HB22-1007 | Assistance Landowner Wildfire Mitigation |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act establishes the wildfire mitigation resources and best practices grant program (grant program) within the Colorado state forest service (forest service). To be eligible to receive a grant, a recipient must be an agency of local government, a county, a municipality, a special district, a tribal agency or program, or a nonprofit organization. The forest service is tasked with reviewing grant applications. Grants must be awarded only to applicants proposing to conduct outreach among landowners in high wildfire hazard areas, and the forest service must consider the potential impact of an applicant's proposed outreach when awarding grants. The forest service must report to the wildfire matters review committee on the grant program. Commencing no later than the 2023-24 state fiscal year, the act requires the general assembly to annually appropriate money from the general fund to the healthy forests and vibrant communities fund to implement the grant program. The act extends the existing income tax deduction created to offset the landowner's costs incurred in performing wildfire mitigation measures, currently set to expire with the 2024 income tax year, through the 2025 income tax year. The act also creates a state income tax credit to reimburse a landowner for the costs incurred in performing wildfire mitigation measures on the landowner's property. Specifically, a landowner with a federal taxable income at or below $120,000, annually adjusted for inflation and rounded to the nearest hundred dollars, for any income tax year commencing on or after January 1, 2023, but prior to January 1, 2026, is allowed a state income tax credit in an amount equal to 25% of up to $2,500 in costs for wildfire mitigation measures.
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Status: | 6/3/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, February 18 House Journal, March 8 House Journal, April 21 House Journal, April 21 |
Fiscal Notes: |
HB22-1011 | Wildfire Mitigation Incentives For Local Governments |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act establishes the wildfire mitigation incentives for local government grant program (grant program) in the Colorado state forest service (forest service). The grant program is established to provide state funding assistance in the form of grant awards to local governments to either match revenue raised by such governments from a dedicated revenue source or to expand existing programs administered by the local government on a long-term basis, which efforts are intended to be used for forest management or wildfire mitigation efforts at the local level. Such wildfire mitigation efforts include, without limitation, projects that promote fuel breaks, forest thinning, a reduction in the amount or extent of fuels contributing to wildfires, outreach and education efforts directed at property owners and other members of the public, and any other means of forest management or wildfire mitigation as determined appropriate for funding by the forest service. On or before March 1, 2023, the forest service is required to adopt polices, procedures, and guidelines for the grant program that include, without limitation:
Any funding awarded under the grant program must match either revenues raised by the local government from a dedicated revenue source or supplement existing programs administered by the local government on a long-term basis, which efforts are intended to be used for forest management or wildfire mitigation efforts at the local level in accordance with policies, procedures, and guidelines developed by the forest service. A local government is eligible for funding under the grant program even in the absence of a dedicated revenue source if the local government has created and administers an existing program, project, or funding mechanism that creates long-term funding at the local level for wildfire mitigation or forest health or has created and administers other creative and innovative approaches for promoting wildfire mitigation and forest health. In allocating funding under the grant program, preference must be given to certain eligible recipients based on prioritization factors enumerated in the act. Eligible recipients may apply for funding from the grant program, and the recipient's application for funding may be approved by the forest service before the local government has created a dedicated revenue source that forms the basis for the match if the electors of the local government approve a ballot issue creating the revenue source at an election that takes place in the same calendar year in which the funding is awarded. The act creates the wildfire mitigation incentives local government grant program fund (fund) in the state treasury. On July 1, 2022, the state treasurer is required to transfer $10 million from the general fund to the fund. The forest service is to use the money transferred to fund awards under the grant program and pay the administrative costs of the forest service in administering the grant program. On or before November 1, 2024, and on or before November 1 of each year thereafter, the forest service is required to publish a report summarizing the use of all of the money that was awarded under the grant program in the preceding fiscal year. The act specifies additional required components of the report. The report must be posted on the website of the forest service. The act requires the Colorado department of higher education to summarize the information contained in the report in its "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act" hearings. The act requires the forest service to prepare educational materials concerning the grant program and to display such materials on its official website. The forest service is also required to undertake outreach activities to inform local governments located in priority areas for wildfire mitigation of the grant program. The grant program is repealed, effective September 1, 2027. Before its repeal, the department of regulatory agencies is required to review the grant program as part of the general assembly's review of regulatory agencies and functions for repeal, continuation, or reestablishment.
