The During a declared public health disaster emergency, the bill authorizes counties and municipalities to enact ordinances and resolutions that: Limit the amount of the fee , excluding a fee related to credit card processing, that a third-party delivery service may charge to a retail food establishment in a county or municipality where indoor dining is prohibited at a capacity of at least 50% or below at the discretion of the county or municipality ; Restrict the ability of a third-party food delivery service to reduce the compensation rate or tips paid to a delivery driver or retail food establishment to offset revenue reductions resulting from a fee limit; Require that any fee or commission charged to a retail food establishment be disclosed by the third-party food delivery service to the customer; and Restrict a third-party food delivery service's ability to service, or disclose any information about, service a retail food establishment without the retail food establishment's consent; and consent. Impose civil penalties for a violation of any ordinance or resolution enacted. The bill also immunizes any county or municipality that enacts an ordinance or a resolution as authorized by the bill from liability for economic damage suffered as a result of the ordinance or resolution. (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.)
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The bill allows a temporary deduction from state net taxable sales for qualifying retailers in the alcoholic beverages drinking places industry, the restaurant and other eating places industry, and the mobile food services industry in the state in order to allow such qualified retailers to retain the resulting sales tax collected as assistance for lost revenue as a result of the economic disruptions due to the presence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Colorado. (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 bill establishes immunity from civil liability for small businesses for any act or omission that results in exposure, loss, damage, injury, or death arising out of COVID-19 if the small business attempts in good faith to comply with applicable public health guidelines. The bill is repealed 2 years after the date the governor terminates the state of disaster emergency declared on March 11, 2020. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill allows a taxpayer to deduct the total amount of tips received by a taxpayer during the 2021 income tax year from the taxpayer's federal taxable income for purposes of calculating the taxpayer's 2021 Colorado taxable income. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act implements recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies in its sunset review and report on the regulation of mental health professionals as follows: Continues the regulation of mental health professionals for 9 years, until September 1, 2029; Clarifies that mental health professionals may possess, furnish, and administer opiate antagonists; Exempts students who are enrolled in a school program and are practicing as part of a school practicum or clinical program; Grants title protection to additional persons practicing in the mental health field; Makes the conviction of a crime that is related to mental health practice a violation of the mental health practice acts; Authorizes the appropriate mental health board to suspend a mental health professional's license, certification, or registration for the failure to comply with a board-ordered mental or physical examination; and Repeals the requirement that members of the mental health boards must be United States citizens. In addition to implementing the sunset recommendations, the act: Allows the staff of a mental health board to approve applications for licensure, certification, and registration without ratification from the respective board unless the board deems ratification necessary; Clarifies that licensees, certificate holders, and registrants are not required to form a professional service corporation; Exempts persons performing auricular acudetox from licensing, certification, and registration requirements; Creates the mental health disciplinary record work group for the purpose of making legislative and rulemaking recommendations concerning records that impact the initial licensure, certification, registration, and ongoing practice of mental health professionals; Clarifies when a mental health professional may disclose a client's confidential communications; Clarifies that it is not a prohibited activity for a mental health professional to offer or accept payment for services provided in connection with a referral as long as the payment is not for the referral itself; Prohibits a contract entered into by a mental health professional for marketing, office space, administrative support, or any other overhead expense from providing remuneration for referrals of clients or patients or otherwise creating financial benefit or incentive to the mental health professional; Allows supervision of an applicant for a social worker license to be done virtually and by a person other than a licensed social worker; Creates a registration process for clinical social work candidates; States that, for licensed social workers or licensed clinical social workers, course work is the only professional competency activity that can fulfill all the continuing competency requirements; Requires applicants for psychology licensure to complete a name-based criminal history record check upon initial application; Requires applicants for a professional counselor license to complete 2,000 hours of practice in counseling, including at least 1,500 hours of face-to-face direct client contact under clinical supervision; Changes the name of "registered psychotherapists" to "unlicensed psychotherapists", allows current psychotherapists to continue to practice as unlicensed psychotherapists, and prohibits the registration of any new psychotherapists with the board of unlicensed psychotherapists; Repeals the provision allowing a licensed mental health professional or a licensure candidate to register with the database of unlicensed psychologists; and Changes the titles of certified addiction counselors to "certified addiction technicians" and "certified addiction specialists" and changes the scope of practice and educational requirements for the certificate holders.