the surface. The state engineer retains the exclusive authority to regulate operations that are not deep geothermal operations (shallow geothermal operations). Prior to obtaining a permit from the commission to construct a well for deep geothermal operations, the applicant must provide evidence of any applicable siting application to the local government with jurisdiction over the deep geothermal operations, including the disposition of the application, unless the local government does not regulate the siting of such operations. Upon request by a local government, the commission is also required to provide technical support to the local government concerning implementation of the commission's rules regarding deep geothermal operations. The commission and the state engineer may each adopt rules for the assessment of fees for the processing and granting of a permit to construct a well for deep geothermal operations or shallow geothermal operations, as applicable. Any fees collected by the commission will be deposited by the state treasurer into the fund. Current law requires the operator of a well, prior to the production of geothermal fluid from the well, to obtain a permit from the state engineer. Section 9: Bifurcates the issuance of different types of use permits by the state engineer between permits for the use of geothermal resources that are not allocated resources and permits for the use of allocated geothermal resources (collectively, use permits); and Requires the state engineer to only issue a use permit for allocated geothermal resources after a determination that any associated geothermal fluid is nontributary groundwater (nontributary determination). Section 9 also allows the state engineer to adopt rules for the administration of use permits and the issuance of nontributary determinations. Current law allows the state engineer to adopt procedures that establish geothermal management districts for the management of geothermal operations within the district. Section 10 limits the scope of geothermal management districts to distributed geothermal resources. The state engineer is also required to notify the commission of any application for a geothermal management district that is anticipated to affect deep geothermal operations. Section 11 allows the commission to adopt procedures by rule to establish geothermal resource units for allocated geothermal resources. Section 13 grants the commission the exclusive authority to regulate any intrastate facility that stores natural gas in an underground facility not subject to regulation by the public utilities commission (UNGS facility). If the commission submits a certification to, or enters into an agreement with, the federal secretary of transportation pursuant to applicable federal law, any rules regulating UNGS facilities must be at least as stringent as the applicable federal requirements. If a UNGS facility is proposed to be sited in an area that would affect a disproportionately impacted community, the commission must evaluate and address impacts from the UNGS facility. The commission may assess and collect fees from operators of UNGS facilities in an amount and frequency determined by the commission by rule. Any fees collected will be deposited into the fund. Before commencing construction of a new UNGS facility, the operator of the facility must provide evidence of any applicable siting application to a local government with jurisdiction over the UNGS facility, if applicable, and the disposition of the application. The act directs the commission to conduct and report to the general assembly during the 2025 legislative session the findings of the following studies: A technical study of the state's geothermal resources (section 11); A study, in collaboration with the state engineer, that evaluates the state regulatory structure for geothermal resources and whether any changes to law or rules are necessary (section 11); A study concerning the regulation and permitting of underground hydrogen operations (section 19); and A study, in coordination with the public utilities commission, examining the siting and regulation of intrastate pipelines (section 19). For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, section 43 appropriates $1,200,480 from the fund to the department of natural resources (department) to be used as follows: $1,108,857 for use by the commission for program costs; $7,031, which amount is reappropriated for use by the division of water resources in the department for water administration related to division operations; and $84,592, which amount is reappropriated to the department of law to provide legal services for the department. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2023 EFFECTIVE July 1, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act increases the percent of appropriated funds that the department of public health and environment (department) may use for the administration and management of the public water systems and domestic wastewater treatment works grant program from 5% to 10%. Section 3 modifies the composition of the water quality control commission (commission) by requiring that: No more than 5 members of the commission be affiliated with the same political party; and The commission include members with specific types of expertise, including expertise in areas of science, environmental law, environmental policy, municipal water treatment, municipal wastewater treatment, industry, or labor. Section 4 requires the commission, on or before October 31, 2025, and after engaging in stakeholder outreach, to set the following fees by rule: Drinking water fees assessed on public water systems; Commerce and industry sector permitting fees; Construction sector permitting fees; Pesticide sector permitting fees; Public and private utilities sector permitting fees; Municipal separate storm sewer systems sector permit fees; Review fees for requests for certification under section 401 of the federal "Clean Water Act"; Preliminary effluent limitation determination fees; Wastewater site application and design review fees; On-site wastewater treatment system fees; and Biosolids