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Status: | 6/3/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, February 18 House Journal, April 28 House Journal, April 28 House Journal, April 29 House Journal, April 29 Senate Journal, May 9 |
Fiscal Notes: |
HB22-1012 | Wildfire Mitigation And Recovery |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act requires the state forest service, on and after September 1, 2022, to develop a publicly accessible statewide carbon accounting framework that yields carbon stock and flux estimates for:
The state forest service must also develop a forest carbon co-benefit framework for project-level forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must use this framework to train practitioners in adaptive management practices to be incorporated into current forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must provide technical expertise to assist industry and landowners with carbon inventories and monitoring. The act also allows money from the existing healthy forests and vibrant communities fund to be used for new purposes, including the new statewide carbon accounting framework. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act:
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Status: | 6/3/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, February 18 House Journal, April 22 House Journal, April 22 House Journal, April 26 |
Fiscal Notes: |
HB22-1092 | Loans From Irrigation Districts To Landowners |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | Sections 1 and 4 of the act allow a board of directors of an irrigation district (board) to borrow money, which the irrigation district may use to make loans to landowners to be used to make improvements to private water delivery systems or for other types of projects that improve:
An obligation or contract to borrow such money is exempt from the existing requirement that a contract purporting to bind the district to pay a certain sum must be ratified by a certain number of district voters. Additionally, the district cannot assess landowners to raise money to fund the loans. In case of default in the payment of any loan installment, the county treasurer may assess upon the eligible real property a tax lien for the payment of the whole of the unpaid installment but is prohibited from assessing a tax lien for the entire value of the landowner's portion of the irrigation loan issued by the water district. Sections 2 and 5 require each irrigation district to include in its annual appropriation resolution:
Sections 3 and 6 state that the county treasurer will receive $5 per tract assessed for loans issued to landowners by an irrigation district, and this $5 will be assessed against each participating tract.
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Status: | 4/12/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, February 25 House Journal, March 2 Senate Journal, March 18 |
Fiscal Notes: |
HB22-1097 | Dissolution Of Special Districts |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | Under current law, municipalities and regional service authorities are authorized to file an application for dissolution of a special district with the board of directors of the special district. The act expands current law to authorize a board of county commissioners to file such an application if the special district is wholly located in the boundaries of the county and to file jointly with another board of county commissioners such an application if the special district is located in 2 or more counties. If more than 85% of the special district's territory is located within the boundaries of one or more municipalities, the board of directors of the special district shall not take any action on the application unless the governing bodies of all such municipalities have consented to or joined the application. Current law also allows the governing body of a municipality and a special district wholly within the corporate limits of the municipality that has no financial obligations or outstanding debt to mutually consent to dissolution of the special district via a court order dissolving the special district without an election. The act expands current law to allow a board of county commissioners and a special district that is wholly within the county's boundaries to mutually consent to dissolution of the special district in the same manner via a court order dissolving the special district without an election; except that, if more than 85% of the special district lies within one or more municipalities, the governing bodies of all such municipalities also must consent to dissolution via court order without an election.
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Status: | 3/17/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, February 9 House Journal, February 11 |
Fiscal Notes: |
HB22-1151 | Turf Replacement Program |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act requires the Colorado water conservation board (board) to develop a statewide program to provide financial incentives for the voluntary replacement of irrigated turf with water-wise landscaping (turf replacement program). The act defines water-wise landscaping as a water- and plant-management practice that emphasizes using plants with lower water needs. Local governments, certain districts, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations with their own turf replacement programs may apply to the board for money to help finance their turf replacement programs. The board will contract with one or more third parties to administer one or more turf replacement programs in areas where local turf replacement programs do not exist. The state treasurer is required to transfer $2 million from the general fund to the turf replacement fund, which fund is created to finance the turf replacement program. The money is appropriated to the department of natural resources for use by the board to implement the turf replacement program, with $11,400 of the money reappropriated to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide information technology services to the department of natural resources.
