Sen. Kerry Donovan

The act instructs the commissioner of agriculture to hire an employee or engage a contractor to provide grant and loan application assistance to small meat processors or people attempting to start a small meat processor business. The grant or loan must be used to start, expand, or support a small meat processor business. The employee or contractor may also assist agricultural producers and agricultural businesses in applying for and obtaining grants. The grant and loan application assistance program repeals on July 1, 2024. To implement the act, $62,885 is appropriated to the department of agriculture for use by the agricultural markets division. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act transfers $15 million from the general fund, with $5 million allocated to the just transition cash fund (fund) and $10 million allocated to the coal transition workforce assistance program account (account), and directs the department of labor and employment (department), through the just transition office (office), to expend the money for specified coal community and worker supports. The act also: Specifies that money remaining in the fund or the account at the end of any fiscal year remains in the fund or account, as applicable; Eliminates the requirement to spend a certain percentage of the money in the fund by the end of specified fiscal years and instead allows the department to expend money in the fund through the end of the 2023-24 state fiscal year and authorizes roll-forward spending authority of amounts appropriated from the fund to the department pursuant to 2021 legislation through the 2023-24 state fiscal year; Allows roll-forward spending authority of amounts appropriated from the account to the department pursuant to legislation passed earlier in the 2022 legislative session through the 2023-24 state fiscal year; and Starting in 2022, requires the director of the office to report to the joint budget committee on the history of expenditures from the fund and the account and the purposes for which money in the fund and account were expended or obligated in the previous state fiscal year. The act appropriates: $5 million from the fund to the department for use by the division of employment and training (division) to implement coal community supports; and $10 million from the account to the department for use by the division to implement coal worker supports.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the board of directors (board) of the Colorado health benefit exchange (exchange) to create and implement a consumer outreach campaign (campaign) to educate consumers regarding options for health-care coverage. To pay for the campaign, the amount of the tax credits that the commissioner of insurance is allowed to allocate to insurers that contribute to the exchange increases from $5 million to $9 million for a 6-year period. The board is required to annually report its progress and accounting to the Colorado health insurance exchange oversight committee at the committee's first meeting of the calendar year starting in 2024. The requirements of the act repeal on December 31, 2028. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act repeals the provision that repeals the conservation district grant fund (fund) on December 31, 2022. The act also requires, on an annual basis: The state treasurer to transfer $148,000 from the general fund to the fund; and The department of agriculture to distribute $2,000 from the fund to each conservation district.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the Colorado agricultural workforce services program (program) in the department of agriculture (department), which program includes an online resource portal for agricultural employees to access information about their rights under labor laws and for agricultural employers to access information about compliance with labor laws. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $100,000 from the general fund to the department to be used as follows: $29,086 for use by the commissioner's office and administrative services for personal services; and $70,914 for use by the agricultural markets division for the program. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act also appropriates $42,859 from the general fund to the department of labor and employment for use by the division of labor standards and statistics. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act adjusts various requirements applicable to the "Colorado Loans for Increasing Main Street Business Economic Recovery Act" (program) that provides small business recovery loans to Colorado businesses, funded in part through the sale of insurance premium tax credits. The act: Extends the period through which the program can issue capital for the loan program through fiscal year 2023-24; Increases the amount of capital that can be issued in the last 3 fiscal years of the program without increasing the total amount that can be issued for the life of the program; Lowers the minimum amount of a loan to a small business from $30,000 to $10,000; Lengthens the maximum initial maturity of a loan to a small business from 5 years to 10 years; Changes the requirements for an eligible borrower to require one year of positive cash flow instead of 2, and at least one employee instead of at least 5 employees; Clarifies the benchmarks that apply to the program for making loans to businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals; Extends the time for the program to issue tax credits through state fiscal year 2022-23; Extends the period through which the program can issue tax credits through fiscal year 2022-23 without changing the total amount of tax credits that can be issued over the life of the program; Allows tax credits issued in fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23 to be claimed on a schedule beginning in a taxable year that begins on or after January 1, 2023; and Removes a requirement that if additional state or federal money is appropriated or allocated to the program, the value of the tax credits authorized by the program must be reduced by the same amount.