management program fees. The commission's fee-setting rules must become effective on or before January 1, 2026, and the commission may by rule authorize the division to phase in the fee-setting rules before January 1, 2026. Section 4 also creates the clean water cash fund into which the fees collected under the commission's fee-setting rules are credited, except that the fees assessed on public water systems under the drinking water fee-setting rules are credited to the drinking water cash fund. The statutory fee provisions in sections 2, 5, 6, and 8 repeal on July 1, 2026. Before the repeal, the state treasurer is required to transfer any money remaining in the funds into which the statutory fees are credited to the clean water cash fund; except that section 2 specifies that drinking water fees will continue to be credited to the drinking water cash fund and that any money in the drinking water cash fund will remain in that cash fund. Section 7 repeals the division of administration's (division's) regulatory authority concerning nuclear and radioactive wastes. Section 9 requires the division to include, in its annual reporting to the commission and the general assembly, information on: The division's implementation and enforcement of the discharge permitting program (program); For reports submitted before October 1, 2025, the division's fee revenue and direct and indirect costs associated with the program; and For the report submitted in 2025, the fee structure set forth in the commission's proposed or adopted fee-setting rules. APPROVED by Governor May 17, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE May 17, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2026 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the office of future of work (office) to contract with a third party to study workforce transitions in Colorado's economy. The office will request proposals from private or public entities to bid on performing the study. The workforce transitions study (study) must: Evaluate the skill transferability of workers in the oil and gas industry and in occupations in Colorado that are facing the most disruption due to automation; Explore training availability, skills needed, and transition strategies; and Provide recommendations for programs and policies to prepare the workforce for these transitions. On or before December 1, 2024, the office is required to submit a report of the study's research and findings to the governor and to specified legislative committees of reference. The office is also required to issue an update on the key findings of the study to the governor and specified legislative committees of reference by August 1, 2024. For the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the act requires the general assembly to appropriate $317,318 from the general fund to the department of labor and employment for use by the executive director's office. APPROVED by Governor May 16, 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.)
In 2021, the general assembly enacted Senate Bill 21-175, concerning the Colorado prescription drug affordability review board, which created the prescription drug affordability review board (board) in the division of insurance (division) and an affordability review process whereby the board may review costs associated with, and establish upper payment limits for, certain prescription drugs. The 2023 act makes certain changes concerning the board. Section 1 clarifies which actions taken by the board are "board activities", as this term is used elsewhere. Section 2 states that staff members and contractors of the division must disclose any conflict of interest related to a prescription drug for which the board is conducting an affordability review or establishing an upper payment limit. Such a disclosure remains confidential if it relates to a personal association. The board, upon review of a disclosure, may direct the staff member or contractor of the division to recuse themselves. Section 3 allows the chair of the board to cancel or postpone a board meeting for good cause. Section 4 makes certain changes to the procedure by which the board identifies prescription drugs that may be subjected to an affordability review, which changes take effect January 1, 2025, and requires the board to report on its public web page certain information regarding its considerations. Under current law, the board may not establish an upper payment limit for more than 12 prescription drugs per calendar year for 3 years, beginning April 1, 2022. Section 5 lets the board establish an upper payment limit for up to 18 prescription drugs per calendar year if the board determines that there is a need and has sufficient staff support. Section 6 establishes that an upper payment limit for a prescription drug is not a final agency action that is subject to judicial review until the board promulgates a rule establishing the upper payment limit. Sections 6 and 7 remove certain language concerning a process for appealing decisions of the board. Sections 8 and 9 extend the repeal and associated sunset review of the board from September 1, 2026, to September 1, 2031. Section 10 establishes that a denial of a request for benefits for a prescription drug that is unavailable in the state because a manufacturer has withdrawn the prescription drug from sale or distribution within the state is an "adverse determination" for which an individual may request an independent external review. APPROVED by Governor May 10, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE January 1, 2025 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die; except that, section 4 of the act takes effect January 1, 2025. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law defines "child-occupied facility" for the purposes of lead-based paint abatement as a building or portion of a building that is visited by a child on 2 or more days within any week, with each visit totaling 6 or more hours. The act reduces the total daily visit time to 3 or more hours. APPROVED by Governor March 31, 2023 EFFECTIVE March 31, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)