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Status: | 6/8/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, March 1 House Journal, May 3 House Journal, May 3 |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-007 | Increase Wildfire Risk Mitigation Outreach Efforts |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act requires the Colorado state forest service (forest service) to convene a working group (working group) that includes the division of fire prevention and control in the department of public safety (DFPC) and the United States forest service (USFS), and that may include other local, state, or federal partners and entities engaged in wildfire risk mitigation in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The working group shall consider how best to conduct enhanced outreach campaigns during wildfire awareness month in 2023 and 2024, as well as other outreach efforts that inform and motivate residents in the WUI to engage in more wildfire risk mitigation. After considering feedback from the working group, the forest service shall implement an enhanced wildfire awareness month outreach campaign in conjunction with the DFPC and the USFS in 2023 and 2024, as well as other outreach efforts in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 state fiscal years. In implementing an enhanced wildfire awareness month outreach campaign and other outreach efforts, the forest service may, subject to available appropriations:
The act requires the state forester to report to the wildfire matters review committee during the 2023 and 2024 legislative interims concerning the outreach efforts implemented pursuant to the act, including the amount and use of money appropriated for outreach efforts and the impact of those efforts in increasing awareness of wildfire risk mitigation in the WUI.
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Status: | 6/3/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | Senate Journal, February 3 Senate Journal, March 18 House Journal, May 5 House Journal, May 6 |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-013 | Boards And Commissions |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act makes changes related to the requirements for various boards and commissions (boards). Section 1 of the act includes standard provisions that generally apply to boards for which membership is based in full or in part on representation from the congressional districts of the state. Specifically, unless a statute or constitutional provision creating a board provides otherwise:
Section 2 establishes standard provisions that apply to all boards unless the statute or constitutional provision creating a board provides otherwise. The standard provisions include:
Sections 33 and 40 update the statutes that establish the membership of the state board of education and the board of regents of the university of Colorado, respectively, both of which are elected boards created in the state constitution. For the state board of education, section 33 provides for the election of one new member to represent the eighth congressional district and one new member from the state at large at the 2022 general election. For the board of regents, section 40 requires the election of a member to represent the eighth congressional district in place of the election of a member representing the state at large at the 2022 general election. Sections 37, 42, 52, 60, 73, 85, 86, 90, 101, and 107 amend statutes governing boards for which membership is based on the number of congressional districts in the state. For each board, the total number of members is no longer specified. Instead, each statute provides for the appointment of members from each congressional district in the state plus, as applicable, additional members as is currently provided for each board. Provisions requiring staggering of terms and limits on the number of board members who may be affiliated with a single political party are amended to refer to a "minimum majority" of the board to accommodate any future changes in board membership resulting from changes in the number of Colorado congressional districts. Section 133 repeals a statute that addressed the impact of redistricting on boards following the 2000 federal decennial census and a statute that adjusted the lengths of terms of members of certain boards in 1987. The remaining sections of the act make changes to statutory provisions governing various boards with appointed members, including:
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Status: | 2/25/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | Senate Journal, January 28 Senate Journal, February 1 Senate Journal, February 1 Senate Journal, February 3 House Journal, February 17 |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-028 | Groundwater Compact Compliance Fund |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act creates the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund (fund) to help finance groundwater use reduction and sustainability efforts in the Rio Grande river basin and the Republican river basin, such as efforts to buy and retire irrigation wells and irrigated acreage in the river basins. The Colorado water conservation board (board) administers the fund and can make expenditures from the fund based on recommendations from the board of directors of the Rio Grande water conservation district or the Republican river water conservation district. A conservation district's recommendations must first be approved by the state engineer. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $60 million is appropriated from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to the fund and, on August 15, 2024, up to $20 million of any unobligated money in the fund is transferred to the water plan implementation account, which account the board administers to finance efforts to help accomplish critical actions identified in the state water plan. The board and any recipient of money from the fund or the account must comply with the compliance, reporting, record-keeping, and program evaluation requirements that the office of state planning and budgeting and the state controller establish for use of money allocated to the state pursuant to the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021".
