Sen. Jack Tate

Current law exempts from the definition of a "real estate appraisal" certain analyses prepared by an officer, director, or regularly salaried employee of a financial institution or its affiliate when the analyses are used for internal purposes only. Federal law also exempts such analyses when they are prepared by an agent of a financial institution or its affiliate. The act adds these agents to the list of people who can make these exempt analyses. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act: Establishes a hold harmless provision for vendors who use the state's geographic information system database (GIS database) to determine the jurisdictions to which sales or use tax is owed and to calculate appropriate sales or use tax rates for individual addresses; Requires the department of revenue to notify vendors when the GIS database is online, tested, and verified by the department of revenue to be operational, supported, and available for use; Specifies that the notification to vendors may be provided in any way that the department of revenue deems appropriate and must be accomplished within existing resources; Requires the department of revenue to ensure that the GIS database data is at least 95% accurate based on a statistically valid sample of addresses from the database, or based on another acceptable method of proving accuracy; Requires the executive director of the department of revenue to promulgate rules for the administration and use of the GIS database; Specifies that the statutory section regarding certified address location databases used for collecting and remitting sales and use tax is repealed 90 days after the date that the revisor of statutes is notified by the department of revenue that a geographic information system that meets the defined scope of work set forth in the request for solicitation is online, tested, and verified by the department of revenue to be operational, supported, and available for use; and Requires the department of revenue to notify the revisor of statutes no later than 15 days after such a system is online, tested, and verified by the department of revenue to be operational, supported, and available for use.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

For income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2021, the bill allows an individual or corporate taxpayer to subtract from the taxpayer's federal taxable income any amount contributed to an eligible scholarship granting organization, to the extent such amount is not claimed as a deduction on the taxpayer's federal tax return. An eligible scholarship granting organization is defined as a charitable nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to dependent children for tuition expenses for the child's enrollment in a private school so long as the child qualifies for free or reduced-cost lunch. An eligible scholarship organization is required to undergo an annual financial and compliance audit of its accounts and records conducted by an independent certified public accountant and is required to submit the audit to the department of education. The department of education is required to review each audit it receives and submit an annual list to the department of revenue of eligible nonprofit scholarship granting organizations that are in compliance with the requirements specified for the deduction. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Energy Legislation Review Interim Study Committee. A conservation easement is an agreement in which a property owner agrees to limit the use of his or her land in perpetuity in order to protect one or more specified conservation purposes. The bill specifically authorizes conservation easements to permit electric transmission lines that transmit renewable energy across the land subject to the easement if it is appropriate and consistent with the conservation purposes of the conservation easement.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Statutory Revision Committee. The bill repeals language requiring each hospital license issued by the department of public health and environment to include the signature of the president of the state board of health (state board), the attestation of the secretary of the state board, and the state board's seal.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Property tax - residential assessment rate. Based on a residential target percentage that is equal to 45.69%, the act lowers the residential assessment rate from 7.2% to 7.15% for property tax years commencing on and after January 1, 2019, until the next property tax year that the general assembly adjusts the rate.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Pharmacy technicians - regulation by state board of pharmacy - certification - provisional certification - criminal history record checks - renewal - continuing education - unprofessional conduct - discipline - supervision by pharmacist - authorized activities - sunset review - appropriation. The act requires pharmacy technicians practicing in Colorado on or after March 30, 2020, to obtain a certification from the state board of pharmacy (board). An applicant for certification by the board must provide proof of certification by a board-approved, nationally recognized organization that certifies pharmacy technicians and must either submit to a criminal history record check in the form and manner determined by the board by rule or provide evidence of submitting to a criminal history record check at the time of hire or as a condition of national certification as a pharmacy technician. If an applicant is not certified by a national certifying organization at the time of application for state certification, the board may grant a provisional certification to the applicant to allow the applicant up to 18 months or, if granted a hardship extension, an additional period determined by the board, to obtain national certification. A provisional certification is not renewable, and if the provisional certificant fails to obtain the national certification within the 18-month period or extended period granted by the board, the provisional certification expires and the person cannot practice as a pharmacy technician until the person satisfies all requirements for certification by the board. To renew a certification, in addition to board requirements for renewal, a pharmacy technician must satisfy renewal and continuing education requirements of the national accrediting organization that certified the pharmacy technician. Similar to pharmacists and interns, a pharmacy technician certified by the board is subject to the jurisdiction of the board and to discipline by the board for engaging in unprofessional conduct. The act maintains the limitation on the number of interns and pharmacy technicians that a pharmacist may supervise but specifies that if the pharmacist is supervising 3 or more pharmacy technicians, a majority of the pharmacy technicians must be certified and all others must hold a provisional certification. The regulation of pharmacy technicians by the board is subject to the same sunset review that applies to the board and its functions in regulating the practice of pharmacy. $183,063 is appropriated from the division of professions and occupations cash fund to the department of regulatory agencies (DORA) to implement the act, of which $15,545 is reappropriated to the department of law for legal services for DORA. Additionally, $128,188 is appropriated from the Colorado bureau of investigation identification unit fund to the department of public safety for use by the biometric identification and records unit to perform criminal history record checks. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Section 1: Currently, the office of state planning and budgeting is required to prepare the forms and instructions to be used in preparation of all budget requests and supplemental budget requests submitted to the joint technology committee (JTC). For a budget request for a major information technology project (major IT project) submitted to the JTC for funding in the 2020-2021 state fiscal year or any state fiscal year thereafter, the bill requires the forms and instructions to include the submission of a written business case specifying certain information about the major IT project and a survey of other states, including specified information, that have completed major IT projects with similar goals. Section 2: The bill requires the office of information technology (office) to ensure that every major IT project has a project manager in the office who is regularly involved in the management of the project and who is required to develop, in coordination with the state agency that is a party to the contract (state agency), specified project baseline metrics to track the progress of the project. The office is required to ensure that the contractor does not begin work on a major IT project until the project manager has developed the baseline metrics and they have been approved by the applicable state agency. In addition, the office is required to develop, in cooperation with the applicable state agency, performance indicators to monitor the major IT project and quantitative critical success factors to track the success of the project. The project manager is required to provide the baseline metrics, the performance indicators, the critical success factors, and a quarterly status report for each major IT project to the JTC. If the quarterly status report for a major IT project indicates that the project is unlikely to achieve the performance indicators established for the project, the office is required to place the project on a list for more intense monitoring. If the office determines that the major IT project is not in compliance with the established baseline metrics for the project, that the variances in the established performance indicators or success factors established for the project are intolerable, or that the project is otherwise in need of corrective action, the office is required to notify the applicable state agency of the its recommended corrective action for the project. Section 3: For budget requests for a major IT project submitted to the JTC for funding in the 2020-2021 state fiscal year or any state fiscal year thereafter, a governmental body is required to provide for a change management plan, including specified information and the resources necessary for the execution of the change management plan. Governmental bodies are required to seek best practices with private- or public-sector experts when appropriate to develop and implement change management plans and are required to provide written change management plans to the JTC and the office of state planning and budgeting.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More