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act states that, generally, evidence relating to the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim's actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted, nonforcible romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or if the defendant and victim are or have been involved in an intimate relationship, is irrelevant in a criminal case and does not constitute sudden heat of passion in a criminal case. The act creates a protective hearing if a party claims that such evidence is relevant and wants to use it in a criminal case. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act only takes effect if the voters statewide approve the repeal of constitutional provisions related to property tax assessment rates set forth in Senate Concurrent Resolution 20-001. Beginning with the property tax year that commences on January 1, 2020, the act creates a moratorium on changing property tax assessment rates. The act also makes conforming amendments to reflect the repealed constitutional provisions. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires, subject to available appropriations, the state librarian in the department of education (department) to contract with a Colorado nonprofit organization (contractor) for the creation and operation of the Colorado imagination library program (program). The contractor shall manage the daily operations of the program, including but not limited to: Establishing county-based affiliate programs in all Colorado counties and city and counties; Advancing and strengthening the affiliate programs to ensure enrollment growth; Developing, promoting, and coordinating a public awareness campaign to make donors aware of the opportunity to donate to the affiliate program and make the public aware of the opportunity to register eligible children to receive books through the program; and Contracting with a national nonprofit foundation that exists for the sole purpose of working with local entities to identify eligible children and mail age-appropriate, high-quality books each month to those children at no cost to families. The act requires the contractor to submit a report to the department which shall then submit the report to the general assembly on the total number of eligible children in each county or city and county in Colorado and how many eligible children are enrolled in the program in each county or city and county. The act allows the department to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources for the creation and maintenance of the imagination library. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
When the statewide internet portal authority (SIPA) was created, it was charged with offering information technology products and services to local governments and "state agencies". At that time, SIPA's statute defined "state agency" to have the same meaning as the term was defined in the statute that governed the former office of innovation and technology. That definition defined "state agency" to mean every state office, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, and all of its respective offices, departments, divisions, commissions, boards, bureaus, and institutions, excepting only state-supported institutions of higher education, the department of higher education, the Colorado commission on higher education, or other instrumentality thereof. Subsequent to SIPA's creation, the statutes that governed the former office of innovation and technology were amended to create the office of information technology (OIT), and the definition of "state agency" was narrowed to cover only the agencies to be served by OIT. The statute now excludes the legislative and judicial departments, the departments of law, state, and treasury, state-supported institutions of higher education, and the department of education. The changes to the OIT definition of "state agency" have inadvertently excluded these agencies from the scope of state agencies that may obtain services from SIPA. The act restores the definition of "state agency" in SIPA's statutes to its original scope and also includes higher education institutions and agencies, as the practice has been for SIPA to serve all state agencies, including higher education institutions and agencies. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits a health insurance carrier from: Imposing specific requirements or limitations on the HIPAA-compliant technologies used to deliver telehealth services; Requiring a covered person to have a previously established patient-provider relationship with a specific provider in order to receive medically necessary telehealth services from the provider; or Imposing additional certification, location, or training requirements as a condition of reimbursement for telehealth services. The act specifies that, to the extent the state board of health adopts rules addressing supervision requirements for home care agencies, the rules must allow for supervision in person or by telemedicine or telehealth. For purposes of the medicaid program, the act: Requires the department of health care policy and financing (state department) to allow home care agencies to supervise services through telemedicine or telehealth; Clarifies the methods of communication that may be used for telemedicine; Requires the state department to reimburse rural health clinics, the federal Indian health service, and federally qualified health centers for telemedicine services provided to medicaid recipients and to do so at the same rate as the department reimburses those services when provided in person; Requires the state department to post telemedicine utilization data to the state department's website no later than 30 days after the effective date of the act and update the data every other month through state fiscal year 2020-21; and Specifies that health care and mental health care services include speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, hospice care, home health care, and pediatric behavioral health care. The act appropriates $5,068,381 to the state department from the care subfund for telemedicine expansion services and prohibits the state department from using the appropriation for the state-share of medicaid services. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)