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Status: | 5/23/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, April 21 House Journal, April 27 House Journal, April 27 |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-029 | Investment Water Speculation |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | On or after January 1, 2023, the state engineer or the state engineer's designee (state engineer) may investigate complaints of investment water speculation. If a purchaser holds, or by virtue of a proposed sale or transfer, will hold at least a minimum percent of the shares in a mutual ditch company, about which minimum percent the mutual ditch company must determine and notify the state engineer on or before December 31, 2022, there is a rebuttable presumption that the purchaser is engaged in investment water speculation. The state engineer may fine a purchaser up to $10,000 for a violation and require, for a period of up to 2 years after a fine has been imposed, that any sale or transfer of shares in a mutual ditch company to the purchaser be subject to approval by the state engineer. If the state engineer believes that a complaint is frivolous or was filed for the purpose of harassing a seller or purchaser, the state engineer may refer the matter to the attorney general's office for the attorney general or the attorney general's designee (attorney general) to investigate and, if the attorney general determines that enforcement is warranted, bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction alleging the complaint is frivolous or was filed for the purpose of harassment. If the attorney general prevails in the civil action, the court may fine a complainant up to $1,000, prohibit the complainant from filing any complaints alleging investment water speculation for up to one year, and grant attorney fees and court costs. Section 3 authorizes the attorney general to bring a civil action against a complainant if the state engineer refers the matter to the attorney general. |
Status: | 4/21/2022 Senate Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources Lay Over Amended |
Amendments: | |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-030 | Expand Water Resources Review Committe To Include Agriculture |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act changes the name of the water resources review committee to the water resources and agriculture review committee (committee) and expands the scope of the committee to include agriculture issues.
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Status: | 3/30/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-114 | Fire Suppression Ponds Water Rights |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The act allows a board of county commissioners (board), in consultation with its fire protection district or fire authority, to apply to the state engineer for the designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond. The director of the division of fire prevention and control (director) in the department of public safety is required to promulgate rules to establish criteria for boards, in consultation with fire protection districts or fire authorities, to use to identify and evaluate potential fire suppression ponds. Before applying for the designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond, a board, in consultation with its fire protection district or fire authority, must identify ponds in areas where the outbreak of a fire could result in a major wildfire disaster and perform a needs assessment of each such pond. If a pond that is under consideration for designation as a fire suppression pond is located in whole or in part upon private property, a board must acquire the voluntary written approval of each owner of private property that abuts the pond before the board applies to the state engineer for the designation of the pond as a fire suppression pond. For each pond that is identified and under consideration as a potential fire suppression pond, a board must provide notice of such fact to the state engineer. The act prohibits the state engineer, with exceptions, from ordering any pond to be drained or backfilled:
The state engineer may not designate more than 30 total surface acres of pond in any county as a fire suppression pond or designate any pond as a fire suppression pond unless the pond satisfies certain requirements and the board that requested the designation provided notice of the request to interested parties included in the substitute water supply plan notification list established for the water division in which the pond is located. The state engineer may impose reasonable requirements on a board as a condition of designating a pond as a fire suppression pond, including requirements for measuring and recording devices. A board and its fire protection district or fire authority must inspect a designated fire suppression pond at least annually. The designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond expires 15 years after the date of the designation. Before the expiration, the board and the fire protection district or fire authority may perform a needs assessment of the pond. If the needs assessment demonstrates that the pond is in compliance with criteria established in the director's rules, the board and fire protection district or fire authority shall notify the state engineer of such fact, and the state engineer shall redesignate the pond as a fire suppression pond. If the needs assessment demonstrates that the pond is not in compliance with the criteria, the board and fire protection district or fire authority must either:
Within 70 days after the state engineer designates a pond as a fire suppression pond, a holder of a decreed water right may file with the water clerk of the water division in which the fire suppression pond is located a petition for review of the state engineer's decision. Upon receiving a petition, a water judge must conduct a review of the state engineer's decision. A water judge may nullify the state engineer's designation of a pond as a fire suppression pond if, after considering the entire record, including any evidence of material injury, the judge finds that:
The act states that a fire suppression pond and the water associated with it:
The act states that a proposed fire suppression pond is presumed to not cause material injury to vested water rights. A holder of a decreed water right may rebut the presumption by providing evidence to the state engineer sufficient to show that material injury has occurred or will occur to the decreed water right. The act appropriates, for the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $19,428 from the general fund to the department of natural resources for use by the executive director's office, to be used as follows:
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Status: | 6/8/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | Senate Journal, March 18 Senate Journal, March 30 Senate Journal, April 1 House Journal, May 2 House Journal, May 3 |
Fiscal Notes: |
SB22-115 | Clarifying Terms Related To Landowner Liability |
Calendar Notification: | NOT ON CALENDAR |
Summary: | The bill clarifies the meaning of terms related to landowner liability and declares that the Colorado court of appeals and supreme court decisions in Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, Inc. v. Wagner should not be relied upon to the extent that those decisions determined:
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Status: | 4/7/2022 Governor Signed |
Amendments: | House Journal, March 10 House Journal, March 15 |
Fiscal Notes: |