State institutions of higher education - application for admission - criminal or educational disciplinary history inquiry. A state institution of higher education (institution) is prohibited from inquiring, prior to admission, about an applicant's criminal history or disciplinary history at an elementary, secondary, or postsecondary institution (disciplinary history); except that the institution may inquire into the following: An applicant's prior convictions or disciplinary history for stalking, sexual assault, and domestic violence; An applicant's convictions within 5 years before submitting the application for assault, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter, or murder; and Any pending criminal charges against the applicant. An institution that accepts a form of application that may be used to apply to other institutions is prohibited from considering any criminal or disciplinary history information provided on that application that the institution is prohibited from inquiring into on its own application. An institution that accepts a form of application that is designed by a national application service, tailored for admission to a specific degree program, and used in other states may consider criminal history information provided on that application. An institution's review of an otherwise qualified applicant's disclosed criminal history or disciplinary history must be made in a reasonable amount of time. The institution shall provide an appeals process for an otherwise qualified applicant denied admission based on the applicant's criminal or disciplinary history. An institution is required to post its policies regarding inquiries into an applicant's criminal and disciplinary history on its website and file such policies with the Colorado commission on higher education (commission). An institution shall notify the commission at least 30 days before making any changes to such policies. An institution is permitted to inquire into an admitted student's criminal history when obtaining information pertaining to participation in campus life or student housing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Legislative services - director of research of the legislative council - state tax system working group - report - appropriation. The director of research of the legislative council, in coordination with the other nonpartisan legislative staff agencies, the department of revenue, the department of personnel, and the governor's office of information technology, is required to convene a state tax system working group (working group) to meet during the interim following the first regular session of the seventy-second general assembly and to conduct an analysis of the state tax system used by the department of revenue. The working group is authorized to solicit input from any additional interested parties, as deemed necessary and appropriate by the working group. The working group is required to provide a progress report regarding its work to the joint technology committee and the joint budget committee and to submit a report of its findings and recommendations in connection with the state tax system to the joint technology committee, the joint budget committee, and the finance committees of the house of representatives and the senate. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $44,552 is appropriated from the general fund to the legislative department and $30,000 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of revenue for the purposes of the working group. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More