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the state treasurer to make the following transfers from the economic recovery and relief cash fund: $3,000,000 to the healthy forests and vibrant communities fund for projects that will help communities address the urgent need to reduce wildfire risks by supporting implementation of risk mitigation treatments that focus on promoting watershed resilience; $2,000,000 to the wildfire mitigation capacity development fund for wildfire mitigation and fuel reduction projects; $10,000,000 to the Colorado water conservation board construction fund for watershed restoration and flood mitigation grants; $2,500,000 to the Colorado water conservation board construction fund for the direct and indirect costs of providing assistance to political subdivisions and other entities applying for federal "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" money and other federally available money related to water funding opportunities; and $2,500,000 to the Colorado water conservation board construction fund for issuing grants to political subdivisions of the state for the hiring of temporary employees, contractors, or both that will assist those political subdivisions and other entities in applying for federal "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" money and other federally available money related to natural resource management. All of these transfers relate to essential government services and must comply with the relevant compliance, reporting, record-keeping, and program evaluation requirements established by the office of state planning and budgeting and the state controller. $15,000,000 is appropriated from the Colorado water conservation board construction fund to the department of natural resources for use by the Colorado water conservation board for watershed restoration and flood mitigation project grants. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act appropriates $6 million from the species conservation trust fund for programs submitted by the executive director of the department of natural resources that are designed to conserve native species that state or federal law list as threatened or endangered or that are candidate species or are likely to become candidate species as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service, allocated as follows: $770,000 for native terrestrial wildlife conservation; $2,230,000 for native aquatic wildlife conservation; $1,900,000 for a Platte river recovery implementation program; $800,000 for an upper Colorado river endangered fish recovery program and San Juan river basin recovery implementation program; $250,000 for a 15-mile reach of Ruedi reservoir releases; and $50,000 for selenium management, research, monitoring, evaluation, and control.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act transfers the duties, powers, and functions of the department of local affairs (DOLA) related to backcountry search and rescue, the backcountry search and rescue card (card) and the backcountry search and rescue fund (fund) to the division of parks and wildlife (division), effective January 1, 2023. On and after January 1, 2023: All positions of employment and appropriations for personal services in DOLA related to backcountry search and rescue and the administration of the card and fund are transferred to the division; The division is required to administer the card program and to process requests for reimbursement for search and rescue efforts from the fund and assumes all rights and obligations previously vested in DOLA; The parks and wildlife commission is required to promulgate rules establishing the price and vendor fee for the card and the amount of the surcharges imposed on certain hunting and fishing licenses and on boats, snowmobile, and off-highway vehicle registrations that are credited to the fund; and The fund is continuously appropriated to the division to reimburse local governments for backcountry search and rescue efforts and to support search and rescue efforts throughout the state. The act amends current laws providing immunity from civil liability in certain circumstances to volunteer firefighters and incident management teams responding to emergencies and to volunteers providing services to nonprofit organizations to include persons, including associated legal entities, engaged in backcountry search and rescue efforts. A dependent of a person who died or was permanently disabled while engaged in backcountry search and rescue efforts is eligible for educational benefits that are currently extended to the dependents of individuals who die or are permanently disabled while on active duty as a Colorado National Guardsman or while working as a police officer, sheriff, or other law enforcement officer or firefighter. One million dollars is transferred from the general fund to the wildlife cash fund for use by the division to support backcountry search and rescue efforts. If there is any unobligated and unexpended money remaining from that transfer on January 2, 2023, the remainder is transferred to the backcountry search and rescue fund. The one million dollars transferred to the wildlife cash fund is appropriated to the department of natural resources for use by the division for backcountry search and rescue efforts. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act repeals the requirements that property must be owned for strictly charitable purposes and not for private gain or corporate profit and that the property must be irrevocably dedicated to a charitable purpose in order for the property to qualify for the property tax exemption for property used as an integral part of a child care center. These changes allow property that is used by a tenant or subtenant to operate a child care center to be eligible for the exemption, and the act specifies that in such case, only the operator's use is to be considered for purposes of determining whether the property is eligible for the exemption. An operator of an eligible facility, or the operator's authorized agent, is required to sign the exemption application form and to provide the property tax administrator with any requested information related to the exemption. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)